Two bodies or an extra lens for my upcoming trip to Rome?

Pete Berry wrote:

Isabel Cutler wrote:

Changing lenses is a royal pain and opens the cameras to dirt on the sensors. Changing lenses is asking accidents to happen.

I went to England last year with two e-pl5 bodies, the 12-40 and 35-100 lenses. Not tied down with a huge amount of weight and a good choice of equipment.

Almost had a mini-disaster in a car park one day when a keen-eyed person noticed I had dropped the door to the battery compartment of one of my bodies. I couldn't thank him enough.

Isabel

I'm with Isabel here. Lens changes on-the-fly touring a city, etc are an accident waiting to happen. In my six years with m4/3's including a variety European and Asian destinations, two bodies, with a P-L 14-150 on the main and a 7-14 on the other, with a rarely used Panny 25/1.4 on the side, served me well, with very rare lens changes and minimal baggage.

The GH de jour (now GH4) on a cross-chest strap and the secondary/7-14 (way wider than 12mm!) with wrist strap in a beat-up old lens-down belt-holster from the Nikon film days. No swag bag per se that attracts attention. The 25mm, flash and minipod in a small day pack w/ rainjacket, water, etc, and hotel shower caps for camera rain protection, with chips and a battery or two in pack or cargo pants/shorts.

I shot a heck of a lot above 40mm in the tight little towns of France's Alsace as well a big cities like Prague and Zurich, so I think a "super-tele" such as the Oly m14-150 or the Panny 14-140 (or the sublime, but heavy 4/3 P-L 14-150 with adapter, which may be passe by now) would be a great walk-around choice for you. I rarely found the lens speed or shallow DOF limitations of my kit limiting - certainly not for the usual daylight architectural and street-scene shots, where f/6.3 seemed my sweet spot at all FL's.

Pete

I use them rather than neck straps because I believe the latter, as well as lens changing, offer more chances for accidents - leave one hanging off the edge of a table and well.....

Although I have wrist straps on each of my cameras I rarely allow the cameras to hang from them because I've read stories on these forums about the lugs in the cameras breaking free from the bodies and cameras crashing to the ground.  I simply don't have confidence in them - perhaps that's a bit anal - but I'm very protective of my equipment!

Isabel