What camera film to bring?

[boleslav]

Hello-
we'll eventually get the digital camera, but for our April/May trip to Khumbu this spring we just did not get our act together in time and will use the old fashioned but great camera using the film(negative).
What's the best speed for the Khumbu area 200 or 400?
thank you!

[Oli]

Whether to choose 200 or 400 is not as important as how many rolls to take, just make sure you have plenty. :D

Actually - when taking photos of those snowclad mountain panoramas there can be a lot of reflected light, and lots of UV through the thin air. So I'd recommend a good UV filter and maybe a polarising filter.

[Escher]

I would say take 200 not 400 (or even take 100). It really depends what type of photos you are most interested in seeking. If it is landscapes and mountain pictures then 100/200 will give the best results. If it is for indoor, low light, night and general stuff then maybe 400 but it will always be a compromise.
Nepal offers up some really varied conditions and really high contrast situations. Landscape shots in the middle of the day will easily cover 9+ stops of light when film will cope with 5 or so. So for well exposed pictures you will need a tripod and grad filters. Otherwise you will have eitehr blown out skies or underexposed foregrounds.

It if was me I would take 30 rolls of print film 100 and expose for the shadows, accept that many pictures won't cope with the contrast, use a flash indoors and use a mini tripod or balance the camera on a rock, when I could, if shutter speeds are slow. You should get some cracking landscapes that way but struggle a bit in low light.

I wouldn't use a polariser over 3000m as it often turns high altitude skies black, unless that is the effect that you are looking for, and can often reduce the shutter speed by too much when exposing for the shadows causing camera shake. Can be useful however for boosting saturation lower down, but pictures taken with a polariser look like they have been taken with one so it can become a cliched effect if overused. Warm up filters (81a-c) can be useful if using something like Velvia slide film as there can be a slight green/blue colour cast at high altitude.

[boleslav]

Esher- excellent reply! just what I was hoping for, Thank you
we have 2 lenses 28-75 and 70-300, would you bring both ?
the main objective will be nature, mountains