masterdrago Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 We are doing a 13 day cruise with land tour next May. I'm a big taker of pictures and have enjoyed looking at some of your blogs. What is your favorite lens to carry. I'm sure I'll carry more than I need. On our first cruise (western Caribbean), I made sure to take a fisheye because I knew I would want a lot of pix inside the elaborately decorated ship interior. I was glad I did. I might not need such a wide on Radiance but would like to hear your take. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweety Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 He is the Royal Genie of Lenses. I have brought three because of his advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 My new favorite lens for my Sony A7 III is a 24 - 105mm medium zoom lens. Since the A7 III is a full frame camera, the equivalent APS-C or crop camera lens would be 16 - 70mm which probably is not actually available in that exact zoom range. When I had an APS-C crop camera my general purpose "if I can only carry one lens today" choice was an 18 - 200mm. If I was going on a cruise in Europe and taking pictures in churches where you can't use a flash, the Tokina 11-16 is probably what I would use a lot if shooting with a crop body. On my full frame A7 I would be using my 12 - 24mm on church tours. For a ship, where cabins are small and there are some tight spaces, for crop cameras the Tokina 11-16 Pro DXII f2.8 is a great aspherical wide angle lens. Aspherical means it doesn't have a fisheye like distortion. The f2.8 is good in lower light scenarios. A fisheye lens is a great lens to have in the camera bag but there are times when I prefer a picture without the fisheye effect. Most of my recent Alaska pictures were shot using my 24 - 105mm lens. For landscape photography the 24mm wide angle end of this lens sometimes isn't enough for me so I cheat and take 3 or 4 vertical photos and stitch them together into a wider angle picture later using software on a PC. Here is an example of a photo where I wanted something wider than 24mm but it had been raining and I wasn't going to change lens so I stitched together four vertical photos later in Lightroom: In Studio B for the blog skating event I used my 12 - 24mm The two next photos are at 24mm which on a crop camera could be taken with a 16mm lens like the Tokina 11-16mm. craig403, JLMoran, Lovetocruise2002 and 2 others 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLMoran Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 And now that @twangster has given you a list of about $54,000 worth of lenses (), don't forget there are online services that will rent you lenses for your trip for very reasonable rates. I kid about the dollar figure, but he does have a pretty good history here of getting people to spend far more money than they were originally planning before their cruise even happens. DunkelBierJay, mworkman and Lovetocruise2002 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovetocruise2002 Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 1 minute ago, JLMoran said: I kid about the dollar figure, but he does have a pretty good history here of getting people to spend far more money than they were originally planning before their cruise even happens. TRUTH!!!! Sweety and mworkman 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 I'd much rather spend other peoples money craig403, JLMoran and DunkelBierJay 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig403 Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 I think I need to upgrade.... twangster, JohnUK, JLMoran and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 The Tokina 11-16 AT-X DXII is $400 new on Amazon. As lens go, that's a pretty good price. I used to use mine for astrophotography because of the f2.8. JLMoran, Sweety, craig403 and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweety Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 37 minutes ago, twangster said: I'd much rather spend other peoples money Very true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masterdrago Posted July 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 Thanks. You guys are a hoot. My go to has always been the 18-200 with my APC bodies. I'm kind of a wide guy and when I shot film, 24 was the norm. On a whim I took the fish-eye on our first cruise (el cheapo manual brand x). I've always had no issues with the distortion. I most likely will not carry to Alaska since my bag might need other glass. I have found that the 10-24 at 10 does nearly as well and is Nikon glass. For Alaska it will boil down to how much will fit in the bag. I want something longer than the 18-200 to shoot from glacier and whale tours. I'm not sure it makes sense to carry the full frame body & 28-300 when I might instead carry the 150-600 and two APC bodies. Again one bag. I had never even considered stitching frames together to get wider. I don't consider myself much of a post processor. So that leaves the 8mm out for sure. I'm a bit worried about having a blank spot if the bag carries 2 APC bodies, 10-24, 150-600. Then I might need to add a 18-70 or the 18-200 to fill in that. Add all the other crap (chargers, batteries, memory cards, SB-400 flash, a filter or two) and the backpack is full. Astrophotography? We may have crossed paths? Amateur since Jan. '83 and more than a couple of Texas Star Parties, Okie-Tex, & Winter Star Party. Native Houstonian. twangster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweety Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 30 minutes ago, masterdrago said: Thanks. You guys are a hoot. My go to has always been the 18-200 with my APC bodies. I'm kind of a wide guy and when I shot film, 24 was the norm. On a whim I took the fish-eye on our first cruise (el cheapo manual brand x). I've always had no issues with the distortion. I most likely will not carry to Alaska since my bag might need other glass. I have found that the 10-24 at 10 does nearly as well and is Nikon glass. For Alaska it will boil down to how much will fit in the bag. I want something longer than the 18-200 to shoot from glacier and whale tours. I'm not sure it makes sense to carry the full frame body & 28-300 when I might instead carry the 150-600 and two APC bodies. Again one bag. I had never even considered stitching frames together to get wider. I don't consider myself much of a post processor. So that leaves the 8mm out for sure. I'm a bit worried about having a blank spot if the bag carries 2 APC bodies, 10-24, 150-600. Then I might need to add a 18-70 or the 18-200 to fill in that. Add all the other crap (chargers, batteries, memory cards, SB-400 flash, a filter or two) and the backpack is full. Astrophotography? We may have crossed paths? Amateur since Jan. '83 and more than a couple of Texas Star Parties, Okie-Tex, & Winter Star Party. Native Houstonian. I took my 150-500 to Alaska. I was able to capture a bald eagle on the tree top. I also got a Mom and baby whale tails on top of the water. One of the guides had me to send a copy to him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGTLH Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 My kit for Alaska: Canon 40D (APS-C), 10-22, 24-105, and 100-400 (rented). Will say it was a pain to carry around, but felt it was well worth it to cover the full range. Number of shots taken: 1691, 24-105: 921, 100-400: 692, and 10-22: 78. Only issue I ran into was just about running out of storage on my memory cards. Think I only had two or three 8GB memory cards. Early on I was shooting both JPG and RAW. As my cards filled I swapped to only shooting RAW (each RAW file ranged between 11 to 17 MB and each JPG would range between 2.5 and 6MB). This was back in 2014, so I wasn't hauling a laptop or any means to dump my cards to free them up. 10-22 (shot at 10mm) 24-105 (shot at 60mm) 100-400 (shot at 375mm) Give an idea of crop JLMoran and Sweety 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLMoran Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 Oh, man. Great, after seeing these pics from @CGTLH and comments from everyone else, now I'm thinking about a camera body, prime lens, one of these mid-zoom lenses you're all talking about, lessons on proper use of an actual manual camera... You know I'm trying to budget out a 50th birthday cruise, right?!? Actually, my younger daughter asked for one of my mom's old camera bodies and lenses (not sure yet which it'll be, but she has an Olympus and a Nikon, both at least 10 years old) as she wants to start getting into more serious photography and not just what she can get on her iPod Touch. Maybe I'll borrow that some time and get some practice of my own... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjac Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 5 hours ago, JLMoran said: getting people to spend far more money than they were originally planning How do you think he can go on SO many cruises in a year? He's getting kickbacks from the lens industry! JLMoran 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masterdrago Posted July 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 3 hours ago, CGTLH said: My kit for Alaska: Canon 40D (APS-C), 10-22, 24-105, and 100-400 (rented). Will say it was a pain to carry around, but felt it was well worth it to cover the full range. Number of shots taken: 1691, 24-105: 921, 100-400: 692, and 10-22: 78. Only issue I ran into was just about running out of storage on my memory cards. Think I only had two or three 8GB memory cards. Early on I was shooting both JPG and RAW. As my cards filled I swapped to only shooting RAW (each RAW file ranged between 11 to 17 MB and each JPG would range between 2.5 and 6MB). This was back in 2014, so I wasn't hauling a laptop or any means to dump my cards to free them up. 10-22 (shot at 10mm) 24-105 (shot at 60mm) 100-400 (shot at 375mm) Give an idea of crop I learned about memory card issues back when prepping for the August '17 eclipse last year. Having a D700, D5100 & a D7500 can eat cards especially when shooting .mov files. Most of the time for really important images that I cannot recreate later, I shoot both RAW (NEF) & jpeg. So much you can do with 12bit RAW if you forget some setting. I do not like post processing but sometimes it is unavoidable. The shots you posted are pretty amazing but I need to remind folks, it's not the camera, it's the photographer, his skills and having the opportunity to catch the shot. That is a lot of shots. Just curious, when using the 100-400, was shutter on S or C? That whale action can happen pretty fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGTLH Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 46 minutes ago, masterdrago said: I learned about memory card issues back when prepping for the August '17 eclipse last year. Having a D700, D5100 & a D7500 can eat cards especially when shooting .mov files. Most of the time for really important images that I cannot recreate later, I shoot both RAW (NEF) & jpeg. So much you can do with 12bit RAW if you forget some setting. I do not like post processing but sometimes it is unavoidable. The shots you posted are pretty amazing but I need to remind folks, it's not the camera, it's the photographer, his skills and having the opportunity to catch the shot. That is a lot of shots. Just curious, when using the 100-400, was shutter on S or C? That whale action can happen pretty fast. Very, very, very true! It isn't the camera and glass that makes the shot. Right time and place is the biggest factor. Canon world here, so no idea what S or C is [Added: brain fart moment. Shooting would have been continuous. Other words spray and pray). Mode the camera was would have been Tv on the dial (shutter priority). Not sure if I had set the ISO beforehand or the 40D supported auto ISO. (Added: Only other S and C I could think of would be focus modes. S being single shot and C being continuous. I wouldn't doubt leaving the camera on AF-Servo mode where it would be continuously adjusting focus.) Full details of the whale shot below. Maker Canon Model Canon EOS 40D ISO 400 Focal Length 375 mm ApertureFNumber f/16.0 Exposure Time 1/500 s Exposure Program shutter priority Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLMoran Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 4 minutes ago, masterdrago said: The shots you posted are pretty amazing but I need to remind folks, it's not the camera, it's the photographer, his skills and having the opportunity to catch the shot. Totally agree. @twangster has taken pics on his iPhone that I couldn’t tell were done that way until I asked. But at the same time, those shots of the bears and whale from @CGTLH could never in a million years have been taken with an iPhone, even the iPhone X with an add-on lens like the ones I’ve bought. The skill of the photographer can do a lot with incredibly “minimal” gear; but sometimes, if you really want to be able to take a particular kind of shot, you’re just gonna have to pony up for the more “serious” kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGTLH Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 11 minutes ago, JLMoran said: The skill of the photographer can do a lot with incredibly “minimal” gear; but sometimes, if you really want to be able to take a particular kind of shot, you’re just gonna have to pony up for the more “serious” kit. That is the other truth, having the right tools. Shutter lag is a "female dog" when you're use to an instant "click". At the same time the right tool isn't always the latest and greatest top of the line camera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 Better hope @Matt doesn't see this thread, he is still convinced there is no wildlife in Alaska. Matt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masterdrago Posted July 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 4 hours ago, twangster said: Better hope @Matt doesn't see this thread, he is still convinced there is no wildlife in Alaska. I've only been to Alaska one time (late August '95) when I hiked near Anchorage for two weeks. I only saw wildlife 3 times. 1) walking a trail when we stumbled on a full grown Moose grazing on the trail. 2) riding in a friends Cessna very low and slow over a mamma bear and her two cubs - seriously slow - flaps down 3) traveling to drop off point by car and encountered road construction. Tanned babe in shorts directing traffic - best looking woman in all of Alaska. Found out she went to school in Florida, comes to Alaska to work summers - Big money, lots of hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweety Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Will post pictures tomorrow. How do I downsize? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 1 hour ago, Sweety said: Will post pictures tomorrow. How do I downsize? On a Mac you can adjust size of each photo individual using Preview or Automator can resize in bulk. The photos app also can export using different sizes. Which ever approach you take make sure you are leaving the original files intact. Some of us use Lightroom which includes an export tool that can adjust size and works on PC or Mac. Sweety 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 #TeamWideAngleLens Sweety 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masterdrago Posted July 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 4 hours ago, Sweety said: Will post pictures tomorrow. How do I downsize? A simple and fast free tool is IrfanView https://www.irfanview.com/ Make sure to get the save as web plug in. Most any editing software will do it - PhotoShop, Affinity Photo, etc. Sweety 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 On 7/4/2018 at 4:27 AM, masterdrago said: We are doing a 13 day cruise with land tour next May. I'm a big taker of pictures and have enjoyed looking at some of your blogs. What is your favorite lens to carry. I'm sure I'll carry more than I need. On our first cruise (western Caribbean), I made sure to take a fisheye because I knew I would want a lot of pix inside the elaborately decorated ship interior. I was glad I did. I might not need such a wide on Radiance but would like to hear your take. To answer your question that I missed earlier, my cruise kit now includes: 12mm Fisheye 12 - 24mm zoom 24 - 105mm zoom 70 - 300mm zoom All full frame. I found use for my fisheye on Serenade (sister to Radiance) but then again, I usually do: craig403 and Matt 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fonemanbob Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Nothing like a Kodak brownie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farminger Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 On 7/4/2018 at 10:07 AM, craig403 said: I think I need to upgrade.... I think I still have flash cubes for that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Van Niekerk Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Loving this thread as I was on the recent group cruise with @twangster and am now considering whether to upgrade my equipment. I have older Canon consumer grade kit. I enjoy travel / nature photography as well as Motorsports and while I recognize it is largely in the eye of the photographer, I feel it may be time to begin to strategically upgrade. Here are some recent (un retouched) shots from the cruise Here are some motorsport shots for reference: Here is what I have Canon EOS Rebel XSi Canon Zoom 18-55 1:3.5-5.6 Canon Zoom 55-250 1:4-5.6 Canon Zoom 10-18 1:4.5-5.6 50mm 1:1.8 Any suggestions on biggest bang for my buck upgrading? Thanks in advance. P.S. Sorry for the hijack... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 3 hours ago, mvannie said: Any suggestions on biggest bang for my buck upgrading? Sticking with Canon should allow you to retain your lenses but I'm not as familiar with the Canon product line as I am with Nikon and now Sony. The latest trend in cameras is a shift to mirrorless. Sony is leading that with several generations under their belt while Canon and Nikon have suggested they will produce their first mirrorless next year. The general opinion is that the shift to mirrorless is best accomplished with new lenses that are optimized for the lack of mirror since the mirror consumes a great deal of space in front of the sensor. While Canon and Nikon are estimated to make adapters for their lenses the question is will they start a new lens mount to do mirrorless "right"? I decided to make the change from Nikon to Sony mirrorless which is what I shot with on the Alaska group cruise. I sold my Nikon gear on eBay to offset the cost of the upgrade. The Canon EOS Rebel XSi was first released in 2008 so a new Canon body might be a easy upgrade that will benefit from better low light performance with an increase in resolution. Your camera appears to be 12MP while most new cameras these days at least double that. Low light performance is likely where you will see a major difference but if you do most of your photography outdoors in daylight that may not represent a big bang for you. I saw your FB post and it's not like you are taking bad pictures so maybe a simple upgrade is shooting in RAW format and getting comfortable with software such as Lightroom to upgrade your game. That's more an investment in time per photograph compared to money on hardware. You may need bigger memory cards to handle the larger file sizes but having shot RAW for a while now and post processing all my photos I can tell you it makes a big difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGTLH Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 @mvannie Going to agree with @twangster suggestion about shooting RAW and getting comfortable with post processing. Lenses you have right now I think are EF-S mount style. Those will only work with crop bodies, so moving to a full frame body would be out. Well, unless you want to invest in new glass. Many of the rumors surrounding Canon's new mirrorless are pointing to full frame and potentially a new lens mount. Sure an adapter will be created, question is if the EF-S lens will work. Me personally, I would think about a new body making sure it is still an APS-C (crop) sensor. Key thing might be moving up in body lines, maybe moving to an 80D if the features are there. Other thing might be investing in a better lens in the focal length used the most. Personally if investing in new glass, go with only an EF mount. Reason being you'll be ready for full frame down the road. One thing I would suggest, look are renting a body or lens you might be intrested in. Depending on length of time the rental cost might be fairly reasonable. Just keep an eye out for discount codes and make sure you compare "out the door" cost. Some of the rental shops bundle shipping in with the rental while others are separate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Van Niekerk Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. I did shoot 80%of Alaska RAW and I can see a definite difference in post processing with Lightroom. I started a trial of Lightroom CC and prefer the classic app on my pc. I am considering upgrading to a 77D body and will look into renting to see if it makes financial sense before biting the bullet to purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGTLH Posted July 7, 2018 Report Share Posted July 7, 2018 20 minutes ago, mvannie said: I started a trial of Lightroom CC For an enthusiast, $10 a month is well worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted July 7, 2018 Report Share Posted July 7, 2018 I'm not a fan of Lightroom CC either, I tend to use Lightroom Classic CC. Which is included in the $10 per month plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGTLH Posted July 7, 2018 Report Share Posted July 7, 2018 19 minutes ago, twangster said: I'm not a fan of Lightroom CC either, I tend to use Lightroom Classic CC. Which is included in the $10 per month plan. I didn't bother to install the new "Lightroom CC". Just wish they didn't play the name change game to the "Classic" moniker. Would have it been so bad to have kept the old name. Corporate America loves changing names of products. Heck, look at Royal. Refreshment and Replenish drink packages now called Classic Soda and Refreshment. /rant mode off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweety Posted July 7, 2018 Report Share Posted July 7, 2018 7 hours ago, mvannie said: Loving this thread as I was on the recent group cruise with @twangster and am now considering whether to upgrade my equipment. I have older Canon consumer grade kit. I enjoy travel / nature photography as well as Motorsports and while I recognize it is largely in the eye of the photographer, I feel it may be time to begin to strategically upgrade. Here are some recent (un retouched) shots from the cruise Here are some motorsport shots for reference: Here is what I have Canon EOS Rebel XSi Canon Zoom 18-55 1:3.5-5.6 Canon Zoom 55-250 1:4-5.6 Canon Zoom 10-18 1:4.5-5.6 50mm 1:1.8 Any suggestions on biggest bang for my buck upgrading? Thanks in advance. P.S. Sorry for the hijack... I have a Canon 6i. I love my camera. The lenses I used are image stabilizer lenses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masterdrago Posted July 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2018 I might add that the Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS would be a nice replacement for the 18-55 & 55-250. I think Twangster even mentioned his fondness for it if he could only carry one lens. As for the body, 12MP is all you really need. I mean really, how often to you make 30" prints and view them from under one foot. Full frame is a whole new deal. Not a lot of gain for what you would need to spend. Maybe a bit better low light quality. If I were thinking of adding hardware in your situation, I might consider a T7i body. Maybe a longer zoom. I've had astonishing shots with the Sigma 150-600 DG OS HSM - minimum focus under 10' if you want a bit more focal length. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fonemanbob Posted July 7, 2018 Report Share Posted July 7, 2018 How about a recommendation for a compact camera to take on the mule trip to the bottom of the grand canyon. Don`t want my 35 mm wrapped around my neck and bouncing around for 7 hours. Thank you in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGTLH Posted July 7, 2018 Report Share Posted July 7, 2018 Just now, fonemanbob said: How about a recommendation for a compact camera to take on the mule trip to the bottom of the grand canyon. Don`t want my 35 mm wrapped around my neck and bouncing around for 7 hours. Thank you in advance. Paging @Matt for the new camera purchased for Alaska. fonemanbob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjac Posted July 7, 2018 Report Share Posted July 7, 2018 Just now, fonemanbob said: How about a recommendation for a compact camera to take on the mule trip to the bottom of the grand canyon. Don`t want my 35 mm wrapped around my neck and bouncing around for 7 hours. Thank you in advance. If you can find one, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5. I've been using mine for many years travelling as well as scuba diving (got an underwater housing for it). Small, lightweight, versatile and easy to use. fonemanbob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 6 hours ago, fonemanbob said: How about a recommendation for a compact camera to take on the mule trip to the bottom of the grand canyon. Don`t want my 35 mm wrapped around my neck and bouncing around for 7 hours. Thank you in advance. The Sony RX100 VI is getting pretty good reviews. It's fairly new so it's got a lot of modern features and with a 24-200mm optical zoom it's a pretty decent compact type camera and it shoots in RAW which is essential for me. The RX100 line has been an evolution so make sure you search for the VI model, not an older one. fonemanbob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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