Grand Canyon Recommendations

In October I will be travelling to Las Vegas for ten days. I hope to get to the Grand Canyon on two of those days, going in by helicopter on one occasion.

 

Last year when I travelled to Singapore and Great Britain I left my Canon full frame and ef lenses at home and used an SL1 camera fitted with an ef-s 24mm 2.8 stm lens. It proved to be an ideal combination with its small size and light weight for overseas holidays.

 

I'll use this again in Las Vegas. However, because of advancing years this will probably be my one and only opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Grand Canyon. So what additional lens do I use? Do I go wide angle with an ef-s 10-18 or do I need to use one of my ef lenses which with the 1.6 factor will take me beyond 400mm? At present the 24mm is the only ef-s lens I own. However I'm prepared to buy another lens for the occasion.

 

Or do I take the SL1 with the 24mm for walking around Las Vegas and simply take the 5dMk2 as well for the Grand Canyon - to heck with the weight! If I take this route do I then take a wide angle ef lens or a 28-200 and grab what shots I can as I do not know what the conditions will be like on the days I visit?

 

The more I think about the possibilities the harder it becomes to make a decision. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Take what you currently have and plan to stitch images, that way you'll get good resolution and the wide vistas. Have a great time. If you're up to it a mule ride down to the phantom ranch can be a real eye opener.

I went there and felt something like your 28-200mm would be a good lens to catch most things. Of course the weight. I used a 24-70 P&S pocketable Sony RX100iv. Their RX100vii goes from 24-200mm equivalent. Here are some of my shots there. They include Grand Canyon and some other national parks in the SW> Good luck and have fun.

American Southwest 2018 - Digital

I just did a quick cruise through my Grand Canyon shots looking at EXIF data, and I find that I have used the entire range of focal lengths of my 16-85 Nikon zoom on my D7000, a crop sensor body. When I say the entire range, that includes a nearly uniform distribution of focal lengths between the max and min, not just at the extremes. And while I have longer lenses (mainly for wildlife), I haven't used them at the canyon except for wildlife.

 

The 28-200 would be a very practical range for the canyon in general, but I have many shots at 16 mm (24 mm FF equivalent) that would be disappointing if copped to a 28 mm field of view. I am not bashful about merging multiple shots to get a wider view, so I'd probably go with the larger body and the 28-200, planning on shooting pano shots to be merged when I get home, but that's just me.

 

If making merged panoramics isn't to your liking, then I strongly suggest you take the 24 mm option AND the 28-200 option. You'll miss the longer end and the shorter end if you don't.

 

While you are here in Vegas, you may want to check out Valley of Fire, a state park about an hour's drive northeast of the city. There's also Red Rock Canyon, much closer, on the west side of the city, and a small ghost town at Nelson, about an hour out of town (southeast),

 

Have a great time.

History is a pretty good teacher. The last time I was at the Grand Canyon, in 2008, I had my full Nikon D2x kit. Most of my photos (out of 225) were taken with a 17-35/2.8 (25-52 equivalent) lens. Only three were taken with a 28-70/2.8 and none with a 70-200/2.8 VR. Looking at the photos, I could have used a wider lens, but the 17-35 was all I had at the time.

 

Nikon D2x + Nikon 17-35/2.8 @ 35 mm, 1.3 seconds @ f/16, ISO 400

The mist is a snowstorm moving in. It was almost dark. We were staying in the lodge, and the next morning there were 12" of snow on the ground (February, 2008). We read in the newspaper that someone had slipped on the icy path and gone over the edge.

My last visit was at the end of March. It snowed the night before I reached there. Early or late season visits require some monitoring and being prepared for rather rapid weather shifts.

Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful comments and photos.

 

Since first posting I had decided to go with the crop camera (SL1) as weight and space are important to me. I was inclined to buy the ef-s 10-18 and combine it with the 28-200. In full frame terms I would have 16-29 and 45-320 and the pancake 24mm giving me 38mm.

 

But Ed Ingold's comments and his photo taken at 35mm have given me further food for thought. With my current lens selection I have to take 3 lenses and I would have to change lenses to cover 35mm.

 

He mentions that the vast majority of his photos on his Grand Canon visit were taken with a Nikon crop lens of 17-85. Canon has a 15-85 crop lens (24-135 ff equivalent) which I can buy for a good price secondhand. Using just one lens would make life easier for me but would I be sacrificing too much at each end?