Alaska cruise: M gear or Nikon SLR?

[mark-j]

Jorge: I live in Alaska and was raised here (Anchorage & Kenai). I have taken the inside passage ferry runs twice and would agree that an M probably will not serve all of your requirements. I have some nice wide shots, and some good long shots. On the ferry, I would probably not want longer than around 200, but to each his own. While in transit you have quite a bit of transmitted vibration on the ships, with the bow and stern being the worst. Animal shots generally require long lenses, but the subjects and views in town are well suited to an M. Hiking or walking around the towns, on the wharves and nearby trails works very well with an M and a complement of lenses. For a short set of M gear I would pick a 21, 35 and 90 forgoing the 50. Fill with the SLR for the long shots. Enjoy your trip. I still enjoy our scenery.

 

Mark J.

[bs]

If you decide to go the digital route and you're planning to shoot a lot you're going to need a portable drive (Epson P2000 or +) or you'll need to haul a laptop along for the ride that has a lot of available disk space. I'm sure that for a trip like this you'd want to shoot RAW files so you'll chew up a lot of cards unless you can offload.

 

Since my (D)SLR stuff is all Canon for me it would be a 5D, EOS 3, 17-40, 24-105 and 100-400. M6 w/21 and 50 would fit in the corner of something.

 

I'm looking forward to a cruise that way one of these days and to your pics as well. Have a great trip.

[jfochoa]

Cuando salimos, Coco? ;-) Jejeje! Ojala que te lo pase muy bien y que te traigas una tonelada de fotos. Como se que llevaras 1 tonelada de equipo... a ver si no te cobran sobrepeso!

 

 

Pd. Yo me llevaria las FM2n. Y me compraba la D200 a la pasada. Saludos... y buen viaje!

[zapata_espinoza]

The camera and film you are most familiar with. Avoid anything new. The lens that matches your 'view' (just check the keepers). The obvious backup.

But most important: forget about the gear, a follow your view, empathy, responsiveness. Cast away from groups. And, as HCB would say: you mustn't want a picture, just observe and respond.

[vincenzo_maielli]

Hi, dear friend. Take both equipment.

Ciao.

[jorge]

Mark, thanks for the heads up about bow and stern. I'll try to hog a midboat place in the ferries.

 

Bob, I have an oldish Wolverine with a 40GB drive. It's compact, rechargeable, a battery charge lasts for a lot of card downloads and it's a piece of cake to use. Not fancy like the Epson and it doesn't have any visualization provisions but holds a huge stack of pixels.

 

Juan Fernando, I'm on my way to Puerto Vallarta for the weekend but I'll call you during the week to organize an outing to the hills. Spring fiestas are about to begin in the towns; interested?

 

Zapata, I'm usually comfortable with anything I carry for more than an hour... ;-) I think I'm leaning towards the SLRs for versatility.

[geo2]

Jorge,

 

I guess that you will want the most reliable stuff. Plus, I guess that you will prefer SLRs for landscapes. And of course you have a larger array of lenses in N-AI than Leica M mount.

All this considered, here is my suggestion. Mind that I really love my Leica stuff; but if I was in your shoes I'd bring one FM2n and, most of all, I'd also look for a nice F3. I am sure that any Nikon MF user will consider it as the best (by far) and sturdiest SLR ever made, and that you would not regret it.

[jorge]

Giorgio, sorry for the tardy reply, it was a long weekend in Mexico and I went to the beach.

 

The F3 reco is a good one but I have a very nice F2 which is also a main battle tank and one of the most versatile SLR's ever built. However, both the F2 as the F3 weigh the same as two FM2's, not to mention bulk. I'll stick to the latter.