Travel Lenses / Equipment ?

[pictureted]

<p>I agree with the consensus - 16-85, 70-300 (space and money permitting) 35/1.8 (best additional lens) and D90 - best reasonable camera upgrade. I'd also get the SB400, really small, inexpensive and it bounces well.</p>

[w_t1]

<p>Al, is that a Duluth Trading vest? I think we're twins! Tom.</p>

[lee_richards2]

<p>I'm going with what Cheung said. The venerable 18-70 is a very good lens. Sharp as a tack. I would take a 35 or 50 f1.8 for low light and the 70-300 vr if it is affordable. If it is not affordable the 70-300 af-s g is a good lens and one can be had for a song. VR is nice but I doubt you will be using the 70-300 on the long end in low light. I am a huge fan of flash. If you don't mind carrying the SB600 that would be nice but as Cheung said it brings up a whole new set of issues. You could leave it at home no problem. </p>

<p>So if you are concerned about price the above will get you capabilities that 40 years ago we would have killed for. Have a wonderful trip and Godspeed.</p>

[kam_kozalak]

<p>Emma, I do not own zooms. When I travel I pack a 24, 50, and 105 macro. But the zoom suggestions given so far make a lot of sense. I especially like the 18-70mm suggestion, beacause of low price, IQ, and weight. I would add a 70-300 VR to it to have long end coverage (wildlife, etc.).</p>

[jonathan_maloney]

<p>If you have the money (and the willingness to lug this around on top of clothes, sleeping bag, whatever else you'll need, I would recommend: </p>

<p>D90<br>

Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8<br>

Nikon 16-85mm VR<br>

Nikon 70-300mm VR</p>

<p>Though I do also agree with the comments which suggest "lighter is better". Nothing like waking up in Battambang one more cold, misty morning and realising your pack is 5kg too heavy. It comes down to how much you are willing to heft with you day in day out, and how much you can afford (and to lose).</p>

<p>I also think if you're careful with your kit you can get by with the "lightest of the light kit" and stick with your 18-55mm + 55-200mm VR and still get very beautiful shots.</p>

<p>Don't let the desire for high-end equipment cloud the fact that you can still take incredibly beautiful shots with nothing more than a $200 point & shoot. I spent four months backpacking through SE Asia with nothing more than an Ixus 60 and took some of the best shots of my life. If you plan on enlarging, get the good stuff. If you just want to post them on Facebook and Flickr, stick with a p&s. </p>

<p>Whatever you decide, make the most of it, have no regrets and keep smiling it up :)</p>

[ArthurRichardson]

<p>Emma,<br>

I believe that you can tilt the SB400 flashbulb too, but only in a vertical direction, it does not rotate horizontally. Even though the body is rigid. Check it out in a shop, or probably some people around here have used it.</p>

 

[kerry_grim]

<p>You will not want to short-cut backing up your photos. Do you have a laptop to take along? If so, copy to that in addition it a separate portable hard drive and keep in a separate location.</p>

<p>Several memory cards.</p>

<p>A minimum of two batteries and charger. Are you currently in the U.S.? You may need power adapters in order to use a laptop and battery charger.</p>

<p>The February issue of Outdoor Photographer (just came in the mail) has an article on pocket viewers.</p>

<p>If you do you a laptop, consider copying the photos to CDs and having them sent home. On a trip to Montana this past summer with my son, I bought a laptop and each day we copied our files to the laptop and also a portable drive. I estimated we would take 4G of pictures daily and that held out, so we retired those cards to a separate waterproof card holder which was always in my pocket. But that was six days, not 6 months. After a daily shoot and backups we had 3 copies of our photos at 3 locations. Thus I would consider filing CDs and mailing them home. With once-in-a-life visits like that, you don't want to take chances.</p>

[kerry_grim]

<p>Also...consider a camera bag that may not bring the attention to you that many of the generic camera bags would. A Domke bag may fit that bill. Here is one, although easy to conceal, but may be too small for several lenses.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/16009-REG/Domke_700_52B_F_5XB_Shoulder_Belt_Bag_Black_.html#features">http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/16009-REG/Domke_700_52B_F_5XB_Shoulder_Belt_Bag_Black_.html#features</a></p>

<p>Take clear plastic bags also, for protection around sand or snow.</p>

<p>My daughter is currently in Chile, traveling abroad through her college in Pennsylvania. One night her and a friend walked on a clearly lit and street they thought was safe. Turns out it wasn't. She heard a car approach, looked over her shoulder, and guys with masks got out. She bolted and got away. They didn't chase her but her male friend had an over the shoulder camera bag that shouted rob me. They did, at gun point. Nothing he could do but hand over the bag. She had a p&S camera, and was aware of her surroundings. They concentrated on him and ignored her.</p>

[ifti]

<p>I have had a good trip with 18-200 VR It is great for out door not that great in low light unless you use flash. It is not too heavy. Dis carry a 50 mm 1.8 with me for indoor available light. This was easy to carry and did most what I wanted to do. Regards ifti</p>

[lesterphoto]

<p>When I travel abroad, I prefer to put my camera equipment in a bag that doesn't look like a camera bag. That happens to be a backpack. The last thing you want to do is look like a rich tourist.<br>

In my 9 trips to Europe, I have never taken a flash, so I don't recommend one. But if you're so inclined to do so, take a small one. You'll be hard pressed to find a place indoors that will allow you to use a flash. And most of the time the light is so beautiful that a flash is not needed. Like others, I recommend a 50mm f1.8.</p>

[bengt_rehn]

<p>Hello Emma, you asked about 30/1,4 vs 35/1,8 or the 50/1,4. I would say a 50mm lens is a good choise if portraiture is very high up on your list of subjects. Often people recommend the 50/1,8 as a complement for low light, mainly because its cheep, good, light and small. The 50/1,4 is faster but much more expensive. For general photography thou, a 50mm lens is way too long.</p>

<p>A 35mm lens is much better and 30 even more so in respect to versatility. The Nikon 35/1,8 DX is a very good lens with good sharpness across all apertures and the hole frame, besides its reasonable priced. The Sigma 30/1,4 is known for its excellent center sharpness at the fastest apertures and its smooth and creamy out of focus rendition. The coin side is the poor sharpness at the borders up to 5,6 and its quite expensive.</p>

<p>I think of the Sigma as a lens with more creative options and the Nikon lens as the the better general lens. I cant really recomment any over the other here, since it all depends on how you intent to use the lens.</p>

<p>Personally thou, for the money the Sigma 30/1,4 costs, I would consider to upgrade from your kit lens 18-55 VR to the new Tamron 17-50 2,8 VC ( VC is Tamrons name for Nikons VR) instead.</p>

[fast_primes]

<p>

<p>Emma,</p>

<p>I have the D60, 18-55VR, 35F1.8 and 50F1.8D lenses.</p>

<p>I would suggest getting a new 18-55 non VR lens as backup to your 18-55VR kit lens. Why another cheap kit lens? This will help address the issue of possible failure if either lens fails along the way. Why non-VR? Above a certain shutter speed (1/200th of a second) the VR mechanism degrades sharpness. So having "VR" is not a free lunch. For best results you have to remember when to switch it off (and then on again). I do not know if this is also true of the latest VRII lenses--the 16-85, etc. But I suspect them also.</p>

<p>I would not suggest the 50F1.8D becuase it does not AF and unless you also upgrade the focusing screen of the D60 (or D90) to at least a split-image screen, it will be problematic. Then there is the mental thing of having to remember that THIS lens doesn't AF! Hence you'll be missing and messing up shots as you try to remember this while switching lenses on the fly. Better to simply eliminate this particular confusion in advance.</p>

<p>The 35F1.8 DX or the Sigma 30F1.4 is a must! Either normal lens may very well be your most important lens on this trip in terms of yielding the most "keepers". This will be due to the combination of speed, simplicity of operation and very high optical quality. </p>

<p>If you are not going to take a tripod, then don't take any really long zooms, such as the 70-300--unless you know you're going to be doing quite a bit of safari photography! But I would take the 50-200VR lens. Why? It's light, it's cheap and it's still further backup for the normal lens and the medium zooms.</p>

<p>I would not take any super wide zooms. Let the 18mm (or 16mm) wide end of your medium zoom suffice! Why? Because a DX wide zoom is very bulky, heavy and complex to use if you're not already very familiar with wide angle composition. </p>

<p>Thus my advice is for 4 lenses max: one normal lens (35F1.8 or 30F1.4), one medium zoom (18-55VR or 16-85VRII), one backup medium zoom (18-55 non-VR) and one long zoom (the 50-200VR). All 4 should fit easily in a back-pack style camera bag (Kata for one) and should be light enough to carry for 12 hours or so.</p>

<p>As for the D90 over the D60, I would need to be persuaded that the D90 also offered better <em>"ease-of-use"</em> and/or higher performance AF than the D60. Not just superior construction. Btw--the D60 is an extremely complex camera. Be certain to buy one of the many third party books on how to use it or the D90. The basic Nikon D60 owners manual is lousy!</p>

<p>Have a safe and wonderful trip!</p>

</p>

[dennisbarnett]

<p>Here's another thought...<br /> Something that always works well for me is taking a small tabletop tripod with matching head and just leaving it on the camera with a cable release. <em>Just never remove them</em> . They barely add any weight at all when you're carrying the set-up, and you don't have to take the time to constantly set up a larger tripod, especially when you're on a long trip. You also don't have to worry about leaving a large tripod somewhere when you decide not to take it. Of course, it's not as "reachable" as a larger tripod, but the pros far outweigh the cons here. There's usually something laying around onto which you can mount your camera for added height: a table, a car/truck, your partner's back (seriously, it's worked for me!) etc., etc.</p>

[accystan]

<p>What an amazing volume of advice above...<br>

I haven't read it all but on a slightly different tack and since you have six months before you go.... I suggest you buy, beg, borrow or steal Scott Kelby's books (there's now 3 volumes) called "The Digital Photography Book". They're filled with lots of professional advice pertaining to many photographic subjects and situations (including travel). They're not books containing explanations of dof, f/stop etc. His tack is simply, "if you're taking a pic in this situation this is the best way to deal with it". And there's lots of stuff for travellers. I've been doing photography for over 40 years and I was amazed how much his books taught me.<br>

On a different note - remember the Rick Steeves line - When did you last return from a trip and say, "Gee, I wish I'd taken more stuff!"<br>

Good luck, Dave D</p>

[jon_r.]

<p>Emma,<br>

Given the length of time you plan to be away from electric power in Africa, you might want to spend some of your lens budget on some portable solar battery chargers. REI carries some, but you need to make sure the voltage and power output will work with your chargers. You will need to do some research to make sure you get something that actually works. All of the rechargeable batteries discharge slowly even if not used. If you are going to be a month or more without electricity that could be a major issue.</p>

<p> At a minimum the solar recharger would be able to keep your flash batteries charged. Given the large amount of stuff you are talking about taking, I would recommend the SB-600 flash and a fold up reflector (in a pinch you could use a sheet of Aluminum Foil) to help with lighting. Depending on where you are in Africa or the Middle East the light can be quite harsh and a strong flash for use as a fill light will be a great boon in people photography. Practice before you go!</p>

<p> I would also recommend taking a small carbon fiber tripod with a quick release ball head. Gitzo makes some that are quite compact and light weight that you can hide in your backpack when not in use. A compromise would be a monopod that you could use as a walking stick. The quick release is critical. In my younger years, I used to carry around a big heavy aluminum tripod which I seldom used because screwing the camera on and off the tripod was so slow. Now that I can afford it I have a carbon tripod (I actually have 2 one for normal photography and a more heavy duty one for my 200-400 Zoom) with the Arca Swiss Quick Release plates and use the tripod for a large portion of my shots. The quality of the images is much improved by tripod use! A tripod really facilitates photography during the so called golden hours.</p><div></div>

[payam1]

<p> My advise is: 12-24 (tokina or nikon) + 18-200<br>

Do you plan to trip to Iran? I welcome to you.<br>

Good luck</p>

[emma_rice]

<p>Hi All, thanks again for all your great responses. i am currently in the process of buying a D90 and a 35mm F/1.8 lense and then i will decide what else i need once they arrive.<br>

reading all the above comments has made it all a lot easier.<br>

Cheers!<br>

and no not iran this time, but have always been interested, perhaps next time!</p>