lightsmith1

Your opportunities include indoors in temples and market areas where the 24-70mm is a good choice (though I would not trust the Canon version), outdoor scenic shots where the 16-35mm f2.8 would be great, and river areas from a boat where the 100-400 IS lens would be the best choice.

 

Great to rent a boat with driver for an hour and hit areas you will never be able to see any other way and this is where a IS telephoto is great. And 400mm is not too long for shots where you are limited in terms of how close you can get to your subjects, especially shooting with a FF DSLR.

 

A 40D would be a better companion camera than a film body and no worries about dealing with film in the tropics or getting it through undamaged by airport X-ray machines. And then you need to find someone to develop the film and unless you shoot only color negative that can be a real problem as well. Unless you really don't trust your ability to shoot digital, there is little to be gained from shooting film. Easy to put as many images on one 8GB CF card as you can take with an entire brick of 35mm film.

Usable ISO tops out at 400, no ability to bounce flash or use off camera flash, can't use standard CF cards, shutter lag, most have widest aperture of 38mm effective FOV, can't enlarge past 8x10 even with no cropping, most have max aperture of f4 or smaller.

 

I would take a compact film camera like the Minox if I needed something inconspicuous as with an evil priest that did not allow photographers with cameras in "their" church (but guests are OK).

Colors depend in part on the people's skin tones. White can be fine but I don't advise it with dark skinned women, especially if it is not a V-neck. Solids are the main thing and having the clothing fit the location and the comfort zone of the couple.

 

There are other concerns if one or both are overweight as at the beach there is nothing to use for cover. In this situation it is easier to work with a couple if their tops are the same color as you avoid a sharp demarcation of the heavy individual.

 

For the beach I shoot the last two hours of daylight with the best light in the last 30 minutes before sunset and about 10 minutes after sunset. White tops can work as reflectors to add light to faces though an assistant with collapsible discs for reflection or to use as a scrim to block a stop of light is even better - especially if one of your subjects has much darker skin than the other.

The Quantum will enable shorter recycling times if you do full discharges of the flash. With high ISO settings (1600 and higher) and using the flash for fill the amount of power needed by the flash is greatly reduced (by 75% or more) and so the SD-8A will work fine.

 

One advantage of the SD-8a is that it is small and lightweight and the carry case flap can be put over the camera strap for use instead of having the battery back on your belt with a long power cord as with the Quantum.

With a DX camera my choice is the 17-55mm f2.8 and the Sigma 50-150mm f2.8 tele. The Sigma provides the DX FOV of a 70-200 on a FX camera and weighs half as much and is half as long. Easy to have either lens on the camera and put it into any of my camera bags. Often though I leave the 17-55mm behind and take the 14-24mm f2.8 lens so I can either go wide or moderate tele, leaving "normal" behind.

The SB28 uses the old style connector but the 28DX uses the European plug as does the SB800 and I would expect the SB900. Old USA plus is straight across while the European is more rounded. Quantum makes short adapter cables for either style to attach to the battery pack cord.