brent_mattox

Thanks for all the responses. I've pretty much decided to sacrifice some of the long end reach for convenience. I bought the Nikon 28-300 and have been testing on my D750. It is good enough, but not great. This is first and foremost a vacation for me, so I don't want to be so weighted down that I don't enjoy it. The logistics of the cruise will dictate that I carry whatever I have with me for hours without a break, so weight and bulk is an issue. The weather in Alaska can be rainy and damp which will make changing lenses and staying dry a challenge. The 28-300 will suffice while outdoors and I'll take another, faster lens for indoors and the ship. I may also take the D5500 body which will give me a bit more reach with the 28-300. Thanks again for all the help!

I'm going on a similar trip in August and have been going through the same dilemma. I also have the 70-300 and have found it to be weak at 300 mm. I have the 28-300 on order (to arrive today) to test. I have a D750, D600 and a D5500. I'm going to evaluate the IQ difference between full frame at 300 (cropped) and crop sensor at the 450 equivalent. The land portion of our trip will require that we carry our valuables with us all day, so it's unlikely that I'll carry two bodies and a bag full of lenses (I'll have an Olympus TG-4 as a backup). Combine that with the potential for weather issues, there will undoubtedly be compromises made where reach and/or IQ are concerned. I'll come back and share my experiences and what I ultimately plan to do.

I'm inclined to buy the 200-500 and leave the 70-300 at home. That will help to offset the weight in my pack and the 18-200 and the 200-500 will cover the focal range perfectly. I also found a rubber lens hood for the 18-200. Thanks for all the great advice!

The land portion is first and we will start in Fairbanks and travel to Denali for a two day stop. The land portion also includes travel by riverboat and train. We have two flightseeing excursions planned - one in Denali and one by seaplane at one of our ports. We also have a whale watching excursion planned by boat. So there will be quite a variety of situations. The trip ends in Vancouver and we plan to stay an extra day to see what we can while there.

Hi, We're taking an Alaskan cruise in August and I'm in a quandary as to what gear to take. The land portion of the cruise will require that we lug all our valuables with us during the day while the cruise line moves our other luggage from point to point. The dilemma is whether to take a heavy long zoom and lug it around or go with a shorter focal length that is lighter weight. I've never been on one of these cruises, so I don't know how close we will be to wildlife and other photo ops that would benefit from the long zoom. Current plans are to take a Nikon D5500, 18-200 DX zoom, and a 70-300 zoom. The IQ with these lenses is acceptable at medium focal lengths but deteriorates at the longest. I'm prepared to buy the Nikkor 200-500 (or possibly rent it), but it weighs nearly 5 pounds. Has anyone been on a similar trip who can offer some insight? Thanks.

<p>The early morning view from our dock at Lake Robinson.</p><div></div>

<p>Cleaned out some kitchen drawers recently and found this relic. Just experimenting with camera settings and came up with this.</p><div></div>

<p>One from a recent photo shoot with a two-year old.</p><div></div>

<p>I've done quite a bit of business with B & H recently and the experience has been flawless.</p>

<p>For the record, I did have an autofocus problem with my 24-70. In autofocus mode, it began "hunting" for focus - all subjects, all shooting conditions, all of the time - on two different camera bodies. My results were much worse than what the OP is experiencing, so it was obvious there was a problem. I finally sent it back to Nikon, but they did not make any meaningful notation on the repair ticket what the problem was - something like "Factory Adjustments". Haven't had any problems since.</p>