I would skip 70-200mm only if you intended to shoot some birds there? Otherwise I will keep 17-40mm, 24-105mm and a fast 50mm for some street night shots
Last summer went with the family to Athens, Mykonos, Santorini and Rhodes. Great trip! I am still shooting my trusty 40D and I was going to originally take my 10-22, my 17-85 IS, and my 70-200 f/4 L IS. I started thinking that I should try to minimize my kit a bit so I ended up renting the 15-85 IS and leaving the 10-22 at home. it was a pretty good compromise for the most part, as I did shoot more at the wide end but also used the 70-200 for some of my favorite shots as well. Of course, we spent all of our time on the islands other than an overnight ferry that yielded no real photo ops.
Since the 15-85 on crop is about the same angle of view as your 5D with the 24-105 would be you could likely also be OK on the wide end if you needed to. I kinda think the 100-400 is overkill at the long end though at least for what we saw. You may decide you need wider than 24mm too - especially if you end up on Santorini - the vistas are something special there. I can send you a link to my Zenfolio site if you want to get an idea of what I mean.
In any case, if you are doing a lot of scenic shots on land I think you will mostly use your 24-105. Otherwise I would think the 70-200 being smaller and lighter than the 100-400 is a better bet, and if you have a suitable lens and the room perhaps something even wider than the 24-105.
One thing is for sure - you should love your trip - we sure had a great time with lost of fun things to shoot.
Thanks everyone for the additional input. It sounds like my 3 f4 zooms is the way to go. I figured the 100-400 would be overkill for this kind of trip and I appreciate the confirmation. I know I could probably get away with leaving one of these three, but I've done several wildlife trips with two bodies and the big zoom so this seems minimal for me
When I get back I'll post my thoughts on which lenses worked best - and maybe a picture or two if I get any keepers
jj_glos wrote:
I'd be tempted to travel light and just take the 35 f2 but that's just me
Wide and standard lens is probably the most useful. Yes, available light shouldn't be a worry, unless the weather does not happen to be extremely bad. Even then, your photos will be more interesting as most times they are all with clear skies.
Thanks for the info. We'll be there in April and the climate predictions look much cooler than I was expecting. How changeable is the Aegean Sea weather in spring?
You should look up my old buddy Olaf in Santorini. He's been living there for a couple of years now and offers photography day tours to the prime photo spots.
Trevor Sowers wrote:
17-40 35 f/2 and a light telephoto prime! (135 f/2 or 200 f/2.8)
You will use telephoto the least so why lug around that huge zoom beast!
I'm a bit confused Trevor, the 135 f2 weighs 26.2 oz while the 70-200 f4 IS weighs 26.8 oz. If you are referring to my 100-400 as the beast, I agree with you. My purpose in posting this thread was to verify that I probably wouldn't need FL > 200 and that I probably would need FL < 24. So my travel kit is going to be 5D2, 17-40, 24-105, and 70-200 and a G1X (if I can get one by the end of March, otherwise G10). I thought about the 35 f2 but I can get close by using the 24-105 and pushing ISO a stop or two on the 5D, DOF notwithstanding.
I've loaded this equipment and my travel gear up into my carry-on backpack and it weighs in at around 14 lbs. I think thats pretty manageable for airport shlepping and day hikes.
Wide and standard. If you're inside anything (church, mosque, etc.) there is no such thing as "too wide."
If you're on a cruise ship, longer would be nicer, but just how much hand-holding of a 100-400 do you expect to do, on deck, and not fall over?
Oh, and inside you may have to up the ISO, but outside, you'll never go off of 100 in the day time. My wife and I were there back in October. I usually shoot at ISO 400, and after seeing file data such as 1/800, f/10, i dropped to 100 and left it there.
