Going on a trip to Halong Bay and Sapa in Vietnam. A 2 days 1 night on a cruise in Halong Bay followed by some light trekking in Sapa for 3 days. While a rational choice is to bring 17-40L, 24-105L and 70-200 f4 lenses, I'm tempted to bring alternative lens instead.
sounds like a nice trip! .. i was in vietnam in may for 3 weeks but didnt get to travel up north. i definitely want to go to Halong Bay though next time I get to visit.
As for lens, which body are you shooting with? id definitely bring the 24-105L for its versatility. possibly distagon for the wide and mabye the 70-200 for length. since being on the cruise for halong bay, you dont always get to zoom in with your feet so zooming could help.
have great trip though and share the pics when you return
Are you going to be in Hanoi at all? If so, having something wide and fast would be nice for wandering through the alleyways and streets alive with street life.
I think your lens choice depends on what you want to shoot. Sapa area has some amazing landscapes (specially if you're willing to get yourself out to Lai Chau--not Lao Cai; easy to confuse-- scariest bus ride of my life from Sapa, most incredible valley I have ever seen anywhere in the world).
-For WA landscapes, I think you'd be wise to bring the distagon or the olympus 21. I'd go with the olympus for size and cost.
-If you want to capture lots of street scenes in the streets and alleys of Hanoi (not sure if you're going through there, but it's a safe enough guess given Sapa and Ha Long), I'd go with a wide, fast prime: 24-->35 f/1.4 or thereabouts.
-The 24-105 will be great all around... and I bet you'll use it the most. It wont give you the wide aperture speed or the corner to corner sharpness of a wide alt prime for those cases where you want those qualities.
-I think you should consider NOT bringing a 100mm prime unless you have a specific reason. I'd say 135/200mm or nothing.
As an aside: if you've never been to Ha Long or Sapa before, be prepared to deal with a lot of sleight of hand as far as tours/guides etc goes. Ha Long in particular can be a frustrating experience: it's incredibly beautiful, but so many of the operators just load tourists up on boats that don't meet the descriptions when you booked, and keep all the boats together, herding tourists. The result can feel like being trapped and herded, just arm's reach away from such stunning beauty (and with all the boats, lots of oil on the water and diesel being belched into the air). You'll want to be proactive about making sure your experience works out.
Thank for the advices! Seems that I should take the 24-105 lens with me.
This is my 2nd trip to Vietnam. I was in HoiAn 2 years ago with the Sony R1 and Panasonic LX1 as a backup. I left the 1Ds behind due to its bulk (charger and batteries as well). I never regretting using the R1 for the trip! http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=219020
I want see myself taking many portraits in Sapa so a 135L might also be considered.
I would love the 35L but this lens is relatively huge. My preference is towards lightweight.
That's the problem when you have too many options...... Things were so simple back in the old days with 17-35L, 50mm and 70-200L.
I'll have 2 days in Hanoi - the first day upon arrival in Vietnam and the day when I return from Sapa in the early morning. I guess I will have some time to shoot in the city.
Any recommendation on a good Halong Bay cruise? How about those conducted by ET Pumpkin?
When I went to Vietnam I took 5D, Oly 40 f2, Zeiss N24-85. The Oly 40 was for walking around at night and the N was for daytime. It was perfect. For ultra-wide you can usually stitch. Long tele pictures of travel always put me to sleep.
BTW, if you get locals to drive you around on their mopeds, watch out for the guy in the shot holding the beer. He reached around and groped my genitals while driving me at 40 kmh in a chaotic street. I had to push his arm out of the way with enough restraint to keep us upright on the bike. My wife found the story hilarious. Apparently it's not uncommon, so watch out for the Hanoi gropers. You haven't done Hanoi until you've had that experience!
Weekh, I've heard good thinks about ET Pumpkin, but one never really knows. There's also the rampant phenomenon of copy-cat companies naming themselves after a successful and good company, and then paying moto drivers to bring you to the copy-cat operator... a little switcheroo.
You could ditch the zoom altogether. I brought 35L, 50 1.4, and 135L. About 80% of the time with the 35L... though, yes, I wish it was a MUCH smaller lens.
Lots of people recommending the 24-105 and/or other zooms.
All I can say is that I didn't bring a single zoom to Japan with me and I never regretted it. Not even once.
My travel kit was:
Tamron 17/3.5, Oly 21/3.5, Oly 28/3.5, Rokkor 58/1.2, Voigtlander 125/2.5.
90% of the time I only brought the 28, 58 and 125 with me. Next time, that may be all I bring. (Although the 21 did get quite a lot of use 1 day).
P.S. I found the 28 perfect for most wide needs, even indoors. The 58 is terrific for low-light (obviously) and environmental portraiture, and then the 125 easily satisfies the long-portrait and macro needs. I really didn't seem to need anything else, except the one day that I had some fun with my 21.
I love fast prime glass also so I normally bring 28/2, 58/1.2 and 105/1.8 with me.
If you go to Ha Long Bay you will shoot wides of the islands outdoor and lowlight inside the caves (they are spectacular, as memorable as cave shots Lars made in Laos).
A prime in 17-28mm range should be fine for your wides need.
If 45-58mm is long, bring something like 35/1.4 or 35/2 for city life at night, which can be interesting in big cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh or Da Nang.
Tele-wise, 85-135 is good. However I don't think there would be too many opportunities for this unless you want to focus on portraits or closeups.
Oh, I'm a native (but been abroad for more than 6 years now).
Lately, I've been walking around with the 21mm distagon, 24L, 40mm Voightlander or the 58 Rokkor and the 135L. I am secretly hoping for a fast 18-19mm F/2.0 or faster would be nice for fast moving night work. Richard got me hooked on the 40mm length for a while, but the rokkor...
Will be in Vietnam for the last 2 weeks of November
Spent all of August 2007 in Hanoi, with Contax T3 only. Given the heat, bustle and infant strapped on my chest, that was the right choice. I would now consider the simplest DSLR kit, e.g. D700 + 28 AiS.
weekh wrote:
I'm there on the 3rd week of November!!
Send me a PM (if you want) with your itenerary, as mine is still not set and I'll try to see if we can meet in one of the cities. I'll be booking very soon.
I've almost forgotten that I've the CZ35-70 until I took it out for a shoot 2 days back.
An alternative zoom to the bulky 24-105mm.
Only complaint is that CZ works pretty slow in terms of focusing and zooming. Also no IS which might come in very useful when shooting from cruise boat.
Leon Noel wrote:
I love fast prime glass also so I normally bring 28/2, 58/1.2 and 105/1.8 with me.
If 45-58mm is long, bring something like 35/1.4 or 35/2 for city life at night, which can be interesting in big cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh or Da Nang.
Same here. My base kit for future travels would now simply be C/Y 35/1.4, Rokkor 58/1.2 and Nikkor 105/1.8. Seems like a perfect combo. Relatively light with wide apertures
(but been abroad for more than 6 years now).