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Planning gear for Ecuador trip

jakemachina
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

I'm in the process of planning a trip to Ecuador and hoping to do some wildlife photography, as well as a bit of landscape.

Trying to figure out what to bring so that I'll have my best results without just bringing EVERYTHING.

Plan 1 (native consumer):
Canon EOS R my only body
RF 800 f11 IS STM for perched birds and longer range wildlife
RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM for hummingbirds, closer wildlife, semi-macro
RF 24-240mm F4-6.3 IS USM walkaround everyday lens
RF 35mm F1.8 IS STM night time lens

I figure this way I'm all native RF mount lenses, I do worry that I have a bit too much overlap here. Maybe drop the 100-400? Or drop the 24-240? Trade out the 24-240 for an EF 24-70 f2.8?

Plan 2 (adapted professional):
Canon EOS R my only body
RF 800 f11 IS STM for perched birds and longer range wildlife
EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM for in the jungle/forest/low-light or shorter range wildlife
Extender EF 1.4x II for a bit more reach
Tamron SP 24-70mm F2.8 Di VC USD G2 as an everyday lens

I figure this way I have f2.8 glass that covers the normal range as well as some telephoto, but it's way heavier and bulkier. The plus side is that the R and EF 300L is weather sealed. I could bring the canon 2x extender for the EF 300L and try to do without the RF 800 f11, but that's not as long and not as sharp.

Also might plan to add something like a go-pro or an Olympus Tough TG-6 as an adventure / wet weather option, but might not bother here.

Anyone with experience shooting jungle wildlife and some high mountain wildlife that wants to chime in?

Oct 25, 2023 at 08:16 AM

Jeff Nolten
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

I'd say either kit should work but it depends on what your back and any local air flights will tolerate. Will you be in deep jungle or more open country? In a group or on your own?

Oct 25, 2023 at 12:22 PM

jakemachina
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

Jeff Nolten wrote:
I'd say either kit should work but it depends on what your back and any local air flights will tolerate. Will you be in deep jungle or more open country? In a group or on your own?

Local flight to the amazon side has a 44lb weight limit per passenger, and I'll be travelling with my wife (she'll have the binox).

Oct 25, 2023 at 12:42 PM

Mike_5D
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

Is this a photo-centric trip or are you adding photography onto the trip?

Oct 25, 2023 at 12:46 PM

jakemachina
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

Mike_5D wrote:
Is this a photo-centric trip or are you adding photography onto the trip?

It's a trip that's intended to have a bunch of wildlife and scenic viewing, with photography featuring heavily there. Add in some relaxing and adventure. So 50/50?

Oct 25, 2023 at 01:05 PM

nmerc_photos
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

if weight and space allows, I'd go kit #2 for sure

granted I'm not familiar with Ecuador - but a few quick google searches seem to indicate that there may be a certain amount of low-light, rainforest, cloudy skies, etc.

I would not want to go on a trip that is 50/50 wildlife photography, with my fastest lens being a 240mm f4, and my fastest telephoto being a 400mm f8. ESPECIALLY if there's any opportunity for early morning, late evening, or rainforest shooting.

I've had good luck using the slower zooms (RF 100-500, Nikon Z 100-400) for trips that are mainly family trips, with a bit of wildlife - but I've ultimately been disappointed every time that I didn't have a 600 f4 or 400 f2.8 with me.

one thing to note, having owned the RF 800 F11 and EF 300 2.8 MKI and II, in both cases I found the 300mm + 2x to be sharper than the RF 800 F11. If you think 600mm is as far as you'd need, I could easily forgo the 800mm F11 assuming you could carry and utilize the 300 + 2x.

looking at all of your lens options, I might go with:

EOS R
24-240mm f4 - f6.3
300mm f2.8 (w/ 1.4x and 2x)
35mm f1.8

perhaps add the RF 800 F11 if you have space to give

and call it a day. when I shoot my family or general walk around, I'm always using either a 24-105 (or 24-120 nikon), or shooting with my fixed focal length Fuji X100v (35mm FF). Then for wildlife I want the highest quality and fastest ones around.

YMMV of course

Edited on Oct 25, 2023 at 01:45 PM · View previous versions

Oct 25, 2023 at 01:38 PM

jakemachina
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

nmerc_photos wrote:
if weight and space allows, I'd go kit #2 for sure

granted I'm not familiar with Ecuador - but a few quick google searches seem to indicate that there may be a certain amount of low-light, rainforest, cloudy skies, etc.

I would not want to go on a trip that is 50/50 wildlife photography, with my fastest lens being a 240mm f4, and my fastest telephoto being a 400mm f8. ESPECIALLY if there's any opportunity for early morning, late evening, or rainforest shooting.

I've had good luck using the slower zooms (RF 100-500, Nikon Z 100-400) for trips that are mainly family trips,...Show more →

When the 800 arrives I'll have to give it a little testing compared to the 300 + 2xii and see if that gives me the better option. Would mean one less lens to pack.

Oct 25, 2023 at 01:42 PM

jtford9
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

My daughter did a trip to Ecuador last year. A week on the Galapagos and a week on the mainland photographing hummingbirds and hiking around Cotopaxi, El Vuelo Del Condor, and a few other places. She did the trip with a 6D and a 24-105 f4 L and a 70-200 f4 L IS, plus her GoPro for diving in the Galapagos. She had no issues covering landscapes and didn’t need a longer telephoto for wildlife. She said hummingbirds were the most challenging because of the lighting conditions, faster lens or a higher ISO capable body would have helped, and that’s just for perched hummingbirds. She was able to get fairly close to pretty much everything, on 1 of her IG accounts she posted a selfie with a llama.

The other benefit of her kit (hand me down from dad) is that it’s very light for flying and hiking.

Oct 25, 2023 at 04:21 PM

patotts
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

First of all - be careful with your planning, Educador is having lots of security issues, thus I would be very careful about how and where you should travel, especially with your wife and expensive photo gear. I was in Educador last year with the family, but we kept it to Galapagos (which felt safe). More at e.g. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/ecuador-travel-advisory.html

Secondly, do you have all these lenses or are you planning on buying or renting? I wouldn't bring more than you can carry in a backpack that you can fit under your seat at a regular airplane. Don't put anything of value apart from clothes and shoes in your checked luggage. We have travelled a lot in LATAM, and have even lost electric toothbrushes from checked baggage.

Be sure to weigh your carry-on luggage. On our last trip, after we sent off our checked luggage, they started weighing our carry-ons, including backpacks and charged us +$100 for excessive weight. It is a money-making scheme. They did it after they sent off our checked luggage, so we couldn't redistribute stuff. This was in Ecuador, by the way. We carry multiple passports, fluent in Spanish, etc - it doesn't matter.

Having said all of this, I would go for a camera with preferably 3 lenses: walking around zoom, e.g. RF 24-105/4. Then one fast/low-light lens, eg. RF 35/1.8, and finally one bigger zoom, e.g. RF 100-500 - perhaps worth renting for a week instead of buying? Bring a 1.4x extender?

Keep it photography light, and focus on having amazing shared experiences with your wife!

Oct 25, 2023 at 06:55 PM

robert_in_ca
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

I'd go with the second option. I would also encourage you to rent another body. I had the R when it was first release and any of newer R bodies are vastly better.

Oct 25, 2023 at 11:13 PM

tsunathanh
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

I spend a lot of time in Ecuador taking photos. I'd bring as little as you can. Rent a wildlife camera like an R7, it will be worth it for the easy hummingbird photos. Take that and the 100-400, and the 35.

Oct 26, 2023 at 12:13 PM

jakemachina
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

tsunathanh wrote:
I spend a lot of time in Ecuador taking photos. I'd bring as little as you can. Rent a wildlife camera like an R7, it will be worth it for the easy hummingbird photos. Take that and the 100-400, and the 35.

Appreciate the insight. Any reason that you'd bring as little as possible?

Oct 26, 2023 at 01:01 PM

jakemachina
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

patotts wrote:
First of all - be careful with your planning, Educador is having lots of security issues, thus I would be very careful about how and where you should travel, especially with your wife and expensive photo gear. I was in Educador last year with the family, but we kept it to Galapagos (which felt safe). More at e.g. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/ecuador-travel-advisory.html

Secondly, do you have all these lenses or are you planning on buying or renting? I wouldn't bring more than you can carry in a backpack that you can fit under your seat at a regular airplane. Don't put anything of...Show more →

Appreciate the insight about the worries in the region. We've traveled to LATAM a number of times and have a reasonable way to keep our heads down when we're out away from hotels, and have done well so far.

I have all the lenses listed in both options above, with the exception that I just picked up the RF 800/11 as a used lens on adorama.

Typically use the EF 300 for sports and corporate headshots, the 24-70 for events, and the 24-240 and 100-400 for travel/wildlife. I'm not thrilled about the prospect of lugging the EF 300 and a couple TCs through the jungle but I'd also really hate to miss out on great shots because of not having it.

The RF 800 was an impulse purchase because it seems like such an interesting lens.

As far as shared experiences go, one of the things my wife really enjoys is going for a walk at dawn or dusk and spotting wildlife (typically with binox) while I get the pics. We make a good team!

Oct 26, 2023 at 01:13 PM

FrenchFry
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

Hi,
Ecuador is a relatively small country with an enormous amount of habitat diversity. My lens recommendations would differ based on whether you plan to be in dark forested areas such as coastal mangroves, Amazonian rainforest, and cloud forest, or open/exposed areas such as the Galapagos or paramo highlands.
Do you plan on doing a lot of hiking and climbing with your gear?
What are the areas you are planning to visit in your itinerary? What are your specific photography interests? For wildlife, are you a generalist or do you have a particular interest in birds (cock of the rock leks? Hummingbirds?), herps, mammals, nighttime creepy crawlies? Night walks will generally reveal all sorts of different creatures than day walks. Do you plan on bringing flash for day or nighttime photography?
With a better understanding of what you plan to do and what interests you, we can probably offer more meaningful advice.
Regardless of what you bring, practice common sense safety practices and do not carry around lots of big and expensive looking equipment in urban areas.

Oct 26, 2023 at 11:46 PM

jakemachina
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

FrenchFry wrote:
Hi,
Ecuador is a relatively small country with an enormous amount of habitat diversity. My lens recommendations would differ based on whether you plan to be in dark forested areas such as coastal mangroves, Amazonian rainforest, and cloud forest, or open/exposed areas such as the Galapagos or paramo highlands.
Do you plan on doing a lot of hiking and climbing with your gear?
What are the areas you are planning to visit in your itinerary? What are your specific photography interests? For wildlife, are you a generalist or do you have a particular interest in birds (cock of the rock leks? Hummingbirds?),...Show more →

We're planning for a trip to the amazon side to stay in an eco lodge (lots of dawn / dusk / understory wildlife), as well as a trip to the andes around Banos. We're more generalists, so marmosets, howlers, cayman, cock of the rock, parrots, toucan, hummers would all delight. I'm thinking I might as well bring a flash but I'm more experienced using flash for people photography instead of wildlife. Not generally a macro shooter though, so not a ton of stuff smaller than a hummingbird.

Hoping to hit a night walk or two, may do some short day hikes but nothing much more than two or three miles. We're both used to hiking with a fairly heavy day pack so carrying some weight wouldn't be bad for hikes, though I'm not sure I'd want to hike three miles with the 300/2.8

And in all cases, wouldn't be flashing anything big around urban areas.

Oct 27, 2023 at 09:09 AM

AmbientMike
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

It's pretty tropical here, though I haven't been to Ecuador. I use 55-250 in forests, usually stopped down to 7.1 or so, up to iso 6400 on static subjects, and if I fire off several, can go to about 1/50. The 800/11 has better IS if you look at the chart on Ken Rockwell's page, 1/30 should be pretty easily attainable, and FF you should be able to get to iso 12800-25600.

Of course if you aren't going to run up the iso it is going to be harder to use f/11. The IS looks a bit better, and high ISO better on FF so you should be able to make up for the 1.3 stops slower f/11 lens vs 7.1 I'm using. On static subjects

The 100 400 looks like a FF version of the 55-250. F/8, but you can run the iso higher on ff. Macro probably pretty good, goes to about 1:2, and 30mp leaves enough to crop some.

Oct 27, 2023 at 09:47 AM

FrenchFry
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Planning gear for Ecuador trip

Thank you for providing more information.

I would probably go with the following great recommendation based on where you are visiting:
- 800mm for distant birds and marmosets, keeping in mind that stabilization will be important to get sharp shots in low light (which is all of the time under the canopy)
-100-400 for hummingbirds, monkeys, tamanduas, tapir, etc.I expect this will wind up as your most used wildlife lens on this trip.
- 24-70 2.8 for landscapes and night photography.

If you are using flash for close up subjects at night, a diffuser will help reduce some of the glare. A lot of night subjects are shiny (snake scales) or moist (frog skin) so there can be a big challenge in not getting your flash to show up in the image. A flashlight can help with acquiring focus.

If using flash during the day for distant subjects, consider picking up something like a better beamer so the light reaches your target.

Since you will be light-limited (only about 5% off light reaches the first floor in dense forest like the Amazon), you will be making choices between high ISO and slow shutter speeds. A monopod may help you reduce shake if you go the low shutter speed route. Animals not sitting perfectly still will make slow shutter speeds unusable, though, so getting comfortable with higher ISO may be the best path forward. Noise is getting fairly easy to remove with software as long as the image is properly exposed.

You will be in a very high humidity environment. If you have not had experience with lens care in humid environments, take a moment to research some strategies to keep your lenses from fogging up and keep them fungus-free. I would recommend bringing dry bags and silica packets to get the moisture out of the lenses each night. Lenses will show condensation inside if you go from indoors to shooting outdoors too quickly, which will make everything look gray. In my experience, lens changes and teleconverters seem to increase the fogging up of lenses so if you have a second body you can borrow, consider doing that to reduce the need for lens changes.

In the rainforest, it can rain heavily and suddenly. (Not surprising) A backpack rain fly is a good first step but I would also bring a dry bag on any hike, just in case. A large poncho that can be worn over your body and backpack may help keep your gear dry too. Just don’t expect any of your clothes to actually stay dry and you went be disappointed. You won’t really get anything 100% dry until you get home. Which reminds me, your suitcase will weigh more on the way back due to humidity so you may need to budget a bit of spare weight for that. If onsite laundry is available, it can be a very helpful way of reducing your baggage weight.

Let us know if you have further questions about gear or packing for a trip to Ecuador. It is a very beautiful country, with incredible animals. I am sure you will have a wonderful time!

Oct 27, 2023 at 10:56 AM


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