I'm planning on doing alot of overseas traveling Europe, Australia, etc. next year. I plan to shot street scenes, landscapes, night scenes, and the usually sights. I want to condense my travel kit to one bag with the new carry-on restrictions. In the past I've traveled with usually two bags and more gear then I usually needed. I would like to carry my entire kit in either a Lowepro Mini Trekker with one 20D or a CompuTrekker with two 20D bodies, without bursting at the seams. Just happens I got a bigger then expected bonus at work and plan to add some new lenses. I know a couple of these lenses are coming soon and aren't readily available. My Ideas for the kit are as follows: EF-S 10-22, either 17-40L or EF-S 17-55 / 2.8 IS, 24-105L IS, and 70-200L /4 IS. With the addition of either a 35L or the new 50L /1.2, I love having a fast prime in the mix. I decided to go with some f/4s in this kit to save space over my f/2.8s, still pondering that Any thoughts on this kit? What are some of your travel kits consisting of?
LDRider wrote:
One camera and one lens.
My choice for the lens would be the 24-70 on the 20D
I tried the one lens thing once before, found it way too limiting.
Personally, I would view the ideal "lightweight" travel kit as the 10-22, 24-105, 200L and a 35L or 50 1.4. That's with a 20D. If I were doing a lot of traveling I might seriously consider going to a 5D given the rebates and scraping the ultra-wide and just doing the 24-105, 50 1.4 and the 200mm L. That's for "traveling", if I was going strictly to shoot my line-up would be vastly different.
Generally, when traveling I have found that if I need a telephoto that I need at least 200mm and that the gap between 105 and 200 is manageable. Thus, I would rather have the faster prime than the zoom, plus it is smaller. I also don't think you will benefit all that much from dropping a chunk of change on the new 50mm 1.2. Seems like a waste to me for this application plus it is a pretty chunky piece of glass to lug around.
PS. I would throw a 1.4x TC into the mix as well with either body.
Wow, that's a huge kit you've got planned. I've been able to cover pretty much all my travel shooting needs with a 17-40 and 70-200. Rarely have I ever wished for different lenses when shooting "travel" shots. I'd take the 17-55 f/2.8 IS and 70-200 f/4 L, 20D and a flash.
20D + 17-55, 70-200 f4, and 24L or 35L for low light shooting. 24mm or 35mm depends on if you plan to shoot city scapes in low light (24L) or indoor portraits in low light (35L). A 420EX or 430EX flash should round out the kit nicely.
My current travel kit is the 1Ds with the 16-35L, 28-300L, and 35L with a 580EX for flash. Also carry a G2 rangefinder for film with CZ 21, CZ 35-70, CZ 90, with the small flash unit. All this with a small 12" laptop, 3 batteries, charger, film, and filters fits into a tamrac 55## something backpack which fits nicely in cabbin baggage.
Too much for a lot of travel/walking, so I also carry a tamrac expedition 3 (very small bag) that gets checked in with luggage inside suitcase for the flight but comes out at destination as it fits just the D-SLR and 2 lenses and the G2 with 1 lens plus two flashes for everyday walkaround. The rest stays at the hotel.
If it's vacation travel, I seldom carry even the carbon fibre tripod as it gets too big and never leaves the hotel room anyways.
Depends on which end you tend to favor, wide or telephoto. If wide, I'd go with the 10-22 and 24-105. Telephoto, the aforementioned 17-55 + 70-200 combo would be better. Either way I'd round out with the 35L.
Personally I tend to favor the ends so I'd tote around the 10-22 and 70-200. The middle range I'll just handle with the 35L and good ol' foot zoom.
Okay, roll of the drum, boomp!... a 16-35L, 35L, 85L, 28-300L IS, 25mm extension tube, a Slingshot 200 or ThinkTank SpeedRacer with CirPl/UV, extra batteries and lense cleaning stuff.
Do you have your travel pod picked out yet like a Gitzo 1158?
As is being pointed out by others, less is more as in it all gets heavy and cumbersome fast so you might want to parr the above down a bit, if you can.
I would bring the 17-55, 70-200 and either your 35L or if you get it, The 50L. But since your using the 20D, I would go with the 35L since you could use it as a "Normal" prime if you don't want to shoot with a zoom. That should cover about everything.
You really do need to ask what you're wanting to do as on a trip, you can't photographically have everything unless extemely wealth with lot's of time
I think one of the problems with doing travel documentary, artistic, calendar (what ever) art when you're on vacation, is finding the time to do it. Most of the time, you're on someone else's clock (dime) and you don't have time to think your way through a bunch of "way cool" shots.
"Come on dood, hurry up!" "The bus is leaving (everybody is waiting.)"
Even though you have good intentions, the best one can do is bust out some shots (everybody's getting in the way) and be grateful that any of them come out worth a Tinker's Damn unless of course, you're really, really special
With the above in mind, I'd do a two, maybe three lense kit. Less is better.
Example: Use a WA, with the intention of cropping; gives you perspective and FL.
It seems that fast WA primes (Sigma 20/1.8) and a general zoom (24-70L or 24-105/4.0L IS) during the day, will do the trick. Too bad that Canon doesn't see fit to do a decent WA like a CZ 21/2.8 or a 100-300/4.0L IS, but that's another story. With the above in mind, a fast WA zoom, a fast WA prime and a fast tele-zoom with 1.4x TC will do you fine.
16-35L
35L
70-200/2.8L IS
1.4x TC & 25mm extension tube
batteries
CirPl/UV (for protection) and cleaning gear.
The above will do you fine, based upon your OP.
Edited by BeeMan458 on Oct 17, 2006 at 02:47 PM GMT
I recently traveled in Norway and Sweden for a week and a half.
In my Micro Trekker 200 bag I packed:
350D
17-40L
24-70L (that was a serious weight penalty, but I liked the lens so much)
70-200L (thought about leaving it home, but got some great shots with it)
50/1.8
I took no off-camera flash, though it would have been good to have one
on a few occasions.
I also had 20GB of CF cards, of which about 16GB got used. I shot
Raw+JPEG.
If pushed, I could have done without the 24-70L, especially since it is
a heavy lens, but then I would have found myself switching lenses
more often. Since my bag is a backpack, it wasn't too bad to carry
around. It really depends how important photography is to you on this
trip. If you are not super-interested in shooting while on the trip, then
just take the 17-55IS and a 50/1.8, with perhaps a 430EX flash.
Add the 70-200/4L if you need telephoto.
Less is more. I think 3 lenses would be good. I'd take a 20, 35-70, 200. Seen your sig, 17-40 (or 17-55, or 10-22), 70-200, maybe the 24L for night street scenes, night sky....
Interesting thread as i am going through a simplification of my gear and am facing some similar questions.
For me, a lightweight but comprehensive travel kit would be a 30d (two if you have them), 17-55, 70-300IS and a fast prime (maybe a 35l), flash, remote triggers and a tripod.
That would cover all the situations i've ever encountered when travelling but still give plenty of scope.
I'm with Henry (Hrow). My travel kit consists of a 10-22, 24-105 IS and 200L (your 70-200 f/4 IS will also do nicely). If you need the shutter speed in low light, add a fast prime (the 28mm f/1.8 or 50mm f/1.8 will also do the trick at a much lower cost).
Any thoughts on this kit? 
What are some of your travel kits consisting of?
