I went in 1999 with my film kit and starter lenses. I had a 28-80 & 100-300 with two bodies (b&w and color). I primarily shot with the 28-80mm. If I were you I'd take the 17-50 and the 85. Why? I guess because I'd rather not overlap focal lengths when I'm carrying stuff with me every moment of every day. With high ISO being so usable and the fact that your zoom is reasonably fast, I think I'd rather take a low light lens that offers the option of a different focal length.
Bring everything. They are not really that heavy. If you absolutely have to remove one to save on weight, then loose the Sigma. If you have some cash to spend, loose everything and get the Canon 24-105mm 4.0 IS.
Going to Netherlands myself in May and I kicked it around and came up with;
Canon 1DnII
Canon 14mm 2.8 II
Tamron 28-75mm 2.8
Slik PRO-340DX TRIPOD
Bogen/Manfrotto Mini Ballhead (Quick Release)
Canon 580ex Flash
All packed in a inconspicuous Pacsafe AntiTheft Metrosafe 200
I was in Spain and England last year and took both my Tamron 17-50 and my Sigma 30 1.4 and I was so glad that I brought both. The Sigma is great to have when you need a fast lense; for night pics in the gothic section of Barcelona, to the many cathedrals and muesums where flash is not allowed. Also, the Sigma has such a great depth of field that it realy can open up some creative opportunities. The Sigma is small, fairly light and should go with you. Have a great time,
Kevin
Mar 16, 2008 at 12:19 AM
Lars Johnsson Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
With your extremely fast and busy travel-schedule, you will not have time to do any photography You will be very lucky if you have time enough for finding hostels/hotels and travelling.
Your plan include a big part of the Europen countries and a few places in Africa in those weeks. If you like to have a nice trip and see something in the countries you visit, skip at least 50% of them. You can't really see north, south, west & east Europe and include north Africa in a trip by train that last a few weeks.
Looking at your images, one would think that you do most of your stuff with something
in the range of your Tamron lens, so maybe leaving the 30 and 85 at home would be
a good idea if you're concerned about how much you are hauling. I'd think some kind
of tripod/gorrilla pod/? would actually be more useful than the 30mm (unless you're hooked
on that thin depth of field wide open, but that's a creative choice), as you could then
get most "low light" shots with the slower tamron lens. And while the 85 gives you an
extra stop and that slight bit of extra reach and perspective compression, is it enough
different to be worth hauling it along for? (again, its your call if you're hooked on what
it can produce).
There are a lot of advantages to just hauling the one lens - it might help out with
dust problems because you don't have to crack your camera/lens seal, its obviously
lighter, and you won't miss shots while fumbling trying to change lenses.
Your hyperdrive is one w/o the viewing screen, right? If so, this implies that you are
going to be using your camera to check your images. And with 2 CF cards you're
going to be reusing cards as well, so you
really aren't going to be carrying the hyperdrive for redundancy either. So why are you
bringing it again? CF cards are cheap (especially if you don't need the newfangled
gazillionX tranfer rates), light, small, and I'd posit they can take more abuse than
the disk drive in the hyperdrive can. Or, you should at least consider getting a few
more 4 gig cards - and then you could treat the CF cards like film (use once and save) +
dump them to your drive so its actually providing redundancy...
If you aren't hauling a flash, you might also consider picking up some kind of small
diffuser for the on-camera flash as well...
kevink9, I will keep your experience in mind. I'm trying to predict how much low-light shooting I'll do but I really have no idea!
rkgatteleport, I think you're right about me mainly shooting in the 17-50 range. I don't have time to get a gorillapod, but after researching it, I wish I did. Oh well... regarding the Hyperdrive, I'm bringing it mainly because I don't have the money or time to get 8 more 4GB CF cards. I'm really planning on taking hundreds of shots per day, so the 40GB is mainly for storage, not redundancy. If my HDD fails that would be unfortunate, but I'm willing to take the risk rather than plunk down some serious change on extra cards.
This thread has just made matters worse ... there are so many reasons for each particular configuration. I may just have to pack all my absolute necessary gear into the Domke and see where the cutoff point is in terms of reasonable weight.
I did a month long backpacking trip around Europe in May/June 07, and brought my 10D, Sigma 18-125mm F3.5-5.6 DC, and Canon 50mm f1.8 mkII. Also brought my SD450 APS for those times I didn't want to lug the 10D around. I used my Sigma 18-125 the most because of its large focal length range, but found it to be useless in the museums and would have to use my 50mm in the low light (no flash allowed!). The 50mm isn't wide enough for most museum stuff though. But it also served as my back up lens since it is small and light.
I would suggest that you bring the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 and Sigma 30mm. The Tamron will get you the wide range needed for most shooting, and the Sigma will get you by in low light situations such as museums. I didn't really find too much need to have the zoom on my trip. Thats my 2 cents, all depends on what your intentions are though.
I think I agree. You should just take the 30, the 17-50, and the 85. That little 30 doesn't weight much, and if you think the extra weight may be a problem, just start jogging right now, and you'll be in better shape for you trip. You won't even notice that lens weight.
You will be very lucky if you have time enough for finding hostels/hotels and travelling.
... there are so many reasons for each particular configuration. I may just have to pack all my absolute necessary gear into the Domke and see where the cutoff point is in terms of reasonable weight.