Which lens for Vancouver

[ugpdfw]

I am traveling to Vancouver for my honeymoon in about a month , we are taking a sea plane to an island, and whale watching etc, I am wonder which lenses I should take with me?


I will have

Nikon D90
Nikon 16-55 F2.8


what about zoom

[lyncca]

People complain about it, cause it isn't a pro lens, but for walking around, parties, vacations, etc where I can't stop every two seconds to change lenses, I love the 18-200 and I also take my 12-24 for architecture stuff. Of course, those are for crop frame, but on the D90 you would be fine.

I would actually sell my 18-200 since I never use it professionally, but I keep it just for this purpose.

[ugpdfw]

I am looking to rent something,

Since we will be doing all types of activities I wanted something versatile.

I was looking at a nikon 50-550 f4 or the 70-200 f2.8

[lyncca]

That's why I suggested the 18-200. I don't think the 50-550 (never even heard of that until now) would be portable and the 70-200 certainly isn't versatile esp. crop frame. You have to be pretty far back from something and it won't work for architecture shots except details.

Both lenses you mention won't be much fun for portability or weight.

[ugpdfw]

Originally Posted by lyncca

That's why I suggested the 18-200. I don't think the 50-550 (never even heard of that until now) would be portable and the 70-200 certainly isn't versatile esp. crop frame. You have to be pretty far back from something and it won't work for architecture shots except details.

Both lenses you mention won't be much fun for portability or weight.

true, oops, I ment Sigma 50-500 wt 4lbs
I will take a look at the 18-200

thank you

[Jeffery]

I was just in Vancouver a few months ago. I can tell you that for whale watching, a 200mm is not near long enough as my 70-200 did not give me enough reach. I would go with a 400mm+. Around the city my 17-50 worked fine.

[ugpdfw]

I really dont want to carry a 400mm around. I am thinking about a 70-200 f2.8 + a teleconverter if poss?

any thoughts?

[lhughey]

Originally Posted by ugpdfw

I really dont want to carry a 400mm around. I am thinking about a 70-200 f2.8 + a teleconverter if poss?

any thoughts?

The teleconverter idea is not a bad one, but I'd go with the 18-200 on all things minus long distance, and a 100-400 type lens for the long things. Anyway you go, you're going to need 2 lenses.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Really instead of getting into the argument on specific lenses I would look at it this way. First you don't even mention what kind of photography interests you at all other than the whale watching, so what do you think you would like to shoot?

So coming from that base I would recommend a wide angle zoom that runs from around 20mm to 80 nm (yeah it could be down to 15 and up to 100) with as fast glass that you can afford to rent. If your going to rent glass might as well rent the best that you can get-just remember as the F stop goes down on these zooms the weight goes up if a 2.8 is a lot heavier than a 4.0 or variable F that changes over the zoom range. Then I would get a telezoom in the 100-300 range or even 400 and then a 2x or at least a 1.4 tele convertor. Now in the case of the large zoom the faster lenses are a lot heavier than the slower ones but well worth it since that 2.8 becomes a 5.6 with that 2x tele while a 4.0 jumps to 8.0 which helps with DOF but may force you to push your ISO so high to get the shutter speed that you need to catch that whale coming out of the water that you create a lot of noise in the pics even though you will be hopefully in full daylight without an overcast sky which can really knock the light levels down. Since you won't be hauling around the big lens too much I would go with the fastest glass that you can afford to rent but be sure to get their insurance policy in case it goes into the drink. Also be sure to take along or buy a monopod to use with it.