DSLR with Long lenses, worth taking?

[mr jamms]

As a photography nut with more lenses then I can carry, picking what to take is tricky especially with 2 international flights to get to our cruise port.

 

I'm a Canon shooter with a full frame camera, I'm planning on taking a walk around zoom (24-105 f4L), a wide angle zoom (16-35 f2.8L) and a couple of primes for night time.

 

We're going to the Mexican Riviera, so I probably won't take my big camera ashore, I've got a small one too.

 

Is it worth taking any long focal length lenses? I've got a 70-200 f2.8L and a 300 f4L. and also the 1.4x adapter for them. Is there anything much in terms of wildlife or anything else that you shoot from the decks?

 

What's the longest focal length you find useful onboard? and out of interest, the widest?

[pierces]

Been to the inappropriately-named Mexican Riviera many, many times and can't remember needing more than the medium 24-70 zoom unless you are whale-watching in the Sea of Cortez. Personally, I'd leave the fast primes at home and rely on the 16-35 for ship pictures since the relatively close quarters on board make wide angles a necessity and zooming with your feet is often problematical (you can only back up as far as the rail ;).

 

In addition to carrying the "small" camera ashore, I would suggest not dressing like an American tourist that may have relatives willing to pay a ransom!:eek:

 

Dave

[awboater]

Always take my DSLR, but whenever I have taken a long lens to the Caribbean, I have never used it. The primary reason is haze; especially over water. The shots just get muddy. This can be fixed somewhat in post processing, but it is another issue to contend with.

 

Not sure how the Mexican Riviera compares to the Caribbean haze wise, but I suspect it is similar.

[pierces]

Not sure how the Mexican Riviera compares to the Caribbean haze wise, but I suspect it is similar.

 

With the exception of Cabo, pretty much the same. I recall a December afternoon in Acapulco at 103° with 95% humidity!

 

Dave

[zackiedawg]

I am one to immediately endorse bringing long lenses on cruises, especially as birds and wildlife are a specialty of mine. I've never cruised without at least 400mm optically in my bag. It may spend 4 or 5 days of the cruise in the bag, but certain islands it always finds its way out, and gets a lot of use.

 

I'm tending though to go with the others for the Mexican Riv...I can only think of one real situation where I might want my long lens - whale migration...and that's only if you're hitting the season dead-on. Otherwise, I should think you could get away without it at any stop I can think of, not much to shoot from shipboard, and several stops not the kind of place you want to be walking around with something obviously expensive.

 

I'll be figuring out how to get my big lenses on my fligth next month, as they absolutely must come on my cruise...but I'll be cruising through rivers, close inshore islands, and lots of cooler stops with potential shots for long lenses. For the Mexican Riv, especially if I had to fly to get to the ship, I'd likely leave the big stuff behind.

[tmitchell82]

As a photography nut with more lenses then I can carry, picking what to take is tricky especially with 2 international flights to get to our cruise port.

 

I'm a Canon shooter with a full frame camera, I'm planning on taking a walk around zoom (24-105 f4L), a wide angle zoom (16-35 f2.8L) and a couple of primes for night time.

 

We're going to the Mexican Riviera, so I probably won't take my big camera ashore, I've got a small one too.

 

Is it worth taking any long focal length lenses? I've got a 70-200 f2.8L and a 300 f4L. and also the 1.4x adapter for them. Is there anything much in terms of wildlife or anything else that you shoot from the decks?

 

What's the longest focal length you find useful onboard? and out of interest, the widest?

 

I took my EF70-300 F4-5.6 IS USM along when I went to the Mexican Riviera last year. The biggest use I got out of the lens was in shooting the dolphins and whales that came near the ship as well as the whale watching excursion in Cabo. Not sure when you are going, but we did our cruise in January. For shooting the whales it was well worth bringing along. I did not take it onshore much in the other ports.

 

Tim

[mr jamms]

Thanks all, We're going on a b2b in November for a total of 2 weeks.

 

Leaving the long lenses at home will give me more room to bring my fun lenses, tiltshift and a fisheye. I'm happy enough to forgo whale pictures, I can do that not far from here.

[zackiedawg]

Tilt shift actually works very well on cruises - not just for the corrective function, but also for the tilt focus miniature effect - the view of most port cities from the upper deck of the ship is just the right angle for the effect!