Photo gear for a BKB voyage?

[CruiseMark]

Trying to decide on what photo gear to bring on a BKB voyage. I have a Canon 6D kit. I’ll obviously bring a wide prime for northern lights, a standard zoom for walk around. But what I’m unsure about is a telephoto zoom. I’m trying to envision what I’d be using it for. I have a 70-200 and could pick up a 70-300 pretty cheaply, but don’t know if I’d need longer than that. Thoughts?

[oakridger]

Hi @CruiseMark.  Try asking your questions on the Cruise Critic photography forum.  You should get a lot of responses over there.

 

Photo & Camera Discussions - Cruise Critic Community

 

Have fun in Norway!!

 

~Nancy

[CruiseMark]

3 hours ago, oakridger said:

Hi @CruiseMark.  Try asking your questions on the Cruise Critic photography forum.  You should get a lot of responses over there.

 

Photo & Camera Discussions - Cruise Critic Community

 

Have fun in Norway!!

 

~Nancy

Thanks, @oakridger, but that forum is pretty generic. I’ve been a photographer for 50+ years and know how to use my camera.    I’m looking for lens recommendations for this cruise specifically. 

[GottaKnowWhen]

Sorry, what is a BKB?

From the Hurtigruten siting and the comment above, I am assuming a Norwegian coastal?

On my recent trip I used a medium format, 645Z, with a variety of lenses. I was surprised to find that I virtually never used my wide lens (35mm, 28mm equivalent in full frame), most often used my 55mm (=42mm) and 200mm (=160mm). When I needed wider, it was more convenient to compose a pano and stitch in LR later than to swap lenses.

Stan

[CruiseMark]

39 minutes ago, GottaKnowWhen said:

Sorry, what is a BKB?

From the Hurtigruten siting and the comment above, I am assuming a Norwegian coastal?

On my recent trip I used a medium format, 645Z, with a variety of lenses. I was surprised to find that I virtually never used my wide lens (35mm, 28mm equivalent in full frame), most often used my 55mm (=42mm) and 200mm (=160mm). When I needed wider, it was more convenient to compose a pano and stitch in LR later than to swap lenses.

Stan

Thanks, Stan. BKB is the Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen round trip Norwegian Coastal Express. 
I wish I could afford a 645Z!
 

Edited April 1, 2023 by CruiseMark

[Flyinby]

On 3/30/2023 at 7:54 PM, CruiseMark said:

Trying to decide on what photo gear to bring on a BKB voyage. I have a Canon 6D kit. I’ll obviously bring a wide prime for northern lights, a standard zoom for walk around. But what I’m unsure about is a telephoto zoom. I’m trying to envision what I’d be using it for. I have a 70-200 and could pick up a 70-300 pretty cheaply, but don’t know if I’d need longer than that. Thoughts?

I looked at some of the exif data from my recent trip...I had a 28-300mm (camera) with me but wasn't sure how much of the telephoto I'd used.  There were a lot of photos in the high 250-300mm (equivalent) zoom range.  There are a lot of small settlements that almost look like toy model towns because the surroundings are so large, and the telephoto was nice to have.  I also used my Leica D-lux7 a lot, with 24-70mm equivalent f/1.7 lens, and did have a lot of use of widest angle, and sometimes wished it went beyond 70.  With the northern lights, I could have used a wider angle than the 24, but I didn't have one.  

 

Hopefully your prime is a relatively fast lens...with the ship motion, the longer exposures needed for northern lights are tricky.  I was able to get it down on the Leica to under a second at ISO 1600 f/1.7 with the brighter northern lights (could have probably pushed it to 1/2 second, but had to use ISO 3200 on a not-so-bright night.  The Leica is a 4/3 sensor, so you can probably push your ISO quite a bit higher than I did.  The really fancy photos that are from land often use 10-15 seconds at low ISO, but it would be a messy blur from the moving ship, we just don't have that luxury.

 

You could probably do a lot of the daytime photos with the 70-200 or 300, but it could be a hassle not having a wider angle, or at least it would be for me...even a 35-200 or similar might be more versatile.  But then, the 70-300 would be handy at times, just keep your prime lens handy.

 

As you can probably tell from above, I took smaller cameras, but there were plenty of SLR's in use out there on deck.  Swapping lenses out in the wind would have been a pain.  But you'll get some really nice photos no matter what, it's so photogenic out there.

Edited April 1, 2023 by Flyinby

[CruiseMark]

Thank you, @Flyinby. Very helpful.