What camera should I bring on vacation???

[Masterlu]

Tom23... Welcome!

Great Advice!

[tweet]

Tom23 - Welcome to AA!

You sound like a pro. Great advice!

Terry

[howiebrou]

Bring an easy to carry camera. I did the Nikon with multiple lenses in italy and it was a pain. Now I carry a Leica M9 with one lens. Simple, inconspicuous and leaves one hand free for gelato

[vintage_tube]

There is sooooo much to see in Italy -- esp. Rome that a bulky camera has no place and is more of a worry than a keepsake piece.

Enjoy the sights and just be with the misses (and family) and don't let the camera dictate the tour/excursion. Regardless, you wll NOT capture it all!!!!!!!!!!!!


Bob

[Littlebunny]

I'd tend to agree with Tom23, though it's a bitter pill to swallow in these digital days. I use 1 camera, 1 lens, and a couple different film emulsions to keep things simple. Less gear also makes you less of a target for thieves.

Anyway, everybody manages to come back with some decent pics no matter what; even the film luddites (on occasion).

[Jerome W]

Tom 23 : welcome to AA and could not agree more !
I just spent 4 weeks in Florida and took only my Canon G12. I'm happy I did not take my Reflex.
Not only for the weight. But I can shot much faster with the G12.

Sent from my iPhone using A.Aficionado

[MyPal]

Jim... Italy is awesome for wide lenses. I would take your 14-24mm & 24-70mm. Forget about the heavy 70-200mm long throw.

There are times when you do not want your SLR like when you are photographing your dinner plate!. For me, the Canon S100 is the perfect pocket camera & has all of the familiar SLR functions.

Go with a smaller, lighter tripod if you think you will spend some evenings framing, otherwise don't weigh yourself down. I have a Gitzo GT2531EX. Even that didn't get much action.

For the day & general evening shots, your f/2 zooms will be plenty. I would not go bigger than an 80mm f/2 prime if you want to capture the natives.

Europe is about taking the wide shot.

BTW, don't forget to look up!

[trek737]

Originally Posted by Tom23

Consider taking the camera that you know best. In foreign situations you need all your attention on being in your body, seeing through your eyes, calmly witnessing the movement, color, sound and weather. While staying alive. And not getting fatigued.

You don't want to be fiddling with your gear, trying to find some sub-menu item or constantly wanting to change lenses while life passes by quickly. Limit yourself to one intermediate zoom if possible, or whatever range you anticipate using most. If you think back on earlier experiences, you'll likely realize that 80 percent of your best shots were made within a 25mm range because that's how you sense the world.

If you have a general sense of a theme to explore, or expect one to evolve as you travel, your vision, sensitivity and understanding will determine success much more than the choice of camera and lens. Remember always that Cartier-Bresson created a marvelous body of work using mostly a 50mm lens.

There is something to be said for using a fixed focal length, as it forces you to conform to a perspective that soon will become nearly automatically composed, so you can anticipate quickly the best place to be for each shot.

If any of these zooms have VR, use that one and forget the tripod.

I completely sympathize with your dilemma, as I have kept my wife waiting many times as we traveled all around Europe and the US while I disappeared for "just a few minutes" to photograph - but she has been a good sport about it. So, my last trip to Italy was alone and it felt great.

Have fun!

Tom,



Thanks for the advice...

Originally Posted by howiebrou

Bring an easy to carry camera. I did the Nikon with multiple lenses in italy and it was a pain. Now I carry a Leica M9 with one lens. Simple, inconspicuous and leaves one hand free for gelato

Thanks...I plan on bringing a small P&S incase I do not want to carry the bigger gear.

Originally Posted by vintage_tube

There is sooooo much to see in Italy -- esp. Rome that a bulky camera has no place and is more of a worry than a keepsake piece.

Enjoy the sights and just be with the misses (and family) and don't let the camera dictate the tour/excursion. Regardless, you wll NOT capture it all!!!!!!!!!!!!


Bob

Thanks Bob.... Like I said it would be great to have two separate trips... one for site seeing and one to concentrate on just taking good photos....

Originally Posted by Littlebunny

I'd tend to agree with Tom23, though it's a bitter pill to swallow in these digital days. I use 1 camera, 1 lens, and a couple different film emulsions to keep things simple. Less gear also makes you less of a target for thieves.

Anyway, everybody manages to come back with some decent pics no matter what; even the film luddites (on occasion).

Great photos.... Nice work...

Originally Posted by C220MC275

Tom 23 : welcome to AA and could not agree more !
I just spent 4 weeks in Florida and took only my Canon G12. I'm happy I did not take my Reflex.
Not only for the weight. But I can shot much faster with the G12.

Sent from my iPhone using A.Aficionado

Thanks...Since we will mostly be on a cruise I can always just leave the gear in the room if it becomes to much to carry around and just grab a P&S....

Originally Posted by MyPal

Jim... Italy is awesome for wide lenses. I would take your 14-24mm & 24-70mm. Forget about the heavy 70-200mm long throw.

There are times when you do not want your SLR like when you are photographing your dinner plate!. For me, the Canon S100 is the perfect pocket camera & has all of the familiar SLR functions.

Go with a smaller, lighter tripod if you think you will spend some evenings framing, otherwise don't weigh yourself down. I have a Gitzo GT2531EX. Even that didn't get much action.

For the day & general evening shots, your f/2 zooms will be plenty. I would not go bigger than an 80mm f/2 prime if you want to capture the natives.

Europe is about taking the wide shot.

BTW, don't forget to look up!

I think the one lens I would have left behind if I had to choose would have been the 14-24 mm but everyone seems to like this lens for Italy and I am going to bring it. I usually use this lens for inside room shots...

Thanks again...

[vintage_tube]

When is the trip? Envious.

Bob

[AudioNut]

I did most of Europe with one camera body (A D300 Nikon) and two lenses - a 16-85 and a 70-300. I had a 35 f1.8 in my suitcase "just in case" and a Canon S-95 P&S for times I didn't want to carry even the small reflex outfit.

The only thing I regretted was that I didn't have an even lighter camera body (maybe a D-5100) and I wondered if an 18-200 wouldn't have been just as good for my purposes as the two lenses I carried.

In my opinion, lighter is better!