Tag Archives: zoom

Travel Photography Lenses

February 7, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

je suis bleu — Sidewalk, graffiti, and women, virtual and real, on a Paris street. © G Dan Mitchell 2016.

Note: I originally published this article under the title, “Thinking About Travel Photography Gear.” Since I’m planning a separate article about travel photography camera options, I have renamed this article to acknowledge its focus lenses.

Recently I’ve noted people trying to determine what gear will work well for photography while traveling, and especially wondering about what lenses to take. I do a fair amount of travel photography, and I’ll going to summarize a few approaches that can work.

But first, since what follows will mostly focus on lenses, let me say a few things about cameras, while recognizing that this will be far from an in-depth consideration.

Cameras

What is “the best” travel camera? That is a tough question, and it might be better rephrased as “what is the best travel camera for me?” Is photography your main reason for traveling, do you simply want to record the experience, or something else? Are you traveling alone, with other photographers, or with others whose interest in photography doesn’t match your own? Do you prefer to travel “heavy” — multiple bags and checked luggage — or you an ultra-light traveler who prefers to stick to carry-on only, even for long trips? Do you think of yourself as a scenic photographer, a people photographer, a street photographer, or something else?

With all of these possible variations, the right answer could be anything from your smart phone camera to a large, multiple lens system with tripod, or any of a number of intermediate options.

As a photographer, I’m not ready to give up good quality equipment that allows me to shoot my preferred subjects and make large prints from the images I bring back. Yet I also prefer to travel light, going “carry-on luggage only” even for multi-week overseas trips. The best solution for me has turned out to be a 1.5x cropped sensor mirrorless body with a small selection of lenses, mostly primes sometimes augmented by a zoom.

There’s a lot more to say about camera choice, but here I”m going to focus primarily on lenses you might use with a full frame or cropped sensor system. (Watch for another article focusing on camera options.)

Lenses for Travel

Rather than trying to answer the “what lens should I bring?” question, I’ll suggest a few approaches and briefly describe some pluses and minuses of each.

One zoom lens

A single zoom lens that covers sufficient focal length range, preferably with IS and a f/2.8 aperture might be all you need. While such a lens is not small, it is quite versatile. Especially if the lens — or your camera body – has image stabilization (IS) it will work in relatively low light in many situations, and it can work for everything from casual portraits to wide-angle photographs in constrained spaces. A “mid range zoom” lens can do the trick, whether it is one of the ubiquitous “kit zooms” or a more expensive f/2.8 zoom.

Pluses

One lens stays on the body all the time.
IS helps with handheld shots in low light.
The lens covers focal lengths most often needed.
Good image quality. Weight and bulk are less of an issue if you stick on only one lens.

Minuses

These lenses are not small.
You will give up some ultra-wide and telephoto options.
A big lens can make you look like a “photo tourist.”
Largest apertures not as big as you could get from primes.
No backup lens if this lens has a problem.
If you will only use one lens, you could get a smaller camera with a built-in zoom

Woman, Smoking Cyclist — A woman walks into an alley past a smoking bicyclist, Florence/Firenze, Italy

One zoom lens with large focal length range

Some zoom lenses cover a very large focal length range (18-300mm!) with variable aperture. As with the first option, this provides a great deal of versatility for folks who want a larger selection of focal lengths, but who don’t want to mess with multiple lenses.

Pluses

One lens stays on the body the entire time.
Decent (but probably not stellar) IQ.
Excellent focal length coverage for diverse subjects.

Minuses

Not the best lenses in optical terms, though may be good enough for many purposes.
Lenses can be relatively large.
Poor low light options. (Use flash?)
Big lens can make you look like a “photo tourist.”
No backup lens if your lens has a problem.

A single prime

Before the era of zoom lenses, it was not unusual for photographers to head out with only a single prime lens with a decently large aperture. (This could be an interchangeable lens camera with a single prime or a rangefinder style camera with a fixed focal length built-in lens.)

Pluses

The ultimate in simplicity and light weight.
Excellent image quality.
Good low light coverage with a large aperture.
You may look less like a tourist.

Minuses

No focal length flexibility. (Though some systems allow add on telephoto and wide angle converters.)
No backup lens if your lens has a problem.

Bubble Man — A man making soap bubbles for the crowd in London

A few primes

Pluses

Can be small and light.
Good low light coverage.
Excellent image quality.
You may look less like a tourist.

Minuses

A few small primes may add up to the weight/bulk of one zoom.
Need to switch lenses more often.
Less focal length flexibility than a zoom.

Multiple zooms

Pluses

Lots of flexibility.
Good zooms provide excellent image quality.

Minuses

System quickly balloons in size and weight.
Probably need speciality photographic bag or backpack.
You not only look like a tourist… you look like a tourist carrying lots of expensive stuff, which is not always ideal.

Zoom(s) augmented by a large aperture prime

One zoom can cover ranges where flexibility is desired, and a smaller prime can provide a larger aperture option.

Pluses

You get the flexibility of a zoom.
You get the large aperture of a prime.
Fine image quality.

Minuses

Do you take a prime in the focal length range of your zoom (for low light) or a different range (covering different uses.)?
Multiple lenses to juggle.
Weight and bulk increase a bit.

The Karl Theodor Bridge, the old bridge, the Heiliggeistekirche, and portions of Altstadt-Heidelberg, Germany

Primes augmented by (most likely one) zoom.

For example, take primes for core use, but add a zoom telephoto.

Pluses

Good image quality.
Small and light system with primes for most photography.
You look less like a tourist when using the primes.
Focal length flexibility in range covered by the zoom.

Minuses

Not as small and light as primes-only system.
The not-a-tourist impression is lost when you attach that zoom!

The Answer

I know you’d like The Best Answer… but there isn’t one! No solution is perfect, and each photographer will likely balance the pluses and minuses in a different way.

What I do

Even though I use a full frame Canon DSLR system for most of my non-travel photography, these days I always rely on a smaller mirrorless system for my travel and street photography. This system mostly is built around primes of moderately wide to moderately long focal lengths, with lenses that are fairly small. In some cases I augment this with a single longer focal length zoom. The entire kit, plus my small laptop and a few other items, fits into a medium-size messenger bag that goes under the seat on flights.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Commentary

Fujifilm GFX and Canon 5DsR part II

January 19, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Earlier I shared the beginning of an article that compares the Fujifilm GFX 50S and the Canon 5DsR, two cameras with different formats but approximately the same sensor resolution. That article (“Fujifilm GFX and Canon 5DsR” wasn’t complete … and now I’m back with one more point of reference.

When it comes to resolution, making judgments based on screen images has its limits. For example, 100% magnification crops “show” you things that won’t be visible even in a very large print, and in many cases you must interpret what you see in the screen image in order to speculate about what the print will look like. As we say, “The proof is in the print.”

With that in mind, I have prepared some files that may be useful for comparing print resolution from Fujifilm GFX 50S and the Canon 5DsR. These files each hold three “test strips” labeled A, B, and C. The files have been formatted for producing prints with a print area of 10″ wide and 6″ tall (use letter-size paper) when printed at a resolution of 360. They are sRGB color files in the highest quality (Photoshop: 12) jpg format.

There are four files. Let’s call them:

(Click on the links to see and download the files.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: When first posted, these links went to downsized files rather than the full size print-ready files. This was corrected on 1/21/18. The print areas of these files should be 3600 pixels on the long side, for printing 10″ long at 360 ppi.

Viewing them on screen is not the object here — in fact, for reasons I won’t go into here, trying to evaluate that way is of very limited value and may mislead you. (For example, the files have been optimized for print in ways that may make them look poor on screen at 100% magnification.)

You will need to print.

Since there are four samples, you’ll need to make four letter-size prints. The correct settings will probably be entered automatically, but check that the print area is 10″ wide and 6″ tall and that the resolution is set to 360. As you download and print the files you may wish to make a note on each (in pencil or ink) indicating which file it is — sample 1, sample 2, sample 3, and sample 4.

Observe each print carefully. Note anything you can see related to the resolution of each printed strip A, B, and C. (Note that this is only a resolution test — don’t worry about things like image size, brightness, color, and so forth.)

In order to avoid confirmation bias I’m not going to reveal anything else about the files at this time. Once a few people (or a lot of people?) have weighed in with their observations — please use the comments below — I’ll reveal more important information about what you are looking at.

Equipment, Reviews, Tests

A Small Test: Fujifilm X-Pro2 Mirrorless and Active Subjects

July 10, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I want to share the results of a little informal test I did today using my Fujifilm X-Pro2 (B&H | Adorama) mirrorless interchangeable lens camera and a Fujifilm zoom lens to photograph an active subject. First, here is an unremarkable photograph, aside from the fact that I would probably not have used my previous mirrorless camera to photograph this subject.

Fujifilm X-Pro2, ISO 400, f/8, 50-140mm lens at 140mm, handheld

Read on to find out why I photographed this and what I learned from it.

Background

I first used a mirrorless digital camera way back before the 21st century began — before there were DSLRs there were a number of early digital cameras, and my first was an Apple QuickTake! I used several others from a range of manufacturers before I acquired my first DSLR in about 2003.

As a group, mirrorless cameras have had some problems. One of the most glaring has long been slow autofocus (AF) speeds. Those very early cameras were often just plain awful in this regard, but they got better over the years.

Until recently I used a Fujifilm X-E1 mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, and it was my primary camera for travel and street photography for about 3 1/2 years. Its AF was fine for most things, but I also had to learn to adapt to slow AF in low light and with low contrast subjects — and the issue was more acute with some lenses than with others. For this reason — and a few others, including electronic viewfinder (EVF) display latency — I would never have thought to use that camera for photograph active subjects. Continue reading A Small Test: Fujifilm X-Pro2 Mirrorless and Active Subjects →

Deals and Sales

Reminder: Fujifilm X-Series Discounts

November 27, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I recently posted an article about the Fujifilm X-Series camera system that included a list of some impressive price reductions that are part of a current Fujifilm promotion. These prices are still available, making this a great time to acquire a Fujifilm X-Series camera or lenses. Here is the list once again.

X-Pro1: Fujifilm’s innovative interchangeable lens camera combining an optical rangefinder design with an electronic viewfinder.

X-Pro1 + 23mm + 27mm (save $900)

X-T1: Fujifilm’s flagship interchangeable lens mirrorless camera

X100T: Fujifilm’s compact rangefinder fixed lens camera. Street photographer’s love it.

X100T (save $200)

X-T10: A less expensive but very capable camera modeled on the X-T1.

X-E2: A very compact interchangeable lens mirrorless camera. (I use the X-E1, the predecessor of this model.)

X-30: A very compact mirrorless camera with a smaller sensor and a zoom lens.

X30 (save $100)

Fujifilm lenses for X Series interchangeable lens cameras

Summary: Based on my own experience with a number of the lenses and confirmed by many other reports, the Fujifilm lenses provide first-rate optical performance. The range from very small prime lenses up to large aperture zooms that are competitive with the best from the DSLR manufacturers. I have marked lenses that I own and use with asterisks — *.

This list was compiled carefully, but errors could occur, so verify all prices and other information directly with the linked vendor(s).

Taking Stock of the Fujifilm X-E1, X-E2, S-T1 Mirrorless Cameras — My article with more information about the X-trans cameras from Fujifilm.

Links go to site-affiliate B&H Photo, and purchases through these links return a small percentage of the sale price to support this website. Your price will be the same as if you clicked directly on the vendors own links. Thanks for your support!

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: zoom