Necessary equipment for upcoming trip?

[syphlix]

i'm not sure exactly what wide lens to recommend cuz i don't use nikon...

i suggested wide cuz recently i went to europe... only brought my 50mm... and constantly wished i had a wide zoom... (and never really had any times when i wanted to be "closer" but couldn't just walk closer... know what i mean?)

 

[gentry1242]

Whats your price range for that tripod 300, 800?

I would prefer a light weight tripod that doesn't tempt me to leave it at home. I was looking at the Manfrotto 785B. It seemed to be compact relatively sturdy and easy light enough to carry around. Is that a descent model?

 

[gentry1242]

Whats your price range for that tripod 300, 800?

I am not sure on the budget. I was planning on just using walls or benches to brace myself. I do no want something that is cumbersome. If I had to guess, I would rather spend more $ on glass, so less expensive is probably better for me.

Here are some of the shots I took with my Sigma 10-20 lens:
1. This was 11mm, 1 second, ISO 400. St. Mark's Basilica in Venice.

2. Leaving the Vatican Museum (10mm, 1/4 sec., ISO 100)

3. Colosseum (10mm, 0.8 sec, ISO 100). My fee were about 15 feet from the base of the Colosseum. I was laying on my back shooting up.

4. Pantheon in Rome (10mm, 2 seconds, ISO 100)

With a 70-300 lens these shots would have been impossible.

Those are some amazing shots. The reason I had been leaning toward the 70-300 is because of my New York trip. When shooting the statue of liberty and other shots I often found that the subject did not fill the frame and I was unable to get closer. I was imagining myself on top of the Swiss alps shooting down on a town or shooting down from a cliff overlooking ruins. Maybe I have a misguided view of the environment in Europe.

Is a 10-20 that much different than shooting at the 18 setting? I was thinking about taking 3-4 photos and fusing them together to make a panoramic style banner photo. Would that work as well as a wide angle lens? Will a wide angle lens distort the image?

 

[decado]

Whats your price range for that tripod 300, 800?

I would prefer a light weight tripod that doesn't tempt me to leave it at home. I was looking at the Manfrotto 785B. It seemed to be compact relatively sturdy and easy light enough to carry around. Is that a descent model?

I really like the 7322YB-BB for a cheap lightweight tripod, the ball head is really nice (pan heads are extremely annoying and don't allow a lot of angles), but if you have more money I'd get something else by manfrotto with a ball head.

 

[gentry1242]

i'm not sure exactly what wide lens to recommend cuz i don't use nikon...

i suggested wide cuz recently i went to europe... only brought my 50mm... and constantly wished i had a wide zoom... (and never really had any times when i wanted to be "closer" but couldn't just walk closer... know what i mean?)

Aside from the stairwell picture above, I would think the 18mm setting would be adequate for most "wider angle" shots. Any advice on this?

 

[AUZambo]

i'm not sure exactly what wide lens to recommend cuz i don't use nikon...

i suggested wide cuz recently i went to europe... only brought my 50mm... and constantly wished i had a wide zoom... (and never really had any times when i wanted to be "closer" but couldn't just walk closer... know what i mean?)

Aside from the stairwell picture above, I would think the 18mm setting would be adequate for most "wider angle" shots. Any advice on this?

Yeah...at the time of that trip the 10-20 was new and I was having lots of fun playing with it.

I would think 18mm would be sufficient unless you're shooting with a 4/3 system.

 

[KmH]

An 8 GB card will hold a bit 600+ RAW images made with a D90. If you're shooting JPEG (Large, Fine) make that 2500+ images.

You risk losing that many of your nearly irreplaceable vacation images in one fell swoop if a card becomes corrupted!

I would recommend a bunch of 2 GB cards and a portable backup storage device you can download each days take to.

A 2 GB card will still store 150 or so RAW images and 600 or so JPEGs (Large, Fine).

 

[icassell]

An 8 GB card will hold a bit 600+ RAW images made with a D90. If you're shooting JPEG (Large, Fine) make that 2500+ images.

You risk losing that many of your nearly irreplaceable vacation images in one fell swoop if a card becomes corrupted!

I would recommend a bunch of 2 GB cards and a portable backup storage device you can download each days take to.

A 2 GB card will still store 150 or so RAW images and 600 or so JPEGs (Large, Fine).

I agree. I have a device by Wolverine. It is dog-slow, but I set it going in the evening to hold the day's work. There are faster ones made now (mine is several years old).

This is the one I have: http://secure.serverlab.net/shop/me...7080&Category_Code=FlashPac&Store_Code=T00107


These are more current: http://www.wolverinedata.com/index.php/site/quicklinks/C13/

 

[gentry1242]

i'm not sure exactly what wide lens to recommend cuz i don't use nikon...

i suggested wide cuz recently i went to europe... only brought my 50mm... and constantly wished i had a wide zoom... (and never really had any times when i wanted to be "closer" but couldn't just walk closer... know what i mean?)

Aside from the stairwell picture above, I would think the 18mm setting would be adequate for most "wider angle" shots. Any advice on this?

Yeah...at the time of that trip the 10-20 was new and I was having lots of fun playing with it.

I would think 18mm would be sufficient unless you're shooting with a 4/3 system.

I am not quite sure what a 4/3 system is.

 

[gentry1242]

An 8 GB card will hold a bit 600+ RAW images made with a D90. If you're shooting JPEG (Large, Fine) make that 2500+ images.

You risk losing that many of your nearly irreplaceable vacation images in one fell swoop if a card becomes corrupted!

I would recommend a bunch of 2 GB cards and a portable backup storage device you can download each days take to.

A 2 GB card will still store 150 or so RAW images and 600 or so JPEGs (Large, Fine).

I like that idea. I was just not looking forward to lugging my laptop around, so this may be a good alternative.

 

[AUZambo]

Aside from the stairwell picture above, I would think the 18mm setting would be adequate for most "wider angle" shots. Any advice on this?

Yeah...at the time of that trip the 10-20 was new and I was having lots of fun playing with it.

I would think 18mm would be sufficient unless you're shooting with a 4/3 system.

I am not quite sure what a 4/3 system is.

There are three primary types of sensors in DSLRs. Full Frames (in the professional models) that are the exact same size as a frame in 35mm film, Then there's the 1.5x crop factor found in most DSLRs (Nikon D300 and lower, Canon 5D and lower, Sony A700 and lower), and one that's little smaller called the four-thirds system (used in some Olympus DSLRs).

The full frame models don't crop the image at all.

The 1.5x sensors are smaller than the full frame, so it takes the image that's recorded on the smaller sensor and blows it up create the full image. This essentially zooms in by a factor of 1.5x, which means a shot captured with an 18mm lens on these cameras is the same as using a 27mm lens on a full frame.

The four-thirds sensor is even smaller and comes with a 2x crop factor. So using an 18mm lens on one of these cameras is like using a 36mm lens with a full frams or film SLR. So if you're using a four-thirds system it's hard to get really wide-angle shots because of the defacto zoom on all the lenses.

 

[KmH]

.......The 1.5x sensors are smaller than the full frame, so it takes the image that's recorded on the smaller sensor and blows it up create the full image. This essentially zooms in by a factor of 1.5x, which means a shot captured with an 18mm lens on these cameras is the same as using a 27mm lens on a full frame.

The four-thirds sensor is even smaller and comes with a 2x crop factor. So using an 18mm lens on one of these cameras is like using a 36mm lens with a full frams or film SLR.

"Blows it up" is not quite correct but is on the right line of reasoning.

The smaller sensor size gives an equivelent Field-OF-View (FOV) of a full size sensor. A 50mm lens on a 1.5x crop body gives the same FOV as a 75 mm lens would on a full frame sensored camera. A 50mm on a 1.6x crop sensor yields an FOV equal to an 80mm lens on FF, and the 2x crop of the 4/3 yields an FOV equal to a 100mm lens on a ff body.

Another consideration with the 4/3 sensor is that it's much closer to being square, which can cause problems when you want to print.

Most DSLR's have a 3:2 aspect ratio and the 4/3 is, well a 4:3 aspect ratio which means you have to crop more to print standard sizes.

 

[Eco]

I would suggest;
1. An extra battery! Maybe two if you have some extra money sitting around.
2. A remote, the Nikon wireless ones are less than $20 if you shop around.
3. A sturdy lightweight tripod that will fit in you luggage. Don't be tempted by the el-cheapos at Best Buy they are not sturdy enough.
4. Some sort of waterproof cover for your camera bag, rain and $2000 worth of camera stuff don't get along really well.
5. Good filters (stay away from Best Buy).
6. Tons of SD cards, stick with 2-4 GB cards.
7. Your laptop so you can review your pictures in the evenings and make note of of what you should do better the next day.
8. A big yellow sticky note reminding you to check your glass and filters for dust or other nasty stuff so you don't ruin many shots.

9. A nice padded camera strap if you are still using the one that came with your camera.

10. Keep track of all of your serial numbers in case your camera is stolen.

While I keep a 70-300 in my backpack/camera bag and don't mind the extra weight I would not suggest bringing one in a city unless the weight does not bother you. In my opinion you are more apt to miss out on some nice closer shots (people & such) when you rush to switch glass.

One more thing, you can rent a video for a week (I think) on Amazon.com on how to use your D90. I did it since I was too lazy to read the owners manual