Costa Rica trip and Upgrades? if necessary...

SunnyHours

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Hi everyone,
I'm planning a trip to Costa Rica and I obviously will be bringing my mediocre D40...*sigh*
I was wondering if I should put on hold the trip in order to get a more decent equipment first?
What I have: 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and 55-200mm f/4-5.6

I plan on shooting at semi high ISO since the tropical forest can be somewhat dark (ISO400-800-1600). However I have pretty bad results with the D40, anything over ISO400 is VERY low quality and are not the kind of souvenirs I'd like to bring home :p
I'm also on a low budget, what would you consider decent equipment to shoot in Costa Rica?
Thanks a ton!
 
Why are you going to Costa Rica?
Vacation, and you're going to shoot some photos on the side?
What will you be doing with your photos once you get back?
Trying to sell 'em? Building a portfolio? Nothing?
 
I took a trip to Costa Rica several years ago, it's a very beautiful place.

Firstly, yes...it does get very dark under the canopy of the trees. What I did, on some occasions, was to use flash (hotshoe mounted). It is asking a lot of your flash to light up animals that may be fairly far away, but it does help and it can give a little catchlight to the eyes, which can really make a shot. To that end, I read an article about shooting in the rain forest and the advice was to use a 'Better Beamer' which gives your flash extra distance/power for occasions such as these.
If all you have is your built-in flash, forget about it.

I didn't have 'fast' lenses when I went (neither do you), but having lenses with larger maximum apertures would certainly help to get faster shutter speeds without having to crank the ISO...but that will only get you so far. It's likely that turning up the ISO will be your go-to solution, so if you really are unhappy with the performance of your D40, then it might well be worth the upgrade.

Another thing to consider is water/moisture. The don't call it a rain forest for nothing. It rains a lot. Of course, I went during rainy season, so I probably got more rain than you might, but as it was the off-season, our tours were private and the drivers were free to take us wherever we pleased.
I did get caught with my camera, no camera bag and in a torrential downpour. It was during a zip-line forest canopy tour (which is why I couldn't bring my bag). My camera got soaked, even the inside of the screens fogged up. Luckily my camera continued to work after I let it dry out, but it was a little worrisome for a while. If you can afford it, look for a camera with weather sealing.
Also, I have a camera bag/backpack that has an all-weather cover, which came in handy several times. You have to be prepared for rain and you should be willing to shoot in it, otherwise you'll miss a lot of good photo opps. Make sure your camera is insured, so at least if it does crap out, you don't feel like garbage.

Another point is the heat & humidity. It can & will cause condensation. When you are in a cool air-conditioned space (hotel room), your gear will cool down, but when you take that cool gear out into the warm humid air, condensation will form on all the cool surfaces...just like it does when you are here in winter and you go from the cold outdoor air, into a warm building.
The trick is to let the gear warm up before exposing it to the warm air, but that can take a while, especially if your camera bag is padded (insulated). You can help by putting the gear in a zip-lock bag so that it is protected an can warm up faster, but realistically, you'll get some condensation anyway. I made sure to have several packets of silica gel (desiccant) in my camera bag, so that when I did put the gear back in, it might dry out a little bit. And I always opened up my bag when back in the hotel room, to allow things to dry as much as possible.

That's all I can thing of for now. Ask me later and I might think of some other tips.
 
where abouts in costa rica?... things change a lot (temps/humidity) based on where you are.... remember one thing about costa rica... it is a RAIN forest... costa rica has fairly mild humidity compared to Panama (spent a bunch of time in both this last year and lived in Panama for 6 as a kid)... but it's still very humid by pretty much all of the US/canada comparison.

so unless you are going between dec and feb expect daily rain... not a big deal if you're prepared... carry something water proof to put the camera and gear in if you get caught in the rain... I would also recommend a 2nd weather proof container with something to absorb any moisture/humidity I took a few lenses with me that are now fungus filled :-/... if I had it to do over again i'd make a storage container from some tupperware (cut foam out to fit my kit) and a spot for a beanbag full of rice or something else to absorb moisture...

i'd also make sure and bring a tripod of some sort... long exposure on a tripod = better then high noisy ISO images... if you can stand to walk around with it....

and on a side note... if you get a chance... make sure and do a zip line... it was AWESOME :) they have some of the best in the world in costa rica...
 
Eric Diller on this site went to Costa Rica and took some amazing shots.

Depending on your budget you could probably do with a D300, macro lenses and a decent telephoto.

Other than that your gears pretty good for your needs!
 
I
Another point is the heat & humidity. It can & will cause condensation. When you are in a cool air-conditioned space (hotel room), your gear will cool down, but when you take that cool gear out into the warm humid air, condensation will form on all the cool surfaces...just like it does when you are here in winter and you go from the cold outdoor air, into a warm building.

I have a terrarium pad I travel with in my bag. It gets plugged in while inside the cool A/C so the camera and lenses stay warm.

Only thing that I would take in addtion to what is being taken would be a wider lens.
 
I have a terrarium pad I travel with in my bag. It gets plugged in while inside the cool A/C so the camera and lenses stay warm.

Only thing that I would take in addtion to what is being taken would be a wider lens.

that pad sounds like a neat idea... then again I didn't have A/C while I was down that way... honestly in San Jose it's very comfy without... heck even in tallamanca (border with panama) it wasn't bad...
 
Definitely bring a macro!! You'll fall in love with the little wildlife as well as the monkeys (a camera with a good grain at ISO 2000 and higher is good for dark jungles too!). I have an 80-200mm that serves as a macro and a 105mm 2.8 macro. I used them a lot to photograph tree frogs.

Manuel Antonio Costa Rica Wedding Photography
 

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