Camera Lens

[TheHoneymooners]

I know there are a few shutterbugs on this forum so here is my question. I have two lens's for my Minolta Film SLR. I am bringing both of them. Heavy I know, But I really want to capture this trip.
Anyway, I have a regular lens, and a zoom lens. Which should I walk around with? The regular lens is great for the scenic shots, while the zoom is a MUST for wildlife.
I was going to walk around with the zoom on so I can pull it out and snap shots of whatever I might see on the go, then if I see a view that I must capture I can always switch lenses.

What do you guys think?

Thanks for the input. I will be there with my husband 8/17 - 8/25. One more week! yay!

[Mandolynn]

When I had two lenses, I always hiked with the zoom lens on since I would want to get as close to wildlife as possible and there wouldn't usually be time to fuss with changing the lens. Scenery views aren't going anywhere, so yeah, I would switch to capture the sunset or sweeping view from the top of the ridge.

Of course I guess it depends on how big your big lens is. I never had anything bigger than a 300mm to work with, so it might change things if you have something bigger. Eventually I got a Tamron 28-300mm lens so I didn't have to switch back and forth anymore and that was sweet. But it died on Isle Royale from two accidents that bracketed the same trip. On the first day, my friend Alan and I saw a wolf and we were so excited that I dropped my camera on a rock, lens-first. The lens jammed in the fully-extended position so the lens was stuck in fully extended zoom for the whole trip. It was a weird way to photograph a whole vacation, with everything close-up! Then, on the last day of the same trip, I fell out of a motorboat into Rock Harbor and drowned my camera in a foot or two of water. The camera was salvaged, but the lens was a lost cause.

That left me with only a 28-105mm functional lens. I had that with me this year when I fell face-first on the Scoville Trail; I had the Minolta camera in my right hand and my Olympus digital in my right-hand pocket. I busted the digital LCD and the Minolta flew up, hit me in the face, and then sailed on down the trail where it smashed onto some rocks. The film door flew open and the impact bent the hinges so now the film door won't shut completely. I had a bruise on my thigh the exact shape of the digital camera and a bruise on my cheek where the Minolta smacked me. Ouch on several counts. Hopefully I've used up all the bad camera luck that there is on the island so everyone else should be safe for the rest of the year.

[Ingo]

Honeymooner, I agree with keeping the zoom on while hiking, for all the same reasons. I have a compact with a 12x zoom, so it's not a big issue with me. I also carry a wide angle conversion lense that screws on, but I leave that off unless I want it.
Mandolynn, I hope you've used up all of YOUR bad camera luck.

[Mandolynn]

Yeah, you know, I don't really have a reputation as a klutz, but I sure have taken some tumbles on IR. I think maybe it's because I'm so busy looking around to see moose that I forget to look down at my feet once in a while.

But actually, the real reason I fell this year was that I came to the island without a hiking stick. Never again. Even though I wasn't doing any back country hiking, even just strolling around Rock Harbor and Tobin Harbor, I need a stick to help me keep my footing. Especially if you're doing what I was, which was carrying my camera at the ready. Since I have to fly into Houghton in order to get to the island, I can't bring my old reliable one-piece hiking stick (it's a WEAPON, ya know, might enable me to hijack the plane and divert it to Duluth.) In the old days you did have the option of checking it, but there's no telling what they would charge me to do that now (more than my brother paid for the stick when he bought it for me for Christmas 10 years ago, I'm sure.) So in years past I had carried along a telescoping stick that I could disassemble and fit in my packed luggage. But it broke when I tried to reassemble it when I got home last year, and I had forgotten that until it was too late to get one on this end of my trip. I meant to get one in Houghton before getting on the boat, but once I arrived I got distracted and didn't do it. I looked for one on the island, but the only ones they had at the Camp Store in RH were all one piece, so I passed because I wouldn't have been able to take it home on the plane. But it would have been worth that $18 to have saved my cameras, even if I just threw the stick away at the end of my stay. So I definitely learned my lesson there.

[Tom]

Ditto on the above. Keep the tele mounted, since the wildlife is the stuff that's going to get away. Scenic shots you'll have time to swap lenses and reframe the shot.
Also, if you haven't already, but the cheap "UV" filters for your lenses. They should be optically clear (not darkening, like a ND filter or anything) and primarily serve as a nice cheap "shield" for the front of your lens should you drop it or bump it against something. Better a cheap filter than the front optics.
On the filter note, if you're not shooting with a circle polarizer, check that out too.. A miracle filter that can really punch out the colors...

[TheHoneymooners]

Mandolyn,
thanks for all the advice, now I am thinking I need a walking stick....yikes... One of those with a built in unipod? (tripod with one leg?) would be nice. I really do hope you have used up all the bad camera luck on the island though. I would be heartbroken if anything happened to my camera. Although, it would give me an excuse to HAVE to get a new digi SLR....My husband is carrying a small digital and I am carring my camera in a case at my hip. So I think they should be safe...hopefully.

Tom,
Check on the UV filters, I love the way the pictures look soo much better with them, and the extra lens protection is a plus as well. I should probably get a couple more before I go. Any idea who sells them?
Not sure what a circle polarizer is? I will google it now though. haha!

Thanks for the comments everyone! Love this forum....

[johnhens]

When I carried my SLR, I would take a zoom 200mm lens.
I now take a Panasonic Super Zoom and a small Olympus water proof Point and Shoot

[Tom]

You can probably get simple UV filters from just about any 'camera' store; you just need to buy them in the diameter of your lens. (58mm, 72, etc.)
Online certainly B&HPhoto, Abes of Maine, etc.

A circle polarizer is magic little filter. You install it on the lens, and the outer right adjusts the polarization angle. So, while looking through the viewfinder, you slowly twist the ring, and at the point you've filtered out the random light, you'll see the colors become deep and rich and the sky a deep shade of blue. By far one of the easiest tools to improve your photos..

[DonNewcomb]

The more expensive circular polarizer is only needed with auto-focus cameras because the linear polarizers interact with the auto-focus electronics. There's a small discussion about this on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_p ... #Polarizer

What the polarizer does for color photography is indeed magic and it can't be replicated by software. I wish I could fit one on my little point-and-shoot. On the down side the shot takes longer because you must rotate the polarizer.