3 week trip to Finland & Germany, what lenses to take?

Mar 20, 2014
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Hello CR,

I'm finally taking some paternity leave for our twins (8mo) and going to visit Finland/Germany to see the extended family. Since our bags are already pretty full, I'm thinking hard about what lenses to take. My now only body is a 5D3.

Here is what I have:
24-105L
50/1.4
lens-baby 50
100/2.8 macro (non-L)
70-200/2.8 IS USM II
28-135 IS USM (haven't gotten around to selling)
70-300 (non-L, haven't gotten around to selling)

I think I'm sold on taking the 24-105 and 50/1.4, but I'm really thinking hard about the 70-200/2.8... any thoughts or advice? Also, would you take gear insurance for a trip like this?
 
Only taking the 24-105 and the 50 f/1.4 sounds like a good idea. Traveling with kids can be taxing enough without having to worry about additional gear. It might not hurt to ask your relatives whether there are any camera shops that rent lenses while you're there just in case you run into a situation that you'd like a longer lens.

My gear is covered by a rider on my homeowner's policy. It'd be a good idea to look into it before traveling.
 
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Thank you Random Orbits. I hadn't considered renting while there, that's a great point. I've heard bad things about having a rider. Taking a claim on it can mean that you lose the discount of staying claim-free on the main policy. Either way, I'll look into it.

Thanks!
 
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2 weeks ago, I made a cruise in the Baltic Sea. We visited waremunde, Tallinn, st Peeters bourgh, Helsinki, Oslo and kopenhagen. I only took my 5d3 body with me because I had to fly from Belgium to Denmark and my hand luggage should be lower then 12 kg. for lenses I took the 17-40, 24-105, 70-200, extenders, and the 50 1,4. With 2 bodies I would only use 17-40 and 70-200. Also for me it was hard to choose for the lenses I needed. I would for sure take the 50 1,4 as this is a great lens inside buildings where no flash is allowed. If I could take only 2 lenses for the weight it would be the 50 and the 24-105 without any doubt. Changing lenses is not that practical and for sure not with your twin.

I always like to shoot with the 70-200 and I never mind the weight of that lens but that's a personal opinion. I took about 2100 photos during that trip as follow:
17-40: 280
24-105: 1110
50: 60
70-200: 670

I would only add the 70-200 to your travel kit if the weight is no further issue, and the family is used to changing lenses
 
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Another vote for just the 24/105 and 50 combination. Very few attractions in Europe that would require
longer focal lengths unless you're just too tired to move in (or out). It's a vacation, not a photo assignment,
so place a premium on portability and weight.
 
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Personally, I'd run with the 24-105 and borrow a 16-35 - I use my ultrawide lots when in London and other European cities, if I was to cull weight, I'd lose the reach, unless you plan specifically on any task that specifically calls for longer reach - birding/airshows but given your lenses, I'm suspecting you don't go long often.

So, 24-105, plus borrow a 16-35
 
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zedgerman said:
Thank you Random Orbits. I hadn't considered renting while there, that's a great point. I've heard bad things about having a rider. Taking a claim on it can mean that you lose the discount of staying claim-free on the main policy. Either way, I'll look into it.

Thanks!

At least in Finland, rental services are unfortunately practically non-existent, at least for Canon. There is one shop that has reasonable selection of Nikon gear as they are are Nikon partners, but other than that it's just some random guys renting their gear, so I wouldn't count on that option.
 
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Hi there! First of all, last three weeks have been pretty warm here in Finland. Temperatures have gone up to +32 C on day time in shadow, making this - at the moment - hotter than Germany. Next week though, major rain is expected in the beginning of the week (28th, 29th) so I can't just yet tell how it will continue. Be advised that this is the major summer vacation month generally in Fennoscandia.

So, what do you expect to do around here? In Germany, I believe that will be more about sights and relatives, so I guess 28-135 or 24-105 would work best. Here it's a bit different. Since I don't know where your relatives spent their summer time (could be a summer cottage or a city dwelling), this may affect your lens choice. Sun sets around 23.20, and will rise around 3.30 in the morning in my latitude. This means you don't practically need large aperture lenses for getting more light in July unless you go to dark places like house interiors. And also that the moment of golden light will last considerably longer. Typically, it tends to be not possible to see stars until September.

Staying in a summer cottage and general waterscape around it may push your choice of focal length towards the extremes. 28 or 24 should do fine for wide-angles, but you'll be lacking there if the longest focal is 105 mm when photographing sunsets as occasionally longer telephotos work better there. However, I think that the 24-105 itself should work pretty nicely for almost anything if you absolutely want to carry all-in-one package.

Personally, if the weather remains as it is now, I'd seriously consider taking a point and shoot. Even carrying a 5D and the small EF 50/1.4 sounds like an annoyance in +30C to me so if I had to take a 5D, I'd go with a 50 mm prime. But that's simply because of the weight and temperature, but that's me. If the temperature drops to +22C, then I'd have no qualms of taking another lens with me. When I was in Canary Islands a couple of years ago (in November), a combo of 28/1.8 and 85/1.8 worked well, though even those two felt heavy after carrying them the whole day in a camera bag dangling from the back of the neck.

Traveller Gear insurance is mainly needed for the possible damage that you'll encounter in the luggage handling. Other than that, there are practically no street pick-pockets and I have never heard of anything being stolen from a hotel room here. Of course, you shouldn't leave the camera unattended to a bar table, or leave anything of value to a traveller's hostel where rooms are shared, but hotels are a different game. In Germany, it's pretty much the same.
 
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Lens Rental in Germany is possible, in Hamburg for Example.

If you visit Lübeck and/or Travemünde i could help with my Lenses 8) but Lübeck isn´t that pretty
actually ( Churches inside Scaffold´s particually ) .

Weather warm and humid - on the Coast it is much nicer.

Bernd
 
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Can't understand that anyone could want to go on such a trip with nothing longer than 105 mm. If the 2,8 70-200 is too heavy for you, buy a used 2.8 200 L and you're at half the weight. I'd personally add a Kenko MC Pro 300 DGX 1.4 x and skip the 50 mm. And I wouldn't insure the gear, I'd rather see to it that I have it with me all the time.
 
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It really depends on what type of places you are going. If you plan to be in cities only, the 24-105 will cover most of your day shooting with the 50 for dusk shooting and you may even consider leaving the 70-200 home. If you plan to be in nature as well, you will probably enjoy your 70-200 and 100 macro as well.

I agree the 70-200 is a heavy lens when lugging it along the whole day in a city. I am also not always comfortable using it in a city, because it draws some attention. In cities, i therefore often prefer to take the 135L (and a 1.4). I would definately recommend to still bring the 70-200 (and the 100 macro) with you. You can always leave it in the house/car when walking through town, so you do not need to carry it every day the whole day. For this reason I am very happy with my LowePro S&F lens cases; your bags scale with what you like to bring along on a particular occasion.
 
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Additionally, Finnish cities have great support for bicycle travel, and that's actually quite handy and nice transportation method in the summer time - a bunch of people prefer it over cars and public transportation. If you think of doing that, you'll need to consider reducing the bag weight as much as you can.

Which is why I thought it would be better to know what are you planning to do?
 
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