Equipment for travel/vacationphotos

[piglet]

Hi all,
I just found this site and hope some of you can give me som needed imput.
I am an amatour photographer, but enjoy taking pictures a lot. Does also enter some contests.

I currently own a 450D and the prefered lens is a 70-200mm 4.5-5.6. Yesterday I shot my nieces first Rytmic Gymnastic competition and the outcome was rather poor. I think I neeed to upgrade so I can shoot better photos of this, although my main interest is probably taking photos when on vacation.

I´ve been looking at the Canon Zoom EF 70-200 mm 2.8 IS II USM online and it looks really good, but from what I read it´s plain out silly to combine it with the camera I have? Do I also need a new body?

What SLR body and lense do you recommend for travelling (having in mind I´m a girl who gets tired of too heavy stuff) + the perfect small compact for when I don´t feel like taking the SLR with me. I´m so lost in the jungle of choices!!

 

[Nick Gombinsky]

I agree with scrappydog, and would add some more suggestions for travel:

- Olympus XZ-1
- Fujifilm X10
- your 450D with Canon's 17-55mm IS USM, or the Tamron 17-50mm non-VC (that is, if you're not backpacking. If you are, it will still be heavy and annoying)

If you want a nice tele but a light one (the 70-200mm 2.8 II is really heavy), I'd recommend the 70-200 f4 IS.

Cheers,
Nick

 

[JR]

For travelling, have you considered a totally different approach and maybe get a G1X? I know it is more of a P&S solution versus a DSLR solution but if you are restricted on weight, it might be worth a look.

Jacques

 

[Z]

I´ve been looking at the Canon Zoom EF 70-200 mm 2.8 IS II USM online and it looks really good, but from what I read it´s plain out silly to combine it with the camera I have? Do I also need a new body?

As someone who has combined a 70-200 f/2.8 IS II with a 450D, I can confirm that it feels a bit silly! But that's mainly due to the odd weight/size balance - you'll still get superb results with your photos from this lens with the 450D.

I think it might be worth quickly brushing over why you got such bad results when shooting rhythmic gymnastics with that lens/camera combo, if you aren't already aware. Firstly, I'll assume that most of your shots were a) out of focus and b) blurred due to motion. I'll deal with the limitations of the camera and the lens (for this application) seperately:

Camera
[list type=decimal]
[*]The 450D has poor AI Servo focus - this means it struggles to keep the lens focused on moving subjects
[*]Slow burst rate (as mentioned by scrappydog); if you're firing off 3 frames per second you're less likely to get the shot than if you're firing 8
[*]1600 maximum ISO - if you're trying to push your ISO higher to get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze action, you'll hit the cap at a rather meager (and noisy) ISO 1600
[/list]

Lens - assuming 70-200 is the right focal length; this is really your call
[list type=decimal]
[*]f/4.5-5.6 means that at 70mm, the maximum aperture is f/4.5 and at 200mm the maximum aperture is f/5.6 - neither of these are normally considered fast enough for sports, i.e. they don't let enough light in. I consider f/2.8 to be a minimum for sports, and for some indoor sports even this is not enough. A wider aperture also helps to blur the background and give separation to your subject.
[*]... okay maybe that's the only one. Image Stabilization doesn't really help for sports because you're already using shutter speeds that should be fast enough to freeze motion (upwards of 1/500sec, preferably 1/1000sec). One thing it is useful for is panning.
[/list]

Flash can also be really helpful for freezing motion, although it's generally not preferred because it's distracting and it prevents you from using high burst rates. Here's an example of a gymnastics photo I took with flash:

(Canon 7D + 17-55 f/2.8 IS)

Anyhow... to get back to your original question, which wasn't really about sports shooting - The 450D is a perfectly acceptable camera for travel as long as you aren't expecting to run into any scenarios demanding high burst rates, AI Servo focus tracking or high ISO. I really like the 450D + 50mm 1.4 (1.8 if you're on a budget) as a compact travel kit that fits my style of photography.

EDIT: My mistake, that photo was actually taken with the EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS.

 

[katwil]

I have a 600D/ T3i, and would agree that the weight is a bit unbalanced with some of my larger lenses. In order to balance the weight better, and give the kit a more normal look I added a battery grip to my 600D. The extra battery will also eliminate the need to take your battery charger on shorter trips as you should be able to get almost twice as many shots as would be possible with a single battery. The 450D combined with either of the f/2.8L 70-200mm lenses should do fine with proper technique and some practice.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Hi all,
I just found this site and hope some of you can give me som needed imput.
I am an amatour photographer, but enjoy taking pictures a lot. Does also enter some contests.

I currently own a 450D and the prefered lens is a 70-200mm 4.5-5.6. Yesterday I shot my nieces first Rytmic Gymnastic competition and the outcome was rather poor. I think I neeed to upgrade so I can shoot better photos of this, although my main interest is probably taking photos when on vacation.

I´ve been looking at the Canon Zoom EF 70-200 mm 2.8 IS II USM online and it looks really good, but from what I read it´s plain out silly to combine it with the camera I have? Do I also need a new body?

What SLR body and lense do you recommend for travelling (having in mind I´m a girl who gets tired of too heavy stuff) + the perfect small compact for when I don´t feel like taking the SLR with me. I´m so lost in the jungle of choices!!

Are we to presume that low light required a slow shutter speed and movement blur ruined the image? If you cannot use a external flash that like a 580 EX II, you will need a wide aperture lens. Likely sometying like a 85mm f/1.8 or 135mm f/2. Maybe both flash and lens.

You do need to set a high ISO, and use the Tv function to force a fast shutter speed, likely at least 1/320 to 1/1000, just as fast as you can get.

There are no point and shoot cameras with fast telephoto lenses, they would not be as good as what you have.

You can rent a fast prime lens for a few dollars to see if you like it. A 85mm f/1.8 is not a big heavy lens, and is relatively inexpensive. You do not need a new camera body. A 100mm f/2 is also a possibility. Longer telephoto lenses with a wide aperture tend to go up in price quite rapidly.


I took images at our minimally lit high school play last week, I used my 135mm L and 85mm f/1.8 at ISO 3200 and even ISO 6400.

This image was at ISO 3200, f:/2, and 1/125. It needed a faster shutter speed to freeze the dancers. Capuring movement in low light is one thing where a fast lens and high ISO is needed. Flash not allowed for these images.