[Solved] Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

[Julie G.]

Hi,

I am planing on taking a trip to Jotunheimen, Norway in August, might be going alone too, and I am considering what gear to bring/buy.

I have:
Canon 5D Mark III with a Black Rapid Strap
Sigma 35mm Art
Canon 70-200 F4L IS
NiftyFifty
Extra memory card and battery (1 extra?) + a tripod

Anyone have any experience with using the Sigma 35mm Art for mountain landscapes? I love the lens, but is it wide enough? I'm entertaining the idea of getting a wider lens (wide angle or fisheye), not too expensive though. I might get a CP filter too. Any other things that's worth considering?

Julie

 

[msm]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

Have been 3 times in Jotunheimen after I got interested in photography, first was with 40mm + 70-200mm, second and third with 24-70 mm + 70-200mm. All three times I would at times wish for something wider.

I think the new 16-35mm F4 IS will be nice there, pretty sure I will bring mine if I go back this year. You can of course do well with the 35mm if you stitch some panoramas when you want a wider view.

 

[Julie G.]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

Have been 3 times in Jotunheimen after I got interested in photography, first was with 40mm + 70-200mm, second and third with 24-70 mm + 70-200mm. All three times I would at times wish for something wider.

I think the new 16-35mm F4 IS will be nice there, pretty sure I will bring mine if I go back this year. You can of course do well with the 35mm if you stitch some panoramas when you want a wider view.

Thanks for the reply. I might go for the 17-40 instead to save some money, but I am wondering if a fisheye could be cool instead (?). I'm not good with wide angle lenses, I find it hard to compose with it, but I am afraid that I might miss one on that kind of trips.

 

[Deleted member 20471]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

Claes Grundsten, http://claesgrundsten.se, a famous Swedish photographer that is specialize in depicting the Lapland mountains. Is often using tele lenses for photographing mountains. You can check the EXIF information on some of his pictures at http://claesgrundsten.se/bilder/mountains.

I use the same, due to that if you use wide angel lenses, the mountain will appear “small” on the picture. But of course, some view need wide angel lens

 

[Julie G.]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

Claes Grundsten, http://claesgrundsten.se, a famous Swedish photographer that is specialize in depicting the Lapland mountains. Is often using tele lenses for photographing mountains. You can check the EXIF information on some of his pictures at http://claesgrundsten.se/bilder/mountains.

I use the same, due to that if you use wide angel lenses, the mountain will appear “small” on the picture. But of course, some view need wide angel lens

Good idea! I've have sold and bought a lot of equipment the last few years, but for a long period the only lens I used was the 85L. I'm hoping that Sigma might design a 85mm F1.4 Art

I've never liked wide angles, mostly because I suck at composing with them for the reasons you've stated. Maybe using the lenses I already have will be enough, and using a tripod to take panoramas instead of just using a wide angle?

 

[bholliman]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

Have you looked into renting a UWA prime or zoom for the trip? If you are not sure you will like the focal length this allows you to try it out for an extended period without a purchase commitment. My recommendation would be the EF 16-35/4 IS, a terrific lens optically and the IS allows hand holding at fairly slow shutter speeds if a tripod isn't handy.

I'm still learning UWA composition and trying to develop a better "eye" for it. I've been trying to read as much as I can about it from the experts and learning from trial and error.

 

[Maximilian59]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

I am doing landscape photography in the Alpes and the surroundings.
Definitely take a 16-35/4 with you. It will give you all you want for starting with UWA. The only drawback for you is the filter thread of 77 mm. You will need an adapter ring for your tele zoom.
Never go out photgraphing landscapes without a polarizing filter. If you can afford by one for both lenses.
Buy the best tripod and head you can afford or ask a friend to lend. Look at other threads for more information on tripods in the forum. As I don't know how you are traffeling, consider how large or small your tripod will be. Especially transportation in aircrafts can be a problem, if you want to have it in hand luggage.
Extra memory card and at least extra battery are a must.
If you don't have the possibilty to save your work at least every day on a drive, use the second card slot in the body for backup and leave one in your hotel.
Get a set of ND filters for long time exposure in day light. Don't go cheapo here also. Good lenses with bad filters distroys all. I often see very expensive cameras and lenses and a cheap filter mounted. You spent a few thousend dollars or Euros and safe know money on the little things?
If you want to go serious in landscape photography, think of graded filters (100x150 mm). But here it will get expensive. Unfortunately only the high priced ones as Lee and Singh-Ray are normaly without color cast. For the cheaper ones you need good luck to get a real neutral one. If you have the possibility compare in the shop. Using this filters needs some expierence, so don't buy on the last day.
For photographing: Avoid exposure to the right if ever possible. Go -1EV. Do some tests now and compare afterwords in lightroom or whatever you use. Bringing the bright sky down is in the most times worse than bringing shadows up and reducing noise. Get familiar with the built in HDR of your camera. It gives you a more or les good jpeg, but the trhee raws are still on your card. It is quicker than in usage as the bracketing function. Put it on your personel menu.
For your trip: Good weather and good light.
Maximilian

 

[Don Haines]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

Hi,

I am planing on taking a trip to Jotunheimen, Norway in August, might be going alone too, and I am considering what gear to bring/buy.

I have:
Canon 5D Mark III with a Black Rapid Strap
Sigma 35mm Art
Canon 70-200 F4L IS
NiftyFifty
Extra memory card and battery (1 extra?) + a tripod

Anyone have any experience with using the Sigma 35mm Art for mountain landscapes? I love the lens, but is it wide enough? I'm entertaining the idea of getting a wider lens (wide angle or fisheye), not too expensive though (max the price of the Sigma 24mm Art). I might get a CP filter too. Any other things that's worth considering?

Julie

Yes for the CP filter....
Don't forget a spare battery and memory card(s).....

Yes for the 70-200F4IS. From a hiker's perspective, that may well be the finest lens that Canon ever made. The combination of IQ, weight, and price is untouchable. It also plays very well with the 1.4 teleconverter and becomes a nice combo for more distant objects and wildlife...

For a wide lens, have you considered the 24F2.8? The quality is surprisingly good for the price, and from the hiker's perspective, it is small and light..... and if you need to go wider, you can always take multiple shots and stitch them together afterwards....

Also, my hiking pole has a screw-off knob on the top and becomes a monopod.... very useful!

 

[Sporgon]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

I've never liked wide angles, mostly because I suck at composing with them for the reasons you've stated. Maybe using the lenses I already have will be enough, and using a tripod to take panoramas instead of just using a wide angle?

You don't need a tripod to take panoramas, in fact you can argue it's quite the opposite: you need a tripod for wide angle, single frame shots. The reason for this is that when using a wide angle on a small format camera for landscape much of the detail is far away and your wide angle focal length is making it smaller still, so the most microscopic movement reduces resolution. Of course this is even worse on a crop camera.

With a panoramic you are using a longer focal length lens in portrait to get the equivalent vertical framing, so you have more magnification, and you're joining more frames horizontally so you're making a larger format that needs less enlargement, which is less enlargement of errors.

Yes for the CP filter....

I should mention polarising filters are a disaster on Panoramics. About the only disadvantage of doing them.

For photographing: Avoid exposure to the right if ever possible. Go -1EV. Do some tests now and compare afterwords in lightroom or whatever you use. Bringing the bright sky down is in the most times worse than bringing shadows up and reducing noise. Get familiar with the built in HDR of your camera. It gives you a more or les good jpeg, but the trhee raws are still on your card. It is quicker than in usage as the bracketing function. Put it on your personel menu.
For your trip: Good weather and good light.
Maximilian

At long last ! Someone else who recognises that 'ETTR' can be downright damaging.

 

[Julie G.]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

Never go out photgraphing landscapes without a polarizing filter. If you can afford by one for both lenses.
Buy the best tripod and head you can afford or ask a friend to lend. Look at other threads for more information on tripods in the forum. As I don't know how you are traffeling, consider how large or small your tripod will be. Especially transportation in aircrafts can be a problem, if you want to have it in hand luggage.

I'm from Norway, and living there, so I'll be traveling by buss to Jotunheimen (Gjende or Bygdin) then hiking from there (3-5 days) and tenting. I can't be lugging along too heavy equipment, but the size doesn't matter as long as it's not heavy. I might be able to save up 500 usd for a tripod (which means excluding buying a UWA lens). I've been considering Sirui...

Get a set of ND filters for long time exposure in day light. Don't go cheapo here also. Good lenses with bad filters distroys all. I often see very expensive cameras and lenses and a cheap filter mounted. You spent a few thousend dollars or Euros and safe know money on the little things?
If you want to go serious in landscape photography, think of graded filters (100x150 mm). But here it will get expensive. Unfortunately only the high priced ones as Lee and Singh-Ray are normaly without color cast. For the cheaper ones you need good luck to get a real neutral one. If you have the possibility compare in the shop. Using this filters needs some expierence, so don't buy on the last day.

Can't remember if I still have it or not, but I think I have a Cokin Z-Pro Filter adapter and a HiTech ND Grad 4x4 filter. I'm thinking of buying B+W C-Pol MCR filter for the largest filter thread, and adapters to the rest?

For photographing: Avoid exposure to the right if ever possible. Go -1EV. Do some tests now and compare afterwords in lightroom or whatever you use. Bringing the bright sky down is in the most times worse than bringing shadows up and reducing noise. Get familiar with the built in HDR of your camera. It gives you a more or les good jpeg, but the trhee raws are still on your card. It is quicker than in usage as the bracketing function. Put it on your personel menu.
For your trip: Good weather and good light.
Maximilian

This is what I usually do: underexpose then lighten the shadows in lightroom.

 

[Julie G.]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

I've never liked wide angles, mostly because I suck at composing with them for the reasons you've stated. Maybe using the lenses I already have will be enough, and using a tripod to take panoramas instead of just using a wide angle?

You don't need a tripod to take panoramas, in fact you can argue it's quite the opposite: you need a tripod for wide angle, single frame shots. The reason for this is that when using a wide angle on a small format camera for landscape much of the detail is far away and your wide angle focal length is making it smaller still, so the most microscopic movement reduces resolution. Of course this is even worse on a crop camera.

With a panoramic you are using a longer focal length lens in portrait to get the equivalent vertical framing, so you have more magnification, and you're joining more frames horizontally so you're making a larger format that needs less enlargement, which is less enlargement of errors.

Ah, thanks! I didn't know that

 

[Eagle Eye]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

I think the EF 17-40mm would be a great addition, particularly if you can find one used. Some thoughts on the 16-35 f/4 IS: if you're shooting on a tripod, you don't need IS. If you're handholding at 16mm, you can get away with 1/15s shutter speeds without IS. With the IS on, you maybe get an extra stop, stop and a half, shooting at 1/5s. Any exposure longer than that, the IS is noticable but doesn't save the photo. Canon states in its materials that there's a 4-stop advantage at 35mm but makes no note of the stop advantage at wider angles. Personally IS is not helpful to me for landscapes because I almost always am using graduated neutral density filters and I have to be on a tripod for that. A few 16-35mm advantages: the image quality is slightly better than the 17-40 and the 16-35 is more tolerant of filter stacking. For a trip like the one you're taking, I'd prefer less weight and broader focal length with the 17-40. Add the nifty fifty (maybe upgrade to the new one for the additional aperture blades and better build?) and the 70-200 and you're covered. My current lens lineup which I've been using for about a year is a 16-35mm f/4L IS, a 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS, and a Zeiss 50mm f/2 Makro. Prior to that, I spent six years shooting with a 17-40, a 70-200mm f/4L IS, and a 50mm f/1.4, pretty much what you'd be carrying.

 

[NancyP]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

I haven't used it, but I certainly echo the 16-35 f/4 recommendation, because that covers all the wide angle FLs you are likely to use. One thing to consider is that if you do panoramas involving the sea, you may want to use longer exposure (1 sec or more) to blur the waves, so the program doesn't get confused trying to merge stop-motion non-matching waves . At least it works better to do this on rivers - I am 1,000 miles from salt water.
If I were doing this trip and not trying for astrophotography, I would go for:
16-35 f/4
Nifty 50 or possibly a substitute (I have an old 55mm f/3.5 AIS manual Nikkor plus adapter that is good for macro and landscape and weighs 200 grams more than the Nifty Fifty)
70-200 f/4 IS
maybe 1.4x TC II, if expecting to shoot larger wildlife (useless for songbirds)
Polarizing filter, largest size needed, plus step down rings
"Big stopper", and possibly 3 stop graduated ND and holder, if you use them
In warm weather, 2 fully charged batteries - and no serious chimping! Cold weather, more batteries.
3 or more 16 G cards
Hiking tripod with ball head (1.4 kg total)
L bracket

 

[Maximilian59]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

One thing I forgot: Buy a tripod mount ring for your zoom. You don't need the original Canon. It's too expensive. I have the 70-200/2.8 which has this ring and I am glad to have it. Can anybody here give advice which 3rd party ring is good?
For the tripod take ohne with two time expansions of the legs. For the maximum height with center column down, You don't Need more than up just under your chinn or even less depending on your ballhead. This can save you some money and weight.

 

[Julie G.]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

Just to sum up:

[list type=decimal]
[*]Tripod: Any suggestion below 500 usd?
[*]Lens: Upon reviewing by budget I know I can't afford the 16-35, but a used 17-40 might do.
[*]Filter: CP + adapter.
[*]Tripod mount for the 70-200 if cheap
[*]Total of 3 batteries and 3 16 GB memory cards
[*]I'm shooting landscapes (mountains, nature), night and day. No wildlife or ocean.
[/list]

I'm not sure what my budget will look like yet, but I know I have a lot of hiking gear to buy so the end budget will depend on whether or not I'm able to buy used or on sale. I might not be able to buy a lens and a tripod, but I'm still looking in case I might. Extra stuff like TC, ND, Big stopper won't be bought.

 

[lilmsmaggie]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

Consider renting the 16-35 f4. Amazing lens. I rented one from LensRentals and used it last month in Yosemite.

Also, ND filters if you can swing it. Screw-on will be cheaper. I've read good things about Haida ND's:

http://www.achim-sieger.de/en/nd-filter-review-lee-big-stopper-formatt-hitech-prostop-irnd-haida

Generally speaking, the difference in exposure (foreground vs sky) will be around 2 stops.

If you think you might consider the LEE Big Stopper, be advised to set your WB to 10,000K in camera.
The LEE Big Stopper has a blue color cast, so setting WB to 10,000K will neutralize the color cast.

LEE's Little Stopper (6 stop ND) is neutral. start with a WB of 5500K. The only reason I know about the WB settings for the LEE filters is because I spent the weekend in Yosemite with Jeremy Walker and reps from LEE.
It was LEE Filter's first workshop in the US (4-24 thru 4/26) it snowed -- then rained. The last day Sunday, was clear and sunny.

Speaking of rain -- you might consider having a couple of these in your bag just in case:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/469774-REG/OP_TECH_USA_9001132_18_Rainsleeve_Set_of.html


Backing up to a WA, since you will be in the mountains, you will want to take advantage of the night sky.

Have fun!

BTW -- I took along 3, 16 GB cards and 2 batteries for my 6D.

Just to sum up:

[list type=decimal]
[*]Tripod: Any suggestion below 500 usd?
[*]Lens: Upon reviewing by budget I know I can't afford the 16-35, but a used 17-40 might do.
[*]Filter: CP + adapter.
[*]Tripod mount for the 70-200 if cheap
[*]Total of 3 batteries and 3 16 GB memory cards
[*]I'm shooting landscapes (mountains, nature), night and day. No wildlife or ocean.
[/list]

I'm not sure what my budget will look like yet, but I know I have a lot of hiking gear to buy so the end budget will depend on whether or not I'm able to buy used or on sale. I might not be able to buy a lens and a tripod, but I'm still looking in case I might. Extra stuff like TC, ND, Big stopper won't be bought.

 

[slcparche]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

Try a 35 f/2 IS, a 100 f/2/100 f/2.8 macro and a 70-200 f/4L is. The 67mm filters will fit the 35 f/2 and the 70-200. The 100 f/2 or the 100 f/2.8 macro are both lightand take 58mm filters.

 

[adhocphotographer]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

I would go with the 17-40L (F/5.6 onwards and it is fantastic) with the 70-200L. You can throw in the nifty 50 if you want, but I think the first two lenses should cover most things!

CP filter, and maybe some GND filters too if that is your thing. Skip a tripod, but if you have a gorilla pod or the likes, would be good!

Have fun, enjoy!

 

[lilmsmaggie]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

Something else to consider:

Do monitor weather reports and conditions between now and your trip. Weather in mountain regions have a tendency to change rapidly and it is not uncommon to snow even in summer months. My Yosemite trip is a testament to that. It wasn't supposed to rain let alone snow the weekend I was there. Be prepared for the unexpected.

CP filter ++1 -- you will need it. GND's unless you already have a filter holder system, hand holding them in front of the lens may not work for you. Screw on GND's: you can't control the transition.

Best to go with solid ND's instead. If you go with screw-on ND's, you can stack say a 3 stop and 6 stop together.
You might consider a variable or fader ND but with WA lenses, you'll get an 'X' pattern on the image.


As for a tripod -- You'll have to decide whether its worth taking. Long exposure with or without ND's will require a tripod. Maybe something like the MeFoto or Manfrotto BeFree or maybe a monopod --- don't forget you can rent a tripod like the Induro Carbon 8X CT214 Tripod for about $38 for 6 days at LensRentals or a INDURO Carbon 8X CT113 for $32 for 7 days at BorrowLenses. Renting a lens and/or tripod or both may be very doable, so check out your options.

 

[mnclayshooter]

Re: Lenses for a 3-5 day hike

Extra memory card and battery (1 extra?) + a tripod

I'd bring at least one more memory card, depending on the size and your shooting style... Can't hurt - they're small and relatively cheap compared to airfare to get to that destination again in the event that one card isn't enough for the shots you'll take and the potential to lose/damage one somehow... pretty unlikely, but hey, they're small right? I filled 3 32GB cards in the Rocky Mountains last year from landscapes to elk to ground squirrels... Maybe you're more restrained. I can't help it... I like taking photos.

I'm entertaining the idea of getting a wider lens (wide angle or fisheye), not too expensive though. I might get a CP filter too. Any other things that's worth considering?

I have a 17-40, and have used it pretty successfully at mountain/gorge/valley scenes. I also have a 14mm... while it takes in a wider view, it makes horizons seem microscopic. In other words, capturing the depth/breadth of mountains will appear diminished with the fisheye/ultra-wide effect. Just my opinion though, others may see it otherwise, or you may want that effect of spaciousness.