I am going to be doing significant travel this upcoming summer, some of it involving backpacking. I am strongly, strongly considering hauling my DSLR (a Canon T1i) along with me, but I would only want to bring along one versatile and lightweight lens. I currently have the two kit lenses (18-55 mm and 55-250 mm both IS), the nifty fifty, and not much of a budget.
Depends on where you're travelling - what will you be taking photos of? Food? (nifty fifty) Landscapes? (18-55) Buildings? (18-55) Close-ups of nature? (55-250) I reckon the 18-55 will give you the most versatility, but it is a pretty average lens and if I were travelling then I wouldn't want only that lens with me. Honestly if I were travelling, I'd take all three. xD
Agreed... whenever I travel I bring along all my lenses... now that I have gotten used to having options I feel so limited when I only have one option. That being said, on my Bolivia trip I found that my 18-55 was on my camera most often - but I would have missed some pretty amazing photo ops if that was all I had.
@justeddie@grecican@crlang Thanks everyone for the thoughts so far. I'm content with the idea that I'll be missing amazing zooms, 'cause I'm just not willing to carry that much poundage.
@pocketmouse You've hit it right on the head. What I have is simply average, and what I am really trying to figure out is if it would be worth it to try and upgrade to a broader range single lens, like a 28-105mm or 28-135mm or to go wider like a 17-50 mm or ... ??
@scatochef I am very tempted to bring the 50 mm, no matter what, but I just have to make sure I don't get too grimy myself to change lenses in the field!
Great thread. I'm traveling to Italy for the first time in May. 10 days. I'm trying to decide if I want to bring all three of my lenses or not. I have the 18-200vr, 50mm f/1.4 and 10.5mm fisheye. I also don't know if I should bring one of my sb600's or sb800. I have a small backpack that will fit everything, just wondering if that'll make me a target for anything.
I'm a backpacker, camper or hiker myself.. what ever you want to call it, I just call it camping or bivvy whackin, depends if its long stay or not.
Every single gramme matters. I do things like cut kitchen utensils in half etc to save grammes. I weigh every item and see if I can't find a lighter alternative or modify it in some way.
This year I'm caching a bus west and walking south so far then walking home taking in some of the Lakes, the Pennine way and Teesdale. I'll be taking my Holga kit as its plastic and weighs next to nothing and I'm looking at getting a nice 135mm prime following advice of an experienced traveller who takes the three primes I mentioned to you all over the world, he says he rarely uses the 135mm but I don't have a Telephoto (I used to and often wish I did have) other than on the Holga and I don't think that one is brilliant. I wouldn't take my kit lens, yes its not too heavy but like I said every gramme matters.
I'm a camper/hiker, and love the idea of a single lens set up. I replaced my 18-55mm with a 15-85mm and love it. Goes wider and longer with better image quality. It's not exactly cheap and I'm not sure if I'd call it 'lightweight' but the build quality is great which is another plus for travelling.
In reality, I've got a nifty fifty and will always squeeze it into my bag though!
I could recommend a decent camera bag with spaces for camera plus 4 lenses/accessories and a separate compartment for other stuff. Afraid I'm not much use on the lens question. The bag I like for walking is the Kata DR-465i.
@archaeofrog I don't know if this is going to help you in any way.
Don't know what your budget is like and how much you like your two kit lenses, but ... when bought my Canon Xsi body I was deciding between those two kit lenses that you have or Tamron 18-270mm. Since I didn't like the idea of switching lenses I went with Tamron lens that I absolutely love! So my idea was, if you budget allows you, to get used Tamron 18-270mm, you can get it anywhere between $350-400 on ebay. It does have an image stabilization. This lens should cover everything you need while traveling. After your trip you can sell it, or who knows maybe you will like it more than your kits lenses and decide to keep it and sell your kit lenses. Just an idea. (90% of my pictures in my album are taken with the tamron lens)
@spiralgrooves Thanks for the tip, Neil. What 15-85 mm did you get?
@zuzana Thanks, that is helpful. I've been looking at several Tamron zooms, although the 18-270 mm is a bit wider than I was originally considering. I'll definitely have to check it out! (I can't really imagine anyone wanting to buy my kit lens for much, but I guess I just don't know ... )
@archaeofrog, it's the the Canon 15-85mm EF-S. Aperture is a fairly average f3.5-5.6 but at full zoom and f5.6 it's possible to get very nice background blur and it actually works quite nicely for portraits. The 15mm end is tops for big landscapes or inside buildings such as churches. As I mentioned before the image quality is very good, not much distortion and the build quality is excellent. Also has IS....if you haven't guessed already, I really like it :-)
Only problem is the price - they go on ebay.com for about $700US which is a hell of lot cheap than what I paid for mine here in Australia...not sure what your budget is?
@spiralgrooves Thanks for the heads up, Neil. That's definitely more than I was looking to spend at this point (hoping to keep it under $400 if at all possible), but it's something to think about down the road.
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nice having that option, though!
perhaps you just need a really good camera bag to lug all your stuff in?
If you're comfortable with using the nifty fifty, you could basically just take that and zoom with your feet. It'll be your most compact setup.
@pocketmouse You've hit it right on the head. What I have is simply average, and what I am really trying to figure out is if it would be worth it to try and upgrade to a broader range single lens, like a 28-105mm or 28-135mm or to go wider like a 17-50 mm or ... ??
@scatochef I am very tempted to bring the 50 mm, no matter what, but I just have to make sure I don't get too grimy myself to change lenses in the field!
Thoughts on a lens to purchase?
Every single gramme matters. I do things like cut kitchen utensils in half etc to save grammes. I weigh every item and see if I can't find a lighter alternative or modify it in some way.
This year I'm caching a bus west and walking south so far then walking home taking in some of the Lakes, the Pennine way and Teesdale. I'll be taking my Holga kit as its plastic and weighs next to nothing and I'm looking at getting a nice 135mm prime following advice of an experienced traveller who takes the three primes I mentioned to you all over the world, he says he rarely uses the 135mm but I don't have a Telephoto (I used to and often wish I did have) other than on the Holga and I don't think that one is brilliant. I wouldn't take my kit lens, yes its not too heavy but like I said every gramme matters.
In reality, I've got a nifty fifty and will always squeeze it into my bag though!
Don't know what your budget is like and how much you like your two kit lenses, but ... when bought my Canon Xsi body I was deciding between those two kit lenses that you have or Tamron 18-270mm. Since I didn't like the idea of switching lenses I went with Tamron lens that I absolutely love! So my idea was, if you budget allows you, to get used Tamron 18-270mm, you can get it anywhere between $350-400 on ebay. It does have an image stabilization. This lens should cover everything you need while traveling. After your trip you can sell it, or who knows maybe you will like it more than your kits lenses and decide to keep it and sell your kit lenses. Just an idea. (90% of my pictures in my album are taken with the tamron lens)
@zuzana Thanks, that is helpful. I've been looking at several Tamron zooms, although the 18-270 mm is a bit wider than I was originally considering. I'll definitely have to check it out! (I can't really imagine anyone wanting to buy my kit lens for much, but I guess I just don't know ... )
Only problem is the price - they go on ebay.com for about $700US which is a hell of lot cheap than what I paid for mine here in Australia...not sure what your budget is?