I don't use a lens cap. It takes extra time to take it off and shoot. When I take it off and put it in my pocket, I always forget to put it back on. By the end of the day, I can't find the cap anymore. Few months later, it shows up from my pants pocket. So I use lens protectors. I use a clear protector rather than UV filter because lenses nowadays are already UV protected. Especially when I'm rock climbing, there is a huge potential for banging the lens. Usually, a camera body is close to your body and a lens is flopping around in the periphery, so there is more chance to bang the tip of your lens than anywhere else on the camera/lens complex. When I dropped my camera in death valley in the dark, the protector saved my 16-35 lens (see pic). |
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For landscape photography trips, I definitely take my D800E because it has lots of resolution. I just printed a 60x30 inch picture for my bedroom and it looks so nice, thanks to the 36MP camera. I love printing big on my master pieces so I do need a lot of MPs. On face book, iphone, etc, you can't really tell the difference between 8MP vs. 36MP cameras though. So if your pic's final outcome will be on your iphone then you can pack less and bring your smaller, lighter camera.
Lenses are the problem. They are heavy and you need a lot of thinking to do. For landscapes, my main lens is my Nikkor 16-35 mm, so she makes to every trip. It is way lighter than Nikon's old 14-24mm professional lens. Though it's not as fast, I never use the aperture higher (more open) than f/4 anyways on my landscapes. Also, a good thing about this lens is that it goes up to 35mm. I use the 35mm end so much that the 14-24mm lens wouldn't work for me. It can also take 77mm filter and protector so I don't need another set of filters. In fact, I just broke my protector on this lens when I dropped my camera in Death Valley. If this was 14-24mm without a protector then I would've shutter the expensive lens. My Nikkor 70-200mm often makes it on the list. It's heavy but I had many situations where I regretted not taking this lens with me. A lot of time I need the reach even when I'm shooting a landscape. This will leave the range from 35-70 mm. I have the Nikkor 24-70mm 1:2.8 professional lens but it often doesn't make it to the trip. At this point my bag is saturated and super heavy. Therefore, I usually end up taking my old Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4D. The only problem with this is that the filter size is not 77mm. I don't take another set of filters just for this 52mm filter lens. I just leave my protector filter and if I really need a polarizer or graduated ND filter then I just hold my 77mm filter in front of the lens by hand. Speaking of filters, I always carry all 77mm filters. I have one circular polarizer, one ND graduated, one ND 0.6. No color enhancing filters come with me unless shooting films. My favorite tripod that I take for my trips is Giottos MH655SC. Very compact, light and stable. It can be converted to monopod if you wish. |
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December 2013
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