Holiday Camera and Lens Dilemma

Uncle Fester

Uncle Fester

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Danny
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I’m just back from holiday. Before going; I wasn’t sure of what combination of lenses to take with my Fuji XT-10. I decided that taking both my 18-55 and my 55-200 should cover most situations.

In fact; my 18-55 was fine for probably 90% of the shots I wanted.

The real problem arose when I needed to swap lenses over. Or rather it was a problem whilst I was on guided walking tours and an open top bus tour. There wasn’t really enough time to constantly swap lenses over. If I was pottering about at my own pace; this wouldn’t have been an issue. I found that by the time I had fumbled about extricating one lens from my bag attached it to the body and lined up my shot the group was moving on. In the end I gave up trying to swap lenses.

So planning for the future; do I just leave my 55-200 behind accepting I’ll miss a few shots or would a bridge camera solve my problem? And if that’s the way to go; which bridge camera would bring me results close to my XT-10 and 18-55/55-200 – if there is such a thing?

What camera and lens combinations do you take on holiday?
 
You can speed up lens switching by using a lens switching bag like Lowepro's lens exchange bag. When opened expands out to have two vertical compartments, one to take the lens you're taking off, the other proffering the lens to put on.

Why consider getting another camera to get a wide range zoom? Why not just get something like an 18-250mm for those occasions when you need to be able to quickly snatch opportunistic shots over a wide range of focal lengths. I have a 16-50mm and 70-300mm zooms, but they don't replace my very useful 18-250mm for general quick opportunistic walk-about shooting.
 
I over come this problem by buying a second fuji body lol. Now shooting with XT1 with 18mm attach and XE2s with 35mm attached. Light enough to carry both around and they both use the same battery ......

I have no problem taking 2 fuji because the weight and size of the 2 with lens is still weight less then my previous D3 with 24-70 f2.8 attach lol.
 
I like to take two cameras on holiday, a quality camera with a fast prime for quality and low light use (Sony A7 with 35mm f2.8) and a quality compact for the wider and longer shots in good light and also for using when my Sony A7 is a bit too large and conspicuous. I used to have a Panasonic LF1 for all that but now have a Panny TZ100 which has a 1" sensor and something like a 24-250mm equivalent lens.
 
A few years ago we went to Turkey and I was undecided what to bring, had a bunch of nice lenses at the time. In the end I actually bought an X100s to have as my whip out on the go camera, and had the D800 with an 85 1.8. That worked beautifully for me, BUT ... one evening I left the X100s behind on a table in the complex. I realised soon as I got back to the room, minutes later, but when I went back the camera was gone. I caused an uproar of course, and it ended up with the cops being called. They searched the staff rooms and the camera turned up in a linen basket :/ Anyway, point is, a second cam can be iffy, it's more to keep an eye on and makes it easier lose something [especially when travelling with kids and all their gear]

I don't have any problem switching lenses, can usually do it in about 10-20 seconds [worry about replacing caps afterward, use a messenger type bag that you can just dump lenses in and out of] but if you struggle a bit with that, the 18-135 sounds ideal. Better than bringing a second body IMO
 
For that situation I wouldn't bother with a 55-200. I hope you enjoyed the holiday :)

I probably would take a couple of primes with me. 28mm F2 and 50mm F1.4 for film and the 35mm F2 for my Fuji.

Previously I have taken standard zooms as if I am just relaxing I wanted to take easier casual shots.

If I new I wanted to go out for a shoot to churn out some images (landscape or street), I would just take a couple primes.

I have learned the hard way that less is more in the past. I love the compact size of the X-T1 and the 35mm F2 combo!
 
The problem with taking more lens is you constantly thinking what lens to use. If i only take 1 lens with me, I will just work around it.
 
For last years family holiday I took my Fuji XT10 and a Panasonic TZ60 compact. In the end I didn't take a single picture with the Fuji - it never left the hotel room safe. The Panasonic on the other hand slipped in the pocket of my shorts and went everywhere with me. This was a beach and pool holiday so the fact that the Panasonic's image quality wasn't as good as the Fuji's was somewhat irrelevant to me really.
Pre-children, I took my D700 and 28-70 away with me but it became too much of a burden, I'm more than happy to just use it for 'serious' photography only these days!
 
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