Telephoto - lapland, should I bother?

gad-westy

gad-westy

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Off to Lapland with the wife and kids next weekend for a week and just starting to sort my camera gear a little. We're staying in a chalet, got a santa visit lined up and a reindeer safari and husky sled ride too, otherwise no particular itinerary. It's a family holiday and at the moment, there is barely an hour of daylight there each day so I'm not sure how much actual photography I'll do but northern lights and astro type stuff are probably the main agenda.

I'm taking my D800, 20mm 1.4 and 24-70 2.8 and a tripod. I'm debating whether to bother with the 70-200 2.8. It's a big heavy lump to take in hand luggage and I'm half expecting that it won't be much use for anything in particular. I could take my lighter 70-210 or might not bother at all. Anybody been on a similar trip and care to comment?
 
I would want something at around 200mm for sure. Whether it is animals, portrait or distant landscape scene it always comes useful. F/2.8 is less important. In fact I am still with my F/4 zoom and see little need to "upgrade".
 
You might want/need a telephoto for the reindeer, although I'd suspect that you'll be able to get pretty close (or you'll be too far away for a 200mm on FF). I needed 300mm in Iceland for the things.
 
I've just got back from a 3 day trip to Lapland, I took my XT-3 with a 18-55 and hardly used it at all, granted I spent most of the time chasing after my 3 year old, but even given the opportunity you may have with the extra days, you are only getting about 3 hours of daylight each day. I guess it depends on where else you are going apart from the Santa stuff, the Reindeer and Huskies will be very close to you, but light is poor, and you probably don't want a telephoto and camera getting in the way.
 
I did this trip some years ago, about this time, as others have said the reindeer huskies ( on organised trips) et al are really close The only thing that a zoom would have come in use for was the bear walking down near the "shop"
but even then it would have been a hell of a stretch to get anything decent.

I would suggest that your 20mm 1.4 and 24-70 2.8 will be fine, as you pointed out, its half light by 10:00 and dark by 14.00.
TBH it barely gets light in between, I found I was using a 1.8 50 mm most of the time.
The 2.8 was "adequate"

The other thing to be aware of, it was -25oC when I was there, batteries don't last long in those temps, and make sure your memory cards are up to it.
I was using sandisc "extreme" iirc they are rated down to -45oC
 
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Thanks for the input gents. I guess I'll take it as long I'm not pushing my luck with hand luggage weight/size limit. As Rick suggests, it's probably the lack of light that puts me off. Tomorrow, the sun will rise at 11.40am and set at 12.49pm! Madness, what were they thinking? ;) Though I guess with the lack of light, that taking the 2.8 with VR rather than the 70-210 (f/5.6 and no VR) probably makes more sense. It might just about be usable. Not sure it'll actually be used but it's one of those annoying dilemmas where I think if I don't take it, I' might regret it.
 
Cobra said:
I did this trip some years ago, about this time, as others have said the reindeer huskies et al are really close The only thing that a zoom would have come in use for was the bear walking down near the "shop"
but even then it would have been a hell of a stretch to get anything decent.

I would suggest that your 20mm 1.4 and 24-70 2.8 will be fine, as you pointed out, its half light by 10:00 and dark by 14.00.
TBH it barely gets light in between, I found I was using a 1.8 50 mm most of the time.
The 2.8 was "adequate"

The other thing to be aware of, it was -25oC when I was there, batteries don't last long in those temps, and make sure your memory cards are up to it.
I was using sandisc "extreme" iirc they are rated down to -45oC
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Cheers. I think I was typing when you replied. Appreciate the input. Think I'm covered as best as can be for the cold with regard to batteries, cards, clothes etc. Done a bit of real extreme cold stuff before so know it's very hard and very slow work! It's actually not *too* bad there at present. More like -6 to -16 sort of range with not too much wind chill at present. Very cold still but I might just about survive. Not sure about the kids!
 
gad-westy said:
More like -6 to -16
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Positively balmy :D
The only thing that I missed, although there was a good 3 feet of snow laying in a lot of places, it never actually snowed,
and the midnight trip on the snow mobiles to the pine forest to see the Northern lights was a total wash out :(
Still the hot chocolate and "cake" was most welcome :)

I hope you have better luck (y)
 
a mate went last week and there was no snow
 
Cheers folks. I shall spend this week being indecisive. Heard about the lack of snow in some areas recently. We’re going to yllas and looks like it’s had a good old dump in the last fortnight and continuing to snow over next couple of weeks. I’m more concerned about having the odd clear sky but I’ll take it as it comes.
 
We have been the last two years, short lenses with large apertures are best. Very little day light and very cold -22 was chilly. Northern lights can be illusive. Its a great place enjoy, ski and sledge.tripod, extra batteries, hand warmers, and zip bags would be more help than a long lens.
 
tris101 said:
We have been the last two years, short lenses with large apertures are best. Very little day light and very cold -22 was chilly. Northern lights can be illusive. Its a great place enjoy, ski and sledge.tripod, extra batteries, hand warmers, and zip bags would be more help than a long lens.
Click to expand...

We've been too, a few years ago, and I would agree with all of the above. You'll have a great time but it's unlikely you will need a long lens or want to lug one around for for the brief period each day when you would have enough light.
 
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