F/1.0

So in preparation for my upcoming trip to St. Johns, (which will include much shooting!) I’ve been thinking long and hard about my travel kit. I tend to be torn between the two extremes of taking everything but the kitchen sink (2 bodies, wide zoom, normal zoon, telezoom, fast normal prime, fast portriait prime, macro lens, flashes etc…) and ultra minimalist (1 body, 21mm prime +50-200 zoom)

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Both have worked for me in the past, and have their own pros and cons. However now I’m trying to find a middle ground. basically I’m trying to break it down into 2 categories: camera gear and lighting gear. I love the compact/lightweight pentax primes, but shooting on the beach etc… I’d like to avoid lens switches as much as possible. Luckily the new DA* 16-50/2.8 should give me acceptable quality (*almost* as good as the primes, but not quite while staying on my camera 99% of the time.

I’m also debating whether to take the 35/2 or live with 2.8 as my fastest lens. On the one hand I love the 35/2 but on the other hand its one more piece to carry! I do 99% of my shooting at 50mm or less, so really the 16-50 should serve for 99% of everything. Then it comes down to either the 50-200 for the few times I want reach, or ditching the telezoom entirely and relying on my G9 when I need >50mm. I know it sounds crazy, but I kind of like the idea of just running the k10d w/16-50 and G9. That covers me from 24-210mm equiv. I’ll be missing Fast+long, but I really never find myself needing that anyway. plus no need to change lenses on the k10d.

so here’s my tenative list:
K10d
DA* 16-50/2.8
(maybe) 50-200
(maybe) 35/2
Canon G9

Lighting: (for beach portraits/shots)
Pentax 540FGZ
Vivitar 285hv
2x Bogen compact stands
2x westcot 43″ folding brollys (1 white, 1 silver)
40″ collapsible 5-in-1 reflector

(and of course the various batteries, memory cards, filters etc…)

So what is all of y’alls travel kit?

Tags: photogear, travel

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