Alaska Cruise - Which lenses

I would bring the 24-120mm and the 50mm. It's taken me years to evolve to this point and realize that these types of family trips and excursions are not really about my photography. I love my 24-120mm and use it for 95% of my shooting in this scenario. I like to throw a small, fast lens (f1.4) in my bag just to have something for low light situations (dinner, dancing, etc...). The only other consideration is whether you want to bring your 300mm just for the whale watching. If you're comfortable bringing this lens for that excursion it might be worth your while. My 24-70mm, 70-200mm and 16-35mm would all stay home.

 

I'd suggest the 16-35 and the 70-200. Close to what I recall taking on my first trip up there. They will give you broad and selective landscape/wildlife capabilities and be useful on the train and in the gardens. The 50 will fill the gap between them and will, as Mitch notes, be useful in low light settings.

 

I'd say bring them all, but I doubt your ship is leaving from Florida. I'd bring the 50, 24-120 and the 300 and a 1.4x TC if you have one.

 

Holy moly! Which cruise ship are you going on? We are heading out on a 7 day cruise on Celebrity Solstice and I was contemplating this very issue.....

I am bringing two bodies (D850 and D500) -

My short lens list is 14-24, 24-70, 70-200, 300 pf (no TC) and the 200-500....

 

Nice! Our ships will probably pass each other at some point.... 

 

Went several years ago. I'd bring the D810 and the 2 f/4 zooms. Unless you're planning a whale watch excursion 200mm-300mm probably isn't long enough. And do you really want to carry those around just for "if you get lucky?".

 

You know that's how I got into m4/3. My wife and I were headed on a road trip to the Biltmore and the smallest thing I had was the D700 and 28-105. Picked up an E-PM1 and kits lens. Camera and lens were smaller than the 28-105 lens alone and fit in a jacket pocket. Been hocked even since.

Vacation 2012 - BlueberryPhoto

 

So I'm taking exactly what I said above on our cruise: D850/D500, 14-24 24-70, 70-200, 200-500 and I may toss the 8-15 Fisheye in the bag for grins and giggles. I'm taking a smaller "excursion" backpack so what I take out in that will depend on what the outing is...

 

I think I'd agree with Mitchell .. the 24-120 is plenty for most everything you might want to capture. We just returned from 3 weeks worth of car trip, coast-to-coast, and my "new" 14-24 2.8 and my 80-200 2.8 both went out of the bag only a couple of times. No big deal since we had plenty of room inside the truck, but if I were on a cruise or out and about in a place where I really didn't want to lug around a case full of gear, the 24-120 would be fine!!

I'll look forward to seeing your images on your return ... my wife has been suggesting that a cruise to/from Alaska would be a lot easier and more fun than our original plan of driving the Alaska Highway up and back. (We live near Seattle, so roads are an option!)

Cheers!!

Ken