Paul S

Whatever you shoot with, phone, point and shoot, DSLR or mirrorless, the difference between a picture taker and photographer is in the eye. Most people walk around looking straight ahead or down. Photographers also look up, around and behind, and see things others miss. Anticipation and composition build on this.

The only driving rain we had was during a landing on Cape Horn. We did a landing at Deception Island in a hail/snow storm but Antarctica is classified as a desert through lack of rainfall. At home I’ve never had any problem with water infiltration in driving rain, nor from spray in heavy seas on small boats. Our higher end Fuji cameras (X-T3, X-T4, X-H1 and X-H2) seem to have good weather seals.

Yes, it’s the only way we could upload raw files and view/edit in Lightroom mobile.

We've had problems with Fuji raw files in loading to and viewing on ipads. We've only been able to do so by importing from the camera card into Lightroom on the ipad. Are we missing a trick?

It's best to pay by credit card if possible. If there are problems you will be able to make a claim under section 75 against the card provider within the set figures, but if you pay by bank transfer you lose this protection.

We had a tight weight limit on our flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas. I got round this by wearing a Domke photographer’s gilet jacket and stuffing out all of the many many pockets including binoculars and ipad.

DW & I each took two mirrorless Fuji bodies on our Antarctic expedition, one with a short zoom and one with a long zoom, on a Black Rapid double harness. The bodies and lenses are weatherproofed and we used them on the RIBs without waterproof jackets.

You may get a better response posting in the roll call for those booked on your expedition.

I'm heavily invested in Fuji X mirrorless range - bought my first in 2015 for a 3 week tour of India and Nepal when I thought carting round my Nikon D300 and lenses would be rather demanding Now on my 4th Fuji X body plus a range of their high end prime and zoom lenses, though as my kit has expanded I lug around more weight now than I would have then with my Nikon equipment! I recently purchased the X-H2S (plus battery grip), which is an amazing camera, 40 fps, and fastest autofocus in its class including AI recognition of subject types. I would have liked to move up to the Fuji medium format cameras, but it's not so much the cost of the body alone, more the cost of lenses on top.

For some of us the opportunity of shooting outside our usual locations and wanting to bring back outstanding images is a major part of the enjoyment of the trip. In my bag I bring two bodies plus four overlapping zoom lenses, a couple of teleconverters and where possible a tripod and a few filters. Admittedly this is APS-C mirrorless, which reduces the weight somewhat, but both bodies have vertical grips and take extra batteries which then adds to the load. I don't carry everything when out and about, but at least I have a decent selection from which to choose for that day's circumstances. I also carry a little pocket sized Sony R100 III used for my work. This shoots RAW and has an optical viewfinder, so I have something with me at the restaurant, or whenever I don't want (or it's not practical) to take something bigger, plus failing everything else a decent phone which shoots RAW. I suspect I'm not the only one, but having been a keen photographer for more than 50 years I do feel rather naked when out and about without one of my cameras in my hand.

We were on a Roald Amundsen expedition to Antarctica and the Falklands out of Punta Arenas February 2020, immediately prior to lockdown. There were about 350 pax on board - the Far East contingent were missing due to what we now know to have been Covid. You are at the mercy of the weather and plans for the day can change. We were divided into groups, and from memory we did 1 group landing almost every day, though on 1 day I believe we only did a ride in the RIB and on another we did an afternoon RIB ride after a morning landing. However, if the ship is at full capacity it might affect the number of landings. I recall there were additional trips in the RIB for those involved in the peoples' science projects. On one occasion when we couldn't do a daytime shore landing because of the weather, we did an evening visit to a Ukrainian research station and drank home made vodka at their English pub style bar. We are in our 60s, and found one landing per day to be enough. We got around an hour ashore, which we found adequate, but the overall time incurred was 2 plus hours as your group gets called, you have to go get your gear, go down to the RIB platform, wait your turn to get on board, do the run to shore (which on occasions could be quite lengthy), queue for the return journey and then change out of the expedition gear. We found it quite strenuous walking ashore on the rocks, snow and ice, and being buffeted around on the RIB was also tiring. I can't say that we wouldn't have enjoyed a second landing per day, but we didn't miss it, and there was always something to do, whether lectures, science projects, socialising, whale and wildlife watching, sitting in the sauna with panoramic windows watching the ice go by, or just relaxing with a book. For the brave, on one landing there was a polar plunge from the shore. Camping out on the ice was cancelled owing to a lack of snow - the weather was unusually warm and there was a pronounced shortage of snow during our trip. Food is covered. Everybody got to eat on an open service basis in the buffet restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There was also an informal open service restaurant at lunchtimes, but sparsely attended. Breakfast and dinner were also served for suite guests in a separate table service restaurant with two sittings, also available to non-suite guests on a paying basis. On some occasions when the passengers were planned to be out late on shore landings this restaurant was closed and everybody ate in the buffet. There were some snacks put out in the lounge at tea time. Coffee and tea were available free from machines at all times, and paid for better coffees were available in the bar lounge. However, this is not a cruise, and there was no late night buffet nor round the clock restaurant, though I believe that room service was available on a chargeable basis. However, if you have medical problems you should speak to the crew, we found them very helpful, and I'm sure they would be able to organise something for you. Free beers and wines were available in all restaurants during lunch and dinner. There was a better selection of wines in the table service restaurant, and even better wines could be bought. You will have a great time, it's a really special experience. Having done it once (and we thought for the only time) we are booked back on RA for January 2023, and also hope that there will be no Covid related problems for travelling.

We were in Antarctica on Roald Amundsen in February 2020. I believe we had just under 400 people on board. A maximum of 100 people were allowed ashore at any one time. We were divided into groups of around 40, each given a name of a bird. The polarcirkel landing craft each took 10 passengers and 2 crew. Each group was given a time to rendezvous at the embarkation platform, and your group's time varied every day, I believe the times were spaced around 1 hour apart. There was a constant ferrying of passengers between the ship and shore. You had around 2 hours ashore, but were given a time to meet for the return trip, and as the group wasn't required to stay together when ashore you knew when to be back at the landing point.