Best Camera/Lens/Binoc.

[Italy52]

Will be cruising to Alaska May 22, 2005. Need advice on camera, lens, and binoc. We have a balcony cabin and will be doing a lot of viewing from there (weather permitting). Our camera is a Nikon Cool Pix 990. Camera has a 3x zoom Nikkor lens with focal range of 8-24 mm. My question is, is this camera lens sufficient for picture taking or do we need to get a wideangle lens?

 

With regard to binocs, what type would you recommend? And, where is the best place to buy them?

 

Lastly, on average, how many memory cards did you take?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[pinebro]

I Used A Canon Rebel Ti (film) With A 24-135mm & A 75 - 300mm Lens. Most Pics Great - Wished I Had More Telephoto Though. I Will Next Time!!

[Budget Queen]

Necessary for me is a wide angle binocular with my 10x50's going every trip. As for you camera- telephoto is key. Everything is so far away. Also plan on spending time out on the front deck- especially glacier viewing day- far superior to any side viewing.

[42trvl]

For our recent Alaska trip we felt that the 3x zoom on our digital would not be enough, but still wanted a fairly simple digital camera. We were very happy with our purchase of the Kyocera M400 with a 10x optical zoom. It took great pictures, and we were very happy with it.

[jrask]

As much telephoto as you can handle. We used an Optio 555 with a 5x optical zoom, plus a digital zoom that took us to effectively a 20x zoom. (We also brought an older Cannon 35 mm SLR, which gave us a bit more zoom and filters.) This is quite a lot for a small, easy-to-travel/hike/etc camera. The 20x generally worked well, but I could definitely have used more...particularly when it comes to wildlife & Denali NP. I would have loved to be just a bit closer in, but enhancing beyond the 20x starts causes resolution issues. We compared our shots to friends with 3x digital zoom and we just got so much more detail on the glaciers and actually got pictures of wildlife. I'm certainly glad I didn't go with something less.

 

Someone we met on the Denali shuttle had a digital Canon Rebel SLR that was just gorgeous. My next trip to anywhere photo intensive will definitely be by way of something similar.

 

We took 2 memory cards: 1 a very small card that comes with the camera and is good for a few shots on high res. The other a 512 MB card that handled everything. We were careful to view pictures by plugging into the TV and delete unnecessary shots to open up room (and particularly before going to Denali or similar places where you know you will shoot a lot to get that one wildlife shot you really love). This worked great, with the only downside that it would have left us without a card if we needed to have the ship burn our pictures to CD.

 

As far as binoculars, I recommend 1 small pair so you can easily carry something on excursions and a larger pair for the ship, Denali, and other relatively stationary activities. The larger one allowed me to get close to seals and otters in the Kenai Fjords so that I could get nice views of their faces. We bought the small pair (surprisingly good quality) for next to nothing at a sale in the lobby of my office. The larger we borrowed from friends b/c the need doesn't come up that often.

[debinnh]

I just gave my husband a Nikon D70 SLR digital camera with two 512 cards for his 40th birthday. For christmas I want to give him a second lens, the one that came with it is a 18-70mm. Any recommendations?

[stephenandrew]

Tamron makes a very nice lens for traveling--it is a 28-300mm. It is not the fastest lens in the world (in terms of light), but because it has such a great range, it is frequently the only lens I take when traveling--I also have the D70. The other thing I would mention is that while the zoom is great to have, some of the best pictures I took in Alaska was with my other camera--a small CoolPix 3200 w/ a 3x zoom. There were so many pretty landscapes, and large areas of scenery, that this camera was great. While the D70 is a great camera, I franky got tired of lugging the thing around--the CoolPix fit easily in my pocket. Just something to keep in mind if you plan on going horseback riding in the Yukon for example.

[Italy52]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and bits of information. Your kindness is appreciated.

[debinnh]

stephenandrew: Thanks for the lens info. Yes, we also have a cannon elf S400 that we slip in our pocket for light traveling. It also takes movies for a minute or more, which we will use when doing the glaciers. We also have the waterproof case for it for those wet times when we want pics.

[JPCruising]

I have a Canon Digital Rebel SLR camera that I purchased specifically to use on my Alaska cruise this past summer. I have the 18-55mm "kit" lens and the Canon 75-300 IS lens and used both quite a bit. I wish that I had the Canon 100-400L lens which would have been especially helpful at Denali. You can see my Alaska pictures at www.jprphotos.com

 

Also for the Alaska cruise I brought my wife a pair of Canon IS binoculars. The IS (image stablization) feature really works well and my wife especially loved the binoculars. I would highly recommend them.

 

JPR

jprphotos@bellsouth.net