What to pack!?

[Tounis]

People associate wide angle lenses with landscapes, but many times it's very effective to be able to isolate elements of a landscape. Also, if you've never used an ultrawide lens, they take thought and planning to make the most of them. Just shooting a wide shot to capture the majesty of a scenic vista almost always produces disappointing results that don't measure up to your memory. Instead, have a very close subject in the frame to draw the eye into the image.

I think what neuro said is especially true in the mountains. You'll probably be impressed by the wonderful mountains in Peru, but if you only take pictures at 10-15mm, they'll end up looking very small and unimpressive on your shots, especially those in the distance. Your pictures will not represent your memories at all.

I live in a quite mountainous region, and when I had my 450D, the 15-85mm was great for this kind of photography. It's wide enough on the wide end to allow you to take nice landscapes if you get an opportunity, and the 85mm on the tele end gives a lot of versatility to play with perspective. The only downside is that this lens isn't fast at all, but the 50 1.8 could be there if you need a fast lens.

I hope you'll have a great trip in this wonderful country.

[eldarhau]

Here are a couple of videos discussing the issues with wide angel photography (there are many more). As you can see in No.2, there are lots of things you can do in Photoshop in post processing. But as with most things in life, there is no free lunch. You just have to practice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2tDU5A36ac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9uu_K1zDCg

Below you´ll find some photo stitch videos (again, there are lots of them on youtube). There are lots of SW packages, including Canon´s own, for this purpose.
If you get the 24-105L, you will not get the wide angel you are looking for. But, if you stitch multiple images (only 2 or 3 is normally sufficient), you don´t run into the same wide angel distortion problems you´ll get with the 10-22 (at the wide end). And by stitching 2-3 images together, you can get spectacular wide angel images, distortion free, with incredible resolution and detail. It requires some post processing, but that is half the fun. If you go to a place like Machu Pichu and take the time to get this right, you can make very impressive large format prints and have memories for life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmSw1p4LSwg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGf10N5seEM

Have fun
Eldar

[Kayaker72]

First off, congrats. Peru is on my list of places to go. But you haven't told us much about where you are going and what you will be shooting. It does make a difference as a trip to Peru could include Amazon jungle, Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca (always wanted to see the floating villages since seeing a documentary on them as a kid), Nazca Lines, Andes Mountains, beaches, and/or city-scapes.

I own both the EFS 10-22 and EFS 15-85 and I am with the others and recommend you get the EFS 15-85. I use the 15-85 for travel and it is great. In fact, almost all my non-animal shots are with the 15-85. Animals are almost always @400 mm on the 100-400L. The 15-85 is very sharp and covers a wide range of focal lengths that will let you frame many difference subjects in the standard zoom range. It also has IS, which will help in certain circumstances for non-moving subjects or subjects you want to blur. You ask if 15 mm is wide enough, short answer is yes. I bought the EFS 10-22 a year ago and honestly, I probably need to watch those videos or sell the 10-22. I hardly use the EFS 10-22 as most of my wide angle shots on my 7D are in the 15-24 mm range. Worse, I typically haven't liked the results from the 10-22 when I do use it. So I highly recommend getting either the 15-85 or the 17-55. As others have pointed out the 17-55 would essentially eliminate the need for the 50 mm f/1.8 (which isn't that sharp until f/2.8 anyway). If you are planning on spend a lot of time in low light (jungles are amazingly dark), I'd go with the 17-55. If you are out and about in the mountains/cities/lakes, I'd go with the 15-85.

Getting back to the rest of your proposed kit. I guess I am not seeing the purpose of the 50 f/1.8. Unless you are planning on taking a lot of photos of people, I imagine wanting to shoot in the f/8-f/11 range to get you a greater Dof to capture the entire scene for most of your shots. If you want a 50 mm prime, I'd spend a bit more and get the 50 f/1.4. It gives you another stop or more of usable aperture (it is sharp by f/2 vs f/2.8 for the f/1.8). I own both (about to sell my 50 f/1.8) and use the 50 f/1.4 a lot more because of better AF and the fact it is sharper at f/2.

Also, have you considered filters? A good CPL or a graduated ND filter (Singh Ray or Lee 2 or 3 stop hard edge ND) may be very useful for shooting landscapes. Also a 6 to 10 stop ND filter could help if you plan on shooting waterfalls in the daylight or to blur away people at, say Manchu Picchu. Also, a good tripod could be very useful (and necessary for shutter speeds of greater than ~0.4 sec on the 15-85). Even if you just have a gorillapod, I would at least have something.

Good luck and enjoy the trip!

[d0051m]

Hey, thanks all for the responses. A bit more about the holiday: we will be visiting some cities but also most of the holiday will be spent trekking in the mountains to Machu Picchu and then about a week in the amazon, so quite a varied itinerary. I have a set of grad cokin ND filters and a solid 4 stop. They are rectangular so not that travel friendly! Got a cp for the kit lens and the 70-200mm. From everything that has been said I'm leaning towards taking a 15-85 and 70-200 f4. Any more thoughts would be appreciaited.

[thekingb]

Any more thoughts would be appreciaited.

Do you have good waterproof carry cases, bags, etc? The Amazon could be hard on your gear - but totally worth it! Having 15-200mm covered is good. And a pretty light combo too.

[d0051m]

I'm now looking in to bags. I have a rucksack, lowepro one already but not sure how waterproof it is. I really want to take some starscapes so do I have the correct lens choice and does anyone have some tips? Cheers

[NFLD Stephen]

Hey, thanks all for the responses. A bit more about the holiday: we will be visiting some cities but also most of the holiday will be spent trekking in the mountains to Machu Picchu and then about a week in the amazon, so quite a varied itinerary. I have a set of grad cokin ND filters and a solid 4 stop. They are rectangular so not that travel friendly! Got a cp for the kit lens and the 70-200mm. From everything that has been said I'm leaning towards taking a 15-85 and 70-200 f4. Any more thoughts would be appreciaited.

Sounds like you're on the right track. I went to Peru a couple years ago and brought the 450d (aka XSi) with the 15-85, 70-200 f4 IS and 1.4x teleconverter. I also had a circular polarizer for the 15-85. I found this kit to be quite versatile. Depending on what you primarily intend to shoot there could be better setups, but this one gives a good focal length range for a very diverse country! It is also not overly heavy or bulky (which is definately a concern when hiking to Machu Picchu). In the amazon, longer lenses are very nice, but keep in mind that it is often very wet (it is a rainforest) and can be quite dark under the tree canopy. So unless you can move up to the (expensive) tele's (ie the 300 2.8 I suspect would be great there) then this kit will still give great shots.

Another consideration might be to take a small travel tripod. I used a gorillapod with a manfrotto ballhead. I find these great for travelling as they don't take up much space or weight but still allow tripod shots (with a little creativity in finding something to hang the gorillapod from).

For a bag, I took a lowepro toploader which fit the camera and one lens mounted and the other lens I had in a separate lowepro lens case (which could attach to the toploader). I also took a regular daypack which would fit both the toploader and lenscase (along with water, food, jacket, etc). This had the advantage of being able to carry just the toploader (with the camera and one lens) or attaching the lenscase to bring the other lens or carrying everything in the daypack (which also conceals the fact that you have an expensive camera with you).

Hope you have a good trip.

Stephen

[d0051m]

Hi All

An update on the kit list now, please tell me what I am missing!

Canon 450d
3 x battery
4 x 8gb memory cards
Remote shutter
70-200mm f/4 L lens with circular polariser
15-85mm efs lens only uv filter as yet
Also need a bag!

Thanks,

Edd

[DavidEccleston]

Unless you have a laptop to transfer pictures to, maybe more memory cards. Do you need a flash? A tripod?

[ahab1372]

A cpl for the 15-85, maybe a ND as well for long exposures.
At least take a gorilla pod