My first overseas trip with the D70s - what I learnt

[losfp]

Just got home from a 2-week trip to Malaysia/Singapore visiting relatives etc after an absence of 12 years. This was the D70s' first outing, after having barely a month to get used to its controls, and to SLRs in general.

The contents of my Lowepro MicroTrekker 200:

- D70s
- Kit 18-70
- 70-300G
- 50/1.8
- SB-800

Some of my discoveries:

- It is a real arse to keep changing lenses all the time. When you're standing in a busy street in Kuala Lumpur, or Penang, sometimes you might want to shoot the street scene, followed by a portrait of a stall-owner. Not the best time/place to fumble around for different lenses, lens caps, etc etc... which leads me to:
- Backpack camera bags tend to have a lousy design for quick access. If you have it on your back, you have to pretty much take it off your back and put it down somewhere to change lenses. Unless of course you go for the "here is my lovely assistant, with the camera bag on HER back" approach, which really only works until she gets sick of lugging YOUR camera crap around. So most of the time, the lens I used was....
- The 18-70 is a stunner for a kit lens. Probably 95% of my shots were with it. Looks like I take most shots between 18-35, with ocassional shots at 50-70 for longer portraits
- When I have time, the 50/1.8 is a great little lens. Sharp as hell for portraits. Thanks to the maximum f/1.8 aperture, I even got a couple of (I think) passable shots at the Singapore Night Safari.
- When I needed the extra reach, I got mostly decent results from the 70-300G. Unfortunately, that's provided you have plenty of lighting so you can shoot at an aperture of f/8, f/11 or so. I had a hell of a time at Batu Caves in KL. Due to the lousy lighting in the caves and the lens' max f/5.6 at 300mm, all I got was mostly dark, soft images. Worth packing for the size/weight/price advantage though.
- Curse you, affordable flash memory cards... I came back with 6.2GB of photos, about 1700 images in all. Still have to sort through them all.
- If you can help it, bring along a laptop with a cd or dvd burner, and keep burning backups of your images. I had a minor scare in Singapore when I thought my hard disk was starting to go down the gurgler, with 1000 of my holiday snaps. Turns out the noise was just the fan, which has since mysteriously fixed itself, so no harm done.. yet.
- If you have one, bring a compact digital too. There were times when it wasn't appropriate to bring a big DSLR camera, but I got some good shots with my Canon Ixus 400.
- Different lighting will screw with your mind as you try to set the white balance.
- Bracket exposures are a godsend when trying to coordinate lots of family group photos
- Always check your ISO settings if you remember to do it - I never seem to remember to set it BACK to 200 after stepping out of a dark area.
- Nothing beats the sound and feel of a real, physical shutter.

Some photos to come later

[Jonas]

Thanks for the tips Losfp. I'm in the planning stages of a round the world backpacking trip later this year with major stop offs in Vietnam and Cambodia and then Europe.

I will be lugging a proper backpack and have realised I won't be able to take my Crumpler six million dollar home camera bag as my handluggage/daypack as it is not big enough to fit everything else (ie tickets, passports, change of clothes, book, Mp3 player). Am thinking I will need to put my SLR in a daypack backpack and am not looking forward to the lack of access.

The side satchel seems to be the way to go for quick shooting of street scenes.

[DStrom]

- Curse you, affordable flash memory cards... I came back with 6.2GB of photos, about 1700 images in all. Still have to sort through them all.
- If you can help it, bring along a laptop with a cd or dvd burner, and keep burning backups of your images. I had a minor scare in Singapore when I thought my hard disk was starting to go down the gurgler, with 1000 of my holiday snaps. Turns out the noise was just the fan, which has since mysteriously fixed itself, so no harm done.. yet.

Hi losfp,

some good tips there, but I would tend to avoid taking a laptop, as it adds extra bulk and is yet another expensive item to look after. When I last travelled I took an XDrive II (portable hard drive with a battery and card reader built in, I am sure there are much better devices available now that the other forum members could recommend) I found this a much easier then booting up my laptop each time I ran out of card space.

[losfp]

Dave, the laptop is definitely not a great idea if you need to travel light.

However, if you are planning on bringing one anyway, to log on to the internet while you're away, or getting stuck into PPing photos etc while you're on the road, then a laptop provides extra peace of mind, especially if it also has a CD/DVD burner as well.

As I didn't really end up using the laptop much on this trip, I will consider leaving it behind next time, and either bringing more CF cards, or investing in an external storage alternative

[DStrom]

Dave, the laptop is definitely not a great idea if you need to travel light.

However, if you are planning on bringing one anyway, to log on to the internet while you're away, or getting stuck into PPing photos etc while you're on the road, then a laptop provides extra peace of mind, especially if it also has a CD/DVD burner as well.

True, if you are not travelling light, it would save quite a bit of time after I got back to PP on the road, I think maybe my laptop just weighs to much!

[Greg B]

Thnaks for that info losfp.

I am planning a trip to Morocco, and the question of what to take is on my mind. I'm not going for a good while yet, so I have plenty of time to think about it and change my mind lots of times. Oh yeah, and buy a new lens

I don't want to take my mini trekker 200, in fact, I want to take one lens and leave it on the camera. And I won't take the SB800 either.

My issue is - what lens.

The kit lens is fantastic, with a very usable range.

But I am also looking at the 24-120 VR (VR!!) and the recently released but not much heard of 18-200 VR. If the 18-200 is not too big, it could be the one I reckon.

I have the XdriveII also, 40 gig of happiness.

Planning to buy a snout bag to carry the camera.

[losfp]

Greg, I had a chance to have a quick play with my cousin's 18-200VR in Singapore (only about 10 minutes though). So far, I'm pretty impressed. Huge range, with a VR feature that works entirely as advertised! The image quality looks pretty okay to me too, though I do not have the experience and exacting standards of many of the forum members here I've heard that the lens produces soft images, with some distortion at either end. To my untrained eye, the quality looks about the equal of the kit lens.

Having said that though, if you don't absolutely need the tele-range of the 18-200, then I reckon the 18-70 is plenty. I found that most of my shots were in the 18-50mm range, in fact I often wished the kit lens was WIDER.

I think I would love to have the 18-200 as a do-everything lens, but I just can't justify the cost right now when I have the 18-70 that does a similar job for the majority of my shots, just without VR. I think I will save for the Tokina 12-24 or the Nikkor (hah! that one is too expensive too) first.

[squid]

I would second a XDRIVE. Friend of mine bought one from http://www.powerinnumbers.com.au and very happy with it.

I took my laptop overseas once to claim back GST. Never again.

[Greg B]

Greg, I had a chance to have a quick play with my cousin's 18-200VR in Singapore (only about 10 minutes though). So far, I'm pretty impressed. Huge range, with a VR feature that works entirely as advertised! The image quality looks pretty okay to me too, though I do not have the experience and exacting standards of many of the forum members here I've heard that the lens produces soft images, with some distortion at either end. To my untrained eye, the quality looks about the equal of the kit lens.

Having said that though, if you don't absolutely need the tele-range of the 18-200, then I reckon the 18-70 is plenty. I found that most of my shots were in the 18-50mm range, in fact I often wished the kit lens was WIDER.

I think I would love to have the 18-200 as a do-everything lens, but I just can't justify the cost right now when I have the 18-70 that does a similar job for the majority of my shots, just without VR. I think I will save for the Tokina 12-24 or the Nikkor (hah! that one is too expensive too) first.

Thanks for that info - good to get it from someone who has had some hands-on. I hear what you say about using the wide end more, but all other things being kinda equal, having that 200 length for shooting from a bit further back might be damn handy. Having 18-200 available all the time with no lens changes - in the travelling situation - sounds mighty fine.

And I agree, the 12-24 range would be fantastic - maybe one day.

[nito]

It sounds as though you had a great time OS.

My suggestion is next time train you partner on how to change the lens. That way the lens gets changed while you figure a nice angle to take the shot. But, it does mean releasing some control of the camera to you partner for the help.

[DVEous]

... Obsolete ...

[olrac]

it is no suprise that the 18 - 200 is one of the kit options withthe d200 (at least when they are avalible)

[Dug]

Some of my discoveries:

- It is a real arse to keep changing lenses all the time. When you're standing in a busy street in Kuala Lumpur, or Penang, sometimes you might want to shoot the street scene, followed by a portrait of a stall-owner. Not the best time/place to fumble around for different lenses, lens caps, etc etc... which leads me to:


Get to know your camera untill you can change lenses in your sleep.

I hold the camera in my left hand and wrap my right hand round the lens

This allows me to press the release button with the side of my index finger and remove the lens in one simple movement.
Practice untill you can do it anywhere anytime.



- Backpack camera bags tend to have a lousy design for quick access. If you have it on your back, you have to pretty much take it off your back and put it down somewhere to change lenses. Unless of course you go for the "here is my lovely assistant, with the camera bag on HER back" approach, which really only works until she gets sick of lugging YOUR camera crap around. So most of the time, the lens I used was....

Backpacks are great for lugging gear from point A to point B but hopeless for photographing with. Use a shoulder bag you can access your lenses without putting it down.



- The 18-70 is a stunner for a kit lens. Probably 95% of my shots were with it. Looks like I take most shots between 18-35, with occasional shots at 50-70 for longer portraits

18 70 is a great lens I wish it was just a bit faster f2.8 would be perfect

- Different lighting will screw with your mind as you try to set the white balance.
- Bracket exposures are a godsend when trying to coordinate lots of family group photos
- Always check your ISO settings if you remember to do it - I never seem to remember to set it BACK to 200 after stepping out of a dark area.
- Nothing beats the sound and feel of a real, physical shutter.

Amen to these

[paulvdb1]

I'm just in Changi Airport right now - going home in a few hours. I took my 35/f2 with me and nothing else. I actually found that it met about 95% of my needs. I agree that Nikon would make a mint if they could sell an affordable 18-70 f2.8.

Re storage, I've got the laptop with me so I dump to the hard drive every night. Hopefully I've got some keepers out of my 1000 shots.

On the other story of Nikon's profits - you can well believe that when you are in Singapore. Every male worth his salt has a Nikon hanging round is neck with at least $1000-2000 worth of lens on it. I only saw 1 Canon on a tourist in 1 week!!! What scares me is that some of these hobby photogs have a D2x hanging round their neck!! What gives?? Was Santa feeling rich this year?

[Dug]

What scares me is that some of these hobby photogs have a D2x hanging round their neck!! What gives?? Was Santa feeling rich this year?

Everyone knows if you have an expensive camera you take better photos!!!

It is status I guess like driving a BMW or Porsche !

[NewbieD70]

I hear you mate.. having just got back myself... although I made a bit of a compromise with the lens and took my 28-200 ED (3.5-5.6) this was a beaut little number and very crisp, saved me heaps of mucking around with changing lenses.

As for back packs, I used my Lowepro Microtrekka, It is a single strap bag and slides around from your back to front with an easy large centre flap opening for quick access... With the iso, I`m afraid I`m guilty of using the auto function....

I did however take a laptop and dump pics onto it at the end of the day, having only a 1 g and 256 mg cards.

But, having said all that, it is just the best wandering around with the d70 snapping away.

[rookie2]

A great thread for us newbies ..or rookies for us who apsired to be sportsmen (now aspiring to be sports photographers)

really useful info and handy as we prepare for a short trip to malaysia in a couple of months. Lens lust hits fever pitch thinking of more 'bargains' to buy in KL but one of the best things about this forum is the advice from wisened heads about (not) rushing in to buy more lenses in order to take better photos. (and buying from birddog if you are overcome with LL)
I'm just starting to get used to the kit lens capabilities and realising how versatile it is.
I have the 70 -300 ED mainly for sports shots. in time would love one of the VRs but happy to keep snapping and learning..I also have a 50 1.4 and hope that will be useful in lieu of not having a SB600/800..sounds like you guys survived OK with out one (and all the accompanying batteries!!)

re the backpack I have been using a lowepro Slingshot 200 AW and really happy with it - just wish I had in previous trips especially when cycling. highly recommend it for ease of use/access without taking off, storage space (smaller one available) and comfort.

ditto on the compact - my sony DSC V1 (on Auto) definitely takes more consistent shots than I do on the D70 - hoping that will change over time as I learn more..also handy for audio/video of course.

good advice once again from you all

cheers

Rookie 2