Suggested Equipment for an Alaskan Cruise

[Photo-John]

Personally I would favor a three stop ND grad, Cokin P mount, before a polarizer. A polarizer can cause weird color shifts. Your landscapes will be far better balanced with a grad filter.
I think your lens line up is fine and also that the 40-150mm and 50mm could stay behind.
A back up charger, batteries and memory cards. You can't go back cover your bases.

The backup charger, extra batteries and memory cards are a great idea. You can't be too careful on a big, expensive trip.

On the rest of the stuff, I disagree with Greg. I do a lot of telephoto landscape photography of mountains. The telephoto lens allows you to get close to things you otherwise just wouldn't be able to. I also think the compression of a telephoto lens is nice for mountain photos.

I also disagree about the polarizer. A polarizer just does stuff that can't be done with normal filters and software. This is especially true where water and snow are involved. I say, bring the ND grad filter if you want (although - that I can accomplish in Photoshop or Lightroom), but definitely take a polarizer, too. Polarizers are the only filters I ever use.

[Greg McCary]

Well John I saw he has the 70-300mm that's why I advised against the 40-150mm. Thats double coverage and the 70-300 mm lens is a better lens from what I remember. The 40-150mm being a kit lens.
Also you shoot a heck of a lot more snow than I do so maybe my emitting the polarizer was a bad idea. Even at that being so small of an item one should be on the trip. Sorry about that Erik.

The backup charger, extra batteries and memory cards are a great idea. You can't be too careful on a big, expensive trip.

On the rest of the stuff, I disagree with Greg. I do a lot of telephoto landscape photography of mountains. The telephoto lens allows you to get close to things you otherwise just wouldn't be able to. I also think the compression of a telephoto lens is nice for mountain photos.

I also disagree about the polarizer. A polarizer just does stuff that can't be done with normal filters and software. This is especially true where water and snow are involved. I say, bring the ND grad filter if you want (although - that I can accomplish in Photoshop or Lightroom), but definitely take a polarizer, too. Polarizers are the only filters I ever use.

[Photo-John]

Well John I saw he has the 70-300mm that's why I advised against the 40-150mm.

Whoops - I forgot he had the 70-300mm. My mistake. In that case, yes - leave the 40-150mm at home. But still take the polarizer. And no need to apologize, Greg. It's ok if we disagree here

[Erik_Olympus]

Thanks again for the advice. Just a few days left before I leave!

As it turns out, I had some unexpected expenses in the past month, so I didn't buy the 14-54 lens. I'm going to have to make due with the kit lens. I did invest in a polarizer for my wide angle lens and I also bought a cheap but decent pair of binoculars. I think those were more important than upgrading the lens.

I am now thinking about taking the 50mm though, as it's technically my highest quality lens and I also feel very confident using it. I just need to make everything fit!

[Photo-John]

As it turns out, I had some unexpected expenses in the past month, so I didn't buy the 14-54 lens. I'm going to have to make due with the kit lens. I did invest in a polarizer for my wide angle lens and I also bought a cheap but decent pair of binoculars. I think those were more important than upgrading the lens.

I am now thinking about taking the 50mm though, as it's technically my highest quality lens and I also feel very confident using it. I just need to make everything fit!

I understand the unexpected expenses. And I think you'll do just fine if you take the kit lens and the 70-300. The 50mm will be nice if you get a chance to get off the ship and shoot some wildflowers, or if you're out in low light. But personally, I would be more concerned with coverage than glass quality. If you've got room for it, take it. If not, don't worry about it.

Good luck with the packing. I'm really looking forward to seeing your photos and getting a trip report. I've been thinking about doing an Alaskan cruise for a long time. I'm really more of a road trip guy. But for Alaska, a cruise seems like an efficient way to see a lot of stuff.

[Erik_Olympus]

I think with Alaska, a cruise is a good way to get your "feet wet" so to speak (hey, they do get a lot of rain in Southeast Alaska). I imagine I'll be itching to explore more than just where the cruise ships take you.

As I was starting to get my gear together I was rethinking the lens strategy a bit. I definitely want the wide angle lens and definitely need the long telephoto zoom. I'd also like to take the 50mm because it's my best lens. If I went with the 9-18, the 50 and the 70-300, I'd have a lot covered and the holes between 18 and 50 and 50 and 70 don't seem insurmountable to me.

[Erik_Olympus]

I got back from my cruise on Saturday and it was absolutely fabulous. Southeast Alaska is such a beautiful place. I'll be posting some photos soon. However, I was disappointed with a lot of the shots. Lighting was very difficult to deal with and it seemed like I went from underexposed to overexposed very easily. There also was a lot of haze in the distance so those wide landscape shots seem hazy. Not surprising since that's what it actually looked like, but it doesn't make for the greatest pictures.

I also seemed to have more trouble than normal focusing. Quite a few shots that should have been easy to capture came out blurry, especially using the long telephoto. Although maybe that's to be expected on board a moving ship using a hand held 300mm lens.

I did manage to capture a nice sequence of a large glacier calving, which I would say was probably the highlight of the trip. I had it on burst mode and captured about a 10 frame sequence.

Any tips for processing hazy photos or for displaying a series of photos to show action?

By the way, most of my shots were taken with the 9-18mm and the 70-300mm. I did use the kit lens for capturing family shots, and the 50mm came in handy a couple of times. I'm glad I could fit everything and that I was able to utlilize it all.