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I took reader advice and arranged to rent a 100-400 mm. IS lens. Now, this combination weighs nearly 10 lb. and I'm wondering about using a monopod. I understand from reading that engine and other vibration (people walking by) would render tripods less than effective on board ship though I wonder if that still applies with an IS lens.
With a monopod, the deck could vibrate up and down but couldn't introduce any rotatory movements other than slow rolling of the ship so it might help steady pictures beyond what the IS can do - and the IS would help. I could even consider putting something soft on the bottom of the tripod to cushion against said vibration but that might introduce other movements. Anyone have any experience?
Perhaps a tripod with the legs all together and sitting on my foot would be the ideal - just enough cushioning, don't need a separate tripod and extra ball head - I might just experiment with my 300 mm. lens and see what shutter speeds I can get away with.
I'm curious about photographing the ship itself - while on board - anyone with any experience?
I'll be storing images on an Epson 2000 but this only gives me one copy of images so I'll take along my Mac laptop too. It can handle raw files extra software and can burn DVD's for me as backup. Theoretically that makes the epson redundant but carrying the Epson in the field means not having to buy extra cards.
Looks like for lenses, I'll be taking the 24-70 (I'd like the 24-105 but not enough to pay for it), the 100-400 and I'm still tempted to take the 70-200 since it is noticeably sharper in it's range. It's heavy though, hmmm.
I'll take my sensor brush and spinner, lens cleaning equipment, a mini trecker bag, a polarizer (not for skies, for water reflections - to boost or minimize, depending). I'll take my nodal slider - the tripod bracket that lets me stitch.
I presume that there is 110 volts on board for charging camera batteries - for razors if nothing else. I'll check.
Wonder if I can get any semi - abstract images of the ship - or even of the engine room - I hear there are tours.
Whole new experience, starting to get a little excited.
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5 comments:
I went on a cruise a year ago but only took a little tabletop tripod which I rarely used. Lots of snapshots, not many cases where I wanted to take the time to setup on a tripod, much less stitch.
I don't honestly know the answer, but it seems likely that the vibration on board ship would be too high frequency for IS. I've asked myself the same thing about its effectiveness with mirror slap but haven't taken the time to test it.
In Dec I rented a 100-400 for a workshop. The IS on that lens is a couple generations old now. It didn't really seem like I was getting the claimed 2 stops, and when they say not to use it on a tripod you should believe them. It may actually be OK on a ship, but on solid ground or on a wooden platform it definitely didn't behave. Footsteps on the platform helped. (In case you're curious, it would drift to the limit of travel and stay there until bumped)
Power should not be a problem on board. You might want to bring a small power strip since you'll have several things to plug in.
There may be opportunities for abstracts, but if it's like our cruise there will be too many people around. You're on a small, floating city.
Aaron
Aaron:
your comments much appreciated. Yes, I had suspected things would be pretty crowded, did think I might get up really early and see what I could do but will plan more for shore.
For my last vacation I used one of the small usb powered harddisks for backups. A lot more convenient than DVD burning, and definitely making phototanks redundant if you're schlepping a notebook anyways.
I had one of these: http://www.lacie.com/ca/products/product.htm?pid=10686
Costs less than US$120 a piece.
IME, a tripod isolates movement too much for IS to work. High frequency stuff, such as engines, doesn't really introduce noticeable movements, but enought, maybe, to blur images (kind of like continuous mirror slap).
with a monopod, you introduce just enough movement for IS to work but not so much that image quality or hit rate drops. A carbon fibre 'pod would hep further with high freq stuff (not sure for CF tripod, don't have one at the moment).
Personally, I like to use a monopod as the third tripod leg, me providing the other 2.
George -
I don't think you mentioned the size of cruise ship you will be on, but my experience on Coral Princess two years ago was that in the Inside Passage, and especially places like Glacier Bay, the ship moves so slowly that there is virtually no vibration or even sense of movement to the point that I set up my tripod on our balcony and got some wonderful shots ( www.tomdills.com/alaska.html ). While on deck I had my 20D and either my 24-70 or 70-200 on a monopod and it was fine. The biggest problem was breaking away long enough to eat and sleep!
Tom Dills
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