Whole lot of L Lenses, which 2 for trip to Florida

hi everyone,
please recommend me which lenses i should be carrying while traveling to US this September. Lens list in my signature

thanks alot
warm regards

Florida is a pretty big state. Are you going to be in the cities, the theme parks, the back rural/swamp areas, the beaches?

Yes, mostly theme parks in Orlando. City life and Beaches

turbolover wrote in post #18419282
hi everyone,
please recommend me which lenses i should be carrying while traveling to US this September. Lens list in my signature

thanks alot
warm regards

Small & wide. Or a waterproof point & shoot even.

It's going to be raining & humid and hot as all get out. The humidity will take your breath away. The rain will keep your 5D3 in a bag. Most parks have water elements too, to help cool people down (mist spraying near fans, etc), so again, you will probably be constantly wiping your lens or putting it away for a lot of the moments.

Maybe save the good stuff for when you're on the beach. In a theme park, I'd just leave it at the hotel locked up or something and carry a small rugged P&S or good smartphone. The theme parks are going to be crowded elbow to elbow anyways.

If you still take your 5D3 and something into a park, take ultrawide. You'll get zero use of a long focal length with your family in these places. Save that for the beach or something. Take the 16-35 into a park if you really must have a dSLR in there. I would'nt take anything else.

I live in Florida. Which parks are you going to? Which beach?

Very best,

thanks alolt for input. we had a internet connectivity problem in pakistan due to fibreoptics damage so i couldnt follow.
small and wide...very true and i know the 5d3 is a large body to carry.
i was thinking to carry 8-15 fisheye zoom and a 24-70 2.8 and no other long lens. Do u think 16-35 will be better and i wont miss the 24-70. have recently upgraded to iphone7. Or may be i can drop 8-15 and carry 16-35 and for fisheyes take along a gopro

its a 15 day family trip with my wife and youngst daughter so mostly be moving around disneyworld, sea world and universal studio. No specific beach, still planning on that (suggestion plz). thinking about a drive till hollywood for a day or 2 and drive back. than a few days in houston for space center etc

Personal preference, but, I'd take the 16-35 and that's it. You will be elbow-to-elbow with other people. And if you want to have images of your family and the park/environment you're in, it will take really wide angles. I would use your iPhone to record any fun shows or rides you get on with your family (built in stabilization, much more speed of setting up and getting to recording, easier to hold over people's heads for a while and not fatigue, etc). I'd use the dSLR & 16-35 merely for family photos that you think you may want to print later for memory purposes.

You'll be pretty close to Cocoa Beach. I would go there. It's small, it's a strip with a bunch of mom-and-pop restaurants, old Florida look and feel to most of it, very "island time" theme. Great beach.

I use the dSLR+lens+Flash outside of the park mostly, where I can use the environment and have just us and not everyone else all hot and sweaty in the photos, at the beach, court yards in nice areas, etc. I don't bother in the parks, they're just too crowded and everyone will be hot & sweaty and there's just too many people. Not the kind of photos I want to bother using a dSLR to get since they're not the kind I'd want to bother doing much with other than seeing later for a moment. You'll see an ocean of weirdly dressed, hot & sweaty people, with weird facial expressions, backpacks, plastic cups, hats, etc, like an ocean. Just not something I'd care to capture around my kids & wife. But again, just a preference. To me, that's what smart phones are for, or little waterproof P&S's. But today's smart phones are often water resistant or can be in a case for it, so you can enjoy the rain & water rides and get wet. I find images of the kids having fun, candid, is far more memorable than trying to get formal "stand as a family" photos near "photo op" locations.

Very best,

MalVeauX wrote in post #18421154
Personal preference, but, I'd take the 16-35 and that's it. You will be elbow-to-elbow with other people. And if you want to have images of your family and the park/environment you're in, it will take really wide angles. I would use your iPhone to record any fun shows or rides you get on with your family (built in stabilization, much more speed of setting up and getting to recording, easier to hold over people's heads for a while and not fatigue, etc). I'd use the dSLR & 16-35 merely for family photos that you think you may want to print later for memory purposes.

You'll be pretty close to Cocoa Beach. I would go there. It's small, it's a strip with a bunch of mom-and-pop restaurants, old Florida look and feel to most of it, very "island time" theme. Great beach.

I use the dSLR+lens+Flash outside of the park mostly, where I can use the environment and have just us and not everyone else all hot and sweaty in the photos, at the beach, court yards in nice areas, etc. I don't bother in the parks, they're just too crowded and everyone will be hot & sweaty and there's just too many people. Not the kind of photos I want to bother using a dSLR to get since they're not the kind I'd want to bother doing much with other than seeing later for a moment. You'll see an ocean of weirdly dressed, hot & sweaty people, with weird facial expressions, backpacks, plastic cups, hats, etc, like an ocean. Just not something I'd care to capture around my kids & wife. But again, just a preference. To me, that's what smart phones are for, or little waterproof P&S's. But today's smart phones are often water resistant or can be in a case for it, so you can enjoy the rain & water rides and get wet. I find images of the kids having fun, candid, is far more memorable than trying to get formal "stand as a family" photos near "photo op" locations.

Very best,

thanks alot. very useful insight and now i am much more confident to carry one and only 16-35 with a smartphone for the entire trip
regards

Bring a flash, even if it a small one. Florida is sunny, so fill flash can make a huge difference in backlit situations.

I will second the above advice about going to Cocoa Beach. I live about 30 minutes from there, nice little town and good beaches. While you are in Cocoa Beach, I would suggest going to Kennedy Space Center as it is only about a 30 minute drive from Cocoa Beach. I see you mentioned driving to Hollywood and Houston, if you mean Hollywood California that is going to take you about 3 - 4 days to drive depending on how long you drive each day.

I had a similar dilemma before travelling to Disney this year. My thoughts for the parks are as follows:

Firstly do not take a bag! As others have said it is very warm an humid, 6 hours walking around the parks is hard enough without adding weight, I used a thinktank Pro speed belt with a body bag and occasionally a lowepro lens exchange 200 (wonky in animal kingdom for carrying the 70-200 f4 which I used on the safari, that was the only time I used it). Also security check your bags when going into the parks.

The rest of the time I used a 16-35mm f4 (I switched to a Sony A7R2 before the holiday) or a sigma art 35mm for in low light and at night. Trust me Pandora (inside animal kingdom) is worth a visit at night. I wish I had a faster wide angle for this part though. I also bought a small flash for fill but tbh I haven't used it (although I haven't taken many people shots).

With regards to the wet, yes you may get wet, however this can be overcome by using a rain cover or something like the PD Shell (I used a shower cap). 1 last thing if you plan on going on the bigger rides, there isn't much space to stash your gear some rides have a small pouch.