Road to Hana

Need lens advise and accessories, buy a tour package or rent a car. We are heading to Maui 06/08 for 7 days vacation. Is Graduated filter necessary or CPL is good enough?

For road to Hana this is what I want to bring my 17-55mm , 10-22 and 70-200mm along with my tripod/acratech ballhead. pair of 603's for wireless shutter remote a CPL, 7D and 1DMK II. As for family pictures my wife will bring her t2i and 18-200mm.

I figured with all these stuff it is better to rent a car so we don't have to follow or hurry up in every stop compare to joining a tour.

Back in the day, I'd rent a car and start early. I couldn't tell you how many times I did the trip over the years.

Maui no ka oi

Aloha

drive, that way you can take your time and stop whenever you feel like it.
CPL will come handy, ND filter if you plan on doing long exposure as well.
start early, around 7am before the bus tours start.
black sand and red sand beach are a must stop

Rent a car. You can be more in control and have some more "private" time at your stops.

windpig wrote in post #16949362
Back in the day, I'd rent a car and start early. I couldn't tell you how many times I did the trip over the years.

Maui no ka oi

Aloha

taemo wrote in post #16949391
drive, that way you can take your time and stop whenever you feel like it.
CPL will come handy, ND filter if you plan on doing long exposure as well.
start early, around 7am before the bus tours start.
black sand and red sand beach are a must stop

lance60031x wrote in post #16949406
Rent a car. You can be more in control and have some more "private" time at your stops.

Great thank you all. Renting a car and start early really make sense, I appreciate it. Will make sure I bring my CPL.

A lot or reviews online advise to go back before it gets dark.

I am adding black sand and red sand in our must stop list. Thanks Taemo.

I just got back from Maui. Spent one full day (5:00am - 9:00pm) shooting with acclaimed landscape photographer Scott Reither. We went the back way into Hana and avoided most of the tourists and traffic. The rental car companies will tell you these roads are impassable...that's BS! They are a little bumpy in spots but are completely paved and very drivable.

I took a 5DII, 17-40, 24-105, a Lee 3-stop soft grad, a 10-stop ND, a 6-stop ND, a C-pol, and a tripod with a remote shutter release. I left all the rest of my kit at the hotel and didn't want for anything else on the trip. Don't leave anything in your rental car! Bring a good lens cleaning system with you. Scott had me try some individually packaged disposable wipes and they were great for getting salt spray off the elements and filters. If you are going to hike more than ten minutes away from your car, bring water.

I agree on the get back before dark. Scott has lived there over 20 years. He drove those roads like a wild man, even after dark. The few times we came up on a tourist after dark, they were not inclined to go more than about 10mph. I would avoid the stress of driving that road at night!

Bob

Rent a car. Drive slowly.
No body mentioned here, so I write here. Take an umbrella, poncho and something to protect your gear from the RAIN. Must Visit Garden of Eden on the way.
All I had 5Dc+ 17-40 + 100mm for the trip. I guess that was enough.
http://pradipkar.zenfo​lio.com/p472740678

Stay in Hana overnight and come back the next day. Do not do the to and fro in one day. You'll appreciate it much more.

Rent a car X1000.... Last year we went to Maui and rented a car for the whole time, We ended up driving the Road to hana twice because it was so nice. We stopped a lot of places and took in the experience. I would suggest taking a CPL, a ND filter if you would like to get some slow flowing water. When I went I took my 5dmkIII, 17-40mm L, 24-105mm, Sigma 35mm and a 70-200mm f/2.8 Most of my shots were witht eh 17-40mm and 24-105mm using a cpl and the ND Filter (6 stop). The road is really easy to drive just take it slow so you dont miss anything awesome!

I will also echo bring rain gear, It can rain at any moment there.

I do this drive every November, and have probably 10,000 pictures from the various trips.

-Rent a car.
-Start early, as in, before sunrise.
-It rains back there everyday, be prepared for it but don't let it stop you.
-Do the 7 Sacred Pools and the 2 mile walk through the bamboo forest to Makahiku Falls.
-Don't turn around at the 7 Sacred Pools. Keep going around the back part of the island. Incredible landscape scenes back there.
-For gear, this last November I took a hiking backpack with my 6D, 17-40L, 24-105L, 70-300L, ND filters and lightweight CF tripod. The 17-40L was perfect for hikes, and the 24-105L was great for my wife to hold in the passenger seat to get shots out the window. The 70-300L never left the backpack. My guess is your 7D & 17-55 will do for 90% of the trip.

Oh, and have fun! So many various opportunities for great photography as well as a fun trip for the rest of the family.

Hana is beautiful, I would also suggest going up Haleakala (the volcano) and getting some very wide sweeping shots during the golden hours. Can't go wrong. I'd be happy with just the UWA, tripod, and the bag of filters. But I'm bias toward the wide angle :/

Heya,

Being that you're there for vacation and not there to just shoot, I would say no to all the filters. I say that as someone who uses ND filters outside all the time. My reasoning is that the graduated filter will be your best friend, both soft & hard, and reverse ND grad and not-reverse, depends on whether you use a wide lens for this or not. Bottom line though, is that fiddling with filters and setting up your shot takes precious time. It's probably faster, and more vacation-friendly to simply take two exposures so that you can blend them later for a perfectly exposed composite (expose for sky, expose for foreground; blend). Just take the CPL. Just be aware of it's effects on ultrawides like the 10-22.

I'd probably just roll one lens, probably the 10-22, and a telephoto in the bag if you feel the need. I've always liked wider lenses on vacation, more context, and more family shots with context too. Just a thought.

Very best,

I was there a few years ago and ended up taking a tour on a small bus. Totally agree with the others, renting a car would have been much better. The driver was knowledgeable about facts but just couldn't stop at every place I would have liked to photograph. Photographing a small waterfalls through a bus window is very frustrating to say the least.

Rent a car is by far the best option. Gives you time to stop when and where you want.

At first you will stop at every waterfall. But you will get waterfall burnout quickly.

I totally agree about starting early. We had a great breakfast in Paia. There are plenty of placed to research the a Road to Hana on the web.

You should consider a fast lens as well. The rainforest is very heavy vegetated. It also is overcast a lot as well as rainy. So there are plenty of lowlight conditions, even if it is sunny.

As beautiful as the the road to Hana, make sure you get to see the sunrise on Haleakala. Do that early in your trip as you have to get up real early to make the drive to the top. Seeing a sunrise there is really something special.

Maui is truly a special place. Hope you have a great time. By the way, near Paia is a great windsurfing beach. You can get dome great action shots on that beach.

I 2nd the idea of staying overnight in Hana, you won't regret it and you will be able to take your time, The sunrises in Hana are amazing. Definitely Take another day and drive up to Haleakala, it is like another planet.