Lens Suggestions for New York / Boston / DC

I am making a trip to New York / Boston / DC over the next few weeks and are looking for 3 lenses to bring with me (packing relatively light this time round ). I plan to bring a 5D3 and have a 11-24L, 24L II, 24-70L II, 70-200L II, 100-400L II and the Otus 55 and 85 primes. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

you have a nice selection fo lenses, but for my type of shooting, I would think that you could leave the long lenses at home.

If it was me...I would probably choose the 11-24, 24-70, otus 85
but that is my style...
what are you interested in shooting? people? landmarks? nature (outside of the cities, mostly)

Yep as above Seems to me to be a sensible choice.

frankchn wrote in post #17740788
I am making a trip to New York / Boston / DC over the next few weeks and are looking for 3 lenses to bring with me (packing relatively light this time round ). I plan to bring a 5D3 and have a 11-24L, 24L II, 24-70L II, 70-200L II, 100-400L II and the Otus 55 and 85 primes. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

By light do you mean no tripod?

Im not sure how you focus a Otus on a 5D3 using a narrow DoF on a Canon 5D3 handheld - and if you are not using a narrow DoF then not sure it is even worth considering. Now, on a Sony A7Rii, I would bring the 55 Otus for sure for handheld work.

The scale of NY and Washington for sure I can see wanting to bring the 11-24L - but for me it would come down to the type of day I wanted to have, how much walking, how much do I want to think about my gear, etc. I'm loving one of my new favourite setups the Sony A7Rii with the Canon 24-70L II - with panos and cropping you can do anything with that 1 setup.

If I trusted my hotel rooms, then the other idea is that I would have a light and then a full setup if I really wanted to carry stuff

Light
- 24L II on the camera

Heavy Full Setup
- 11-24L on the Camera
- Otus 55 and 100-400II in the bag with a light tripod

Lenses I would not bring
- 70-200 and Otus 85 (I would rather have longer (100-400) or shorter 24 or 55 (where you are going)

Yup -- no tripod for me this time. I found that the manual focus assist (i.e. pressing the AF button and manually focusing until the camera beeps/VF lights up) is actually fairly accurate once I MFA'd the camera+lens combo. I am generally interested in shooting landscapes and people, so I am not sure I will use the longer end too much.

Strange question.

Having such a great selection of lenses means you have been in the hobby/business long enough to know that the answer depends on what you want to shoot and what you objectives are.

So... what do you want to photograph? What is your style? What are your interests?

It doesn't seem like you're concerned with weight, so I'd side with bringing as wide a range as I could. In downtown, you may have instances of wanting wide angle, but then there may be instances where you want a telephoto to focus on something in the skyline. Or say you're in Boston, near the Charles River, and see a nice boat that demands a telephoto. Lets face it, vacation for a DSLR photog means keeping a large camera bag with you at all times

I usually go for landscapes/architectur​e and a bit of street photography on these trips (I usually photograph theater/performance arts and sports -- so not a very versatile photographer). I am currently thinking of the 11-24, 24-70 and one of the primes and that should cover most of what I need.

You need wide in NYC. Especially downtown....Don't tell me I didn't tell ya

I recently did NYC and DC with just a 35mm F2 IS and 70-200L f4 on a 6D. Didn't feel that I missed out on any shots.

For DC I would pack put the 24-70 on the camera and have the 11-24 and 70-200 if you don't mind going that "light". For just about everything you will want to shoot the 24-70 will cover it.

While you are there check out the monuments at night. They are a very different look than during the day.