Yosemite first week in May

Hi,

Wow, this place has changed!

Anyway, Yosemite coming up and will have a 6-moth old child on my back most of the time, so I only want to carry one lens, maybe (maybe) two. I'm grabbing landscape shots only.

I have a 5DIII (I see the 5dIV is out, but haven't taken a picture in a year, phht).

I have:
Tokina 11-16 - which is limited on the 5DII because it hits something (forgot which end)
Canon 24mm prime 1.8 or 1.4
Canon 70-200 2.8

Thinking about buying the Canon 24-70, but that's a lot of money for one trip. Although could sell the 70-200, since I have little use for it. It's like 5 years old or more by now though.

Greatly and humbly appreciate opinions.

Welcome back! I've taken a couple of long breaks myself so I appreciate the conundrum you have. Based on what you plan to do (one lens with a 5diii) I'd suggest buying a "white box" canon 24-105 f4 L or Canon 28-135 for even less money and a little more reach. It looks like you want respectable photos at a reasonable cost and either one of these should be just fine.

Thank you Elton!

the 24-105 II seems to be out from what I see, but no one has it in stock.

I used to always go with the widest aperture choice available, but for landscape around F8 and the fact that I'm just not into it like I used to be, as much as it makes me shudder, an F4 lens should be perfect.

I'll take other lenses with me as backup, but this needs to be a vacation. Hiking with lenses; trying to retrieve and change lenses constantly, is not a vacation.

Is the 24-105 sharp in the landscape range?

Resist the temptation to sell your 70-200mm...the child on your back grows quickly to 8 years, and the need for 70-200mm FL might even arise as early as 6-7 years of age, depending upon the child. I have 70-200mm that went on the Canon dSLR when our daughters were in college (didn't have any affordable digital when they were in high school), and it was useful for college sports, theater, graduation, and post graduate degrees. Now the daughters themselves have daughters and sons, and the 70-200mm comes out of mothballs for our grandchildren!

Plan your method of getting into the park carefully. Due to the extreme amount of snow they had this past winter some of the traditional approaches may still be closed the first week of May.

See https://www.nps.gov …anyourvisit/tio​gaopen.htm and https://www.nps.gov …anyourvisit/bas​icinfo.htm (once there expand the "alerts" icon.

Thanks John. I made my plans around route 41. Unfortunate that some things will be closed, but I called the ranger station, and purely opinion of course, but he said glacier point and things aren't as awesome as all the falls in the valley.

Should be an adventure. I like to chase waterfalls, and they should be full on at that time.

thank you Wilt!

I'm not as constantly fanatical about photography as I used to be, but I will follow your wisdom on this one.

Take the 24mm prime and have fun. .. it will be good for environmental portraits and the landscapes and you can stitch what isn't wide enough.

IMHO I'd sell the 24 1.8 and the 11-16. You don't need two 24mm lenses and 11-16 is a specialty lens (does that even work on full frame?). Get yourself a 24-105 II, a 24-70 F4 IS or a 24-70 2.8 II.

I was just at Yosemite in February for two days. I took about 300 pictures. My breakdown was roughly 70% between 24-35mm, 15% at 50-70mm, 10% 100-300mm and maybe 5% wider than 24mm.

ksbal, The 24 prime for a once in a lifetime trip? the idea isn't off the table, but it sounds rather risky.

Chris, thank you. Think the 24-105 II is worth the extra $$? I don't think I'll sell the 24 prime or the 11-16, but I could pick up a 24-105 or 24-70. It seems wasteful to get an F4, but I don't need another wide aperture lens.

The 11-16 only goes to 12 or 13 without touching the mirror.

I haven't used the 24-105II or the 24-70IS. I just know that I had the original 24-105 and wasn't that happy with it.

The 24-70 IS is supposed to be much better at 24mm than the 24-105. For landscape that's where most of your shots will be.

I almost bought the 24-70IS but I decided to sell my 35IS and 24-105IS and buy the 24-70 II instead. I'm pretty happy with that decision.

I'm a wide-angle guy, so my go-to lens is the 16-35 f/4 L; great lens for wide landscapes

24-105, you'll want something that can go long.

if one lens is your limit, I may even consider the tamron 28-300, that place is big, so long range shots will be useful.... at least that's my style, gotta have long for my landscapes.

samueli wrote in post #18318445
Thanks John. I made my plans around route 41. Unfortunate that some things will be closed, but I called the ranger station, and purely opinion of course, but he said glacier point and things aren't as awesome as all the falls in the valley.

Should be an adventure. I like to chase waterfalls, and they should be full on at that time.

Glacier Point is a great place to photograph several of the waterfalls as I recall. You'll want a good tripod and some longer focal length lenses.

16-35 F4L, this isn't even a discussion, its a must have for anyone seriously shooting landscape. 24mm simply ins't wide enough, I don't care what anyone says.

Secondly, 24-70 variants are jack of all master of none lenses IMHO. I always find them not wide/long/fast enough. Better to carry a fast prime.

Lastly, 70-100 (simply IMHO) is a very useful range for shooting natural landscape, the slight compression often does wonders.

Having said, if you are a resident of North America, then going Yosemite isn't all that big of a deal, you can learn from your first trip and do better on your second one, that place is magic and worth a few trips in a lifetime.

Best of luck either way