Alaska, welcome suggestions on packing long lenses

Plans for returning to Alaska in mid May 2020 are in the final stages, now need to make some final decisions on gear choices to take. I'll be traveling with 2 other people that should help carry some of my gear.
I will be revisiting areas I've been to before and know in advance that Wildlife tops my list with Landscapes a close 2nd.
I have 3 bodies, 7D2 and 70d will go for sure as will a 10-22, 50 1.8. 18-135. I also have a Sigma 150-500 and the Sigma 120-300S with 2x converter.
I've used the 120-300 Sport at many ball games, became quite familiar with it and very pleased with the results and keeper rate. It is heavy! The weight has been manageable under the conditions I've been using it in, familiar places, land travel only and storage cases that are best used for that specific day.
Other options have been coming to mind as I continue making travel plans, consider getting a 100-400 vs 2,or maybe a Sigma 150-600C, and leave behind my current lenses or just make plans on taking what I already own.
The decision would be much easier for me if I lived near better flight connections. I don't mind checking bags that contain clothing but shudder of the thoughts of being separated from my camera gear. The 4 commuter flights in our schedule has me concerned with their ever changing minds on what I should weigh and have for lunch that day.

What parts are you headed to and for how long?

I’ve enjoyed the 100-400 for my long lens on a few trips up now; the only thing it didn’t work so well for was a bus trip through Denali...the critters were just a bit uncooperative that day. Every other encounter that range has been sufficient for.

Given the *option*, I’d have likely done and dealt with the weight of the Sigma plus teleconverter, but not felt limited enough to need that combo.

With your existing lineup, I’d even reconsider the 18-135 and pare down to the bodies, 10-22 and 120-300 + TC. In limited visits I haven’t found a lot of shooting that I wanted/needed the 23-120 range for. Maybe a few where 24/28-ish would have been nice, but even those should be fungible w/ 22mm and some creativity.

Eric, I will be cruising the inside passage from Vancouver to Anchorage. From Anchorage by land to Denali for a total of 10 days. Stops along the way I will likely revisit will be in Juneau for Whales or possibly a float trip, Haines for bear along the Chilkoot. May go to Skagway if timing works out.
I'm still in the process of planning, I will be arriving in VC on May 17 and up to Juneau around May 18 -19. This will be an early arrival for me in Alaska so not sure what this timing will be like for Wildlife. My previous trips were July 4th arrival and Sept 8. Winter caught me on the Sept trip but it was so awesome for Wildlife I wanted to repeat that date,scheduling did not work this year.

For now I plan to take the 120-300 and 2x because I own it and it performs well covering a large range.My reason for hesitation, it weighs 119.5 oz and is 11 1/2 inches long. The 100-400 looks to be 4 inches shorter and less than half the weight. My 150-500 is much lighter and has been to Alaska with me before but does require more light for good results.
I may even have a practice run at packing, take it to my local airport to see if I pass their test. If I fail I will need to add a 3 1/2 hour road trip, one way, onto the schedule to reach STL.
It appears Vancouver is difficult for me to make connections with, returning from Anchorage will work out well.

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Given that you are mostly interested in wildlife, with a secondary interest in landscape photography, I am quite surprised that you don't already have the Canon 100-400mm v2.

I think that if you did get a v2 and take it on this trip, you would forget all about the 120-300mm and the 150-600mm Sigmas and be SO GLAD that you took the 100-400 instead! . I'm normally a "more is more" kind of guy, but the 100-400 is so good at so many things that I actually think that just this one lens will cover everything that you would use the two Sigmas for, and do most things better than they do.

When it comes to the new 100-400, it really does meet quite a few needs and is extremely versatile, particularly considering that you will be using it on 1.6 crop sensor bodies.

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As for the flight aspect of things, this is how I solve it;
https://photography-on-the.net …showthread.php?​p=18522080
https://photography-on-the.net …showthread.php?​p=16965779

Tom, the quality of photos and excellent reviews from those using the 100-400 v2 are reasons that have me posting this thread. I'm thinking you're correct, if I owned one it would be my long lens, done deal. Not saying I would master it as well as others have but dang, that lens paired with the 7D2 have provided us with thousands of beautiful images to view here on this forum especially birds and wildlife in the setting I will be traveling to.
I'm going to try to get one in my hands to try and also get the feel of it long before leaving on my trip.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #18970603
As for the flight aspect of things, this is how I solve it;
https://photography-on-the.net …showthread.php?​p=18522080
https://photography-on-the.net …showthread.php?​p=16965779

Thanks Jake for those links, totally agree with those ideas, esp. my gear being my carry on.
I have a small back pack camera bag that should (hopefully) qualify as a personal item or under the seat size and still be allowed a carry on such as the one you use. I have a soft canvas carry on size bag that has compartments at each end, those filled with clothing and then camera gear inside packed well would provide plenty of protection. Once I'm off the plane I'll be fine with the one small backpack and working from the larger carry on as I'll have a base to work from.

Grizz1 wrote in post #18970315
Eric, I will be cruising the inside passage from Vancouver to Anchorage. From Anchorage by land to Denali for a total of 10 days. Stops along the way I will likely revisit will be in Juneau for Whales or possibly a float trip, Haines for bear along the Chilkoot. May go to Skagway if timing works out.
I'm still in the process of planning, I will be arriving in VC on May 17 and up to Juneau around May 18 -19. This will be an early arrival for me in Alaska so not sure what this timing will be like for Wildlife. My previous trips were July 4th arrival and Sept 8. Winter caught me on the Sept trip but it was so awesome for Wildlife I wanted to repeat that date,scheduling did not work this year.

For now I plan to take the 120-300 and 2x because I own it and it performs well covering a large range.My reason for hesitation, it weighs 119.5 oz and is 11 1/2 inches long. The 100-400 looks to be 4 inches shorter and less than half the weight. My 150-500 is much lighter and has been to Alaska with me before but does require more light for good results.
I may even have a practice run at packing, take it to my local airport to see if I pass their test. If I fail I will need to add a 3 1/2 hour road trip, one way, onto the schedule to reach STL.
It appears Vancouver is difficult for me to make connections with, returning from Anchorage will work out well.

Being a *very* happy v2 owner, the only reason I dissent a bit on skipping the 120-300 would be you saying you're making one or more explicit stops for bears. While it is certainly possible to get phenomenal encounters with them where 400 is acceptable, in the few trips I've had up there most of the bears showed up far enough off that I couldn't even get one to fill a quarter of the frame and usually smaller. Our most recent trip up, to Denali, didn't even yield any results that I really felt worth keeping at 400mm. Had I been able to get to 600, I'd likely have had at least a couple of 'salvages' that I'd have been happy with.

Aside from that, the 100-400 v2 will serve you quite well in most situations that you'll encounter there; particularly in Denali. One tip I would give for the park would be to take one of the tram buses that you can hop on/off of instead of the scheduled, tour buses. The tram drivers will slow/stop for critters as much as the tour buses, but you'll be more in control of the time you spend off the bus vs riding.

Appreciate your thoughts Eric. I just don't know what to expect for the time of year we are going for bears. When I was there in Sept the Grizzlies were having a feeding frenzy on berries at low altitudes and several near the road. While stopped at the Eielson visitor center we had one stand upright and bang his front paws on the glass windows. Going in that morning there was little snow to be seen, later in the day rain changed to sleet than snow and the upper half of mountains were snow covered by dusk. It was like the bears knew it could be the last day to gorge on easy to find food.

We took the tour bus to mile 52 and back almost to the main entrance. I did not like it from the moment we boarded that morning so we bailed off and caught a green bus and rode it to Wonder Lake at mile 82. It was on the old green bus with a very pleasant lady driving it that we saw so many Bear and Moose. She knew what people with cameras wanted to stop for and would do just that giving us all plenty of time. Best decision we made on that trip was to get off the tour bus. Don't know if it's possible but I'm going to try to begin my day early and skip the tour bus and take one of the old green ones to begin with. I sure hope we will be able to get into the park a good distance, the further the better.

If I may ask, Eric, what dates have you been to Denali?

Grizz1 wrote in post #18971830
Appreciate your thoughts Eric. I just don't know what to expect for the time of year we are going for bears. When I was there in Sept the Grizzlies were having a feeding frenzy on berries at low altitudes and several near the road. While stopped at the Eielson visitor center we had one stand upright and bang his front paws on the glass windows. Going in that morning there was little snow to be seen, later in the day rain changed to sleet than snow and the upper half of mountains were snow covered by dusk. It was like the bears knew it could be the last day to gorge on easy to find food.

We took the tour bus to mile 52 and back almost to the main entrance. I did not like it from the moment we boarded that morning so we bailed off and caught a green bus and rode it to Wonder Lake at mile 82. It was on the old green bus with a very pleasant lady driving it that we saw so many Bear and Moose. She knew what people with cameras wanted to stop for and would do just that giving us all plenty of time. Best decision we made on that trip was to get off the tour bus. Don't know if it's possible but I'm going to try to begin my day early and skip the tour bus and take one of the old green ones to begin with. I sure hope we will be able to get into the park a good distance, the further the better.

If I may ask, Eric, what dates have you been to Denali?

We were up there there the first week of August; just ahead of the fires. Sounds like you got a much more "usual" set of bear views for the park than we did; in which case the v2 would have been wonderful. We did see one great Fox in the road, but mostly the animals were a good 75+ yards out. Sounds like you've certainly got the right lay of the land with the buses

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2h4Y​CfF

I'd love to see a fox like that, good catch. His feet look large compared to Red and Gray I have here in Mo but He's probably adapted to several more feet of snow too.

Grizz1 wrote in post #18972262
I'd love to see a fox like that, good catch. His feet look large compared to Red and Gray I have here in Mo but He's probably adapted to several more feet of snow too.

You should see a ton of Snowshoes, too; there’s an odd boom in their population that isn’t being matched by Lynx the way it typically runs, apparently.

Regardless of what you take, best of luck on the encounters ߘ

The OP may have made his decisions by now, but I thought I’d kick in another endorsement of the Canon 100-400. I owned the original version for fifteen years, traded up to the new version two years ago, and I definitely consider it the most bang for the buck and punch for the pound for general nature photography. No problem at all on airliners, and for most people, handholdable (admittedly not as good as being on a tripod) and not a problem to carry on a hike. I own more prestigious big glass, and they are better for many purposes, but they are never as versatile as the 1-4, and a lot more trouble to carry.

In fairness, I have never used the Sigma 120-300 zoom. I ordered a Sigma 150-600 before buying the new 1-4, and returned it the day after I received it.

Steve,We did the exact trip in June of this year.I took my Nikon D7500 and my Tokina 11-20,my Tamron 24-70 and my Sigma 100-400 so I kept my kit fairly light.There will always be time when you simply don't have the reach for those far far away animals but for the most part I was very happy with what I took.Great trip I must say, good luck!
Paul

Just and FYI, but there was a landslide in Denali just before Polychrome Pass at mile 43 that will force the closure of the road at that point until it can be repaired. My understanding is that there is no time frame yet for how long that will take but it could be for a significant part of the summer.