Going on a whale watching cruise, should I use a filter?

been whale watching many times. usually in a zodiac or "fast raft". protect your gear in a dry sack when moving. i never use a filter but i could see using a protection filter. definitely not a CPL which would be an impediment to actions shots. we usually go early morning but i have also been out in the evening a few times

ed rader wrote in post #19537448
been whale watching many times. usually in a zodiac or "fast raft". protect your gear in a dry sack when moving. i never use a filter but i could see using a protection filter. definitely not a CPL which would be an impediment to actions shots. we usually go early morning but i have also been out in the evening a few times

Thanks for the ideas. The boat I'll be on is much larger. I believe it holds 25 or 30 people. And they have a washroom on board, thank goodness.

In any area where water is, I use a Hoya or B+W UV filter or Polarizer as an option. As a last resort if a bit a spray in the air lands on filter, a quick pat down from shirt can get you back on action without the “fear” of scratching your front lens element. And yes I use a hood at all times as well.

Nick5 wrote in post #19537577
In any area where water is, I use a Hoya or B+W UV filter or Polarizer as an option. As a last resort if a bit a spray in the air lands on filter, a quick pat down from shirt can get you back on action without the “fear” of scratching your front lens element. And yes I use a hood at all times as well.

Sounds like good advice, thanks.

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #19536568
I think a shorter lens would be handy for some shots. Sometimes dolphins and birds will be very near the boat. But then that's more gear to carry. My main whale watching combo will be my R5/100-500.
I'll hold that with my Cotton Carrier. If I wear my photographer's jacket then I'll put my RP/35mm in the large pocket.

That's a very good idea. My main rig will be R7 + RF 100-400, but maybe I'll bring my a6400 and either the Sony 16-50 or the Sigma 17-70 + MC-11 adapter. The Sony zoom is nice and small and has surprisingly good IQ for what it is, but it's a power zoom and sometimes a bit slow to adjust.

i get motion sickness but 1/2 of a scopolamine patch applied a couple hours before does the trick. good luck!

Went whale watching last month off Cape Cod. I used a Canon 90D and a Canon 70-200 F4 IS. I would've like to have had something longer. I did have a UV filter on the lens. I keep one on all of my lenses. Always have. I didn't have a CPL with me. There were about 300 people on the boat. It wasn't esay moving around. But the captain would turn the boat 180 degrees so everyone could see. I mostly just got tails. I didn't see any breaching.

mcoren wrote in post #19536485
That's all great advice and those are some great shots, Alan!

While I agree with everything you say in theory, the images you posted are all static subjects. I'm not sure how practical a CPL will be on a whale watching cruise. A tail pops up out of the water, or maybe you're lucky and you see a full breach, but then you have seconds to aim and shoot before it disappears again. For me, even if I remember in the moment that I have a CPL on the lens, I'm not sure I'll be able to rotate it too during that interval and still get a decent shot.

Let me provide a bit of ease of mind about polarizer...you need to understand that it has two orientatations of any import...0 or 90 (same as 180 or 270)...two positions that mean, relative to reflections of light off water or darkening of skys, 'off' or 'on'. So if you have no time to twist it, it is either already 'on' or already 'off' and any time you have merely toggles that state. Yes, 'full off' or 'full on' might well be at some intermediate position (between 1 and 89), but getting it there is a refinement which can be dispensed with when time is not available to find it. So get the polarizer, and put away your fears about not having time to use it in the heat of a shoot.

Wilt wrote in post #19540421
Let me provide a bit of ease of mind about polarizer...you need to understand that it has two orientatations of any import...0 or 90 (same as 180 or 270)...two positions that mean, relative to reflections of light off water or darkening of skys, 'off' or 'on'. So if you have no time to twist it, it is either already 'on' or already 'off' and any time you have merely toggles that state. Yes, 'full off' or 'full on' might well be at some intermediate position (between 1 and 89), but getting it there is a refinement which can be dispensed with when time is not available to find it. So get the polarizer, and put away your fears about not having time to use it in the heat of a shoot.

Thanks Wilt. I had pretty much reached the same conclusion but with different reasoning. I have a pair of polarized sunglasses, and yes, I can sometimes see things change as I tilt my head, but in normal use I don't notice any weird effects from their being "set wrong".

I had a 72mm CPL for my 17-70, and I bought a 67mm for the 100-400. Worst case, I can take them off.

whale watching is normally spray and pray. everything happens so quickly that you usually don't have time to futz around. when a whale surfaces you point and spray and hope you get something. i use center point, servo, 7 fps and a shutter speed over 1000s and i prefocus my lens, which is always the 100-400

i was never debating the effectiveness of a CPL -- tho i question what you are trying to accomplish out there with one -- but rather the negative impact it would have on focussing

ed rader wrote in post #19540489
whale watching is normally spray and pray. everything happens so quickly that you usually don't have time to futz around. when a whale surfaces you point and spray and hope you get something. i use center point, servo, 7 fps and a shutter speed over 1000s and i prefocus my lens, which is always the 100-400

i was never debating the effectiveness of a CPL -- tho i question what you are trying to accomplish out there with one -- but rather the negative impact it would have on focussing

Ed, having gone whale watching in Hawaii a year ago, i can attest to there being little time to adjust a polarizer...you barely have enough time to get FL to a reasonable length before you spray and pray. OTOH, if one preplans just a little bit as the boat is roaming in search of whales, one can improve the odds that a mounted polarizer is doing some good for the shots taken!
Let us assume boat bow is aimed at Heading A...one can point the lens at the water ahead of the bow and find the best position for the filter. That means that to beam of the boat (Heading B) the filter is 90 degrees from that initial filter orientation. If one keeps those filter positions in mind, relative to the boat's current heading, they will not change (until enough time has passed to update the filter settings. When a whale is spotted, one already knows how its bearing is oriented, relative to the two predetermined settings' bearings. No time is needed to find the right filter orientations, you know them in advance, and either the filter's current orientation is beneficial to the shot or it is not...even a 50% chance of being 'right' in improving a shot is better than no filter at all because 'no filter' never improves the shot.

ed rader wrote in post #19540489
whale watching is normally spray and pray. everything happens so quickly that you usually don't have time to futz around. when a whale surfaces you point and spray and hope you get something. i use center point, servo, 7 fps and a shutter speed over 1000s and i prefocus my lens, which is always the 100-400

I have been whale watching about a dozen times (Hawaii, Alaska, Maine, Boston and Iceland), and use a very similar setup and technique. I also used a monopod at times so I can keep the camera in a shooting position while waiting for some action to develop. I have used both a 70-200mm f/4 (with and without a 1.4x TC) and 100-400mm lens -- both on a crop body. We will be heading to Hawaii again in February, and I will be interested in seeing how the auto focus improvements of my two new bodies (R6 M2 and R10) perform. The last time I shot whales, I still was using dSLRs. I'll be using the RF 100-400 instead of the EF 100-400L II, as well -- I sold the latter to help fund the R6 M2.

ed rader wrote in post #19537448
been whale watching many times. usually in a zodiac or "fast raft". protect your gear in a dry sack when moving. i never use a filter but i could see using a protection filter. definitely not a CPL which would be an impediment to actions shots. we usually go early morning but i have also been out in the evening a few times

I think you are noting that a polarizing filter eliminates half the light to the camera, which means one can't have high shutter speeds without unwanted noise in low light conditions, which may include an overcast sky.

yeah and it's also going to slow focus and jack up your iso. spray and pray is not an artsy fartsy endeavor and the name does not imply it

As I’ve been planning this trip, packing for this one 2-1/2 hour whale watching cruise has taken on a life of its own. I’ve been planning to bring two bodies, two lenses, UV and CPL for each, batteries and chargers for each (because they take different batteries), not to mention memory cards, packing everything for flying, and strapping them on such that I can quickly switch between them but still keep them dry.

So tonight, I made a decision that will make my life a lot easier. I’m only going to bring one body (R7), and I’m renting a Canon RF 24-240. Sure, it may be too long for some things, and too short for others, but this isn’t a once-in-a-lifetime trip. This is a business trip where I expect to have a free day.

I can already feel the stress flowing out of my body. Ahhhh.