Travelling to Nepal, lens suggestions?

[peterjcb]

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The best advice is to travel light with as little as possible....especially if you're going to Nepal.

 

I have traveled with my little D-Lux 4 which takes some amazing shots for a point & shoot.

 

If I were traveling with my M8, I'd take just my 28 Elmarit asph and possibly the only other lens that I own the 50 Summicron-M.( 37 & 65mm FOV equivalents)

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[MarkP]

The best advice is to travel light with as little as possible....especially if you're going to Nepal.

 

I have traveled with my little D-Lux 4 which takes some amazing shots for a point & shoot.

 

My daughter took my old D-Lux 4 on a school trip to Nepal and took some fantastic photographs.

[Stealth3kpl]

Take a look through my holiday snaps if you like.

 

As I said earlier, mainly with 35 and 50 summiluxes, but perhaps the summicrons would've been a better choice. That said, on more than one occasion I found f1.4 useful; the butter lamps for example, and the water supply to the camp, and some early morning images of the transportation baskets.

Other lenses were the 21 sem ( umbrellas at the festival), and the 90 (eg, the mountain peaks with silhouetted trees in foreground, and perhaps the image of shoeing the mule).

You'll have a great trip whatever you take.

Pete

[rirakuma]

Take a look through my holiday snaps if you like.

 

As I said earlier, mainly with 35 and 50 summiluxes, but perhaps the summicrons would've been a better choice. That said, on more than one occasion I found f1.4 useful; the butter lamps for example, and the water supply to the camp, and some early morning images of the transportation baskets.

Other lenses were the 21 sem ( umbrellas at the festival), and the 90 (eg, the mountain peaks with silhouetted trees in foreground, and perhaps the image of shoeing the mule).

You'll have a great trip whatever you take.

Pete

 

Beautiful pics Pete! Now you make me feel like I should take a 50 instead of the 90 . My current plan is to carry the 21SEM, 35/2 v1 and 90 cron with the M and M8. I could replace the 90 cron with a 50 cron or lux but I'm want to force myself to get familiar with a telephoto. Either way I will post my decision before leaving and I'll share the pics when I come back. Thank you for sharing your experiences and pictures !

[otto.f]

I was in Nepal in 1993 and used a Noctilux 50 most of the time in the streets of Kathmandu for portraits. I had a 35 too but used it slightly less.

This year I was in Tibet (is that much different?) with a 35 FLE and an Elmar 50 among others and I used this 35 in the great majority of situations. Just because it is such a fine lens in an absolute sense, especially for colors.

My relation with the 50 FL changes over years, since I changed my M8 for an M9, the 50 has drifted away from me a bit; I even changed my lux50 for this Elmar50 which I do not regret to date. I would bring it again to Kathmandu for street portraits in B&W. Why do you want to reduce to 3 lenses, is it the weight? The Elmar is light and superb!

I see no use for a 21, I hardly used my 24/2.8 in Tibet, because the people are most interesting there. Glad that I took my 90 and 135 too!

[rirakuma]

The 21 is mainly for my trek in the Annapurna. I won't be spending that much time in Kathmandu, just a day to find a guide and another on my last day for the flight home. It also serves as a 28mm on the M8 because I've always wanted to try that focal length for documentary style photographs. I want to carry 3 lens so that I won't have too many choices and spend time deciding over which lens to use. I thought the 21 and 35 can be paired as 28 and 50ish on the M8. The 90 is for those odd pictures to give a nice variation of perspective in my album. I carried a Noctilux on my last trip to Japan but I didn't use it that often because I don't generally shoot wide open which is where the Noctilux is at its best.

 

I was in Nepal in 1993 and used a Noctilux 50 most of the time in the streets of Kathmandu for portraits. I had a 35 too but used it slightly less.

This year I was in Tibet (is that much different?) with a 35 FLE and an Elmar 50 among others and I used this 35 in the great majority of situations. Just because it is such a fine lens in an absolute sense, especially for colors.

My relation with the 50 FL changes over years, since I changed my M8 for an M9, the 50 has drifted away from me a bit; I even changed my lux50 for this Elmar50 which I do not regret to date. I would bring it again to Kathmandu for street portraits in B&W. Why do you want to reduce to 3 lenses, is it the weight? The Elmar is light and superb!

I see no use for a 21, I hardly used my 24/2.8 in Tibet, because the people are most interesting there. Glad that I took my 90 and 135 too!

[otto.f]

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On an M8 a 21, 35 and 90 seems perfect to me for this travel

[mca]

It's a very personal decision, really, and there are no right or wrong answers here.

 

Personally, I would take only 2 lenses, not only to travel light but to facilitate the decision on which lens to use at each time. Probably the 28 + 50 (I suppose you have a full frame camera?)

 

I would not take the 21 as it requires an external viewfinder which is cumbersome to put on the camera or even to have it on all the time.

 

I would not take the 90 as you can shoot at 50 and crop later, saving the weight and another lens change on the field.

 

I would also not take the 28 and the 35 as they are too close, I'd take the 28 and get closer when necessary.

 

With 28 + 50 you'd be covered and a little crop here and there later in post processing would suffice to correct some compositions and still retain a lot of detail that the M cameras are able to capture.

 

 

If your camera is an M8, I'd probably choose 21 + 50, but I have never shot with an M8 before.

[rirakuma]

Thanks to everyone that helped me decide on the lens selection. I ended up taking the M and M8 with the 21,35 and 90. My most used combo is the M8 and 21mm so its effectively a 28mm. I really like using a 35mm but it's hard to get enough distance in the busy streets and I felt it was much easier to compose with a 28mm most of the time. I botched my trip so I ended up going on a different trek and I didn't end up using my 90mm much. I had a light tripod with me but I didn't even use it once. It was freezing in the morning, the days are short and the sun rose and set in an awkward manner high up in the mountains. Anyways here are some pics to share

 

 

 

 

[otto.f]

Appreciate your follow-up on this very much. And what a set this M8 with the 21! Great pictures!

[michaelwj]

Very nice images (especially #2 and 4), and I love the follow up to the travel questions.

 

One thing I hear over and over seems to be "I took a small tripod but never used it", especially when photography is not he only purpose of the trip.

And more often than not, "the 90 stayed in the bag".

 

I do find it interesting that you appear to use a 35 mm at home, but found a 28 mm more comfortable on this trip. Did the 21 mm or 35 mm on the M get much use or would you have been fine with only the 21/M8 combo?

 

Cheers,

Michael

[NB23]

Yeap! As said in post #2, for photojournalism the 28mm rules!

[rirakuma]

Very nice images (especially #2 and 4), and I love the follow up to the travel questions.

 

One thing I hear over and over seems to be "I took a small tripod but never used it", especially when photography is not he only purpose of the trip.

And more often than not, "the 90 stayed in the bag".

 

I do find it interesting that you appear to use a 35 mm at home, but found a 28 mm more comfortable on this trip. Did the 21 mm or 35 mm on the M get much use or would you have been fine with only the 21/M8 combo?

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

I really enjoyed using the m8/21 combo and I would have been fine to solely use that combo except for the high camp and pass. I don't know how the M8 will fare in cold temperature so I kept it in my bag and paired the M with the 21. I took the tripod out a few times looking for a nice early and late shot but I never set it up because I didn't see many opportunities. The snow had blocked most of the areas and ice formed near cliffs so it was difficult to find good vantage points. The altitude and freezing temperatures also made me lazy to get up early for anything.The 90 got used but I have to admit I'm horrible with telephoto so I couldn't quite get the hang of it. There were a few shots of villages and tracks that I took with the 90 which were quite nice but it didn't compare to the joy I had of getting close with locals with the 28.

 

If I could turn back time I would have probably taken the M and M6 with a 28 and 50 and be very content. I must admit though that my lens decision was also based on curiosity for the M8 sensor and trying different focal lengths. Here are a few more all with the 21 and m8

 

 

 

 

[jaapv]

These are nice photographs. I think they would be better placed in the photoforum where members whose interest is in other cameras than the M might get to see them as well.

[Carduelis]

Just been to Gibraltar/Algeciras and Ceuta for a four day break where I did a great deal of walking and exploration. Although it was not Nepal, I think I managed quite nicely with the following four lenses, any three of which fit easily into the four pockets of my fleece whilst one is on the camera. I use Leica fabric pouches with draw-strings to wrap my lenses which I believe were supplied with the M240 for accessories. I find the larger leather pouches/cases that are supplied with the lenses to be impractical at times.

 

24 mm Elmar f3.8 approx 260 g

35 mm ASPH Summilux f1.4 (pre-FLE) approx 320 g (relatively heavy but fast and my favourite lens)

50 mm ZM Zeiss Planar f2 approx 220 g

90 mm Tel-Elmarit (thin) f2.8 approx 220 g

 

I don't tend to notice the weight of the lenses whilst they are in my pockets. In fact, 24 and 35 mm lenses in left inside/zippered outside pockets respectively and 50 mm and 90 mm lenses in right inside/zippered outside pockets respectively.