What lens should I bring to Antarctica and Patagonia?

[John Kasaian]

Hmmm... Right now I'm looking at a copy of The Endurace by Caroline Alexander. It's an excellent guide book on Antarctic view camera photography. Even has a recipe for eating penguin for an entire year.

Sriracha might help. I don't think it would freeze up.

[Pere Casals]

I am going to take a 2 weeks trips to Antarctica and Chile by Christmas time. I am thinking to bring a digital camera (5D3) and a 4X5 (Chamonix 45H1). The question is what lens should I bring with me.
For the following three location: Antarctica, Torres del Paine, and Easter island. There is a weight limit for the flight to King Georges island, and for Torres del Paine, I have to balance the weight for the hiking.
for digital: I have 24-70, 70-200, 400, 85, 35
for 4X5 I have Schneider 58XL, 80SSXL, 110 SSXL, 150Apo Sironar S, 210 APo Sironar, 300 Fuji C, 360A, 450C, and NIkon SW 90f8
Would you suggest the lens I should bring with me for Antarctica and Torres del Paine.

Congratulations !!!

There are millions of digital photographs of Antarctica, so I'd take a Nikon P900 Superzoom as an spot photometer, for distant animals and for mundane situations. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl3JhoKcgXA)

The P900 is 24-2000 mm equivalent, you may need a 1000mm on a DSLR to get same "far subject performance", a crop of a 1000mm DSLR may have equivalent quality than the P900 at 2000mm equivalent. So here you save a lot of weight.

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/57681201

Anyway you should be used to the few P900 limitations to still get great photographs, DR?. I'd make a side by side test with a DSLR to know if the P900 is convincing for you.



I'd concentrate in the 4x5 job, great Velvia 50 and Provia 100 slides from antarctica are a less common delicatessen.

From 58 to 210 there is no problem, take it all but the 90, it is a perfect kit with 30% progression. Then I'd take that 300, 250 grs only.


Another option, I'd take a 6x7 MF camera instead the 4x5, a Pentax 6x7 II. You would shot much cheaper and a lot of slides, and you would be able to project it much easier than 4x5 stuff.


Sorry for messing all, but to go there I'd take a Pentax 67 II with a monopod and a P900.


Regards, and again, congratulations !

[Drew Wiley]

I've successfully shot a 300EDIF on my P67 resting on a railing. It would work on a ship railing as long as higher shutter speed were used. But back to the Endurance book, ya gotta admire how the expedition photographer salvaged his film and gear, and even got wonderfully beautiful images of the ship sinking through the ice, when everyone else was trying to figure out how to survive. Sound like a familiar debate?