Re: Lenses Needed for Rhine River Cruise?

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"Dr. Paul Sanschagrin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in
message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (john chapman) writes:
> > In a few weeks I will be taking a river cruise on the Rhine River
> > between Basel, Switzerland and Antwerp, Belgium with a side trip on
> > the Mosel River.  I have visions of sitting on deck leisurely taking
> > photos of castles and the like as we drift by.  My question is given
> > the width of the rivers, what lenses do I have to take to do this.  My
> > basic kit includes in long lenses a Nikon 80-200/2.8 AFS with Kenko
> > Pro 1.4x and 2x extenders.  But I can also take my Sigma 50-500 AFS,
> > which can also produce good results with the 1.4X even at 700mm.
> > However, given its weight and all the other photo equipment, I would
> > prefer not to unless really necessary.
> >
> > For those who address the photo aspects, can you give me some idea how
> > wide the rivers are at various points?
> >
> > Thanks in advance for any advice that can be provided.
>
> The 80-200 should give you plenty of reach for overall castle shots
> and maybe "large" details for the castles. (In addition to the width,
> most of the castles are high up on the hillsides.) The extenders
> should give you plenty of reach for details. I would not add the
> 50-500. However, given the time of year, the reach may be the least of
> your worries as the weather has been quite dreary, so you'd need fast
> film (400+ I would guess) to be out out 320/4.0 (i.e., 200+1.4 ext).

Another concern is the movement that will be created by the vibration of the
ship's engines, and the effect of waves and other tidal conditions.

Even if a tripod is used, there is to be a presumption that the shots will
be less sharp than if they were taken from a position on land.  This will be
especially noticeable due to the small negative size and the relatively high
magnification of the zoom lens (which tends to accentuate camera shake).

So, I second you in your recommendation for the use of fast film, if only to
allow for maximum shutter speed.  I would also recommend the use of a tripod
if any of the shots can be taken from land, to minimize camera shake.
Finally, if large expanses of sky will be in the photos, use of a lens hood
and a skylight filter are recommended.

Finally, the images may look better if not enlarged too much.  If the OP is
planning on, say, 5x7 sized prints, the camera shake issue probably will not
be too noticeable.  Still, he should do everything possible to minimize the
effect of camera shake, to maximize image quality.

As for using a tripod on board ship, that may or may not be a good idea.  If
the tripod transmits vibration to the camera, he might find that handholding
might actually dempen the effect of the ship's vibration in this particular
type of situation.  If he can use lower focal lengths--more toward the
normal-to-wide-angle end of the spectrum, that might also minimize the
camera shake effects.  It's those far-away telephoto shots that will be the
most problematic.