Hello Michael, great video, hope you had a great trip. We are going to Alaska in a week July 13-20. My question is did you need longer lens, I am looking forward to whale watching and thinking about getting the 200-600mm lens, do I need it?
Hello Hector, thanks for watching. The week we were in Alaska, it rained pretty much every day. Each day had a small break, but the weather was less desirable. The week before arrived, we were told it was wonderful and on our last day traveling back to Vancouver, the weather began to break towards some sun as well. Because of the weather, we didn't do any of the whale watching tours. Our day in Juneau was a rough day with lots of hard rain, so we passed on the whale watching. From the shoreline in Icy Strait, I did observe a few whales but were too far for even a 500mm lens. However, the few boats that were whale watching, did get fairly close to the whales from what I could view from the shoreline. My guess is that a 70-200 or something in the 300mm range would be fine. Since I didn't take the whale watching trip it's hard to say for sure, but I'm guessing the 200-600 would be overkill and heavy for that type of trip. I used a 24-120 lens 90% of the time, even from the ship. I had planned on using my 50mm Voigtlander around towns but it's not weather sealed, so I only used it once on the ship. I did use the 70-300 at times on the ship. On the inside passage day, I think the 300mm was enough, though maybe a 400mm woulda been better. Hard to say because again, the weather was so bad, it was hard to get many clear images. The mountains were covered much or our trip. One tip would be however to take the photography tour outside the town limits in Scagway. There is one that goes up the mountains and even briefly into Canada. I took all my favorite images on that day trip. Scagway is amazing but you have to get out of town. Icy Strait point is pretty good as well, if that's one of the places you are stopping. I did the back country tour there and that was pretty much a waste of time as a photographer. I took one good image on that tour. Again, it rained much of the time and the mountains were mostly covered with low clouds. Maybe on a better week it would have been better for photos. I hope that helped. I did post one video from Alaska. It shows some of my favorite images in the video. You can get a better idea of focal length by looking at those images.
@@MichaelCantwell thank you it really helps me, sorry it rain on your trip. I was going to get the Sony 200-600 with my 24-105 on my Sony A7IV, but yes weight can be a problem, I am going to take my Fuji xt-3 18-300, 23mm and 50mm. We are stoping on Juneao, icy strait, Sitka, and Skagway. It's summer there, so we are hoping no rain, or less rain. We will see I am excited! Thank you for your help
going on a trip soon as well and this helped a lot saw you were a dolphins fan and immediately subbed haha
I'm glad the video helped. Yep, former season tix holder. Fins up! Thanks for subscribing and enjoy the trip.
Enjoy your Trip, Stay Safe
Ms Fancy like this video
Hello Michael, great video, hope you had a great trip. We are going to Alaska in a week July 13-20. My question is did you need longer lens, I am looking forward to whale watching and thinking about getting the 200-600mm lens, do I need it?
Hello Hector, thanks for watching. The week we were in Alaska, it rained pretty much every day. Each day had a small break, but the weather was less desirable. The week before arrived, we were told it was wonderful and on our last day traveling back to Vancouver, the weather began to break towards some sun as well. Because of the weather, we didn't do any of the whale watching tours. Our day in Juneau was a rough day with lots of hard rain, so we passed on the whale watching. From the shoreline in Icy Strait, I did observe a few whales but were too far for even a 500mm lens. However, the few boats that were whale watching, did get fairly close to the whales from what I could view from the shoreline. My guess is that a 70-200 or something in the 300mm range would be fine. Since I didn't take the whale watching trip it's hard to say for sure, but I'm guessing the 200-600 would be overkill and heavy for that type of trip. I used a 24-120 lens 90% of the time, even from the ship. I had planned on using my 50mm Voigtlander around towns but it's not weather sealed, so I only used it once on the ship. I did use the 70-300 at times on the ship. On the inside passage day, I think the 300mm was enough, though maybe a 400mm woulda been better. Hard to say because again, the weather was so bad, it was hard to get many clear images. The mountains were covered much or our trip. One tip would be however to take the photography tour outside the town limits in Scagway. There is one that goes up the mountains and even briefly into Canada. I took all my favorite images on that day trip. Scagway is amazing but you have to get out of town. Icy Strait point is pretty good as well, if that's one of the places you are stopping. I did the back country tour there and that was pretty much a waste of time as a photographer. I took one good image on that tour. Again, it rained much of the time and the mountains were mostly covered with low clouds. Maybe on a better week it would have been better for photos. I hope that helped. I did post one video from Alaska. It shows some of my favorite images in the video. You can get a better idea of focal length by looking at those images.
@@MichaelCantwell thank you it really helps me, sorry it rain on your trip. I was going to get the Sony 200-600 with my 24-105 on my Sony A7IV, but yes weight can be a problem, I am going to take my Fuji xt-3 18-300, 23mm and 50mm. We are stoping on Juneao, icy strait, Sitka, and Skagway. It's summer there, so we are hoping no rain, or less rain. We will see I am excited! Thank you for your help