What Lens For City Day Trip?

[MajaMolly]

What lens would you suggest for a walking day trip? 18-55 kit lens, 55-200 kit lens, 50mm fixed. I will be taking city ( buildings ) and family pics.

Thank you.

[Rasbury]

I imagine all three lenses would work in this situation.I'm an amature photographer and sometimes i'll just choose one lens to take with me and try to learn what it's strengths and weaknesses are.Hopefully you will get a better answer than that then we can both learn what might be a good lens to use in this situation.

[Donald]

Maja

If you're walking around all day with a camera slung around your neck or over your shoulder, you want to be travelling fairly light. And, given that, in a city, for a shoot such as this, having something wider is likely to be more beneficial, I'd suggest you go with one lens and make that the 18-55.

[MajaMolly]

Maja

If you're walking around all day with a camera slung around your neck or over your shoulder, you want to be travelling fairly light. And, given that, in a city, for a shoot such as this, having something wider is likely to be more beneficial, I'd suggest you go with one lens and make that the 18-55.

Thank you. I was leaning toward that one so I think that's what I'll go with. Thanks again.

[Dave Humphries]

Thank you. I was leaning toward that one so I think that's what I'll go with. Thanks again.

Hi Maja,

I went for a city walkabout last Friday, I was so glad I had an 18-200mm as I shot at all ranges, probably over half were beyond 55mm, but I'd still go with Donald's recommendation to use the 18-55mm if you can only take one lens, you can always crop a bit in PP - far easier than building a pano from a lens that's too tight.

I have also tried Ron's idea too and recently spent a day in the country with a fixed length lens on (a 105mm macro in my case) - that was interesting, far better DoF control to play with

Have a good trip,

[FrankMi]

Hi Maja, I prefer to travel light so I have my D3100 on a Black Rapid sling and carry all three lenses. Each of the other two lens pouches on my belt. I can open a pouch and swap lenses even if there is no place to set the lenses down and being on my belt, they are readily available but not in the way. Too many times I looked at an opportunity and wished I had the other lenses with me so this works great for me. The only drawback is that once in a while there isn't time to swap lenses for for that I wish I had a pocket camera along. Hope this helps!

[MajaMolly]

Thank you, Dave and Frank for the good ideas. I'd love an 18-200 but just not in the budget.

[rpcrowe]

I would take both the 18-55mm and the 55-250mm lenses. At less than one pound in weight, the extra lens should not burden you down significantly...

[MajaMolly]

Thank you, Richard.

[nanhi]

Hello MajaMolly, I recently returned from a trip of Western Europe, the UK and Spain. The eternal cities like Rome, Paris, London, Madrid require a 10-20 mm zoom because of shooting space constraints around many of the splendid monuments and buildings. Eg: my 18-55 Kit lens was useless at the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Alas I did not have a wider zoom. I use a Pentax K20D, and could have got away with the 16-50/2.8 zoom. But this lens costs more than my camera with the excellent AL II Kit lens. I could never capture the beautiful churches fully in Barcelona or Madrid with the Kit Lens - alas! I have attached two photos as an example taken from across the road - could not capture the church fully even with the Kit Lens in vertical orientation - have included a bus in one photo to give you a relative idea. (Don't know why the forum downsizes photos already reduced to upload standards).
For budget shooters I would recommend two lenses: a 10-20 mm and an 18-250 zoom - both under US $ 750 new. If on a lower budget buy the Tamron / Sigma 28-200 for US $ 70 used instead of the 18-250. Enjoy your City Day Trip.

[rpcrowe]

Here are a couple of tips...

First, if there are not a lot of moving subjects in your image and you need a wider view, shoot a panorama. A lot has been said and written about the complexity of pano shooting, relying in nodal points and all that; however it is pretty simple to shoot a two to five or six frame pano hand held and to stitch them together with either Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

In Photoshop File, Automate, Photomerge, select images and click O.K... You can often fill in the area that is lacking by using edit, fill, content aware

Panos don't need to be left to right, they can be top to bottomin which case shoot the images in the horizontal or landscape position. If you want a left to right pano, you get the widest top to bottom coverage using the camera in the portrait or vertical position. The left to right coverage is predicated by the number of exposures you shoot.

After getting the correct exposure, I prefer to shoot the pano in manual mode so that the exposure doesn't change between images...

When shooting up at buildings you often get perspective distortion in which the building is seeming to lean backwards. You can correct the perspective by selecting the entire image, and then Edit, Transform and Perspective. This will place little "handles" at the corners of the image. Pulling out on the top corners will correct the perspective. Just be sure not to over-correct.

[MajaMolly]

Thanks for the great info.

[Shadowman]

I must be a glutton for punishment because I would carry all three and a second camera if it fits properly. You never know, especially if you are out late into the night, when you will wish you had the 50mm with you.

[FrankMi]

I must be a glutton for punishment because I would carry all three and a second camera if it fits properly. You never know, especially if you are out late into the night, when you will wish you had the 50mm with you.

I don't carry a bag but I do have the two lenses that are not currently attached to the camera in my belt pouches. They don't get in the way and they are readily available if a 'gotta get that' image appears.

[Squidgy]

I would probably just take the 18-55 Maja as it's nice and light and you wont have to worry about carrying and watching all your kit through out the day which means you can also enjoy the trip. I tend to take the minimum on a first visit and make mental notes of which lens may have given me an advantage and should I ever go back to the same place I'll take what I need and know what I want to shoot. Have a good trip.

[keith201]

I made myself a camera sling from an old car seat belt, (see www.petapixel.com for details.) The camera is carried by my hip and is out of the way. I generally have my 18-70 fitted and carry my 55-200 in a bumbag with a spare battery, CPL and a lens cloth