Antelope Canyon lens choice help

[amarkle]

Hi all, I'm going to Antelope Canyon (Lower Antelope Canyon to be specific) in a few days and could use some help on lens selection.

 

First, I am NOT doing one of the photography oriented tours, which means I'm not allowed to use a tripod. I'm managing my expectations as to what I can achieve hand-held, but a couple decent shots would make me very happy.

 

I'm taking two bodies, an xt100 and x-t1. For the X-t1 I'm choosing between the 18-55 and the 14mm (because of dust issues in the canyon I prefer not to change lenses). The choice basically comes down to field of view (I imagine 14mm will be better than 18mm) vs. OIS. The lack of tripod obviously makes the second pretty valuable.

 

Any thoughts? Can I get away with shooting the 14mm at 2.8, or will I need the OIS of the 18-55?

 

Thanks for any and all suggestions!

[milandro]

Do not underestimate the ability of shooting at higher ISO that the Fuji sensor has.

 

This article is illuminating (what a pun!). I agree with most of it.

 

https://www.digitalphotomentor.com/how-to-overcome-the-fear-of-high-iso-and-take-sharper-photos/

 

You can really make great pics at 800 or 1600 ISO! So, the tripod is really, very often not necessary. I would certainly go for the 14mm but would still take a longer lens on the off chance I’d need a longer lens for details that otherwise would be too small even if cropped.

 

Unless you are in a very windy situation changing lenses is not impossible and won’t necessarily mean that you get dust on the sensor.

 

If it were me I would take a 12mm (I don’t have a 14) and I would also take the 50-230 (which I have, but I also have the 18-55mm).

[keenevision]

 

I recently went to Upper Antelope, and used the Rokinon 12mm f2 exclusively (you do NOT want to change lenses in that DUST BOWL!!)

results i got were fantastic- the plus is that with the manual focus WIDE angle lens, I could zone focus, stop down to say f4, and know that my depth of field was going to cover. I also used auto bracketing of -1/+1 stops, so I got 3 exposures each time I pressed the shutter button. However, I *did* the "pro camera" tour, using a tripod, christ, some exposures were 10-15 seconds. 

And yes, regularly shot at ISO 1000-3200 with no problem. The mirrorless camera will let you get good shots at really slow shutter speeds hand held.

ENJOY!!!!

[Tommyboy]

The word "canyon" makes me think 14mm. Having said that, the field of view difference between 14m (21mm equivalent) and 18mm (28mm equivalent) is not that great. Still, I would prefer the 14. The 18-55 will be more versatile—no doubt—but I think the preponderance of your shooting would be at the widest focal length. The OIS is nice, but it would be more critical at 55mm f/4.0, something you wouldn't be dealing with at 14mm. You should be able to shoot that lens at 1/30 or even 1/15 in many circumstances. What about a monopod? A platypod? A beanbag? 

 

I shoot quite a bit with the 23mm and the 16mm. When the 23mm is not wide enough, I find that suffocating, much worse than when a lens is not long enough. 

 

Good luck!

Edited July 3, 2016 by Tommyboy