Camera gear on Alaskan cruise

[Lucien Franciosa]

You really do miss a lot when you are looking through a lens. Most importantly being present with others. When your behind the lens it "takes you out of the picture" in more ways than one

A beautiful sentiment, and one I keep in mind when I am taking pictures. Sometimes you just have to put the camera down. For myself though, it is not all or nothing. The amount of time spent looking through a lens is a very small percentage of the time I am present with others. And while no doubt I can find better pictures on the internet of eagles and bears, none of them are exactly what we experienced, none of them have my family in them, and none of them can trigger the memories in the same way as actual pictures from one's experience. Every big trip I put together a book for the family and its greatly appreciated and well received as a way to relive the trip.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

A beautiful sentiment, and one I keep in mind when I am taking pictures. Sometimes you just have to put the camera down. For myself though, it is not all or nothing. The amount of time spent looking through a lens is a very small percentage of the time I am present with others. And while no doubt I can find better pictures on the internet of eagles and bears, none of them are exactly what we experienced, none of them have my family in them, and none of them can trigger the memories in the same way as actual pictures from one's experience. Every big trip I put together a book for the family and its greatly appreciated and well received as a way to relive the trip.

I agree 100%. You can’t spend a whole trip viewing it through a camera lens but that doesn’t mean don’t bother taking any pictures at all.

 

[Flcruising]

A beautiful sentiment, and one I keep in mind when I am taking pictures. Sometimes you just have to put the camera down. For myself though, it is not all or nothing. The amount of time spent looking through a lens is a very small percentage of the time I am present with others. And while no doubt I can find better pictures on the internet of eagles and bears, none of them are exactly what we experienced, none of them have my family in them, and none of them can trigger the memories in the same way as actual pictures from one's experience. Every big trip I put together a book for the family and its greatly appreciated and well received as a way to relive the trip.

You may be right but I was responding to the op who asked for some thoughts on why or why not to bring camera equipment. I offered the op some thoughts as requested.
Also the op added later
"I was sort of hoping everyone would try and convince me to leave it at home "
It seems to me I responded appropriately to the op.

A beautiful sentiment, and one I keep in mind when I am taking pictures. Sometimes you just have to put the camera down. For myself though, it is not all or nothing. The amount of time spent looking through a lens is a very small percentage of the time I am present with others. And while no doubt I can find better pictures on the internet of eagles and bears, none of them are exactly what we experienced, none of them have my family in them, and none of them can trigger the memories in the same way as actual pictures from one's experience. Every big trip I put together a book for the family and its greatly appreciated and well received as a way to relive the trip.

 

[Lucien Franciosa]

You may be right but I was responding to the op who asked for some thoughts on why or why not to bring camera equipment. I offered the op some thoughts as requested.
Also the op added later
"I was sort of hoping everyone would try and convince me to leave it at home "
It seems to me I responded appropriately to the op.

I apologize if you took my posting as criticism or somehow suggesting your answer was not appropriate. There is not right or wrong here, but a matter of lifestyle and preferences, and your sentiment was sweet and one I constantly remind myself when taking pictures. Perhaps my response was off topic, but I felt a counter perspective would be helpful.

However, I do think the question is not centered on to take pictures or not, but is rather gear centric, because he mentioned as a reason not to bring the heavier gear because of how good cellphones are getting. He was essentially asking if people would see a quality difference essentially cellphones which he carries and more advanced cameras which he prefers not to carry. He was asking people that had been on Alaskan cruises for their thoughts, my guess is he was hoping someone was going to say,'my cellphone was good enough, amazing trip, amazing pictures.' But instead he got,'you are going to see such amazing things, you will regret not having the better gear' because the simple truth is gear does matter.

But is the cell phone good enough? only cell phone users (exclusively) can answer that.

I use my iPhone all the time, don't deny its good enough for most occasions, but in the picture books I put together with a mixture of pics from two the cameras systems, its obvious which camera took which.

My best advice to the OP was what I did on the same journey, avid photographer for years with dslr, then I stopped carrying it for whatever reason (right around the transition from film to digital and I wasn't impressed with digital and then a decade later a once in a lifetime trip came up (Japan) and I had the same question, camera phone or digital mirrorless.. I rented a good digital mirrorless with a 28-80 mm telephoto, f2.8, and went for a walk along the coast including a small fishing village, taking similar pictures with both. The questions I had would I see a quality difference, and would it be enough for the extra baggage. In short, I did see a difference. Pictures were sharper, focus was tack on, the dynamic range and the depth of field was better. It was enough for me, I bought the camera and never regretted it. okay my bank account regrets it a bit.

Now the question I face, going on an Alaskan cruise is what long range lens to take. Most long lenses are expensive and heavy. There are some with higher f stops that are lighter and less expensive that are tempting... but again will there be a big quality difference? I should rent one and fine out I suppose.

 

[Lucien Franciosa]

I was sort of hoping everyone would try and convince me to leave it at home

OP, sometimes the answers we get are influenced by the question we ask. Your original title 'camera gear for alaskan cruise', while concise, I think might attract more gear heads than mobile phone users, and hence you answer will get skewed (phone users might be shy about even getting involved in a discussion with gear heads). Gear heads have already made up their minds. Heck Yes! And I might be wrong but I think the question you want answered is not just if you want a long lens but if a mobile phone camera is enough. So you need to attract more phone users. I might have used the title "Camera phone users, good enough for Alaska cruise?" The answer might still be the same, but at least you will hear from the target audience.

 

[Flcruising]

I apologize if you took my posting as criticism or somehow suggesting your answer was not appropriate. There is not right or wrong here, but a matter of lifestyle and preferences, and your sentiment was sweet and one I constantly remind myself when taking pictures. Perhaps my response was off topic, but I felt a counter perspective would be helpful.

However, I do think the question is not centered on to take pictures or not, but is rather gear centric, because he mentioned as a reason not to bring the heavier gear because of how good cellphones are getting. He was essentially asking if people would see a quality difference essentially cellphones which he carries and more advanced cameras which he prefers not to carry. He was asking people that had been on Alaskan cruises for their thoughts, my guess is he was hoping someone was going to say,'my cellphone was good enough, amazing trip, amazing pictures.' But instead he got,'you are going to see such amazing things, you will regret not having the better gear' because the simple truth is gear does matter.

But is the cell phone good enough? only cell phone users (exclusively) can answer that.

I use my iPhone all the time, don't deny its good enough for most occasions, but in the picture books I put together with a mixture of pics from two the cameras systems, its obvious which camera took which.

My best advice to the OP was what I did on the same journey, avid photographer for years with dslr, then I stopped carrying it for whatever reason (right around the transition from film to digital and I wasn't impressed with digital and then a decade later a once in a lifetime trip came up (Japan) and I had the same question, camera phone or digital mirrorless.. I rented a good digital mirrorless with a 28-80 mm telephoto, f2.8, and went for a walk along the coast including a small fishing village, taking similar pictures with both. The questions I had would I see a quality difference, and would it be enough for the extra baggage. In short, I did see a difference. Pictures were sharper, focus was tack on, the dynamic range and the depth of field was better. It was enough for me, I bought the camera and never regretted it. okay my bank account regrets it a bit.

Now the question I face, going on an Alaskan cruise is what long range lens to take. Most long lenses are expensive and heavy. There are some with higher f stops that are lighter and less expensive that are tempting... but again will there be a big quality difference? I should rent one and fine out I suppose.

Then perhaps your comments should be responding to the op rather than me. I didn't ask nor do I want to debate you.