Another important question: Tripod? Monopod? Both? Neither?
You get very close. Sometimes too close. We had to move away from baby fur seals on the beach as they tried to play with us and not allowed to touch them. 18-200/300 should be more than adequate. Enjoy. Be sure to snorkel or scuba and get a water proof point and shoot for great close ups. Seals come right up to you .
I have found over the years a sharp 24-105 or 24-120 works.
I would leave the big lens at home if you have teleconverters which are smaller and lighter.
For whale watching in Washington state I took my Nikon kit but used my Sony 24-600 bridge camera and was not disappointed! Enjoy your trip!
Take a 28-80 or likewise. Leave the 200-500 home. Too big and will likely get stolen.
I have been to the Galapagos. It somewhat depends upon the guide as to where you go. Some tiny birds requie 500 mm since they are skittish, but for just about everything else the 70-200 will work well. A polarizer is very helpful. I found that my monopod was a great aid, and allowed me to shoot at 1/500 with no motion, mostly at ISO 400, sometimes 800.
Bill McKenna wrote:
I’m traveling to the Galápagos Islands in October. I’m taking my Nikon D850 and D500 cameras. My question is what lenses? I have a Nikon 70-200mm 2.8, and a Nikon 200-500mm 5.6. I keep hearing that you can get so close to the wildlife that you don’t need 500mm of reach. The lens is bigger and is just one more piece of gear to take. I’m inclined to take the big lens, but maybe some of you could shed some light on my question. Thanks. Bill M.
If twas me, I'd take a 70-300 plus an extender and a 35 or 50mm. A 2x extender would give you 400 with that 70-200 with the loss of a couple of stops. Wouldn't that do you? I'm 90 and it would d^mn sure do me. :-) Harry
You have the right lenses and equipment for yielding the best images for your trip. I hope that everything is insured for damage and the possibility of it being stolen, because you will be targeted for your Nikon gear. I'm very serious here.
As far as you trip us concerned, you should always respect wildlife of any kind and stay at a respectable distance in their natural habitat. As one person has stated, there are landscape and area shots that you will miss if you don't have a wide angle or super wide angle lens. I have two Tokina wide angle lenses. A 16-24mm and a 12-24mm lens. They are perfectly suited for what you will be shooting. You've thought about closeup photography, but not scenic or landscape photography and will fall short of your goals to capture what us truly there.
For the wide shots, rather than drag one more lens, especially if it is for a "minority" application, take few minutes and learn to capture and stitch panoramas. Takes only a few seconds to capture the multiple exposures, and it's easy to combine them in either LightRoom (my preference) or PhotoShop. I find the results much more pleasing than using an ultrawide lens for the purpose.
1grumpybear wrote:
I had the pleasure of spending 10 days there. The last week of Dec. 2009 and the first three days of Jan. 2010. Shot over 15,000 pic with a Nikon D2x and a D3. The first pic of the seal on the bench, I could have walk up and petted it.
There were a few times when I wished I had the 24-70 on. Mainly used 80-200 on the D2X and the 300 2.8 on the D3. I was in a group of about 10 and guide made it clear that we were to stay in the group and no wandering from the group. About day 3 or 4 he allow me to wander as long as he could see me when we were out hiking. The animals have no fear of humans. Its not like a African Safria where I use 200-400 90% of the time. I use the 300 about 60% of the time. It wasn't that I couldn't get close to the animals but we had to stay on the trail. If you spending a day in Quito take a tour of the city.
I had the pleasure of spending 10 days there. The ... (
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Very nice pictures of a beautiful area.
Mundy
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