terpfan Loc: central coast, California

Went to Antarctica in 2018. One of the best ever trips. Many passengers used long lenses, 150-600, and monopods on the ship for whale and bird photos. On shore I used mostly 70-300, hand held. one thing I learned, while sitting on muddy brown snow taking pictures of penguins, was that brown snow is not mud. Use your imagination. The pro photographers on board recommended increasing exposure compensation 1/2 to 1 full stop. My biggest regret is that we did not include South Georgia on our trip. Take extra batteries and charger. Enjoy, the isolation is breath taking. It's just you, the ice and the penguins, truly a life changing trip. With the exception of the monopod, I hand carried my equipment on all flights with no problems.

jtang2

On my trip, I had 2 bodies; D810 w/24-120 and D7200 w/70-200. This combination covered my needs.

JimGray Loc: Albuquerque, New Mexico

If your cruise is anything like the 3 polar cruises I have been on, there will be 3 different aspects of the cruise that will almost demand a different set of gear. First, there will be times when you are sightseeing and photographing from the deck of the ship. Second, you will take Zodiacs and land and hike on the continent. Third, you will be on what they call a Zodiac cruise where you may get close to whales, seals, icebergs, etc. without getting out of the Zodiac. I do not think you will want to tote all of your gear on each of these. This means you will not want to have just one camera bag in which you tote everything at all times. For the first situation, you probably will want your longest lens with the TC. On board the ship it will be easy to change lenses as needed. In the 2nd scenario, you will want to go light and it will not be easy to change lenses. However, most of the pro photographers seem to take long lenses on these outings, mostly to shoot portraits of penguins and seals. As an aside, the guides usually provide walking sticks. You might want to consider taking your own walking stick in the form of a monopod. You do need a waterproof bag for your gear. In the 3rd situation, weight is not the issue. Your gear just needs to fit in your waterproof bag. When the Zodiac is moving fast you want your gear protected. However, sometimes the guide will shut off the motor or cruise really slow so you can shoot. It can be difficult to change lenses on a Zodiac, but not impossible. I did have a situation where I nearly regretted changing lenses on the Zodiac. A bit of spray landed on my camera during a lens change and resulted in some nasty spots on my sensor. I did not stop shooting because of the sensor spots. I was able to fix the spots on my images using content aware fill and you cannot tell where those spots were after using the healing brush. I had taken equipment with me to clean the sensor. After we got back on board the ship I was able to clean the sensor so it was as good as new. I will add that I wish I had gotten advice like this on a one-day cruise to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

I do not plan on changing any lenses in the Zodiacs on my upcoming trip. As I am a purely landscape photographer I will carry two Nikon Z7ii on with a 24-120mm ƒ4 and one with a 70-200mm ƒ/2.8. I will have a 2x tele extender for use on the ship and I will also have the 14-30mm ƒ/4 Z lens. No need for a long lens if you do not plan on doing any wildlife photography, and besides if you visit a penguin colony you will reasonably close.

KenProspero

Thanking everyone for their input.

There are differing views, but everything has been done respectfully, which is always greatly appreciated. I don't know that I'm any closer to my decision on whether to take the long lens, but I've been given a lot to think about.

KenProspero

Reviving the thread for a post-trip update.

Recap -- I carried the following with me --

1. Nikon F - 17-35 f/2.8
2. Nikon Z 24-200 f/4-6.3
3. Sigma (Nikon F mount) 100-400 f/5-6.3
4. Sigma 1.4x Teleconverter
5. Monopod

Light was pretty good for most of the trip and I ended up using the Nikon Z 24-200 about 80-90% of the time. Always when I left the boat.

The 24-200 is a Fantastic Swiss Army Knife of a lens. There were a couple of times when I wished I had the longer lens on shore when I wish I had the longer lens but conditions weren't good for changing lenses (not recommended to put your bag down in Penguin Guano). FWIW -- I was thinking of trading this lens in for the Nikon Z 24-120 f/4 -- but after this trip have definitely decided not to. It's a great lens to have in the bag. May get the 24-120 anyway (GAS is great!!!).

The 100-400 was great to have on the ship, Especially when Whales were in the distance. For me, it's a little heavy for Birds in Flight if I don't have the monopod with me. I found that the 1.4x converter was nice to have, but little used -- and for me, never without the monopod.

The 17-35 -- I took a few shots because I had it -- and got a couple of nice landscapes. If weight were a serious concern, I could have left it at home.

Attaching one picture -- Cheers to all.

(Download)

jscharp

I also Recently returned from Antarctica. Early February. I had two Bodies Canon R7 and R5. I took three lenses the RF100-500 which got the most use, a RF24-105f4 wichalso was used a lot, a 14-35f4 which was rarely used. I also
took the 1.4X and 2X teleconvertors which I did not use. Having two bodies was nice since I did not have to change lenses while on shore. A waterproof bag is a must when in the zodiaks.

KenProspero

Nice shots!!!!

Where did you see the Chinstraps?

jscharp

The Chinstrap Penguins were on Barrientos Island. I also saw Gentoo and Adelie Penguins.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

I returned on Feb 28th and my experience vis-a-vis tele-extenders was similar: I did not use. I shoot Nikon Z7s and my most used lens was the 24-120 ƒ/4 and second most used was the 14-30 ƒ/4. As we were in Zodiacs and getting in close to the floating ice I found the use of my 70-200 ƒ/2.8 was mostly relegated to ship board use.

The one big take away was that you cannot take a lot of time setting up your framing in a bouncing Zodiac with 8 other photographers thus I learned not to try and crop too tight in camera.

Going back next February and traveling with DigitalPhotoDestinations that has a fly-sail program with Antartica21.

KenProspero

We saw Adelie and Gentoo -- some on our cruise saw Chinstrap (I didn't) and a few (myself included) of saw a stray King Penguin wandering around Ushuaia