Recommended Lens Size for Tracy Arm Excursion (Alaska)

[Sea-n-Ease]

We’re doing the Allen Marine, small boat, Tracy Arm excursion on an upcoming Alaska cruise.    How much (in mm) zoom will I need, or should I just plan on a wide angle?  I’ve read the boat gets pretty close to photo opp items. 
 

Thanks!

[quack2]

For wildlife, I liked my 100-400.

[Heidi13]

3 hours ago, Sea-n-Ease said:

 

We’re doing the Allen Marine, small boat, Tracy Arm excursion on an upcoming Alaska cruise.    How much (in mm) zoom will I need, or should I just plan on a wide angle?  I’ve read the boat gets pretty close to photo opp items. 
 

Thanks!

 

If using a single body and single lens you need to decide in advance whether you will focus on wide-angle or telephoto shots.

 

Personally, I use 2 bodies, one has a 16-35mm and the other a 100-400mm or 70-200 with a 2x. When in the vicinity of glaciers, I routinely use both bodies, capturing wildlife with the telephoto and glaciers with the wide-angle.

[Sea-n-Ease]

For this particular excursion, I just want to take one body and one lens.  Thought a super zoom of 400 wouldn’t be as critical as shooting from the main cruise ship.  Maybe I’ll take my 24-240.  

[Gardyloo]

Remember that most current digital cameras have sensors capable of delivering high-resolution images pretty much throughout the zoom range of whatever lens you choose.  All that's needed afterward, depending on what you plan to do with the image, is the ability to crop and enlarge the captured image, which most editing software (including built-in software in many smartphones) will let you do to get the result you want.

 

For me, I think that closeups of glaciers can be very interesting as well as wide shots.  Here are a couple of images I took of Hubbard Glacier some years ago, illustrating this.  I was working with a 28-270mm zoom; the images were taken at the lower and upper ends of the range; I suppose the EXIF data will show the actual focal lengths used, but it doesn't matter once I cropped and enlarged them. 

 

Here's a wide shot; I thought the sky was as interesting as the land.

 

 

Mid-range shot showing another ship to give some sense of the massive scale of the glacier face -

 

 

...and a closeup showing the chaos of the ice -

 

 

And don't forget the glacier/land interface, which can also be very dramatic.

 

 

These were all taken with the same lens; none of them were at extreme ends of the wide/zoom range available.  Unless you plan to print your pictures for a roadside billboard, you probably have the ability to use most focal lengths to get an acceptable image; maybe the same picture can serve both as wide and closeup.  

Edited June 26, 2023 by Gardyloo

[pierces]

The range Gardyloo mentioned matches my experience. The last time we took that tour, I used a 24-105 mounted on a full-frame body and a 70-300 on an APS-C body for a range of 24mm - 450mm. As mentioned above, few of my shots were at the extremes of that range.

 

Here's a link to our last Alaska trip. The photos have a Photo Data tag at the bottom of the page with all the lens, camera and exposure info:

 

https://pptphoto.com/galleries/Travel/Cruising/2021 Alaska/index.html

 

 

Dave

[KyleDefends]

I just finished an Alaskan cruise and found myself using 75-300 almost exclusively.  It's always personal taste.  Have a blast!!

[Italy52]

We use 18-300 lens as we don't like carrying around a lot of equipment.  Enjoy your excursion.

[wolfie11]

Nikon D-500 with 400 mm for wildlife and iPhone 14 for scenery

[quack2]

On 6/25/2023 at 8:40 PM, Sea-n-Ease said:

For this particular excursion, I just want to take one body and one lens.  Thought a super zoom of 400 wouldn’t be as critical as shooting from the main cruise ship.  Maybe I’ll take my 24-240.  

My 24-240 has been remarkably versatile on the cruise I'm currently on.

[agape01]

17 hours ago, Gardyloo said:

Remember that most current digital cameras have sensors capable of delivering high-resolution images pretty much throughout the zoom range of whatever lens you choose.  All that's needed afterward, depending on what you plan to do with the image, is the ability to crop and enlarge the captured image, which most editing software (including built-in software in many smartphones) will let you do to get the result you want.

 

For me, I think that closeups of glaciers can be very interesting as well as wide shots.  Here are a couple of images I took of Hubbard Glacier some years ago, illustrating this.  I was working with a 28-270mm zoom; the images were taken at the lower and upper ends of the range; I suppose the EXIF data will show the actual focal lengths used, but it doesn't matter once I cropped and enlarged them. 

 

Here's a wide shot; I thought the sky was as interesting as the land.

 

 

Mid-range shot showing another ship to give some sense of the massive scale of the glacier face -

 

 

...and a closeup showing the chaos of the ice -

 

 

And don't forget the glacier/land interface, which can also be very dramatic.

 

 

These were all taken with the same lens; none of them were at extreme ends of the wide/zoom range available.  Unless you plan to print your pictures for a roadside billboard, you probably have the ability to use most focal lengths to get an acceptable image; maybe the same picture can serve both as wide and closeup.  

Lovely!!!

Looks like the ship got in when the lighting conditions were so nice that you got the dramatic look of Hubbard Glacier. 

Great shots you've got there.

[Crew News]

My experiences on Tracy Arm small boat excursions were with an Olympus 40-150 mm lens.  We did get close to several house-size pieces of ice and to one of the glaciers.  The need for both near and telephoto capability is certain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Crew News

[Crew News]

I use a 40-150 mm lens for nearly all of my Alaska excursions and especially for my small-boat Tracy Arm visits.  It is important to be prepared for whales, sea lions at a distance, closeup passes to large ice chunks, and wide angle capability for scenery.

 

 

 

 

[DJDiver]

These were all shot at Tracey Arm on an Allen Marine tour with a 100-400 mm lens on a full frame DSLR.  Mostly used it at 400mm.  I've since replaced the gear with a mirrorless full frame body and a 100-500mm lens, which would have been even better for that little extra reach.  Keep in mind the weight of your gear since you'll probably be hand-holding it.  There's not a lot of room for a tripod on the boat.  Make sure you take some foul weather gear (rain jacket and pants, gloves, hat, etc) so you can stay outside on the deck.  Shooting from inside through the windows just won't cut it.

[jcl410]

On 6/27/2023 at 2:53 PM, Crew News said:

I use a 40-150 mm lens for nearly all of my Alaska excursions and especially for my small-boat Tracy Arm visits. 

....

May i ask what size sensor your camera has? (or is it 35mm film?) Trying to decide between my 

18-135mm or 55-200mm lens for whale watching with my APS-C Canon camera. (~1.6x crop factor for the lenses)

 

Aloha,

 

John 

[Crew News]

1 minute ago, jcl410 said:

May i ask what size sensor your camera has? (or is it 35mm film?) Trying to decide between my 

18-135mm or 55-200mm lens for whale watching with my APS-C Canon camera. (~1.6x crop factor for the lenses)

 

Aloha,

 

John 

I use Olympus 4:3 cameras (EM-1 MKiii and MiX) and for whale watching, I often add a 1.4 teleconvertor.

[Sea-n-Ease]

On 6/27/2023 at 2:53 PM, Crew News said:

I use a 40-150 mm lens for nearly all of my Alaska excursions and especially for my small-boat Tracy Arm visits.  It is important to be prepared for whales, sea lions at a distance, closeup passes to large ice chunks, and wide angle capability for scenery.

 

 

 

 

Thanks!  Beautiful photos!  Are those photos all from the Tracy Arm small boat excursion?

Edited June 29, 2023 by Sea-n-Ease

[Crew News]

2 hours ago, Sea-n-Ease said:

Thanks!  Beautiful photos!  Are those photos all from the Tracy Arm small boat excursion?

Yes.  From 2011 and 2017.