Lens rental Question

[PolynesianMedic]

I am about 10 days away from my cruise and was going to put in my lens rental, and realized I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do. I had rented the Sigma 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 Optically Stabilized when I went to Disney with my son in November and it was a great lens to have as my walk around. I didn't need to have anything else with me because I had a great range lens. I am looking now and see that there is a Tamron 28-300mm f3.5-6.3 Vibration Control available. As they are both stabilized in one way or another, and both have the same f stop, I was wondering which range was the better one to have for a cruise. I wanted some opinions here, and am also interested in anything else that I might have missed. The lenses are to go on my Rebel XT dSLR. Is there really a notable difference between 18 and 28mm? Would the extra 100mm make up for the 10mm short fall? Thanks for the help.

 

[gary]

what's the weight difference, will you be walking around all day, i find the 24-105 is now taking about 90% of my walkaround stuff, maybe 50 1.4 for the shows in the ship's theater
you may find that the 18-200 is all you need, a one lens solution
i've found one of the hardest things in photography is having the serenity to accept that i will not always get the shot, to paraphrase a popular wisdom

 

[PolynesianMedic]

Yeah I had thought about renting the 24-105 but it was a lot more then these two, until I tried another site. I can get the 24-105 for $85 for 2 weeks, or $109 for 3 weeks. I think that I might go for that and bring my 70-300 for any long distance stuff I want.

 

[Roger]

It's more than 10 v 100 diff.

Because of the crop factor, it's 16mm on the wide end, and 160 mm on the long end.

I think there is a big difference there at the wide end; but considering that it's a cruise, I don't think you'll really miss the wide end. Give the Tamron a whirl, you'll more likely need the longer end. Hard to say. Last time you rented it, where were your photos at? (which focal length?)

 

[PolynesianMedic]

hmm good question. It was a mix for the most part, I think. But I was also at WDW. I know that this is different then the cruise. What about going the 24-105 L IS USM route and bringing my 70-300mm? How would this work for the cruise?

 

[gary]

that might be a good solution, those 2 plus the sig 30mm for the almost normal fov, 30 x 1.6 gets you just short of 50mm, plus it's a fairly light lens and good for theater, or jack up to max iso on the 24-105

another option is renting the tamron 28-75 f 2.8 xrdi, i still use mine and it does not do bad even on the 5d, and full frame sensors do show up lens faults, it's fairly light and gives you the f2.8, fairly fast combined with iso 1600 and run through a good noiseware process and you should get some pretty good theater photos, even better rent the 17-55 f 2.8 IS, a great performer

where are the port calls, if it's somewhere i've been i may be able to give a more informed opinion about any need for wider angle

if you have time go scan a few on my phanfare site, i'll approve the invite if it aks for one, all 2497 photos on the med cruise galleries were taken with the rebel xti, many of them with the 17-55, all the stage show stuff was that lens and camera

 

[PolynesianMedic]

Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Castaway Cay. Of course there is the Flying Dutchmen at Castaway Cay.