Travel Photography with a single prime?

[surrephoto]

35 mm full-frame perspective can do alot of things. The chances of it being not wide enough is not high, but don't bet on it 100% of the time.

That said, if I could only bring 1 prime, it's indeed the 35 f1.4G with my D3.

If I had the choice of only 2 lenses, I would go for 17-35mm f2.8 (If insist on prime, I've used 20mm f2.8D for travel, a small and sharp wonder!) & 50mm f1.4. Having a wide-angle zoom is more for convenience during overseas trips.

 

[Exhaust]

24mm on FX or DX?

I've never been daring enough to just rely on one lens, since I spend $$ going to a place, and don't want to screw up , but I'd be rather comfortable doing Taipei with either my 15mm or 24mm on APS-C with some bias to the 24mm (ie. 15mm = ~23mm; 24mm= ~36mm; on 35mm format; )

My experience with Taipei has been mainly street/people, landscapes, temples/buildings, obligatory "wife in front of landmark" shots.
As such both focal lengths do have different pros/cons:

15mm (APS-C)
1. Can always taken in broader views
2. More perspective distortion, esp when taking in ppl
3. Can typically move nearer to get subject to fill more of the frame
4. Can be too uncomfortable to move too near to strangers
5. Easy to sneak chest/hip level candid shots due to wide FOV

24mm (APS-C)
1. IMHO, a bit more general and well rounded
2. More reasonable FOV and perspective distortion
3. More comfortable working distance
4. Can still take sneak chest/hip level shots if needed
5. Can still squeeze out some shallow DOF shots on a 24mm
6. Will be limited in some cases to take a wide angle view (eg. temple/building interiors, some wide landscapes); Can be compensated by stitching

Here is a Taipei tread I put up sometime back. Using 15mm, 24mm, 43mm. Most of the street stuff using 24mm.
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/threads/860273-pinholecam-Taipei-in-Rainy-Feburary?highlight=[pinholecam]

very very nice pictures u have there

 

[larrytok]

haha i m forced to bring prime lens since my system does not support "zooming"... for me, i would say a 35mm or 50mm would be good. a good idea for you would be a 24-70 if you r using full frame, covers general photog if only 1 lens is to be used.

 

[ortega]

It would too boring to have all your photos with the same fov. Min I would go is to bring a kit lens with a table pod.

 

[Berkins]

I may bring my gf1 zoom lens kit and 5d2 with a 85