Lens advice please

[Bobmc27]

I am travelling to WDW and also visiting KSC this fall and will be using a Nikon D 5100 it will have the standard 18-55 lens. I'm just wondering if I should also get the 55-200 lens or will the 18-55 suffice for most of what I need. I have an older70-300 but the autofocus on it is not compatible with the D 5100.
Thanks for your help.

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

It really depends on what you are planning to shoot. The 18-55 will work ok in many situations, but once you get into low light, moving situations it may struggle. With a tripod, it will handle fireworks. If you are planning on shooting the safari ride I would recommend a longer reach. A longer reach is also sometimes necessary if you want closeups of the characters in the outside shows. If you plan to shoot the lowlight parades without flash then I would recommend a lens with f2.8 or larger aperture. Its going to be totally up to you what you will need. The dark rides are another story and will require a fast lens. Stick to what you want to shoot, get the proper equipment, try to stay within your equipment's limitations and you won't be disappointed.

 

[danicaca]

I just purchased the 55-250 for my Canon, and I am really excited to try it out on our next trip! On our last trip, I was disappointed in some of the pictures I took because I just was not close enough to the action. The 18-55 is great for close up situations. Now to decide if I bring both lenses and risk DH's wrath as I hold him up to change lenses....

 

[photo_chick]

I am travelling to WDW and also visiting KSC this fall and will be using a Nikon D 5100 it will have the standard 18-55 lens. I'm just wondering if I should also get the 55-200 lens or will the 18-55 suffice for most of what I need. I have an older70-300 but the autofocus on it is not compatible with the D 5100.
Thanks for your help.

You will want all the reach you have for the tours at KSC. I have the craptastic Canon 75-300 and a much better Canon 70-210. I chose to use the 75-300 despite it's propensity for putting purple fringe on everything so I could get closer... and I still wished I'd had more reach even though we did "the good tour" that got us closer than the free tour. Of course Atlantis was also on the pad when I went.

There are also a lot of museum type lighting areas at KSC and you will want something fast if you want to get those so an inexpensive prime might be worth adding to your bag if you don't have one. My 50mm f/1.8 served me pretty well there. It was a little tight on my crop body but I made it work.

 

[DisneyVideoTours]

I agree that you might want a faster lens for low light/no flash shots, but your 18-55 will be plenty for general shooting. If you want nice shots at Animal Kingdom for example. You'll want something longer.
I just came back from a trip a couple weeks ago and another this past April.
While I do shoot a lot of photos, I shoot mostly video.
The trip in April I had my
Canon 60D
Canon 24-105 4.0L
Canon 24-70 2.8L
Canon 14mm 2.8L

I felt a bit like Rambo with my black backpack full of gear, constantly changes lenses etc. So for our next trip I trimmed off some weight...

The most recent trip at the beginning of July I only brought my
Canon 5D Mark III
Canon 24-105 4.0L
Samyang 14mm 2.8

The 24-105 would have been sufficient for the whole trip. I wanted to bring the 14mm because I de-clicked it (meaning that I can smoothly adjust the iris without clicking through f-stops) It's also a fast lens wide open at 2.8 making if perfect for low light high dynamic range lighting.

My advice would be to bring every piece of glass you own. You can then decide what you want to carry from day to day. I would definitely bring your 70-300 to Animal Kingdom and I wouldn't worry about the auto focus. If you stop down to a higher f-stop and give yourself a deep focus it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

Because I tend to try to shoot everything, I have built in as much flexibility into my lens selection as possible. Disney uses light, both bright and low, to acccentuate the attractions. All lenses can deal with the bright light but it is the low light situations that gives us fits. My WDW kit consists of the following:

18-55 (kit)- wide angle, character meals when spacing is a problem
28-70 f2.8- walk-around
70-200 f2.8- greater reach w/low light capability
30 f1.4- dark rides

Here is an image that I don't see posted often because on the safari you are not thinking about zoom and lowlight. This is the animatronic baby elephant in the back of the truck. Without the f2.8, I wouldn't have been able to get the shot.


AK 22 by Terry McGraw Photography, on Flickr

 

[OKW Lover]

Very interesting question. I was on a WDW/DCL/KSC/WDW trip about a month ago using my D5100 and an 18-200 zoom. I found that for most (almost all) of my WDW stuff I was down in the 18-55 range, but I tend to go in for more of the closeup detail stuff.

At KSC though, having that 200 end was a big plus since so much of what you will see on the outside bus tour is still far away. However, when you are indoors (at the exhibits or the Saturn 5 building) then you're back to being in the 18-55 range.

Does that help? Didn't think so.

 

[SplashMo]

Most of the people pictures are in the 50mm and under range.