So I think I've made my decision...thoughts welcome.

[zackiedawg]

Don't forget too that if you're using an 80-400 on her Nikon, the sensor crop factor means you're getting a 35mm-equivalent of 600mm at the long end. That should be enough to get pretty nice detail even for faraway things (which you hope most wild bears will be!). I use a 200-500mm lens for birding and wildlife shooting around Florida, with a 1.5x crop factor for a total equivelent of 750mm optically - it's practically a telescope! Personally, I'd want to have a long lens in Alaska - whether travelling by road, rail, or cruise ship. I've gotten shots of bighorn sheep, whales, seals, orcas, and moose from the deck of a cruise ship and 600-750mm of lens reach.

Anne, sounds like an awesome Alaska trip planned. I'd love to get up there to spend more time travelling around like that - I've only seen it by boat.

 

[annnewjerz]

Don't forget too that if you're using an 80-400 on her Nikon, the sensor crop factor means you're getting a 35mm-equivalent of 600mm at the long end. That should be enough to get pretty nice detail even for faraway things (which you hope most wild bears will be!). I use a 200-500mm lens for birding and wildlife shooting around Florida, with a 1.5x crop factor for a total equivelent of 750mm optically - it's practically a telescope! Personally, I'd want to have a long lens in Alaska - whether travelling by road, rail, or cruise ship. I've gotten shots of bighorn sheep, whales, seals, orcas, and moose from the deck of a cruise ship and 600-750mm of lens reach.

Anne, sounds like an awesome Alaska trip planned. I'd love to get up there to spend more time travelling around like that - I've only seen it by boat.

Yeah - I'm thinking I might just rent a lens for that trip, one of those huge ones to have in the car with us juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust in case I come across something I need it for. If not, I'm pretty sure at some point before our trip I'll get the 70-300mm VR and that will get most things close enough.

I'm so excited about our trip. We were going in summer of 09 but pushed it back to summer of 2010 to save more money up so we can stay longer. We decided WDW in 09 would be our budget friendly trip (I never thought I would see the day when WDW was considered budget friendly for us ). We haven't really got too much planned yet, things are still in the early stages since we have so much time left.

Ideally, I would like to spend an extra 5 or so days up there so we can see some of the inside passage as well and take the Marine Highway to towns like Ketchikan, Scagway and Glacier Bay...but oh well, maybe another time when we're retired in 40 years.

 

[pjacobi]

We will be going to Denali...

Try to stay somewhere overnight in Denali NP. The short bus ride does not do the immense park justice!

The mountain itself is very shy, often shrouded by clouds. More days means more chances to see it.


-Paul