Canon Lens Advice for upcoming travel to Egypt

[Katt]

Hi All - been a long time since I last posted. I am looking for advice as to what lenses the Canon shooters would recommend for a trip through Egypt.

I will be visiting Cairo, Aswan & Luxor, no Nile cruise (aside from a felucca at sunset). So I expect mostly landscapes, tomb interiors & street shots.
I shoot with a Canon 7D (Mark 1) and have the following kit:

EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM
EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
EF 70-200mm f/4 IS USM

I usually travel with the 24-105mm but don't often need to shoot really wide or find myself in low light conditions which this lens is not brilliant for on the smaller sensor.
Open to any suggestions outside of the above as well recommendations as can always borrow or hire a lens or body.

I was considering upgrading the body to a 6D Mark II but I don't know if this is the best use of my money & if it will offer any real advance aside from full frame & potentially better in low light.

Cheers,
Katt

[ameerat42]

Hi Katt. I think a "welcome back" is due. - After 3 1/2 years!

Anyway, what are you doing still hanging around as "beginner"?
Go to your profile and make that "Intermediate" at least.

And about your gear - are you really feeling the limits of a Canon 7D?
One thing you didn't tell us is what in particular you intend to be shooting there.
Normally I would advise (even from some experience) to take a reasonable wide-
angle lens when travelling - to shoot vistas, inside and outside of urban scenes...
- And on a crop sensor body like the 7D I would not consider 24mm to be very
wide at all.

[ricktas]

Welcome back Katt.

Hi Katt. I think a "welcome back" is due. - After 3 1/2 years!

Anyway, what are you doing still hanging around as "beginner"?
Go to your profile and make that "Intermediate" at least.
.

Agreed and I have upgraded Katt already.

[Katt]

Thanks Ricktas - I was just about to fix that.
I think a lot of the time in Cairo will be shots of the pyramids, the Khan al Khalili market & the streets of Old Cairo, perhaps inside a few churches/mosques.
In Luxor & Aswan, there will be a lot of temple ruins (some quite large), photos of the Nile & photos of Aswan from a boat on the Nile, also the interior of some of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
I am also stopping in Dubai on the way over - plan to shoot the skyline, views from the top of the Burj al Khalifa, outside & inside the main mosque, old Dubai area, markets etc.
I do love the 7D - I guess the only drawback is the crop factor and I noticed this last year in Cambodia (although stupidly didn't take the 10-22mm). Not having used a full frame before, I don't really know how much I am missing out on.
Last time I travelled with the 10-22mm, I was unhappy with the images - distortion & soft edges.
Cheers - Katt

[Brian500au]

Hi Katt

The kit you have now is fine for a trip to Egypt. You will use the 24-105 for your general walk about, the 10-22 when you are inside tombs etc and the 70-200 for candid photography. You cannot use flash in a tomb.

I am not sure if you have traveled to a place like Egypt before but a little warning, the locals are very good at extracting money from tourists. It is rare you can take photos inside tombs - but this is really a bit of set up. They will tell you no photos, but not enforce the rule until you are deep inside the tomb and then someone (guard) will come and check your camera and demand money from you. Be careful. My way around this was to carry as spare blank card with me and as soon as i seen the guard hassling other people I swapped cards. The back of the camera then showed a blank card (with the full card safely tucked into my pocket).

The one advantage you would have with a 6DII is higher ISO performance over the 7D - and with no flash in tombs the higher the ISO the faster the shutter speed. It would also allow you to use your 50mm with a 1.4 f/stop, increase shutter speed again.

[Tannin]

The 7D remains a fantastic camera, superior in several respects to the 6D II. However low light is its weak spot. A 6D II (or any other FF camera, or even (to a lesser extent) a 7D II or 80D) is vastly better in low light. Lenses? If you are happy to carry them all, they will all get used. You will struggle to improve much on the 10-22 for UWA, it's a very fine lens. Sure, the 16-35/4 I replaced mine with is superior, but it wasn't cheap and the full frame body to use it on cost a lot.

You know, I'd be a bit tempted to take a do-everything-badly superzoom (18-200 or etc.) and a fast prime (a 50/1.8 USM would do, or better yet a 40mm pancake) because that's so small and light and if someone steals it you don't really care.

[William W]

For what you described you'd be typically shooting, if you stick with your 7D I suggest investing in a fast 35 or 24. If you buy a 6DMkII, then I suggest renting or buying a fast 35.

I'd take the 24 to 105 also.

I'd like to interrogate the (previous) images made with the EF-S 10~22 F/3.5~4.5 USM to find the root cause(s) of the distortion and soft edges: my experience is, that zoom is a pretty clean lens. Especially with appropriate post production Lens-correction and Output-sharpening.

Do you use a filter on that lens?

WW

[Tannin]

"Lens distortion" on ultrawides is usually nothing of the kind, and nothing to do with the particular lens. It is usually in fact perspective distortion, which is not a lens fault at all, it's simply a result of standing close to the subject. Yep, you get actual lens distortion too (typically barrel distortion in wide lenses, or the dreaded moustache distortion in cheap and nasty ones), and the amount of it varies from one lens to another, but it is always much less obvious than perspective distortion at wide angles with close-up subjects. 95% of the time, when someone complains about distortion in an ultra-wide, changing to a different lens won't help. The answer is to stand further away.

[Bear Dale]

Katt, take me to Egypt and I'll carry your gear bag around for you (hey, I'll even change lenses for you).

[William W]

"Lens distortion" on ultrawides is usually nothing of the kind . . . etc

I concur.

Hence my request.

WW

[Tannin]

^ Yes. Telling you that William ... well, you know the old proverb about teaching your granny to suck eggs?

[William W]

Not sure of the meaning - sarcasm or humour?

So I'll go with humour:

"grandpa" not "grandma" please. (that's humour)

BTW - sorry if the comment got your knickers in a twist: it was only literal, in so far as the comment was agreeing with you and endorsing what you wrote and was further encouraging the OP to investigate and or post some sample to be investigated.

WW

[ameerat42]

WW. I don't think Tannin was having a go at you at all, rather, agreeing with you.
Your reference to the possibility of his underclothing suffering a convoluted transformation
was perhaps based upon spurious semantic mapping

- Just saying, is all

[Tannin]

No, not at all William. I was simply apologising for any inadvertent suggestion that you weren't fully aware of my point re perspective distortion. Assuming that you are about my age, and knowing some of your background, I imagine that you have known that stuff for more than 40 years.

[William W]

OK Thanks, I understand and there is no problem here.
I simply didn't understand your comment and I was confused because it appeared to be different to all of your other comments I have read, hence I thought I may have offended you.
Sometimes it is much easier talking face to face, than writing.
Yes, I think we are about the same age. I am 62 or 63 (I think) haha

cheers for now