What else will I need for my honeymoon

[TraumaRN]

So my honeymoon isn't for 9 months or so, however in the meanwhile I want to be able to start saving money for potential camera parts and/or camera for the trip.

For those wondering I'm going to Bora Bora. Possibly one of the other islands of French Polynesia for a day trip and staying for 8 days.

Current camera equipment I have:

Canon Powershot A710IS for my point/shoot needs
Have 4GB of SD cards for this.

Canon Digital Rebel XT with the standard 18-55 out of the box lens.
I have a UV filter, plus 2 polarizer filters.
I have 3x 2GB cards for this.


What I'm thinking I should pick up:

A better lens that has decent telephoto but not excessive, so probably like a 28-105? I'm guessing a decent one for my purposes would cost approximatly 200-300 dollars.

A waterproof housing for my Powershot A710IS, I know that about 150-170 dollars.

I'm not sure I need any more filters for my rebel.

Moreover I'm wondering if there is anything else I could buy. I realize getting the underwater housing for my P&S isn't the best, but I dont want to spend the 1k+ for a underwater housing for my rebel.

And one final question is should I just buy a newer Canon camera body? I honestly dont know if to me as an amateur photographer if it's worth it to upgrade. I've had my Rebel for 2 years now and I know it's old but it still takes damn fine photos

 

[jpeyton]

Are you looking to compliment your 18-55mm, or replace it? If it's the latter, 28mm isn't wide enough for a general purpose lens on your Rebel, IMO.

 

[soydios]

First off, clean that sensor!

You could buy the EF-S 55-250mm telephoto to complement your existing 18-55mm.

 

[foghorn67]

Tripod for the hammock action.

Just buy UV filters to protect the elements. Maybe, just maybe a polarizer. Honestly, my red, orange, green, and yellow BW filters haven't seen the light of day since going digital. And gosh, that was a fortune.
Without knowing your shooting style, this would be tricky. Maybe a 55-250 EF-s budget telephoto.
And since memory is cheap, get an additional card or two. Not sure how much you are going to shoot. Honestly it's your honeymoon, don't get too enamored with taking pictures. Enjoy your wife, the scenery.

 

[jpeyton]

Get this and this and you're set.

 

[Kelvrick]

The rebel should be fine for you now. Invest in glass. Also, why do you have 2 polarizers?

How about a tripod, or a flash? What is your budget?

Also, get some waterproof disposable cameras. Foolproof. In the future, I plan on getting one of those olympus waterproof ones as my P&S to compliment my 20d.

 

[soydios]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
In the future, I plan on getting one of those olympus waterproof ones as my P&S to compliment my 20d.

I just got a 1030SW, but haven't really used it enough to form a thorough impression. I plan on doing a gear thread once I get a D90; I'll talk about it then.

 

[QuixoticOne]

* Many more storage cards; they're cheap. Shoot everything in maximum (raw / raw + jpeg?) quality and shoot 10x for every shot and you'll be more likely to get ones that aren't blurry or otherwise *almost* right in review.

* Insurance that'll cover the travel / transport issues against theft or damage ... maybe add them to a home owner policy or get special camera insurance / ??

* PRACTICE using the underwater housing for a few afternoons before you go. Really. Aiming is different. Getting a sense of the lighting and best exposure techniques is different. Getting used to cleaning the O-ring, lubricating it, safely closing and opening the enclosure, get used to how to operate the camera in the enclosure -- often you don't have access to all the buttons / features, and sometimes there are awkward "work around" alternatives to some button / control functions.

* Probably 3 spare battery sets for each camera, and possibly a redundant multi-charger or something.. Possibly a vehicle based charger or at least DC to AC inverter to charge using the normal charger from a vehicle if you're going to be away from a recharging spot for extended times.

* UV filters as sand / dirt protectors for EVERY lens.

* Air-blower brush + several lint free lens cleaning cloths.

* I'd look at more like a 70-300 like maybe the better quality (what is it, the APO?) SIGMA lens that is still relatively low cost. That is a decent macro + telephoto lens that like $200 or less at least on the one I got for Nikon mount. Obviously there are xx-200, xx-300 lenses that are even higher quality and often MUCH higher cost (700+) but then that's an expensive bit of kit to travel with. A nice (18-30 low end)----TO----(200-300 high end) lens might be good enough that you could use it as an only lens to cut down the amount of stuff you're taking with you since it'll cover landscape to mid telephoto. In that case it'd be worth getting maybe one of the $700 or less popular lenses.

* Polarizer; YMMV.

* Look at possible laptop / netbook / personal media storage & player type devices like the various Archos units or whatever as a portable unit that can download your pictures onto a 40GB or bigger hard disc / laptop external hard disc or whatever if you think you'll be there enough to shoot through all the flash cards that are reasonably affordable to buy/bring. Given the $10-$20 costs for 4GB to 8GB cards these days, though, I'd suppose that you'd have to want to bring a fair bit more than 16-32GB of flash before a hard disc based downloader started seeming cost-effective. Anyway it IS nice to have a larger screen to be able to review pictures / videos while you still have a 2nd chance to retake some of the shots, so that is motivation for a laptop / netbook type thing.

* Good tripod.

* Good padded travel case for transporting the camera / supplies carry-on luggage.

* Good camera backpack or travel case for the cameras / lenses / accessories you want to have in the field.

* Better flash if you'll be doing indoor or dark / twilight shots ?

* underwarter light / flash if you'll be doing a fair bit of underwater flash or low light photography. Probably more relevant for scuba diving than snorkeling or whatever.

* photos and records of your gear / serial numbers and all that stuff in case you need to make an insurance claim etc.

* some of the cheap improvised sorts of extended sun-shade or steady shooting strap or whatever.

* possibly some gallon zip-lock bags, a couple full size trash bags, or some of the cheap ewa-marine or similar baggie type of rain cape / underwater housings to cover lenses, bodies, batteries, et. al. in the case of rain / spray (boat) / whatever.

* luggage tags and labels and so on to positively identify your gear as yours.

* plan to either download / copy the pictures or at least spread them out over multiple storage cards so all your photos don't end up on 1-2 cards which then could break / get lost / corrupted / whatever.

* grey / white balance reference card so you can fix up the color balance of all your lovely shots.. like the 'whibal' one or even just one you print out and laminate yourself, whatever, just something that works for a pocket size portable neutral gray reference at the very least.

* sunblock, sunglasses.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
...

That sounds like a Nat. Geo. expedition, not a honeymoon.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Oh! Thanks for reminding me, I knew I had forgotten something..
Sherpa guides, crampons, climbing ropes, GPS, satellite phones, scuba gear, HDTV film crew.

Originally posted by: jpeyton
That sounds like a Nat. Geo. expedition, not a honeymoon.

 

[corkyg]

You may be headed for trouble. Don't forget the main purpose of a honeymoon. Too much time spent taking pictures could be a hazard.

 

[TraumaRN]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

I guess I am looking at something to compliment my 18-55, not really replace it because it is still good for walk-around type shooting.

I realize that it's my honeymoon but my fiance doesn't mind the picture taking and she kinda expects it. And I suppose getting a decent telephoto would be good considering where I'm shooting.

And to answer the question Kelvrick asked of why I have two polarizers, well simply when I went to Australia I left my polarizer at home thinking I wouldn't need it. Well then all my pictures from my first 2 days in Sydney were ruined by a combo of sun spots and overexposure. So I bought one down there. I'd only take one to Bora Bora with me but I expect it to be somewhat essential in the daytime because of the very bright sunshine.

I forgot to mention I do have a good travel camera bag and a full size and mini tripod. I'll probably take the mini-tripod but I don't expect to be taking many low light shots there.

And thanks again for all the advice!

 

[Hyperlite]

Originally posted by: corkyg
You may be headed for trouble. Don't forget the main purpose of a honeymoon. Too much time spent taking pictures could be a hazard.