I have an A1 and now a T90 bought recently in Japan second hand. When ever I go travelling, which is usually once a year on guided backpacker type holidays (this year Japan, last year China, Vietnam in 1996, Europe in 1995 - (hey I am in Australia) I have the quandary of what lenses to take. I have the Canons mentioned, also Canon 15mm 2.8, 24mm 2.8, 25-55mm 3.5-4.5, 70-210 4,Tamron SP90 macro, 300 5.6 (and of course Canon 50 1.8). I also have an Olympus mjuII (with 2.8 lens, spot metering etc. - i.e. very sophisticated for a "compact") as an "on the belt" camera. What lenses go in the backpack? (never the 300, the 90 macro - and the 15 would be nice, but the weight!). Japan was the 24 + 70-210 for the Canon, China was the 28-55 + 70-210. The attraction of one lens doing it all is very strong. I only essentially do std size colour prints now (slides given up) - very few are enlarged, so the weight advantage in the move to Tamron 28/200 would be serious. Any views here on the move or the Tamron (1 million buyers can't be wrong?) Thanks

-- Michael Hudson (mhuds@doh.health.nsw.gov.au), December 02, 1999

Answers

This may not help, but my travel kit starts with the 35-105 f3.5 lens. This does about 99% of my shooting. I used to also carry the 70-210 f4, but replaced that with a 100-300 f5.6 L series. I then added the 20-35 F3.5 L. Those three lenses are my basic travel kit. You could probably trade a 24mm lens for the 20-35.

I then add some special lenses for various stuff, if I am not carrying everything all the time. I add a 50mm f1.4 for very low light, maybe a 28mm or 35mm f2.0 for the same. A 100mm f4.0 macro maybe. Whatever moves me.

So with what you have, I would try and find a nice 35-105 f3.5. If you want to save weight, there is also the 35-105 f3.5-4.5. Not as nice, but much smaller and lighter.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), December 06, 1999.

Try the very interesting pages http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/third/index.html and http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/third/kits.html Regards Gerald

-- Gerald Scharf (gerald.scharf@gmx.de), February 21, 2000.