American Canyonlands Camera Equipment
Tauck recommends a zoom lens for photography. Is that necessary? Why? I would have thought a wide angle lens would be used more often. Is there enough wildlife on this tour you'd want to shoot with a zoom lens? TIA
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No, mostly scenery. We took iPhones, got amazing photos. I’ve not known Tauck recommend cameras before.
It depends on what kind of photographer you are.
When we took America's Canyonlands tour in 2023, I remember only a couple other people in our group who had zoom or telephoto lenses, and we could tell that they were composing their photographs for more than just casual sharing with family and friends. Most others did fine without this type of photographic setup.
Our Tauck packing list suggested "camera, lenses, batteries, chargers and extra memory cards." Now I see the website What To Pack section recommends "telephoto lens" as the only camera-related recommendation. I find that a bit strange. The previous camera suggestion would definitely apply to more people; the current telephoto suggestion would apply only to a more limited subgroup of these travelers.
Being a serious amateur photographer, my wife always brings a DSLR camera (currently a Nikon Z7II model) while traveling anywhere, with only a 24-120mm zoom lens. While this setup is more than most people prefer, it has been perfect for us, and covers almost all photographic scenarios we encounter. There are many telephoto lenses that get closer than 120mm, but it's a tradeoff between telephoto ability and size of the lens. She has amazing photos from this trip.
Occasionally she wants an even wider angle picture. Then we use the iPhone in panoramic mode, which gets surprisingly good photos, especially with latest models. Incidentally, we also find that the iPhone can do better than DSLR in some low light indoor situations.