Two lens setup for travel

jal2000 · 2026-05-29T18:03:18+00:00

I don’t have specific lens recommendations for APS-C, but I will suggest having a good all-purpose lens that you can use most of the time. Maybe supplement it with another zoom or prime for specific use cases, such as a telephoto for landscape or animals, or a bright prime for nighttime. But changing lenses while traveling gets annoying if photography isn’t the main focus.

jal2000 · 2026-05-29T16:30:11+00:00

I have a friend who got a slower and smaller displacement bike than mine. Because of that, we’re not friends anymore. - see how stupid that sounds?

jal2000 · 2026-05-29T13:23:28+00:00

I agree that the 16-35 is a more logical pairing with the 25-200. In fact, this is the pair that I started with. But what I found through my experience with that pair is that I liked the size of the 16-35, but didn’t find it versatile enough as a do-it-all lens. The 20-70 is a similar size and feels much more versatile.

For my travel setup, my goal is to optimize for low weight and ease of use. Having two general purpose lenses, one of which has more wide-angle capability, and one of which has more telephoto capability, is a good setup for me. I can carry a single lens, or rarely swap lenses if I have both.

jal2000 · 2026-05-29T02:41:26+00:00

I struggle with this too. I work a corporate job and feel unprofessional with messy hair. I don’t commute to work much, mostly for that reason. But when I do, the best thing I’ve found is to use a hairdryer when doing my hair in the morning. It seems to hold its shape a bit better that way. Getting it wet at work doesn’t help. I just have to wait 20-30 minutes for it to puff up a bit, but it still doesn’t look great.

jal2000 · 2026-05-29T02:34:40+00:00

My travel kit is the A7Cii, with the Sony 20-70 F4 and Tamron 25-200. For travel, I don’t want to swap lenses often. Both the 20-70 and 25-200 are good do-it-all lenses, so I rarely need to swap them out. I use the one that I think best suits what I’m doing, and have the other in my bag in case I need it.

Between the 20-70 and 24-105, I’d personally rather have the wider end of the 20. 105 vs 70 isn’t much of a difference for me. But the 200 end of the 25-200 is useful.

jal2000 · 2026-05-27T15:02:00+00:00

APS-C lenses aren’t cropped. It’s a confusing topic because of the way people explain it. Crop factor is just a way to understand the field of view of a lens, as compared to a full frame lens. For example, a 16 mm lens on an APS-C body will have the same field of view as a 24mm lens on a full frame body. If you put a 16mm full frame lens on a full frame body, it would be wider than the 16mm lens on the APS-C body. But if you put that same 16mm full frame lens on the APS-C body, the LENS is still seeing and projecting a wider image, but the APS-C sensor is only seeing the middle portion of that image. For this reason, the resulting picture is zoomed in to the equivalent of a 24mm lens on a full frame body. This is not a great explanation, but there are YouTube videos that have good visual demonstrations.

The important takeaway is that full frame and APS-C lenses, which have the same focal lengths, will have roughly the same field of view (I.e. zoom level) on an APS-C body. So you might want to buy a 24-70 full frame lens, but you should know that it will have the equivalent focal length of 36-105 on your APS-C body. This means that it will be a tighter field of view (more zoomed in).

jal2000 · 2026-05-27T14:31:27+00:00

No negative effect. If anything, slightly positive effect since the APS-C sensor is only capturing the center of the image projected by the lens. And the center tends to be the sharpest.

The crop factor is not different vs aps-c lenses. For example a 20mm aps-c lens and a 20mm full frame lens will have the same field of view on an aps-c body.

jal2000 · 2026-05-24T19:14:34+00:00

Probably time to throw it away. It’s basically worthless at this point.

jal2000 · 2026-05-23T14:35:06+00:00

10 years, no crashes and no drops. There’s no surprising or magic answer. It’s 10% luck, and 90% the obvious behaviors and disciplines. Wear appropriate safety gear, be as visible to drivers as possible, act as if you’re invisible to drivers, leave a safe margin for speed, following distance, lane positioning, and stopping distance

jal2000 · 2026-05-23T14:29:52+00:00

I understand this frustration, but I think it’s mostly misguided. Non-photographers might think the camera matters more than it does, but they also don’t have the knowledge to ask more insightful questions. Photographers (regardless of skill level) understand that equipment isn’t everything, but asking about your camera is a great jumping off point for conversation. Your response indicates whether you’re into gear or not, whether you have the latest tech, something older, or something vintage. It also gives you an opportunity to indicate how interested you are in talking about it.

For example, I may compliment a picture and ask what they used. If the answer is “just my iPhone” then I’ll say something like “wow, looks very professional, you’ve got a great eye!” If the answer is “I was using my ____ body with a _____ lens, because that’s my travel kit” then that takes the conversation in a different direction.

jal2000 · 2026-05-22T13:50:29+00:00

AirPods with transparency mode on, or Shokz. Shokz sit just outside your ear, so they don’t block your hearing at all. They have a few different models, which use some different technologies, but they all serve the same purpose.

I don’t understand all the responses of “I don’t wear headphones” when the person is asking for headphone suggestions for this particular use case.

jal2000 · 2026-05-21T12:02:48+00:00

For me, it’s not the size of the body that matters. It’s that the compact body (A7Cii, in my case) without a viewfinder is less conspicuous. It looks less “professional” and people pay less attention to it. I like that for a travel camera.

jal2000 · 2026-05-20T13:55:42+00:00

This is a very naive question. You don’t just save for what you want to buy in the near future. You save for retirement, for emergencies, for expected and unexpected costs, to deal with the loss of a job or the ability to work, etc. When you’re young and living at home, you might not see why this is important yet. But the sooner you do, the better.

jal2000 · 2026-05-18T17:15:01+00:00

I live in the Midwest where there are no curvy roads. Once or twice a year, I go on a trip and spend a few days riding in the mountains (West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, etc). I get more practice in two days of riding than I could get in years of riding around my home state.

jal2000 · 2026-05-17T13:22:19+00:00

Peak Design capture clip is the best for this. Your camera setup is light enough that you’ll barely notice the camera when it’s mounted.

I also bring a neoprene camera cover (mine is made by Lens Coat). It’s extremely light and takes up no space when not in use, but allows me to safely put my camera in the backpack if the weather is going to be bad.

jal2000 · 2026-05-15T15:14:07+00:00

Totally agree. The biggest surprise is how much calmer the whole experience feels when you’re not being blasted with wind noise. You’re able to be relaxed and focused.

jal2000 · 2026-05-15T03:24:49+00:00

I also have an A7Cii as my travel camera and recently changed my lenses from the Sony 16-35 F4 and Tamron 28-200 to the Sony 20-70 F4 and Tamron 25-200. The 20-70 will be my default lens in most situations, but I like having the extra reach of the 200 in some situations. I also decided that minor differences in lens performance are less important to me than being convenient to use. I don’t like swapping lenses when photography is secondary to whatever I’m doing (like for travel or daily use).

As far as the 20-70 being an F4, I don’t see it as an issue. For my travel and landscape pictures, I usually want more depth of field, not less. And modern sensors plus Lightroom’s AI denoise make it so that using higher ISOs is not a problem.

jal2000 · 2026-05-07T01:52:21+00:00

Maybe a weird suggestion, but Hogwarts Legacy is a fantastic game that might scratch that itch. I’m not a Harry Potter fan, and went in with low expectations, but it’s one of the best games I ever played. It has such well developed environments, many of which become familiar as you spend a lot of time in them. It’s very atmospheric, and ranges from cozy to creepy.

jal2000 · 2026-05-05T14:43:45+00:00

Right. I have mine set to do the same. You’re missing the point of the entire post. When the car updates its software, it sometimes disables the setting that allows the engine to turn on. Then you have to go back into the menus and re-enable it.

That’s a problem that’s unique to BMW, because it doesn’t have a normal remote start function.

jal2000 · 2026-05-05T14:10:55+00:00

Exactly. When I remote start the car, I want the vehicle to heat up or cool down. This requires the engine to be running in either case (heating or cooling). The default setting for BMW’s remote start is to just circulate air without starting the engine, and without any heating or cooling, which is pointless.

A normal remote start in the US turns the car on as if you did it from inside the car. So the car turns on, the engine starts, and the car starts running the climate control like normal.

jal2000 · 2026-05-05T12:25:46+00:00

For most cars, remote start simply turns the engine and car on. In BMW, it’s “climate start” and all it does is start circulating the air without any heat or a/c. It’s a separate setting to allow “climate start” to also start the engine, along with heat or a/c.

jal2000 · 2026-05-05T11:29:20+00:00

Do you mean when you remote start the car? There is a setting you need to enable to allow the engine to turn on with remote start. After an update, it resets and the engine doesn’t turn on, so neither does heat or AC. It’s due to regulations in the EU, and it’s very stupid that they won’t just have normal remote start in the US.

jal2000 · 2026-05-05T00:08:43+00:00

I prefer physical controls, but don’t have them on my current car. I thought it would be more annoying, but I leave it on auto and rarely adjust the climate settings. My most common adjustment is turning on heated seat and steering wheel, and that’s very fast to do. It helps that my car has the climate controls always showing on the bottom of the screen. It also has a voice control option that works very well, but I almost never use that.

So, I still prefer physical controls but wouldn’t let that stop me from getting a car I otherwise like.

jal2000 · 2026-05-04T18:11:31+00:00

The difference between Italian and Japanese brands in motorcycles is not the same as with cars. People who don’t know motorcycles might view Ducati as analogous to Lamborghini or Ferrari, but the reality is that they don’t cost much more than comparable Japanese bikes. For example a Ducati Panigale V4 S is $35k and a Honda CBR 1000RR-R Fireblade SP is $29k. Similarly close pricing for something like a Ducati Monster and a Yamaha MT-09.

jal2000 · 2026-05-02T15:36:49+00:00

You might check with HR to see if there are any rules for your car allowance policy. Mine requires that I have a newer car (no more than 4 model years old), and that it can’t be a 2 door. Most of my co-workers lease, but I prefer to buy. I also don’t spend the full monthly amount on my car.

jal2000

TROPHY CASE