[BendingPhotography]

Hello Everyone,
I currently have a Pentax K-x, 18-55mm, and DA 40mm limited lens
I have no filters, no accessories whatsoever
I am going on a skiing trip to New Zealand, where I will ski and sightsee with a bunch of friends, for 5 days.
What equipment do I need?
Should I be looking at a K-5? a Tamron 70-200 for action shots? 15mm LTD?
What lenses would be great for this kind of thing?
Filters of some sort? tripods?
Will my camera body and lenses handle the cold and the snow?

[bdparker]

If you are going to get the K5 get the kit WR lenses... Filters - Circular Polar, MC-UV and mybe a set of ND if it get too bright
I use my K7 with the Pentax 18-55 WR & 50-200 WR up Mt Hotham without any problems.
Tripod - depents how much you got to spend, go Carbon Fiber Tripod/Monopod (keep the weight down)

In all, thing of your travel weight and what you are will to lug around with you every where?

[BendingPhotography]

Would non-water resistant lenses and a K-x handle the environment? I dont want to spend too much !
Filters - People talk about getting larger filters with step down rings; My two lenses are 52mm and 49mm.
Should I get a 77mm? because that would look a bit weird hey - what size would you go for?

[bdparker]

Would non-water resistant lenses and a K-x handle the environment? I dont want to spend too much !

I don't believe that the K-x is weather sealed and therefor don't know how it would standup in the snow.

Filters - People talk about getting larger filters with step down rings; My two lenses are 52mm and 49mm.
Should I get a 77mm? because that would look a bit weird hey - what size would you go for?

I don't really see the point of oversize filters other that for convenience.. i.e, you have a 52mm & 49mm Lenses, so I would get filters for the 52mm and step-down ring for 49mm. I just save spending money on multiple sets of filters, because they can get expensive, that all. (IMHO)

[Chaos_Realm]

I would lean toward a sealed body and lens combination for on the slopes. You can't predict the weather and if your camera can't withstand the weather you miss your shots or could ruin your camera in the process.
But the first thing you need to do is set yourself a budget. Costs will blowout if your not careful.

As for the Tamron 70-200, I would lean away from this as your traveling you will want to pack a small kit. Don't get me wrong it seems to be a fantastic lens, and I love my sigma 70-200, but its just too big for travel.
The things I think are most important after sealed body/lens are:

• A wide angle lens (da15 maybe da12-24 f4) as New Zealand (Queenstown especially) have MASSIVE views. They are incredible, and you will want to capture that in High IQ.
• Spare batteries kept in a pocket close to the body as battery life is halved in the cold.
• Flash might be necessary to get the exposure correct on the subject against snowy backgrounds, Otherwise the subject will turn out dark! (your on-board flash might suffice, but I use a hotshoe flash which has a bit more power)
• A weather protected camera bag just in case the weather turns on you.
• CPL is important to get those punchy blue sky's and vibrant colours. (I would personally just get one for each lens as you don't want to be constantly swapping the step down rings, but that is a personal preference)
• Lots of Silica packs to have stashed in your bag to help protect from moisture. (and when going from cold to warm, I suggest leaving gear in your bag for an hour or two to prevent condensation forming)
• I suggest a small tripod, carbon fiber is better then aluminum as it doesn't freeze your hands as much in the cold, is better for dampening vibrations, and is lighter. The draw back is cost. I personally went for aluminum as for my level of shooting the difference between the two would be negligible and my testosterone mistakenly says "lighter pffft, that's for sissy's give me the heaviest one in the shop"

I have probably missed some of the most important parts but that's all I could think of for now.


Edit: you can pick-up a weather sealed body and lenses second hand for quite reasonable amounts. So i would suggest looking down that path first.

[Nuff]

When I go to snow and while I board or in your case ski, I try to keep things compact and tough. I carry with me my 15mm limited and K5. That's all, but when travelling around, I would get something even wider, preferably 14mm FF equivalent. So something along 8-10mm wide would be perfect for NZ, since the views and mountains are simply jaw dropping. Saying that don't only take photos, enjoy the moment too.

When I went to NZ I had a m4/3 camera and 7-14mm lens, I used it mostly at the 7mm end, which would correcspond to around 9mm on APSC.

Airport in Queenstown taken with the mentioned system and lens:

[TOUGEFC]

Hello Everyone,
I currently have a Pentax K-x, 18-55mm, and DA 40mm limited lens
I have no filters, no accessories whatsoever
I am going on a skiing trip to New Zealand, where I will ski and sightsee with a bunch of friends, for 5 days.
What equipment do I need?
Should I be looking at a K-5? a Tamron 70-200 for action shots? 15mm LTD?
What lenses would be great for this kind of thing?
Filters of some sort? tripods?
Will my camera body and lenses handle the cold and the snow?

Hi, if your on a budget and looking for a weather sealed second body, Im selling my weather sealed K200D -
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/photographic-equipment-sale/180917-sale-pentax-k200d.html

Im in Brisbane too

[dms]

For winter camping (snowshoeing, etc.) my standard camera is a mechanical Nikon FM2--which is similar to non-weather sealed DSLRs (just not battery dependent). I would think there is no special difference to snow or no snow--in the outdoors. The one difference is in metering. And this is very important. You will meter snow and likely need to shoot at about +3 ev. Or meter the blue sky!

[Belcik]

Hi, if your on a budget and looking for a weather sealed second body, Im selling my weather sealed K200D -
Pentax k200d

Huge plus of the k200d is that you buy some Lithiums and forget about low temperature/battery performance.... Lithiums work even down to -30 celsius degrees (when other batts die instantly).