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07-12-2014, 06:21 PM   #1
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Leave the Zoom at Home?

My wife and I are heading to the Washington coast early this week for a day trip to Astoria & Long Beach, WA. I'm planning to use my Tamron 28-105 f/4-5.6 as a walkaround lens and pack my two DA primes, a 35mm and 50mm (love the 35mm). (I haven't used the 28-105 of late so I wanted to get some use out of it vs. the Pentax kit lens.) I'll be shooting my K-x and the big question is: do I leave the 100-300 zoom home? We'll be tripping around the shops and doing some landscape photography around the lighthouses near Long Beach, WA.

I'm just not seeing myself using the long zoom. Looking for input.

Tamron AF (IF) 28-105mm F4-5.6 Lens Reviews - Tamron Lenses - Pentax Lens Review Database

07-12-2014, 06:32 PM   #2
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What is the advantage of leaving the lens home? Space? Fear of leaving in your car and it getting stolen? As a west Coast who lives just above where you'll be travelling (Vancouver Island) I enjoy my long lens and the ocean. You never know what you will see and what you will want to bring closer. Cormorants or an Eagle roosting by the lighthouse.... A few closeups of the wife wandering the beach but taken from enough distance you aren't a distraction...... Long Beach itself boasts of being the World's longest beach....who know what you will see that is not close at hand.

Really though, it comes down to what you like to photograph and how much of a burden bringing one extra lens would be.
07-12-2014, 06:40 PM   #3
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Astoria and Long Beach are among my most favorite places anywhere, in addition to the ocean and Willapa Bay, the restaurants are really good. Certainly on the long list of retirement locations for my wife and I. After reviewing several hundred shots from there taken over the past ten years, you may want your longer zoom. You will appreciate the longer lens if you want to more tightly frame shots of the two popular lighthouses, or of the coastline, or zoom in spots from atop the Astoria Column. You will climb the Astoria Column, right?

M
07-12-2014, 06:48 PM - 1 Like   #4
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No guarantees if you bring it... but if you leave the long zoom at home you will certainly see Bald Eagles..

07-12-2014, 07:44 PM   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by OrangeKx Quote
I'm just not seeing myself using the long zoom. Looking for input.
Leave it at home.
07-12-2014, 08:19 PM   #6
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Leave it.
07-12-2014, 08:19 PM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by OrangeKx Quote
Leave the Zoom at Home?
....Yes

07-12-2014, 08:31 PM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by mattt Quote
No guarantees if you bring it... but if you leave the long zoom at home you will certainly see Bald Eagles..
truer words have never been spoken
07-13-2014, 07:43 AM   #9
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Especially if that Tamron has the same barrel wobble when retracted (28mm) as mine (and many others apparently), I'd leave it home and bring something else. Just because people don't trash a lens in reviews doesn't mean it doesn't have an issue (example: the 16-45DA and its even more notorious barrel wobble.) I'd certainly miss a 28mm equivalent (18mm) at least, so I'd either take the kit lens and something else, or get 18-200 or 18-250, if carrying extra lenses is an issue.

As for the 100-300 you don't say what model it is, but if it's not something special then the 18-2xx might cover that too.

If you don't mind carrying two lenses, I'd take the 18-55 and the 100-300. Again if the 100-300 isn't anything special, I'd replace it (and did, in the case of my 100-300 Pentax F) with either a 55-300 or 70-300.

Regarding the Tamron, I just don't see sacrificing the wide end for "getting some use" out of another lens. I too have some equipment that's not as good as other equipment, and have been too lazy or uncommitted to sell it, or am intentionally keeping it as backup. Even for one-day trips of a couple of hundred miles I used to take two bodies and at least some overlapping lenses, and I definitely do that for longer trips.
07-13-2014, 10:17 AM   #10
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Use the zoom to scope out the bikinis on the beach at Seaside. (Tell everyone that you're just taking pictures of the kites.) As Miguel suggested, climb the Astoria column. The zoom will get you closer to the artwork on the column. Stay off the jetties at the mouth of the Columbia! Feed the seals at the Seaside aquarium. There are some gorgeous Victorian homes in Astoria. Take the zoom. I'd rather not use a lens I was carrying than wish for a lens I wasn't carrying.
07-13-2014, 12:28 PM   #11
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If weight or space isn't a constraint, I'd take it just to have it.
For walking around casually without a specific subject or shot in mind, I find most zooms too cumbersome to have handing around my neck. I prefer the smaller more inconspicuous primes to work better for me.
07-13-2014, 01:34 PM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by OrangeKx Quote
do I leave the 100-300 zoom home?
Based on my experience in that part of the coast, I would leave it at home unless you want those long shots of people walking down the beach or the sun setting. After all, the 100-300 is not exactly hand-holdable.


Steve
07-13-2014, 03:31 PM   #13
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Great inputs all... and they have helped me make more decisions than just taking a lens to the beach. I have put the 100-300 and 28-105 in their own lens case and will stash them in the trunk to have available. The 100-300 to get the eagle shot and the 28-105 in case I want some walk around reach beyond 55mm. Tibbitts nailed it in that I've always been on the fence with the 28-105. It's OK, but always leaves me wanting more. I will likely put it up for sale very soon - along with some other manual focus glass. What I really need is the Pentax 18-135 and get rid of some of the stray glass taking up space in my closet.

Since I'll have the 18-55 (kit) and two primes in the bag I'll probably end up using the DA L 35mm f/2.4 most of the time (since I enjoy it so much). It will be nice to have the 18mm at my disposal in town though. One advantage to the kit lens is the hood has the piece that slides out to gain access to the circular polarizer. The Tamron 28-105 hood doesn't have that feature. The other thing that sucks about the Tamron is there is no profile for it in LR4. I like using lenses with a profile as it speeds up post processing.

Like peterjcb, I prefer the smaller lenses in crowds, but trying to blend in with an orange camera can be a waste of time.

Since I'm taking the 100-300 (a Tamron 100-300 f/5-6.3) I'll take the tripod.

Last edited by OrangeKx; 07-13-2014 at 03:35 PM. Reason: Added text
07-13-2014, 05:27 PM   #14
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BTW...while you are near Long Beach, take the time to go to Oysterville. It is quite quaint.


Steve
07-13-2014, 06:21 PM   #15
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Will Do

Thanks for the recommendation. We'll do that.
QuoteOriginally posted by stevebrot Quote
BTW...while you are near Long Beach, take the time to go to Oysterville. It is quite quaint.


Steve
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