[Noisychip]

How much gear do you bring for family trips?

Please choose the weight of your lenses - I assume you'll bring a camera with them

Also interested in what kind of lenses you'd bring. Zooms? Primes? How many? Please comment.

[ryankarr]

I bring zooms on Family trips to avoid switching lenses and wasting time. 10-24, 17-55, 50-135 and one 35mm 1.8. And one film camera with a prime lens.

[wallyb]

If weight is at all a concern, I would personally just bring 3 lenses:

Ultrawide zoom around 10-24mm
Medium tele zoom around 50-135mm
Low-light lens around 35/2 or 50/1.4

And that's it. Sorry I don't know the weights for them, but it can't be over 5lbs. I find bulk is more of a problem than sheer weight.

[Steady52]

On my last family vacation, I took 3 medium format cameras with several extra lenses, 2- 35mm cameras, a tripod and a little P & S digital. It was too much.

Next vacation: 1 medium format camera with a couple of lenses for B&W, 1- 35mm camera for shooting slides, and my K-x with 3 or 4 lenses.

It's always so tempting to throw in that one (or two) extra cameras for that "just in case I want to use it / it's been a while since I've used it, I think I'll take it" feeling. After a certain point it becomes more of a burden.

[reytor]

I take all my (new) gear.
K-7, DA12-24, DA35, FA50, DA60-250

Maybe FA28-80 if I plan to shoot some video. In that case I'd bring also a stereo mic.
And naturally also SD cards, spare battery, grip, remote control, filters, ....

A lot more than 2kg's. I may even need to bring another car...

[glanglois]

Ouch!

OK, for a K-7 I'll admit to:

Sigma 17-70 for mostly indoors and Tamron 18-250 for walking around.

Unless there's a lot of outdoors/airports, in which case we add:

Sigma 10-20 and Pentax 55-300.

But if it looks like rain, add 18-55 WR.

If feeling adventurous, add:

Pentax 10-17 fisheye.

There. That should do it. But LBA is causing me to look at Sigma 100-300 for aircraft in flight. Or a fast ultra-wide for indoor tourist sites like museums/churches/etc. Watch the lottery news ....

[Lowell Goudge]

I put more than 2 kilos

consider

sigma APO 70-200F2.8 EX
Sigma AMP 10-20 F4-5.6 EX DC
Tamron AR Di 28-75 F2.8
Sigma APO 2x TC
AF 540 FGZ
second body

flash battery charger, GPS, camera charger.
I won't count the PC since that ets family use for the internet.

If you can exclude nature, the 70-200F2.8 the TC and Flash all stay home.

[Clicker]

I just hefted my old travel bag (Pentax) K200D w grip, 18-55,50-200 and 50 works out to ~1500g (~3lbs) so i chose 1500-2000 and that's good for me as i'll always just carry 1 body and 3 lenses and with Pentax DSLR it should always come in around that weight for me regardless of body/lenses combo.

[SteveM]

I try to mix it up a little bit;

I am away working in Halifax for 2 weeks, but the kit I brought is about the same size as the one I would usually bring;
DA12-24
K24/2.8
S-M-C Tak 35/3.5
Preset Takumar 85/1.9
K135/2.5

I'll usually bring the 16-50 in case the weather gets rough but this time I decided on the 12-24 (which I ended up not using)

The rest I'll mix up a little bit between Taks and Ks and I usually bring the 16-50 instead of the 12-24

If it's convienient, I'll bring a backpack that contains 67 gear but not very often for a family trip.

[Steinback]

If it's not primarily a photo trip I'll bring a 28mm prime, a 50mm prime, a film body and a digital body. Maybe the kit lens if I expect to need a wide angle for the digital body. Probably 500 to 750g all together for the lenses.

[audiobomber]

For a short trip, 18-250mm, FA 35mm, Raynox 150.

For an extended trip, everything I can stuff in my Pentax sling bag. For my upcoming trip to California, that will be; K20D, K-x, 10-17, 16-45, 18-250, FA 35, FA 50, D FA 100 macro and 55-300mm. Plus ancillaries.

A large component of my holiday fun is taking photos. Why have all this junk if I can't use it?

PS "Family" these days is me and my wife.

[Noisychip]

Wow, you guys carry a lot of stuff! I thought I was the only one

[icywarm]

I am working on this right now... I have my backpack open. I have settled on K-x... after that it gets fuzzy... I think I have dropped the 35mm (I couldn't decide between the mx or mx-10 and the A28 or FA50)

I think I bringing the 18-250 (but it weighs SOOO much) and the FA50.

now I don't know which to bring, 50" tripod, 540, 16-45mm, and/or 70mm.

The reason I picked up the 18-250 was so I had one lens to pack when flying, with the 540 the K-x looks tiny... wish it had a grip!

[audiobomber]

For an extended trip, everything I can stuff in my Pentax sling bag. For my upcoming trip to California, that will be; K20D, K-x, 10-17, 16-45, 18-250, FA 35, FA 50, D FA 100 macro and 55-300mm. Plus ancillaries.

Woo-hoo! I re-sorted and managed to get my 28mm 2.8 and Raynox 150 in the bag too. Now I'll have two complete kits, just like at home; K-x, 18-250 and Raynox 150 for non-photographic outings, and everything else packed and ready to go in the Pentax sling bag for more serious shooting. That Pentax Sling bag is just like Dr Who's Tardis. Larger on the inside than it is on the outside.

[pingflood]

For any trip, my 1Ds2 + 24-105. The Pentax equivalent would be something like a gripped K20d + 17-70.