Upcoming Road Trip Part II; What Gear To Take?

From my last road trip out to Grand Teton National Park.  Cow moose and her calf. (click to enarlge)
Nikon D800E, 24-70mm f/2.98 lens @ 70mm; 1/1000th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 250

If you read my last post, here, you are familiar with the circumstances of why my much anticipated road trip was delayed a year.  At the end of the post, I mentioned that one of the first decisions I needed to make was what photographic gear I would take.

I own and regularly use both Fujifilm and Olympus gear.  I find both satisfying for different reasons.  Also, both produce outstanding images.  I need to decide which kit I need to take with me.

As far as image quality is concerned, I've done tests in which I have made identical images at equivalent focal lengths and apertures using tripod mounted cameras to see how much difference in fine detail I can see between the APS-C sized 24mp sensor Fujifilm X-T2 using the excellent 16-55mm f/2.8 lens (my go to lens for the X-T2) and the M4/3 sized 20mp Olympus E-M1 Mark II using the also very highly rated 12-100mm f/4 lens (my go to lens for my Olympus).  To sum it up, making things as identical as I can, there is really no practical difference between the image quality or detail between the two.  When viewing the identical images at 100% or more, I have been able to, on occasion, pick out a fine piece of detail here and there, but generally, the images are identical.  Kudos for both manufacturers.  For all intents and purposes they provide equal and excellent image quality for the types of photography I anticipate doing.  So that is not a consideration.

Size and weight are also not a consideration.  Both systems are reasonably small, lightweight and of high quality.  Both have similar battery life.  The Olympus has more features, but the Fujifilm is more satisfying to use.  Also, I like the Fujifilm colors more.

What turns out to be the primary consideration is the subject matter I hope to photograph on this road trip.  We will be traveling to the Rocky Mountains.  We will travel as far north as Montana and as far south as New Mexico.  We will travel as far west as Idaho and Utah.  That is quite a bit of distance with quite varied terrain from sweeping mountain vistas to high desert to everything in between.  Also, the weather will be from very cool at night to very warm during the daytime hours.  As I consider myself primarily a landscape, travel, nature and wildlife photographer, I hope to photograph when opportunities arise. 

Both kits would serve me well with all things except the wildlife.  That is the difference.

I have quite a few lenses for both the Fujifilm kit as well as the Olympus kit.  I don't have a backup camera for either kit so I might pick one up before we leave.  I don't want to travel with parts of both kits.  I want to keep it a singular system.  Additionally, my wife on occasion likes to photograph when we travel so a camera that will serve as a backup camera to my primary camera I take can also serve as one she can use whenever she wants to take some photographs.

Considering all that, the crux of my decision comes down to this.  I hope to, and expect to, photograph wildlife in the National Parks as well as outside the National Parks we visit.  In the past, I've photographed bears, moose, elk, pronghorn, coyotes, bison, raptors and smaller mammals.  I haven't been able to photograph any wolves yet, but I'm hoping to put myself in a position this trip to see some in the wild.  No expectations, but hope. 

In order to photograph wildlife in the American west, one must have a long focal length lens.  I have an Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 lens (80-300mm full frame equivalent field of view) and an Olympus 300mm f/4 lens (600mm full frame equivalent field of view).  Additionally, I have a dedicated 1.4x tele-converter for both of those lenses which give me a full frame equivalent field of view up to 840mm at f/5.6.  That should work well for wildlife, especially wolves who seldom come closer to the road (from where you can photograph) than many hundreds of yards.

For my Fujifilm gear, the longest lens I know own is the 50-140mm f/2.8 with the matched 1.4x tele-converter.  That only gives me a 280mm full frame equivalent field of view.  Not long enough for wildlife.

Fly fisherman, Lamar River, Yellowstone. (click to enlarge)
Nikon D800E, 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm; 1/500th sec. @ f/4; ISO 100

So, the choice, based upon the fact that wildlife photography will play an important role during this road trip, I have decided to take the Olympus gear.  If wildlife were not a consideration, I would certainly be taking my Fujifilm kit.  Since my decision has been made, I now need to purchase a backup/spouse camera to bring along as well.

My apologies to the Fujifilm fans.  If I still had my Fujifilm 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens with the matched tele-converter, I would take that gear instead.  But I sold that lens and, although it is a superb lens, that lens and I just didn't get along.  I don't know what it was, I just didn't get consistent results that were according to my expectations.  Who knows?  I may buy another one in the future.

For now, my decision is to take the Olympus gear.  What I would like to do for this road trip is to pack all of my gear into a photo backpack to use as a transportation pack which will largely remain in my vehicle.  Then I would just take out what I think I would need as I leave my vehicle each day to explore and photograph.  I currently don't own a large, versatile photo backpack which will fit all of my M4/3 gear as well as all of the support accessories, so that is my next decision.  

There are so many camera backpacks in the market it will be a daunting task, without much time, to find what I need.  I'm going to have to watch a lot of You Tube videos and read a lot of reviews to a) see what is available and b) try to figure out what will work best for me.  Stay tuned and come back to find out what I find.

One other thing that I can recommend to each of you.  I insure all of my photo gear for full replacement value as well as for any and all losses.  I have quite a bit of expensive gear and, if not insured, I don't think I could afford to replace it if it got lost, stolen, burned in a fire, dropped in a river, etc.  So for a few hundred dollars US each year, no matter what the cause, my gear will be fully replaced.  Well worth it to me.

Join me over at Instagram @dennisamook or my website, www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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