Lenses Needed for Rhine River Cruise?

In a few weeks I will be taking a river cruise on the Rhine River
between Basel, Switzerland and Antwerp, Belgium with a side trip on
the Mosel River. I have visions of sitting on deck leisurely taking
photos of castles and the like as we drift by. My question is given
the width of the rivers, what lenses do I have to take to do this. My
basic kit includes in long lenses a Nikon 80-200/2.8 AFS with Kenko
Pro 1.4x and 2x extenders. But I can also take my Sigma 50-500 AFS,
which can also produce good results with the 1.4X even at 700mm.
However, given its weight and all the other photo equipment, I would
prefer not to unless really necessary.

For those who address the photo aspects, can you give me some idea how
wide the rivers are at various points?

Thanks in advance for any advice that can be provided.

 

The Rhine is about 400 to 600 yards wide, somewhat narrower in the
Southern part of your journey until around Bonn. This is the more
interesting part (castles, vineyards etc.). In this section, the river
mostly flows in a rather deep valley so your objects are rarely more
than a mile away, often much less. Beyond Bonn, the valley widens and
turns into an open plain by the time you reach Cologne. The country is
flatter and the landscape is more industrialised.

The Mosel is a mere 200 to 300 yards wide and also flows in a deep and
narrow valley, so nothing much beyond a mile or two there, either.

On deck? You mean outside? In a few weeks from now....?!?

You might want to have a look at this:

http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/Germany.htm

Whatever lenses you chose, bring warm cloathing and do enjoy your visit.

Ralf

 

I could not begin to tell you how wide the river is; but I can tell you that
I got some decent pictures of the castles in the Rhine Gorge with a 35 to 80 mm
lens that I travel with; had I had my 80 to 200 zoom and 2x convertor (the
former was accidentally left behind) I could have gotten any photo I wanted.

Mine was a day cruise from Koblenz to Bingen. I could have hoped for a closer
shot of the Lorlei. You can see a few of the photos I took that dat at:

http://www.dragonsholm.org/DE01RPT8.HTM

Julie

 

The 80-200 should give you plenty of reach for overall castle shots
and maybe "large" details for the castles. (In addition to the width,
most of the castles are high up on the hillsides.) The extenders
should give you plenty of reach for details. I would not add the
50-500. However, given the time of year, the reach may be the least of
your worries as the weather has been quite dreary, so you'd need fast
film (400+ I would guess) to be out out 320/4.0 (i.e., 200+1.4 ext). A
bigger problem than light may be haze/mist/fog. You can always use
faster film if it's too dark, but nothing is going to get you around
the amount of moisture in the air when using long lenses along the
river.

Hope this helps and enjoy your trip.
--
Paul Sanschagrin
http://staff.uni-marburg.de/~sanschag
[email protected] COMBINE
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x-no-archive: yes

Another concern is the movement that will be created by the vibration of the
ship's engines, and the effect of waves and other tidal conditions.

Even if a tripod is used, there is to be a presumption that the shots will
be less sharp than if they were taken from a position on land. This will be
especially noticeable due to the small negative size and the relatively high
magnification of the zoom lens (which tends to accentuate camera shake).

So, I second you in your recommendation for the use of fast film, if only to
allow for maximum shutter speed. I would also recommend the use of a tripod
if any of the shots can be taken from land, to minimize camera shake.
Finally, if large expanses of sky will be in the photos, use of a lens hood
and a skylight filter are recommended.

Finally, the images may look better if not enlarged too much. If the OP is
planning on, say, 5x7 sized prints, the camera shake issue probably will not
be too noticeable. Still, he should do everything possible to minimize the
effect of camera shake, to maximize image quality.

As for using a tripod on board ship, that may or may not be a good idea. If
the tripod transmits vibration to the camera, he might find that handholding
might actually dempen the effect of the ship's vibration in this particular
type of situation. If he can use lower focal lengths--more toward the
normal-to-wide-angle end of the spectrum, that might also minimize the
camera shake effects. It's those far-away telephoto shots that will be the
most problematic.

 

I don't know your taste, but I don't travel w/out a 24mm or 28mm. I
always have long lenses with me... but I rarely use them

jay
Mon, Oct 6, 2003
mailto:

 

Those would be great to catch the sweeping scenery, but would probably
render the castles as mere specks on the pictures.

 

Oh, one other thing. Keep in mind you will be on a moving boat. There will
be a limit to what amount of magnification you can use and still keep the
camera steady enough to take a good picture.

Julie

 

Since I posted the initial message my main concern has now turned to
the water level and whether river cruise ships will be able to
navigate the river. Know anything about this aspect?

 

The water level is very low, but this mainly concerns freight-boats who
can now (the entire summer actually) only take 1/3 of their normal cargo.

It has started to rain a bit overhere (NL, light showers now and then)
but I don't know the situation in south-germany or switzerland. There
will need to be some serious rain in the alps to make a significant
change in the water-level.

I wouldn't worry too much about it though.

Lourens

 

No risk whatsoever. Recent problems with extremely low water levels have
only affected freight ships. It's been raining a lot, during the last
days, more rain has been forecast, and it is expected that the remaining
restrictions to shipping will be lifted next week.

The last thing you'll be complaining about in a few weeks time will be a
lack of water.... ;-)

Ralf

 

Having said that, taking pictures wherever possible from the bow
rather than the stern should minimise vibration.

Some of the Rhine ships I've worked on have been pretty much devoid of
noise/vibration at the "sharp end" unless the bow thrusters were used
to manouvre in locks or at landing-stages.

 

My standard travel kit has 3 bodies and lenses from 17 thru my 80-200.
I take the 50-500 as needed.

 

It's not the width of the river that causes problems. Many of the
castles are located on heights overlooking the river. They can be a
significant distance from the river edge. FFM

 

Having just returned from the trip, I can state that the answer is
that 400mm should provide a close crop on any castle that I
encountered. The 50-500 would have been a better choice (I left it
home because of the weight) since it would have allowed wide
environmental portraits of the castles without using a second lens,
but my 80-200 with 1.4x and 2x extenders was completely adequate.

 

One thing that has not been mentioned. After the middle of November or
so it is very overcast and very often foggy along the Rhein.
Photography is not often very good or possible. When we lived there we
took visitors to the Rhein gorge but in the winter often they saw
nothing on the heights because of fog.