And finally, a last post on toys that are coming along for this trip. With just a few hours before we head to the airport, I’m going all minimalist this trip!
The amount of gear this Japan year end trip is very modest, compared to the small mountains of gear I’ve been routinely hauling around in the past years!
The Canon G7X II is more than 6 years old now, because it has a pretty fast lens and still offers the wider focal length between that and the A6600. A year ago I’d mused that this little compact would had been retired this year and replaced with a Sony RX100 – but that hasn’t happened yet, because, well… financial prudence!
The Sony A6600 is taking over main photo-taking duties from the A73 that has accompanied me on most major family vacation trips since 2018. I reckon I’ll miss the A73’s superb handling, low noise and fantastic dynamic range: but my shoulders will certainly thank me this time. I’m a little worried about this APS-C camera’s weather sealing though, since I can’t expose it to the same inclement weather I did last year with the A73. But we’d see.
The Sony 18-135mm is a travel lens that I picked up for the Hanoi trip in June this year. It didn’t see much use, but it should certainly: since there will be several places in Japan where I’d need the reach: specifically where we’d be heading to in Kawaguchiko over this weekend and to get those lovely pictures of Mt. Fuji, with the necessary photo compression effects, e.g. at Honcho Street. And there’s also the snow monkeys in Nagano in 2 weeks’ too.
The Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 DC DN is a new acquisition I just picked up last weekend. I juggled with this one buy: it’s a fantastic compact and fast lens with a constant f2.8 aperture, but I would have liked it to be slightly wider: e.g. 16mm. But this will likely be the standard lens I’d use most often once we leave Kawaguchiko on Day 04.
Video duties will be on the Samsung S23 Ultra. It did a fantastic job in Hanoi, and I expect it to be the same in Japan. The Z Fold 4 is there because of well, work reasons haha. Not in this picture too is the new Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 that I’d be using to blog on the go.
That’s a wrap for our pre-departure and planning posts. The next post will be in Japan. Woohoo!