[JoshK]

So I plan to go to Costa Rica for two weeks at the end of April.    I have a Canon EOS 20D DLSR, but I never really learned photography outside of the very basics.   My g/f has a good eye and took one course in college, so she might be the one doing most of the shooting.   I saw the sticky, but was wondering if you can first narrow down the types of lenses you would want if you were going to Costa Rica and wanted to take nature photos.

I have 3 lenses already, so maybe I have a couple worthwhile, but thought I'd ask.   Budget wise, I recently was laid off but have a few years salary saved up, so I'm not stressed but would like to keep it reasonable <$1K each, with no more than two lenses to buy.     

I'd also really love to grab a pair of good binoculars and have zero knowledge of such things.

[SET Man]

Hey!

    Josh, for many years my main staple focal range was 28-200mm from two zooms and 24-200mm from 2008 to present day. Today you'll find a 24-70mm f2.8 and 80-200mm f2.8 zooms in my bag (these are full frame 35mm focal) I find these two zooms serve me well, and the 24-70mm would stay on my camera most of the time. And I rarely find myself needing anything longer or shorter than that. I do have 17-35mm f2.8-4 but I rarely use it though. And funny enough my trips last year I took my 80-200mm f2.8 with me but didn't use it at all. But if you are going to take some nature pics like wildlife, something like 300mm might come in handy.
   
   So, you already have 3 lenses? What are they? Perhaps why not use what you already have? What make you feel that they are not good enough?

   Anyway, I'm not familiar with Canon system so maybe others who are can help out.

Take care
Buddy 

[mav52]

We just got back from a 2 week trip to Maui and I only took two lens, Nikon 18-35 f3.5-4.5 & a 70-300 VR.  Worked great. The 18-35 was perfect for landscape and the 70-300 was perfect for Whales and anything I needed a little reach.   I took my 2.8 lens (24-70 2.8 G and 70-200 F2.8G ) last year, I found them just to darn heavy to deal with hiking around. .

[JoshK]

Thanks guys.  It seems like the lenses I have should suffice then.  I just wanted to ask first.  I have to look up what they are but ones is the standard shorter distance and one slightly longer distance. 

[JLM]

Back in the day I kept a 35 - 90 mm on the camera and carried a 70 - 150 mm.  Shorter than 35 mm IMO is for extreme views or special effects.  Longer than 150 mm tends to get heavy and cumbersome.  That far from home/civilization I used film and preferred a 100% manual option camera in case of bad batteries or electronic failure.