[Leica] Lens focal length advice for a European river cruise

[Howard L Ritter Jr]

Paul—

Having lived on the Rhein in Oestrich-Winkel, Germany, for a few years and taken a number of day cruises, I feel that the most worthwhile photos of castles taken from the river are the ones that show the castles and the slopes below them, which are often covered with vineyards or rugged cliffs. The greatest visual interest comes from showing them in their context, including the heights that they dominate. Telephoto images from river level of castles in isolation generally look like truncated images of the upper parts of castles from below – no doors, foundations, roads, grounds, and so on. Some can look good, but if you want the best images of the castles themselves, take a shore excursion up to one.

I’d pack for shooting in tight and medium situations, in towns and of the landscape, with your choice of WA and normal lenses. Personally, I like FL steps in a ratio to the high side of 1.5, so I’d take 24, 50, and 90mm lenses. Or 21, 35, and 70 or 90. With the M’s 24MPx sensor, you can crop to get the equivalent of a full-frame 90mm FOV in a 200-lpi 11x17 print or on a 3200x1800 monitor from a file made with a 50.

(Which is why a 60MPx, 28mm Q3 would be the ultimate one-piece kit, yielding a file that you could make crops from for the entire range from 28 to 90mm. Until, of course, the 100MPx Qx and its 28-135mm crops!)

You’re in for a treat! 

—howard

> On Dec 18, 2019, at 5:27 PM, Paul Roark via LUG <lug at leica-users.org> wrote:
> 
> My wife and I are going to take a Rhine river cruise, which is something
> we've never done.
> 
> Does anyone have any photographic experience with such, and specifically,
> what lenses (Leica M primes) would be most useful on a river cruise boat
> (if any).
> 
> Thanks for any suggestions.
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
> 
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