When traveling to the North and South Pole on a cruise, what photography equipment should I bring?
This is a frequently asked question.
Although cruises to the Arctic and Antarctic are unlikely to resume within this year, getting familiar with photographic equipment in advance will help to achieve optimal performance when it is really needed.
It is recommended to save it for later use, maybe you can go there someday!
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There's magic in the North and South Poles, and no matter how wildly you imagine the number of photos you'll take before setting off, you'll be surprised to find how conservative your estimates have been. The North and South Pole are magical. Even using a mobile phone can bring back photos that will envy others, but even a high-end camera has its place.
I haven’t touched a camera in many years since my cell phone’s camera was passable. In June 2019, I spent a "huge amount of money" to buy the first SLR from Eisheng. I spent it in the Arctic for one and a half months, one month in South America and Canada, four and a half months in the Antarctic, and two months in western China. It can be regarded as Not idle. I have also been to both the North and South Pole many times, both with my mobile phone and with a cannon. I am not an old mage, but I have experienced the excitement when I changed my SLR for the first time, and I have also experienced the mood when I forgot to use my mobile phone. Let me share with you my thoughts.
Usage and usage of this article : If you are a beginner or entry-level photography enthusiast, the entire article should be helpful to you; if you are an experienced photography enthusiast but are not familiar with Arctic and Antarctic expedition cruises, I believe you will know it after reading the two parts of Preface 1 and 2; if you are familiar with photography, the North and South Pole, and adventure cruises, congratulations, this article is too simple for you, just go and take pictures!
Preface 1. What can be photographed at the North and South Pole?
First, let’s talk about what you will take photos at the North and South Pole.
landscape.
There are very grand landscapes in the North and South Pole, and there are many interesting details if you look closely.
For example, glaciers:
For example, a whaling station:
For example, iceberg:
For example, a group of king penguins (ha, this is no longer considered a scenery~)
wild animals.
In the Arctic and Antarctic, photographing wildlife is a must-see. Most wild animals, represented by penguins, are far or near from people. People are not allowed to get closer than 5 meters. Regular focal lengths (such as mobile phone lenses, kit lenses) can also perform well, but it is also well worth zooming in with telephoto.
There are a large number of flying birds in both the North and South Poles, including albatrosses, shearwaters, Arctic puffins, etc. When Antarctic skuas, albatrosses, etc. are on land, they can be relatively close, you can refer to the previous article; but Arctic seabirds are more wary of humans, and even on the shore, the distance will be farther. If you want to take pictures of birds flying, usually the focal length of the mobile phone is a bit difficult, but there is no focusing problem; the focal length of the telephoto lens is sufficient, but you need to be familiar with focusing on small objects moving at high speed in advance.
Also, special mention goes to polar bears and whales. There are bears in the Arctic and whales in both the Arctic and Antarctic. They usually appear far away from you, ranging from a few hundred meters to a few kilometers. Of course, it is not ruled out that they will appear in front of you if you are lucky. But usually, if you want to take pictures of them and see what they are clearly, even a mobile phone with a 10x zoom lens will be unable to do so.
aurora? Starry sky?
The Antarctic tourist season coincides with the Antarctic aurora season. It is almost impossible to see the aurora on an Antarctic cruise ship, unless the "Carrington Event" occurs again. In the Arctic, if the time (September to April of the following year) and location (auroral zone) are right, the probability of seeing the aurora is greater than in the Antarctic, but the season when cruise ships can sail is usually not the best aurora season. In fact, if your primary goal is the Aurora, it is more suitable for you to arrange a land trip in the Arctic during the winter half of the year than a cruise ship.
The probability of seeing the starry sky is higher, but don’t expect too much. The weather in the Arctic and Antarctic areas where cruise ships go is usually cloudy. With luck, you may catch one or two sunny nights during your trip. Even so, don't expect to photograph star trails. why? This is related to the characteristics of cruise travel——
Preface 2: What is it like to go on a cruise to the North and South Pole?
From the moment you board the ship, your food, accommodation, and transportation will all be on the cruise ship. You don't have to pack your luggage and move to another place every day. You only have 1-3 hours to leave the cruise ship in the morning and afternoon each day for sightseeing. Unless you sign up for limited-capacity shore camping and there’s no bad weather to cancel, you’ll be spending every night of your trip in the warmth and comfort of a boat. The cruise ship is very large and is very stable when anchored near the landing site; but if you look at it in minutes, it will still sway and rotate. You may see strange tracks with long exposures, but time-lapse photography of sailing during the day when the light is good is still a good option.
On the day of play, the expedition team will transport you to the shore in a Zodiac. If it is windy, the transportation process may be splashed by waves. After landing, you will wear waterproof boots (which will be a bit more tiring than walking with sneakers) and walk on gravel or snowy ground. You usually won’t go too far, but there are some landing sites where you can climb Enjoy the infinite scenery from high places. In addition to landing, sometimes you will take a Zodiac cruise for about an hour to see icebergs and look for seals or whales in the water.
As for the temperature, since you are taking a cruise, it is necessary that the sea surface does not freeze over a large area (except for the North Pole trip), so will not be very cold (even the North Pole trip is not exaggerated, guide | Is Antarctica cold? cold), usually better than winter in Beijing.
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After talking about the characteristics of "North and South Pole" and "Cruise Cruise", the old masters who strive for excellence probably already know it in their hearts. Now let’s get to the point. I will recommend it from the perspective of trying to balance all aspects from rather than pursuing the ultimate. The following dry food is not accompanied by pictures. Eat it slowly and don’t choke.
1. Camera or mobile phone? What lens to use?
Different deviceshave their own advantages and disadvantages. There is no absolutely correct option, only the option that suits you. Listed below are the advantages of mobile phones and cameras. The advantages of each are also the disadvantages of the other.
Picture quality and price are no longer mentioned: the picture quality of mobile phones is now sufficient to meet most needs for non-exhibitions and non-competitions; as for the price, in addition to buying equipment, you can also rent it, and the rent is only a fraction of the price of a North and South Pole ferry ticket.
Advantages of mobile phones:
Lightweight and easy to use : Don’t underestimate this! No matter how professional the equipment is, if you have to do some mental preparation before each shot due to the weight of carrying it or the difficulty of operation, so you are too lazy to take pictures, it will be a waste.
Social media : Just use a useful app to handle it. After returning to the ship and connecting to the Internet, you can post to Moments and Weibo directly. There is no need to export photos or use complicated post-processing software. You can easily dominate Moments~
Shooting video : Small aperture and short focal length can make the depth of field larger. In other words, even if the subject moves casually, the focus will not be blurry. In addition, the phone is light in weight and has much better hand-holding stability. The lens image is not prone to shake, and the shake is not noticeable even if the focal length is short. If there is no stabilizing equipment such as a tripod or gimbal, the video shot by the mobile phone will beat the telephoto camera.
Camera Advantages:
The camera here refers to at least a camera that can change lenses or ultra-high-power optical zoom, and allows a certain degree of parameter setting, excluding relatively point-and-shoot card cameras.
Telephoto : In the Arctic and Antarctic, there will be a lot of opportunities to photograph wild animals, such as polar bears, whales, etc. Even if the penguins are relatively close, a telephoto lens can zoom in, and the effect is very different from shooting at a distance.
Background blur : A large aperture and long focal length can reduce the depth of field, blur the background, and highlight the subject. Imagine a chaotic group of penguins in a colony. If all the penguins are clear, you will not know what to see in this photo at the first time; but if only one or two are clear, you can immediately get what the author wants. the content of the performance.
Adjustable settings : You can use aperture to adjust the depth of field, use shutter speed to adjust whether you want to freeze the moment or express a sense of dynamics, use exposure compensation to adjust the overall brightness of the picture... A certain degree of parameter adjustment can bring greater The creative space makes your photos no longer the same.
Various card machines have advantages and disadvantages between the above two based on their respective performance. Personally, I think the positioning is a bit awkward, but you can consider it based on your own needs.
As for lens, if you choose a camera, it is recommended that you bring at least one telephoto lens. If you already have a lens, take it as long as you want. If you need to buy a special lens, I personally recommend buying a factory 100-400mm (you can also consider 150-600mm in the Arctic). For example, the weight of the 100-400mm lens I used from a certain manufacturer is 1135g, while the original Canon White Rabbit 1570g lens with the same focal length range is quite different in feel. On the basis that the focal length is sufficient, the image quality that is invisible to non-experts is sacrificed in order to reduce the weight as much as possible, so as to avoid being dissuaded by the weight of the camera at landing sites where there are hiking, and the shutter speed tolerance of handheld stability is also higher.
Regarding taking into account different focal lengths , I personally recommend the following combinations:
1. One camera body is equipped with an ultra-high-magnification zoom lens that is both wide-angle and telephoto;
2. One body with telephoto lens + one mobile phone for shooting standard and small wide-angle focal lengths (this is my own choice);
3. The two bodies are equipped with telephoto and wide-angle or standard lenses respectively.
Combinations of one camera with two lenses or two cameras with three lenses are not recommended. Beautiful scenery is fleeting and you don’t want to change lenses to take up your precious time.
In addition to traditional mobile phones or cameras, we also recommend action cameras . Yes, it’s G*P**, a certain territory, a certain ant, etc. Three uses: When cruising on the Zodiac to see icebergs, you can use the extension pole to extend underwater, so that the field of view is no longer limited to the "tip of the iceberg"; when landing, you can use a mini tripod to set up the action camera in a place where no one is walking around to take pictures. Collect it when you return to the ship. If you are lucky, there may be penguins curious to check it out. When the ship sails through some beautiful places, such as Le Maire Channel and the entrance to Deception Island, you can fix it on the deck railing to take a time-lapse video.
As for drones, don’t even think about it. Individuals are not allowed to fly drones during cruises in the Arctic and Antarctic.
2. Memory card or hard drive
Again, although you have been mentally prepared to take a lot of photos, in fact you will take much more than you expected. Storage spaceBe sure to bring enough storage space. Don’t be like me when I went to Antarctica for the first time and had to grit my teeth and delete one photo before taking another one. If you don’t worry about it, you will waste time and miss some scenes.
Most ships will have a public computer that can import photos, but it is not suitable to use it for too long during the day. It doesn't matter if no one is around in the middle of the night. Of course, it will be more convenient to bring a laptop with commonly used post-production software installed to initiate a circle of friends.
In addition, if you are using a camera with a continuous shooting function, especially if it is set to store a large raw format, make sure that the writing speed of the memory card can support a certain number of continuous shooting . After all, continuous shooting is still very useful when photographing wild animals.
3. Tripod? PTZ?
Tripods are rarely used in Arctic and Antarctic cruise itineraries. When landing, carrying a tripod is really inconvenient and will waste precious landing time; when cruising in an Zodiac, the Zodiac itself rises and falls with the waves, and there is no space for a tripod; when on a large ship, you can find a railing to support it for a short time. Enough, the swaying and rotation of the ship itself over a long period of time cannot be ignored.
But when shooting videos, especially when shooting animal videos with a telephoto lens, slight shaking will be magnified by the telephoto lens, causing the screen to shake violently. If you still have high requirements for documentary-level videos after weighing the pros and cons, you still have to bring a tripod. If the requirements for fixed-point video shooting are not so high and the camera is not particularly heavy, you can consider gimbal , which can greatly improve stability and is more maneuverable than a tripod, making it easier to shoot while traveling.
4. What else do you need?
Universal plug, charger, spare battery, power bank : Different ships have different power socket standards, so bring a universal plug to ensure safety. The first-year battery of Bengo's camera (5D4) can still last for two landing days. In any case, I feel more at ease now that my camera has a spare battery and my phone has a power bank.
Warm baby? : The battery of Bengo’s iPhone at the end of 2017 performed well in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 Antarctic seasons. It is best to charge it once when returning to the ship at noon in the 2019-20 Antarctic season, but there was no low temperature power loss during landing. Case. 1. Mobile phone batteries that are relatively new within 2 years generally do not have major problems, but if it lasts longer, it is said that a warm baby can prevent power failure and shutdown. The greater use of the warm baby is when cruising in the Zodiac. While cruising, you can move around unlike when you land on the boat. It is easier to get cold while sitting in the Zodiac all the time. You cannot wear thick gloves when operating a camera or mobile phone. It is more comfortable to have a warm baby in your hand.
Waterproof backpack : Photographers who have never been on an adventure cruise may easily overlook this item. On the way to land on the Zodiac boat from the big ship, in order to give you more time to visit the shore, the Zodiac boat will drive faster, and the waves will splash on you. In extreme cases, it may even feel like a shower.
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Now you probably know what kind of photography equipment you need to prepare, right? If you plan to buy new equipment for your trip to the North and South Pole, then you should take advantage of this period to get used to it and get used to it . You can go to the park to photograph birds, go on weekend outings in the mountains to photograph the scenery, and strive to be in control of the polar regions. The equipment is used to its maximum power.
Finally, if you plan to go to the South Pole or the North Pole only once, be sure to forget about your camera and mobile phone for a while, and really look at the place without looking through the viewfinder or the screen, but with your own eyes. Based on my experience of traveling to the Antarctic and the Arctic several times over ten times, I can tell you that taking photos will indeed give you photos to look back on and miss after the trip, but it will also make you miss a lot of wonderful things: the penguins here are performing a love triangle soap opera, The skuas over there are eyeing the geese, and the whales in the distance rise and fall, accompanied by seabirds attracted by the food...
I hope this article can come in handy soon~