I too was faced with the question of what gear to take on a similar vacation. My wife and I are going on a Southern Caribbean cruise in April. I really don't want to take my F5 for a few reasons: I'll be constantly worried that it'll get stolen/damaged while I'm preoccupied with other things and it's way too heavy and cumbersome for casual touring. Also, we're going to be doing a lot of water sports sidebar activities on this trip. Snorkeling, sailing, etc. Obviously that would mean I'd have to leave the beloved F5 back on the ship during some of the more adventurous activities. My wife and I plan on doing a lot of this type of travel in the future so I decided to pick up the "right stuff" kind of gear. For the land/shore touring part I bought an FM2n. And while it's not high-tech it is small, light and rugged. I won't be anywhere near as paranoid about loosing it either. I also picked up a new 28-105 AF D zoom to go with it (and my F100 and F5). This zoom is right in the general range for most common vacation shots and it's not as big and cumbersome as my 24-120. I also bought a 35mm F/1.4 AIS lens (why hasn't Nikon released this lens in the AF D mount????) too. I wanted that for available light night shots both on ship and in port. *** Note that I'd like to pick up a small flash for the FM2n and for this type of use. I have an SB-28 and Vivitar 285; I consider both too large and cumbersome for toting around exotic ports of call. Any opinions/advice?? *** For the water sports I bought a Minolta Vectis Weathermatic (OK, shoot me - it's not a Nikon. If Nikon made such a camera I would have bought it). It's a waterproof (down to 35' I believe) APS with a zoom lens and built-in flash. This may be the perfect vacation camera. It's extremely light, waterproof and dust proof, and it appears to be pretty rugged. I've shot a few rolls with this camera and am relatively happy with the results. The only problem is that it's APS and at this time there's no APS slide film available. On the flip side, being APS you can take some pretty impressive panoramic shots with this thing. This gear lineup gives me a lot of flexibility in choosing the right stuff for any occasion. For serious photo only outings I'll take the F100, F5 and maybe the FM2n with 35mm AIS attached. For travel touring, I'll pick the F100, the FM2n or the Weathermatic. I think I've got all the bases covered. Finally, if I were going to Disney with a group of crazy friends I'd plan on carrying the Weathermatic because its small, light and rugged. It'll fit in a pocket if needed. On this kind of vacation I wouldn't expect to get any quiet creative time on my own just to focus on pure photography. I might bring the FM2n with a zoom and filters just in case though. Pete Treible
