Lenses for Morocco

maggiemole wrote:

I'm going for a very short visit in January, so I'm trying to be efficient with my camera gear. I will certainly take my 2 Panasonic cameras, GX7 and GX80, and probably use one for walk-around and distance, and the other for wide angle and low light. It should be easy to select the lenses, but I'm hung up on the walk-around and distance options.

I have the 14-140mm II and love it. But I'm really getting too dependent on a superzoom, and have acquired a Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8 which I want to use seriously. I also have the Olympus 45-150mm plastic fantastic. At the short end I have the choice of 12-32mm or the 12-50mm with its pseudo-macro facility.

I'm thinking the choices are:

1. Stay with the 14-140mm plus 12-32mm, but that does nothing to extend my experience

2. 35-100mm plus 12-50mm, and really get to grips with them

3. 45-150mm plus 12-50mm, the lightest combination and it gives the longest reach.

(I have the wide angle and low light bits sewn up, with small lenses.)

What would you do?

Your goal is very unclear. Do you want to take photos or do you want to make this an exercise in finding out whether lenses you don't use much might work out okay for you in a brand new environment in a foreign country (one that possibly you will never have a chance to go back to for the rest of your life)? Answer that question to yourself and it will clarify things.

I have been to Morocco twice, 2006 and 2018 for a total of about 8 weeks. I won't count the 2 years I lived there in the early '60s when it was still a French colony because I was just a little kid. What kinds of photos do you want to take? If, for example, you mostly want to take photos of food or flowers or museum displays or something else I would give different advice, but if you want to take a much more general range of photos like I do then my advice would be different. You can see some of my Morocco photos here to see if our photo goals are similar or totally different:

http://www.bakubo.com/Galleries%202/Morocco/index.html

My typical kit for the last few years when traveling abroad is this:

• Olympus E-M10II + ECG-3 grip
• Olympus E-M10 + ECG-1 grip (I wish both cameras used the same grip because then I would only carry one)
• 4 batteries and charger (both bodies use same batteries)
• Olympus 14-150mm f4-5.6 II
• Olympus 9-18mm f4-5.6
• Olympus 25mm f1.8
• Olympus 9mm f8 fisheye

Earlier I used the E-M5 as my main camera and then later the E-M10 became the main camera. And then later the wonderful E-M10II.

Last year in Morocco I decided to use my PEN-F so I changed the kit to this:

• Olympus PEN-F + leather half-case
• Olympus E-M10II + ECG-3 grip
• 4 batteries and charger for PEN-F
• 4 batteries and charger for E-M10II
• Olympus 14-150mm f4-5.6 II
• Olympus 9-18mm f4-5.6
• Olympus 25mm f1.8
• Olympus 9mm f8 fisheye

For my next trip I expect to go back to the E-M10II/E-M10 combo. Fewer batteries and chargers.

In addition I carry a small pocket camera. Canon S95 or Sony RX100.

So, I recommend your 14-140mm which will be almost perfect most of the time. Take the tiny 12-32mm too for the slightly wider angle and for times you want to carry a much smaller/lighter camera. I recommend one fast lens such as the Panasonic 25mm f1.7, 15mm f1.7, 20mm f1.7, or one of the similar Olympus f1.8 lenses. A much wider lens such as the Olympus 9-18mm or Panasonic 7-14mm might get occasional use, but not a whole lot. It depends on you.

In 2006 I was in Morocco in March-April:

Marrakech
Ait Ben Haddou
Todra Gorge
Sahara Desert
Fes
Volubilis
Chefchaoen
Tangier
Asilah
Armed, Atlas Mountains
Imlil, Atlas Mountains
Essaouira
Marrakech

In 2018 it was in February:

Casablanca
Rabat
Meknes
Volubilis
Fes
Midelt
Sahara Desert
Todra Gorge
Ait Ben Haddou
Aroumd, Atlas Mountains
Essaouira
Marrakech

As you can see, there was quite a lot of overlap. The 2006 trip included in addition Chefchaoen, Tangier, and Asilah though.