Hiking Inca Trail in Peru: 19mm Prime or 14-42 Zoom?

Rich K wrote:

We hiked the nearby Salkantay a couple of years ago. I used my 12-35 Panny almost exclusively. You'll appreciate having the wide end just so you can capture the scale of the mountains, but that's not always the best for good landscape shots. And you will definitely find use for the rest of the zoom range if you were take either of your zooms.

Here's one where my widest lens @ 12 mm was useful:

Lake Braies - Dolomites

And for people shots, a little tighter framing @ 19mm:

Dolomites - don't tell my wife I posted this!

And finally, from the Salkantay trail @ 22mm:

Salkantay - just over the Salkantay pass

I'm guessing this might be a "once in a lifetime" trip? If so, and considering what it's costing you to get there, why not think about an upgrade to your lens collection? The panny 12-35/2.8 is compact and at a constant 2.8 it will be a bit more useful for morning/evening work. I would think you might find a used, version 1, copy for a reasonable price.

And, although I'm one to be pretty concerned about extra weight, taking along one extra lens is worth the weight IMHO. I always carry the Oly 17/1.8 for evening, low light situations. It weighs next to nothing.

Have fun and hope you have good weather!

Thanks for the feedback, and nice pictures by the way! I looked up the 12-35/2.8, and it costs about $700CAD new which is a lot, I'm not used to spending so much money. I'll think about it before I make any impulse purchases.