14mm f2.8 or 10-24mm f4 for Egypt trip

jonikon wrote:

gdanmitchell wrote:

jonikon wrote:

My wife and I have a trip to Egypt planed for this year and I am considering buying either the 14mm f2.8 or 10-24mm f4 lens for the trip. Any advice? My camera is an X-T2.

Is that the only lens you will carry? If not, what other lenses will you use it with?

Right now I plan to also take my XC 16-50mm. I'm also considering buying the XF 16-80mm. Not sure whether to also take the XC 50-230mm or not.

If you have a lens with a 16mm minimum focal length, I'm not at all sure that it is worth also carrying the 14mm f/2.8. I have had that lens since it came out and it is an excellent lens... but I have to wonder if getting only an additional 2mm is worth carrying an extra lens for travel.

These questions often come down to questions of how you like to combine travel and photography. Is photography your primary reason for travel (at one extreme) or largely a way to record aspects of your primary goal, the travel itself.

If the former, it can make sense to burden yourself with more gear that covers a greater range of potential situations and which might provide some additional image quality — especially if you might, for example, make large prints of the photographs.

If the latter, wide-coverage general purpose lenses like the 16-80mm (and that 50-230mm or some other Fujifilm alternatives) can do a great job with a lot less fuss and weight/bulk.

It is hard to say which approach is best for you, not knowing your photography or how you like to travel. I will say that, in general, it is probably better to err on the side of taking less gear than taking too much when it comes to travel, a lesson I've learned (sometimes the hard way) over decades of travel.