The ultimate travel kit
A Canon R6, a Canon 50mm F1.8 RF, a Canon 16mm f2.8 RF. Is this it?
On a month long backpacking holiday around Malaysia in 2007, I brought too much gear: a Canon 350d, a 17-40f4L, a 50mm F1.4 and a 70-200f2.8L. Halfway through my trip, robbers stole it all. On the upside, I no longer had 4kg of camera gear weighing me down while I live laugh loved my way around South East Asia.
On a trip to Cuba in 2012 I took a 5d2, an 85 and a 24. Lesser still, I went to Brazil in 2015 with a little Fuji X100T. The camera was fun to use and fitted in my pocket, but the pictures needed a lot of post work to be presentable; not so sharp, bokeh not so nice, contrast not so clean.
So I was still searching for the ultimate travel kit. One of the first RF lenses I got was the tiny Canon 50mm RF F1.8; an excellent low stress, carry around lens weighing just 160 grams. Then Canon released the 16mm RF f2.8, another budget lens with almost the exact same dimensions. Together they’re 325 grams of lens; perfect when laziness is a priority. I picked up a 16mm and took them both to Istanbul, paired with a Canon R6.
From the Canon 16mm f2.8 RF
The Canon 16mm f2.8 RF
The 1400 year old roof of the Haghia Sophia
The city also known as Catstantinople if you believe tour guides
View of the Bosphorus from Topkapi Palace
I’d say, surprisingly good. For the peepers, it’s a bit soft in the corners but nicely sharp in the centre, and that’s where people are actually looking. The out-of-camera colour and contrast were decent, the bokeh’s really not bad at all, and coupled with the RAW files and autofocus capabilities of a Canon R6 there’s not a whole lot of reasons to go wrong here.
From the Canon 50mm f1.8 RF
The Canon 50mm f1.8 RF
Sometimes a lapel badge isn’t enough
An Istanbul skyline
Admiring the roof of the Haghia Sophia
Any 50mm lens on a full frame camera like the R6 is a great all-rounder for portraits and scenes. Like the 16mm RF it’s not technically excellent, but it’s absolutely good enough, packing a wide aperture and decent characteristics into a miniature, lightweight package that won’t freak out any tourist or street vendor you happen to point it at.
In conclusion?
The twins, side by side
Between these two, I wanted for nothing. They’re cheap enough to not worry about, light enough to not bother you, and capable enough where it counts. And most importantly, they’re just fun. It feels good to go back to a basic lightweight camera and lens combination that you can wave around in one hand, while you knock a beer over with the other. I could take a couple of 1kg monster lenses away with me and get nicer pictures, sure; but would it still feel like a holiday?