Iceland, February - XF or Alpa?

[dchew]

OK Dave, I have to ask.
Snowshoes on both photographer and the tripod legs?

Just me but I know what you mean. Several years ago I tried to modify some ski pole baskets to fit. I was moonlighting at a ski shop and they had an an unlimited supply of old baskets to experiment with. It became more hassle than it was worth (you still want to fold up and stow the tripod). I imagine some company solved it and makes them by now.

I have brought along three of those Glad brand container bowls to lay in the snow. They work, sort of...

Dave

 

[tashley]

I went in March (still very much winter) a few years back with a newly acquired P45+, the ‘old’ phase body, some lenses, and, just in case, an M8.2 with several lenses.

After my first day’s shooting I reviewed the Phase images and they were all somewhere between a little blurry and very blurry. Turns out I had massively misunderstood the combination of an inadequate tripod (can’t remember which, but I switched to a manfrotto CF 3 series thereafter, used with MUP, and never had the problem again) with the brutal shutter on the old body.

I struggled on by raising the mirror and the ISO and using delay etc, until technically the images were just about there. But they were all dead as a door nail. Why? Because the conditions change constantly, literally from moment to moment, and any system with a slowish deployment envelope is just a hassle.

Now obviously it can be done - loads of photographers have come back from Iceland with great MF images. But you tend to find gaggles of them all standing in about the same place, quite near their transport, with heavy bags of slow to use kit, taking roughly similar images.

All the best shots I got were with the M8.2 including one with a 90mm lens that is heavily cropped and has made me more money than any other image I’ve ever taken. I only got it because I glanced a scene between clearing veils of blizzard, from a moving vehicle, shouted ‘stop’ to the driver and grabbed the M8 with the lens that happened to be on it before running across a field to get near enough. I got precisely one shot before the weather came in again.

So if it were me, though I have an IQ3 100 and an XF and an Alpa and lenses, I’d take my A7RIII or maybe Z7 as my main system, with a couple of good primes and three good zooms - and the IQ/Alpa/one lens and a good tripod as my ‘just in case’ - just in case being my finding an instance of stable weather, good terrain, low wind, a close to hand scene and an image that I really think I’ll need to capture at 100mp.

 

[Berthold_Steinhilber]

Very important : always take an umbrella in your backpack with you. In Iceland you always have longer exposure times and the wind will always blow from the wrong side, that's for sure.
So if you shoot with Alpa, Nikon, Fuji...the umbrella is very important to keep off the wind. So invest in a good umbrella...and it will make it easier for you.

 

[Stuart Richardson]

I went to Iceland once fourteen years ago...then I never left. I think most people have you on the right track. The cold is not so bad, but the wind can be ferocious. Realize that you might not be able to practically shoot in all conditions. A good tripod is very helpful. In February you will have the coldest weather of the year, so it is most likely going to be below 0C and windy. Layers with proper wind protection (preferably at both the shell and undershell layers) is helpful. When it is really cold I do not wear gloves...I wear liner gloves with mittens over them. If I need to make adjustments then I take the upper mitten off. Touch screens are very annoying here. My favorite cameras for Iceland are the Leica S (perfectly weather sealed and completely controllable in mittens...impervious to the cold), the Mamiya 7II...same, except for changing lenses and loading film, and my Ebony SV45Ti. All three are easy to control in mittens and gloves and do not skip a beat. I have not used an XF or Alpa, but I have not seen many people using them here. I know one photographer who does a lot of landscape work with the XF, so I don't think there are any major issues with it. Your lenses seem pretty wide to me though. I mostly use normal and telephoto lenses. That could just be me, but I find that the landscapes are quite large here, and wide angles just make them disappear. That said, if you are primarily on the waterfall/geysir/iceberg lagoon route, you may want the extra coverage to fit them into a shot. If you are looking to photograph the aurora, I would recommend your D850 over the Phase. The aurora is generally best shot with exposures no longer than 30 seconds or so, and to do so requires good medium/high ISO's and lenses that are good closer to wide open. I would find a 24-35mm equivalent lens that is very sharp across the frame at f2.8 to f4, put the camera at ISO 800-1600 or so and time your exposures around 15 to 30 seconds. This depends on conditions and how bright the aurora is of course, but I would not think the phase would be the best choice for that. I am sure it can do it, however. Maybe it is good, but I would be surprised if it did as well as the D850 at that...

 

[Stuart Richardson]

I should also say that I have used two RRS tripods to good success. One is the TVC 33 which is my default, though this is too big for most hikes. For that I have one of the smaller ones. I think it is the 14 series...it came with a column attached already. In any case, it is good, but not the greatest for strong winds. That said, very little other than high shutter speeds or barriers (rocks, cars, buildings, umbrellas...if it is not TOO strong) will help in high winds. I often use my car as a wind break when shooting 4x5...it helps more than you might think, particularly if you have a truck or SUV. For a trip, I would recommend a smaller to mid sized tripod that you will be ok to carry around. I have never bothered or needed rock claws or spikes, though I am certain they are useful in certain circumstances. In reality, I think the rubber is likely kinder to nature than spikes or rock claws. A lot of our tourist sites are under extreme pressure at the moment, and I would encourage you to think about the impact you might have at any given spot. The same goes for relieving yourself outside...I realize to some it is funny, but honestly it is disgusting and sad to go to so many beautiful places and find dirty tissues on the ground next to a rock or tree a few feet off the road. If you really have to go, please have the courtesy to bury it. I seriously doubt you are in this group, but figured I would say it for the ether...

 

[algrove]

Just me but I know what you mean. Several years ago I tried to modify some ski pole baskets to fit. I was moonlighting at a ski shop and they had an an unlimited supply of old baskets to experiment with. It became more hassle than it was worth (you still want to fold up and stow the tripod). I imagine some company solved it and makes them by now.

I have brought along three of those Glad brand container bowls to lay in the snow. They work, sort of...

Dave

So I looked in my goodie boxes and found something I remembered I bought a long time ago. Manfrotto tripod baskets- #230. with a rubber strap for attachment and about 5" in diameter. Easily detachable.

 

[Phocus]

I had my Alpa TC + 40mm + IQ350 and Leica S007 + 30-90 + 180mm for my Iceland trip in Feb 2016. Due to the expected weather conditions (high wind/snow/rain/salt water) I mainly used the Leica S (weather sealed) but I was able to shoot with alpa when the conditions were suitable (and it was rewarding).

If you plan to take your alpa, I would highly recommend to either remove the wooden grip or oil it in advance since salt water can quickly ruin the wooden grip.

As a side note, if you are using Really Right Stuff tripods, try to glue/loctite the pod foot/spike/claw in advance as cold and salt water can easily make the loose. I lost one during that trip and had to protect the bottom of the tripod with gaffer tape.

Safe travels!

 

[tashley]

One more thing: there's a story in the news at the moment about a group of English people who were on a tour with a local driver and the 4x4 they were travelling in went off a bridge. Several were killed and several were injured.

My experience of hiring drivers in 4x4 vehicles there might be useful...

I had two main days where I had a driver all day. On other days I joined groups.

One one of the solo days, the driver turned up with a small group of American tourists, though I had booked him solo. He refused to decant them and said that they would be happy to follow my itinerary, which, as it turned out, they were not: it would have been very boring for them to wait while I hiked out from the parking spot to take photos.

On the other day, I had serious concerns for the driving skills of my chauffeur. It struck me that Icelandic folk are not typically Scandinavian in that there appeared to be no sober risk assessment mentality whatsoever. I kept my mouth shut and prayed. I lived.

On one of the group trips the driver took us up a very long dirt track off the main highway to visit a glacier. As we descended, he missed a corner in a really stupid and cavalier fashion and we went into a sort of ditch. No one was hurt but the vehicle was immobilised and we could not between us get it back onto the track.

It turned out the we were out of mobile phone reception range. The driver had no water, blankets, shovels, nothing at all. It rapidly got dark and there were were, 100km+ from Reykjavik, stuck. As dusk fell it became clear he had no torch either. Luckily, after a few minutes, out of the gloaming came three walkers with torches, and they were able to provide the extra manpower we needed to get the minibus upright and resume our journey.

All the drivers I had were recommended by the local tourist office and had glossy leaflets and appeared to be in some way certified or verified or whatever. All of them were inadequate.

So look very carefully into that side of your trip - and make sure you have blankets, water, shovels, torches, spare tires etc in any vehicle you set off in.

 

[Stuart Richardson]

That is all terrible to hear. There has been somewhat of a Wild West in the tourism industry here, but I have not heard of many drivers who are that cavalier. I have no doubt that they exist, though I hope things have gotten slightly better in the last few years. I am not sure how to find a better driver, other than to ask around. I have a friend I can direct you towards, but she is not always available, of course.

The accident you were referring to did not have a local driver...at least not as far as I have seen in the Icelandic media, which has identified them a family of seven British/Indian citizens all residing in the UK who crashed as they were approaching a one lane bridge. The cause is as of yet unclear, as the weather was not bad and there was no ice on the bridge. https://grapevine.is/news/2018/12/27/questions-raised-about-fatal-traffic-accident-in-iceland-today/
Driving in Iceland in the winter can be dangerous, as it is not possible to maintain the whole road network with such huge distances and so few settlements. Locals tend to be more familiar with the conditions and also less likely to travel in bad conditions. Tourists come for a once in a lifetime trip and forge ahead regardless of the weather. They also have behaviors that cause problems at times. Last year a few people died because a rental car made a sudden stop in icy conditions to turn in to a tourist overlook, and a bus that was behind it could not stop in time and slid off the road. Icelandic bus drivers are also under a lot of stress to take people out on tours regardless of conditions (see above), which has created problems. The road administration used to be fairly cavalier about road closings, since before the tourism boom most people on the roads were locals who tended to know what was doable. The fact remains that this is still a rugged an empty country in many places, and it makes no sense to close a road because someone in a small rental car might have trouble, when most of the locals in those areas drive large trucks with huge, studded tires and have grown up in those conditions. These days, however, they are more likely to close the roads, and the weather administration has introduced a new colored weather warning system to help tourists understand the conditions (and I believe also help cover the tourist companies when they cancel plans). The whole thing is very complicated with no real answers. To cater the whole infrastructure of the country to tourism is undesirable and has a negative impact on locals, while leaving everything unregulated endangers the uninformed, tourists, the unlucky and the reckless.

One more thing: there's a story in the news at the moment about a group of English people who were on a tour with a local driver and the 4x4 they were traveling in went off a bridge. Several were killed and several were injured.

My experience of hiring drivers in 4x4 vehicles there might be useful...

I had two main days where I had a driver all day. On other days I joined groups.

One one of the solo days, the driver turned up with a small group of American tourists, though I had booked him solo. He refused to decant them and said that they would be happy to follow my itinerary, which, as it turned out, they were not: it would have been very boring for them to wait while I hiked out from the parking spot to take photos.

On the other day, I had serious concerns for the driving skills of my chauffeur. It struck me that Icelandic folk are not typically Scandinavian in that there appeared to be no sober risk assessment mentality whatsoever. I kept my mouth shut and prayed. I lived.

On one of the group trips the driver took us up a very long dirt track off the main highway to visit a glacier. As we descended, he missed a corner in a really stupid and cavalier fashion and we went into a sort of ditch. No one was hurt but the vehicle was immobilised and we could not between us get it back onto the track.

It turned out the we were out of mobile phone reception range. The driver had no water, blankets, shovels, nothing at all. It rapidly got dark and there were were, 100km+ from Reykjavik, stuck. As dusk fell it became clear he had no torch either. Luckily, after a few minutes, out of the gloaming came three walkers with torches, and they were able to provide the extra manpower we needed to get the minibus upright and resume our journey.

All the drivers I had were recommended by the local tourist office and had glossy leaflets and appeared to be in some way certified or verified or whatever. All of them were inadequate.

So look very carefully into that side of your trip - and make sure you have blankets, water, shovels, torches, spare tires etc in any vehicle you set off in.

 

[tashley]

Mea Culpa on part of that - my driver on one day didn't really want to go to the Snaeffels peninsula (but was happy to bring along the spare Americans he accrued overnight when I re-iterated that that was what I had booked him for!) saying that the road conditions weren't great - and they weren't!

I can imagine the problems of balancing the needs of locals and tourists, particularly since tourism has become a very much more significant part of the economy - and tourists do need to know their limits. Surely a 'locals only' road closure system, clearly explained at the car rental pickup, and an insistence that all rental cars have appropriate tires/studs/chains would help? In the meantime a sticky thread here with recommended drivers might be useful?

That is all terrible to hear. There has been somewhat of a Wild West in the tourism industry here, but I have not heard of many drivers who are that cavalier. I have no doubt that they exist, though I hope things have gotten slightly better in the last few years. I am not sure how to find a better driver, other than to ask around. I have a friend I can direct you towards, but she is not always available, of course.

The accident you were referring to did not have a local driver...at least not as far as I have seen in the Icelandic media, which has identified them a family of seven British/Indian citizens all residing in the UK who crashed as they were approaching a one lane bridge. The cause is as of yet unclear, as the weather was not bad and there was no ice on the bridge. https://grapevine.is/news/2018/12/27/questions-raised-about-fatal-traffic-accident-in-iceland-today/
Driving in Iceland in the winter can be dangerous, as it is not possible to maintain the whole road network with such huge distances and so few settlements. Locals tend to be more familiar with the conditions and also less likely to travel in bad conditions. Tourists come for a once in a lifetime trip and forge ahead regardless of the weather. They also have behaviors that cause problems at times. Last year a few people died because a rental car made a sudden stop in icy conditions to turn in to a tourist overlook, and a bus that was behind it could not stop in time and slid off the road. Icelandic bus drivers are also under a lot of stress to take people out on tours regardless of conditions (see above), which has created problems. The road administration used to be fairly cavalier about road closings, since before the tourism boom most people on the roads were locals who tended to know what was doable. The fact remains that this is still a rugged an empty country in many places, and it makes no sense to close a road because someone in a small rental car might have trouble, when most of the locals in those areas drive large trucks with huge, studded tires and have grown up in those conditions. These days, however, they are more likely to close the roads, and the weather administration has introduced a new colored weather warning system to help tourists understand the conditions (and I believe also help cover the tourist companies when they cancel plans). The whole thing is very complicated with no real answers. To cater the whole infrastructure of the country to tourism is undesirable and has a negative impact on locals, while leaving everything unregulated endangers the uninformed, tourists, the unlucky and the reckless.

 

[Stuart Richardson]

Mea Culpa on part of that - my driver on one day didn't really want to go to the Snaeffels peninsula (but was happy to bring along the spare Americans he accrued overnight when I re-iterated that that was what I had booked him for!) saying that the road conditions weren't great - and they weren't!

I can imagine the problems of balancing the needs of locals and tourists, particularly since tourism has become a very much more significant part of the economy - and tourists do need to know their limits. Surely a 'locals only' road closure system, clearly explained at the car rental pickup, and an insistence that all rental cars have appropriate tires/studs/chains would help? In the meantime a sticky thread here with recommended drivers might be useful?

It is tricky. Most rental cars have studded tires in the winter, and the companies often issue warnings, but more often than not, people just ignore them or think they are ok, and only later find out they are not. For example, this summer an American couple on a honeymoon was driving in the highlands in an "SUV". Their SUV was a Hyundai 4x4 that is really a 4x4 in traction alone, more than in ground clearance or off-road ability. They tried to cross one of the major glacial rivers after a rainstorm, their car floundered, and while the man managed to reach safety, his partner slipped and fell in the very fast, cold water. She was washed away and drowned. Is this the rental company's fault? Most of their cars have big stickers on the dash that say not to drive them into the highlands, but this is difficult, as some of the highland roads are easily passable, others are easily passable on some days and dangerous the next. Their car would have be adequate for many of those roads, but certainly not for crossing a major river, particularly after rain. I find it hard to fault anyone, though I think most of the issues develop from people coming in to a deceptively wild country with little if any preparation or understanding as to how dangerous things can be. Iceland is not a litigious society, so the proliferation of health and safety warnings are far far lower than in the US, and presumably much of Europe. Don't get me wrong, this is still the safest country in the world (really...look it up), but while no one is going to attack you or shoot you, nature here demands a very healthy respect. Plan well, do your research, stay on top of conditions and don't push your luck. That is the best advice I can give.
road.is
vedur.is
safetravel.is
Those sites should help...

 

[4*Paul]

Back from Iceland now and certainly appreciated all the advice given in answer to my original question.
We experienced clear nights with minus 15°C and fantastic aurora, days of continuous snow and periods of high wind and snow drifts. Brilliant but demanding for photography.
Whilst I used the weather sealed Nikon D850 for the majority of the time, I was so glad that I had taken along the Alpa + IQ3 100. The people who said that I should go with the camera I was most comfortable with (and liked using) were spot on and it was such a pleasure to put it on the tripod and slow things down. Which resulted in a few images that will make some rather nice large prints. Just what I wanted!
So thanks again to everyone who pointed me in the right direction and I’ve posted one of my favourites on Technical Camera Images, if anyone is interested.

Paul

 

[drunkenspyder]

Back from Iceland now and certainly appreciated all the advice given in answer to my original question.
We experienced clear nights with minus 15°C and fantastic aurora, days of continuous snow and periods of high wind and snow drifts. Brilliant but demanding for photography.
Whilst I used the weather sealed Nikon D850 for the majority of the time, I was so glad that I had taken along the Alpa + IQ3 100. The people who said that I should go with the camera I was most comfortable with (and liked using) were spot on and it was such a pleasure to put it on the tripod and slow things down. Which resulted in a few images that will make some rather nice large prints. Just what I wanted!
So thanks again to everyone who pointed me in the right direction and I’ve posted one of my favourites on Technical Camera Images, if anyone is interested.

Paul

Thanks for the report Paul, and for the image over in the TCI forum. I am headed there this December, and face this same exact question. For mobility, I think I am going to take the Z7 and two lenses, including the pre-ordered 14-30. But for love, I plan to take the Cambo and probably two Rodie lenses, with the IQ4.150. Still a reasonably compact kit, and all can use the same filters.

 

[vieri]

As Stuart perfectly said, Iceland is amazing but it is still a very wild country with huge distances, little human presence and a country where nature and the weather must be respected.

I run Workshops in Iceland twice a year (March & early December), and while I am extremely cautious (safety always comes first on my trips!) I have seen my share of reckless driving, unexperienced driving, reckless behaviour on beaches way too close to the ocean for comfort, reckless behaviour on cliffs with high speed wind, and so on. Unfortunately, with such a high influx of tourists and tours, many of which are run by "instructors" that have never been there before, and with such careless behaviour (to say the least) accidents are bound to happen.

This, by the way, is true for so many of the "popular" destinations: being popular, unfortunately, doesn't take the danger away from any destination!

My suggestion is to book on a reputable tour, or - if you plan to go alone - to never exceed your limits and never do things you aren't comfortable with and haven't had a good practice for (4x4 snow driving is one of those, climbing on icy cliffs edges another, and so on!) and, most important of all, prepare - prepare - prepare.

Hope this helps, best regards

Vieri