I'll be going to Antarctica this coming December and would appreciate advise concerning transparancy film choices for the light conditions I'm likely to encounter. I'll be using am M6 with TriElmar and 90mm APO Summicron. Also, I'll have a Nikon F3HP with a 50mm and 80-200mm zoom lens. Thanks ...

-- George L. Doolittle (geodoolitt@aol.com), May 10, 2002

Answers

December is of course summer in Antarctica. Very bright snowlit scenes would indicate slow to medium film mainly. Here are some links for you based in Christchurch, New Zealand: gateway@anta.canterbury.ac.nz, info@antarctic-link-org.nz, and International Antarctic Centre at www.iceberg.co.nz, info@iceberg.co.nz . All these should be able to give more specific advice. A contributor to Practical Photography wrote she took 204 rolls of film in her hand luggage (mainly ISPO 50 and 100). "I packed the films in double plastic bags and then in a shoulder bag. I didn't want the fuss of hand searching and my films were all fine, despite going through the X-ray machins eight times."

-- David Killick (dalex@inet.net.nz), May 10, 2002.

Galen Rowell's book--Poles Apart: Parallel Visions of the Artic and Antacrtic--offers a wealth of information about photography, equipment, films, and the actual working practices of this well-respected nature photographer.

-- Jim Lennon (jim@jmlennon.com), May 10, 2002.

The big question is: are you going to take *and use* a tripod? If not, bring plenty of Provia 400F. This is not street photography, it's landscape photography, and you will want to stop down for DOF necessitating slower shutter speeds. Especially with the 90 and 80- 200 and especially with the slap-clap mirror in the F3, you'll have trouble avoiding camera blur handholding.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), May 11, 2002.

Another thing: Antartica is a wildlife destination, mightn't you want something longer than 200mm?

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), May 11, 2002.

Better still, take a monopod with a snow-spike attatchment. You'll need it mainly to be able to hold the camera steady in the (at times) blasting wind. Also a 'pod is light and compact and easily stored.

Suggest you look at any of the carbon-fibre pods - less chance of getting frost-bite from touching bare metal.

-- Andrew Nemeth (azn@nemeng.com), May 11, 2002.

You might want to take a small incident light meter (such as the Sekonic 308B) to back up your cameras' reflective meters. I've found that when shooting on glaciers and on snow exteriors, an incident meter more likely will give you a correct exposure setting.

-- George C. Berger (gberger@his.com), May 11, 2002.

I really appreciate all these thoughts. But, I would really like to hear from some folks who have actually been to Antarctica. Thanks.

-- George L. Doolittle (geodoolitt@aol.com), May 12, 2002.

George

Very interesting. I have thought and dreamt about going to Antarctica and I have also wondered what to take, film-wise. One of the problems you are going to have is that many of the best landscape shots will be at sea, on a ship, so a tripod is not really useful due to a moving deck - so you need fast, superb lenses and the slowest film you are happy with for the richest detail. Also of course you will not see darkness, so any fast film you take is only really for overcast or stormy days. A tripod might be useful for when you are ashore, but equally I think a monopod and table top tripod would probably do the business. I am a K64 junkie, so would always try to use that, but you might prefer Velvia as so many others do. I think either would work very nicely on the ice. Otherwise Provia F 100 or Sensia 100 would be excellent basic slide choices. If you think you might need extra speed I suggest Provia 400F which is amazing for the speed - a bit low on contrast (not a bad thing on snow and ice though), with amazingly unobtrusive grain for the speed.

Let us know what you decide and I for one would love to see the results. I know someone who works for the British Antarctic Survey and his photos are astounding - and he was not even (by his own admission) - "a real photographer". I think you will need a long lens (for picking out ice shapes and icebergs), so you should decide whether you are happy with the performance of the 80-200 at 200. I only say this because they can be disappointing. As Jay suggests you might actually want something longer too.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), May 13, 2002.