Skiing in Jan...take the SLR or not?

[Hard-Drive]

Trying to decide whether to bother taking my DSLR skiing. It would certainly allow me to get some better shots on the slopes compared to a compact, but I guess it will be a total faff, prone to damage, and I'd need to invest in some serious protection for it, and probably leave my camelbak behind. Do people bother taking one?

[bad_roo]

If you've got the space, take it but take a compact as well. Earmark one nice day for 'proper' photography having noted a few locations beforehand and then take the time to do a couple of setup shots.

[dcw@pr]

it's doable - i once had to photograph a ski lesson with an ex-olympic skier and keep up with my full camera bag. Once you get used to having something heavy on your back it isn't difficult, and I am by no means a great skier

[toastboy]

I guess it depends partially on how good a skier you are. If you're falling over every 5 minutes I wouldn't bother but if you can take it easy and stay on your feet then you should be fine. Not much different to skiing with a backpack full of bottles of beer.

I would certainly recommend getting a circular polarising filter as this can make a huge difference to the blue skies.

[rustyspit]

Whether you need special protection for it probably depends a bit on how confident you are on skis - I tend to just take mine in a backpack, wrapped in a spare fleece, but it is a bit of a faff getting the camera out and taking off gloves etc..

Saying that, I've been pleased I took it with me in the past.



I'd shoot in raw if possible - you'll need to add a bit of exposure compensation to allow for the snow, but it's easy to add too much and blow out the highlights in a jpeg (as above).

[RobDickinson]

I take mine (snowboarding), I'm fairly competent boarder and always 'go easy' when I have it with me anyhow, no super sketchy double black runs either.

Depends if you have to have it with you all day or if you can loose it for most of the day somewhere. I've always got a vehicle to put it in.

[JD]

I did it last year no problems, took it with me everyday

I specifically bought a bag that clipped onto my front (onto my bladder backpack) so even if you fall over, it stays pretty protected, and it is literally 10 seconds and you can have it out and ready to snap (had the safety strap tied to the inside of my bag, so if dropped on a chair lift for example, it wouldn't hit the ground)

made sure the lens had a filter on the whole time (which I understand the L has to, to qualify as weatherproof?) , and i didn't have a single problem! and got lots of really high quality action snaps that my compact could only dream of!

Edited by JD on Wednesday 29th October 00:37

[Hard-Drive]

OK great advice, thanks for that. I'm reasonably competent...last year was my first "proper" ski holiday but it went very well and I'd even done part of a black by the end of the week. Although I guess it will take me a few days to get back into it so it might be better if I leave it behind for the first few days!

I don't really want to take two lenses out with me (bulk, and changing them in that environment), so I guess the 18-55 is going to be the better option...

I think you guys have convinced me...I'll take it with me, see how good my skiing is, and perhaps take it up if the weather is decent. I'm going to Zermatt so there might be some good shots of the Matterhorn to be had!

Thanks again!

[option click]

bad_roo said:

If you've got the space, take it but take a compact as well. Earmark one nice day for 'proper' photography having noted a few locations beforehand and then take the time to do a couple of setup shots.

Agreed - scope out a few locations first.
Last time I went I did a photo day and carried my SLR and lenses, tripod and pano head with me!

[JD]

Hard-Drive said:

OK great advice, thanks for that. I'm reasonably competent...last year was my first "proper" ski holiday but it went very well and I'd even done part of a black by the end of the week. Although I guess it will take me a few days to get back into it so it might be better if I leave it behind for the first few days!

I don't really want to take two lenses out with me (bulk, and changing them in that environment), so I guess the 18-55 is going to be the better option...

I think you guys have convinced me...I'll take it with me, see how good my skiing is, and perhaps take it up if the weather is decent. I'm going to Zermatt so there might be some good shots of the Matterhorn to be had!

Thanks again!

yea, leaving at the chalet for the first day sounds like a good idea, the bag i bought was also only a smaller bag, so it was just a single lens, but the 24-105 i took did everything i needed

what i should of actually mentioned, as the main point, that the bag on my chest, made absolutely no difference to my skiing, which is the main reason for being there!

[chrisga]

Bloody hell, I thought for a second from the title of the thread you were taking your one of these in a clarkson/May race stylee thing....

[arej]

Hard-Drive said:

I think you guys have convinced me...I'll take it with me, see how good my skiing is, and perhaps take it up if the weather is decent. I'm going to Zermatt so there might be some good shots of the Matterhorn to be had!

Thanks again!

Zermatt is great but when we went last year in December it was -26C on the Matterhorn so take plenty of warm clothes, we were sitting in the restaurant on the piste after an hour of skiing nearly crying from the pain of the blood starting to circulate in our limbs again!

Interesting thread, I'm off skiing in December and was wondering about the SLR as well.

[bad_roo]

From some places in the ski area, the Matterhorn looks disappointingly bland too. It looks fantastic from the resort and you'll be able to get some cracking dusk shots looking through the village with the mountain as a backdrop. Move around to the Klein Matterhorn and you lose the shape somewhat.

If you can arrange it, get someone to take you for the hike up onto the West Summit of Breithorn. It's not at all technical (a couple of hours hiking) and you'll get some mind-blowing views over the glaciers and out towards the Monte Rosa chain. Plus you'll be able to sound like a real mountaineer when you tell people back home you've been atop one of the Alps' 4000m peaks!

This shot shows the ascent from Klein Matterhorn


Here's the view from the summit ridge, with the trickier E summit in the foreground and Castor and Pollux beyond.

Edited by bad_roo on Thursday 30th October 19:25