Gear (& locations) for first time Prague and Iceland trip

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Sorry for the wall of text to follow.

This will be my first time visiting Prague (4.5 days) and then Iceland (3.5 days). From 23 November - 1 December.

Prague has never been on my I-have-to-go-there list, but the trip materialized unexpectedly. I photograph rural/wild landscapes 98% of the time with the other 2% being cityscapes/architecture; the majority of my prints are black and white. 0% street photography. I am not in charge of the Prague portion of the trip, but will be with some of my partner’s family, which includes two children (ages 8 & 10) and she wants me to take photos of their family. I will be taking some architectural shots and would like to try my hand at some street photography. Gear that I am definitely taking for Prague (if it matters, I have CPL and ND filters for all lenses):

  • Olympus PEN Lite (EPL-5) M43
  • M.Zuiko 17mm F/1.8 prime
    Additional lenses I could add:
  • Rokinon 12mm F/2 prime, manual focus - heaviest lens
  • Lumix 25mm F/1.7 prime
  • M.Zuiko 14-42mm F/3.5-5.6 - leaning toward this lens to take
  • M.Zuiko 40-150mm F/4-5.6 - not my favorite M43 lens
    Location suggestions may be helpful for Prague, but as I said, I’m not in charge of the itinerary.

Iceland has been on my bucket list for a very long time. All I can manage for this trip is 3.5 days. I hope to get back for a longer stay but nothing is guaranteed, so I’m treating this as if it will be my only visit. I could, in theory, use the Oly in Iceland, but I simply have to take the Fuji. Gear that I am definitely taking for Iceland (I have CPL and ND filters for all lenses and all lenses are weather resistant):

  • Fujifilm GFX 100S
  • GF 20-35mm F4
  • travel tripod
    2 other lenses to choose from:
  • GF 35-70mm F/4.5-5.6 - probably wouldn’t take
  • GF 100-200mm F/5.6 - do I need to take this too?

I would love some type of itinerary suggestions for Iceland. Here is some additional info that may/may not help:

  • My partner has always wanted to go to Iceland too and she is very supportive of my photography and willing to go with me on shoots, so that won’t be a limiting factor.
  • I have a bad knee that I wear a large brace for and after hobbling around Prague for 4 days, I will be in no shape for long/arduous/steep treks.
  • I hate crowds and competing for shot locations. There are iconic locations in Iceland, and if I can avoid them, but still get photos of amazing places, that’s ideal for me.
  • However, if there are one or two must visit locations because there is no other place like it but crowded, I guess I can do that.

Thank you for any help you can offer.

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For Iceland, do you have a car? 3.5 days include the airport days (so 1.5days)? If you have a car, get full insurance. Wind or other car traffic can pick up rocks that cause damage very easy.

The go to spot for that duration would be Vik. If you can stay at Vik, it would be ideal. Since you are doing in late fall, sunlight will be an issue for photography. Skogafoss (foss = waterfall) is 1min walk from the parking lot. Consider good hiking shoes because of slippery surfaces.

I did not love staying in Reykjavik. Its ok. but it is just another city. Let me know if you want to know something else.

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Thanks for the reply. We arrive in Keflavik 28 Nov, 13:30. Depart Keflavik 1 Dec, 16:45. So probably 2.5 - 3 days depending on how much we get to see on the two flying days. All three nights are booked in Keflavik, but the nights of the 28th and 29th can easily be booked elsewhere. The car, with insurance, is already booked. Cities are not our thing, so no need to go to to Reykjavik. We both have waterproof hiking boots. (We have both spent a lot of time backpacking, skiing, snowshoeing, etc., just with my current knee issue, I’m a bit hobbled), so we have plenty of hiking gear—anything else wise to bring along those lines?

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There is not much to do in Keflavik other than the airport. You will waste a lot of time driving if you stay there.

I recommend to find a hotel near Vik (3hr drive from airport) and just go straight there from the airport. That way you are ready to explore the next day and can reach a lot of good spots using Vik as your center point. Do stay at Keflavik the night before your flight. They can close roads due to weather.

More tips:

  • they have speed cams everywhere. Don’t speed and don’t drive off road or in a road your car is not approved to.
  • stop at one of the local supermarkets for snacks for the road. Food is expensive (they can’t grow much).
  • I don’t recall using cash there. Pretty much everything is tap to pay, so have a card that can do that (most now do).
  • a bag pack that can keep your gear dry is a most. Have extra dry towels to clean/dry your lens. The spray from the waterfalls will get everything wet.
  • gullfoss is a nice place, but too touristic for my taste. In the summer it is full of tour buses from the cruise ships.
  • your partner will like the blue lagoon. Take her if it is open (there was a volcano close by with lava thru the parking lot).
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Prague is really lovely and has some very cool buildings. I’d probably stick with the wider lens on the Oly, its an old city, things are tight. If you can manage, try and get up higher, looking over the city is really nice.

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I suspect there might be a flake or two of snow around at that time of year :rofl:

To put it another way, don’t drive off-road, because the likelihood is that you will end up in a snow drift. Getting pulled out is not cheap.

Also, it will be cold, which isn’t going to be good for batteries. Try and keep these in a warm place.

It is less crowded in winter, and (to my mind) more spectacular, since the waterfall will likely be frozen.

The Blue Lagoon is open in winter (or was when we were there). There were one or two things of interest photographically too.

Haukadalur is worth a visit for the geysers.

It would also be worthwhile looking for a Northern Lights tour, much easier than finding somewhere yourself. Take a tripod, since you will need a long exposure to get good intensity of the lights.

Pay attention to the weather forecasts, it is too easy to get caught in a blizzard.

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Both are great places to visit, though I would usually budget 2–3 weeks for Iceland. Maybe some other time :smile:

I think that taking two cameras is overkill. Both are very capable, and should be totally sufficient for what you are planning, I would just pick one of them. But keep in mind that my personal preference is always for travelling light, and you may be different.

In Prague, it seems like you are planning “family moments” shots, in which you want to show everyone but they will not be in the same focal plane. In these kind of situations I would go for the 17mm Olympus, set it to f/5.6, and focus around 2.5m so everything between 1.5m–15m will be sharp. You can of course adjust everything accordingly if you take a different lens.

It looks like you will be shown parts of Prague, so you don’t need to plan. For architectural shots, you usually need very wide angle as most of the city is rather cramped in the usual Central European style and there are very few places you can back up for a shot. Personally I would go for “small details” compositions, for which, again, the 17mm is perfect. Golden hour panoramas of the city from Petrin Hill can be nice for which you would need something wider. But all in all I agree with

and would perhaps only take this lens, not the 17mm. It is unlikely that you will be needing the f/1.8.

As for Iceland, the short duration, large distances (and strictly enforced speed limits) will limit you to places close to the airport. I would consider the Golden Circle at a slow pace. But keep in mind that there will be tourists aplenty, even at the end of November, and the “top 10” scenic spots will be full of people setting up tripods, each of them wishing they had the island for themselves. Perhaps the most obnoxious tourists will be kept away by the cold though. You can take it slowly and stop in random places and try to get a good shot, Iceland is full of scenic opportunities. But your knee problem may be limiting since you usually have to walk a bit from the road.

If you insist taking the GFX, I would just take the 20-35mm f/4 and a tripod. This will give you wide angle landscape shots, where it shines.

It is very likely that you will catch some northern lights in Iceland, but since you are taking a mini tripod and a CPL you will be all set.

Pack some fingerless gloves or whatever that allows you to operate cameras in the cold, extra batteries, and clothing which allows to keep the latter on your body so they remain warm. Temperatures will be around 2±3°C but the rain and the damp can be trying.

Make sure you have appropriate clothing for this kind of weather. The best combination I found is two simple fleece jackets, one heavy and one medium thickness, which are breathable, and a rain poncho when it rains, which is always in the backpack. You can change lenses etc under that. Buying clothing in Iceland is rather expensive, so finding out that you were underprepared can be costly.

Have fun, both are great places and you will get excellent photos out of them. I spent weeks in Iceland with a 1" sensor Panasonic compact and came back with great photos.

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You seem to be getting some good advice.

I would add one more, if you are taking pictures in snow then one or two stops of positive exposure compensation, otherwise you will probably end up with grey looking snow.

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Great tips, so far, thanks!

I have a heavy foot and got a speed cam speeding ticket in southern England a few years ago, which was a bit pricey. @g-man & @epeeist I have no idea how well the roads are/aren’t plowed/sanded: is it worth it to upgrade my 2WD sedan to AWD/4WD to navigate the roads (I don’t plan on off-road driving, but I do have 35+ years driving in snowy/icy conditions with both 2WD & 4WD vehicles)?

The dry bag, extra towels, keeping batteries warm and fingerless gloves are all excellent cold and wet weather suggestions! I spent decades fly fishing northern Utah’s mountains during the sub-freezing winters, so it will be like old times. :grin:

This is the kind of information I need, thanks! I dislike rigid itineraries (my mother plans trips minute-by-minute, which drives me crazy. We do prefer to take things slowly and just stop at random places that catch our fancy—are there frequent spots to pull off to the side of the road without being in the way of traffic to do this?

We love road trips, and deciding spur of the moment to hop in the car and drive 400+ miles before arriving back home that same evening is not unusual for us. I mention that because I am looking at two possible areas:

  1. Golden Circle as @Tamas_Papp mentioned, and
  2. South Coast/Vik as @g-man mentioned (maybe going as far north as Jökulsárlón Glacier).

We have two full days, and individually, each of those two areas looks easy to drive in a day. But we only have 5 hours of sunlight per day + 4 hours of twilight (how light is that twilight…will I be able to capture good blue hour and golden hour shots?).

Option A:
Day 1: arrive in Keflavík and drive to Kirkjubæjarklaustu (Google maps claims it a 4 hour drive)
Day 2: drive to Jökulsárlón then work our way to Selfoss seeing the sights along the way (sleep in Selfoss)
Day 3: the golden circle then to KeflavĂ­k for the night
Day 4: see thingsnear KeflavĂ­k? then fly out

Is that realistic given the driving distances (again, that seems totally doable on our part as far as just the driving goes, but will we be able to see and enjoy enough during the short daylight hours)?

Option B:
Day 1: travel to the spot that will be at for days 2&3
Day 2: either Golden Circle or South Coast
Day 3: continue the rest of Day 2’s location and return to Keflavík
Day 4: see thingsnear KeflavĂ­k? then fly out

Option C:
something better than Option A or B…tell me what that is.

@paperdigits and @Tamas_Papp Thank you for the suggestions on lenses. I believe I will have room for both the Oly and Fuji. The Oly takes such little space, and the lenses are small and light, I can easily take the 17mm and the 14-42mm. I love the GF 20-35mm, so will definitely take that. I guess my biggest question revolves around how close will we be to the things I photograph? Will there be a need for a lens that gets me closer than what I can zoom in to in post with the 20-35mm?

Even though I’ve taken thousands of shots in the snow, this is something I rarely think of while in the snow.

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I wouldn’t say so, we saw a number of cars come to grief, mostly due to them assuming that they could pull off the road to park and then disappearing into a ditch full of snow. It didn’t seem to matter whether it was a sedan or an SUV.

The Icelandic equivalent would be paying being pulled out of the ditch, having got into it in the first place.

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I prefer the Vik area than the golden circle. Better views, better waterfalls.

Jökulsárlón Glacier is awesome. But the drive there is long. It is a single lane road without even a shoulder to stop to fix a flat tire. There are signs telling you there are no bathrooms or gas stations for miles. In the winter the road has metal gates and they will just shut down the road if conditions are not right. You will be stuck until they reopen it. There is no other road. I’m saying all this to highlight that I think it is too risky with the short duration you have.

I recommend option B. You will love Ireland and the next trip just plan for 10days and do the whole ring road. 2WD drive is fine in my opinion if you have snow experience. FYI, never go off road. I read the fines being in thousands.

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The shoulder may not be wide enough on roads to just stop, but usually there are side roads or dirt tracks where you can stop, if that is not the case signs will tell you about it (in some areas you just cannot stop for a while). But stopping randomly in itself may not be an opportunity for photos, usually you have to take a side road somewhere, so you need some planning. Check out Google Maps, especially the Street View to get an idea, mostly it is green fields and even Road 1 on the south does not run very near the sea.

I think so; though I was there in September. But it depends on where you are, in the mountains you get effective dark earlier.

Regarding various options A/B/C: you can see street views and photos of people on Google Maps and decide what you prefer. Personally, I got bored with waterfalls very quickly, after the first five or so, and found it very hard to take good photos of them.

Expect mostly landscapes. Cities/villages are tidy but not that interesting visually, and most wildlife would require careful planning and preparation to capture on camera. You may see cute Icelandic horses, and of course sheep, but frankly, I would just plan for landscapes.

Whether you need to zoom in for landscapes depends on your style. Sometimes isolating a feature conveys a good story, personally I like 50–90mm ff equivalent for landscapes a lot. The M43 14–42mm should serve you well enough I think.

Then keep the 2WD, paved roads in Iceland are in excellent condition. (And, frankly, I would be afraid to leave the paved roads in winter without an experienced local guide.)

I have the same attitude, but you still need to gather information so that you are prepared to improvise. You cannot just drive around and expect to find interesting places, your time there will be too short.

Reviewing my photos, I liked these things the most: fumes and geysers coming from the ground, chemical discolorations in areas where the ground is hot, glaciers, northern lights, panoramas of green fields and mountains.

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@epeeist @Tamas_Papp @g-man - this has been extremely helpful! It looks like we might stay at Selfoss for two nights and based on weather/road conditions plan our routes from there - toward Vik or the Golden Circle. @Tamas_Papp Looking at street view in Google Maps is really helpful to suss out the shoulder widths along the roads and where turnouts and views are.

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With the GFX and also X Fujis, you don’t need to worry about this, the camera is ISO invariant, just shoot at will and fix it in post.

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When you come back, please consider posting some screen-resolution photos without metadata so users can guess which one was taken with the GFX and which one with the PEN Lite.

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