Help me pick the right lens for general travel stuff + enviromental portraits

[EmilSonne]

Hi guys!

My name is Emil and I am a 20 year old guy from Denmark who is going to spend the next 1-2 years working and travelling. I will travel to Sri Lanka and the Seychelles for a month in February with my girlfriend. I would love to bring a nice camera setup to document my trip!

I am getting my hands on the Sony a7iii. From what I’ve seen on the web, it seems like a very capable camera with a very “fair” price point. But damn… what lens should i get?!?!

My prior experience might be very limited compared to many on this forum, however I will try to describe myself as a “photographer” if I am even allowed to call myself that ;)

I have previously shot a decent amount of drone footage and played around with a borrowed entry level Nikon d5200 paired with a Sigma dc 17-50mm 2.8 ex hsm lens. (Which would be equivelent to something like a 28-75 on a FF)

My current kit consists of a:

DJI Mavic Air - which I use for aerial landscapes.

GoPro Hero 6 - which I use for action watersports and other typical GoPro stuff. 

I love taking both photos and video! I think photography will take up most of my time -  at least in the beginning. I am currently editing on a Mid 2014 MacBook Pro (2,6 GHz i5, Intel Iris Graphics, 8GB)… I can only imagine how it will handle 4k and higher frame rates… 

I see myself primarily taking photos/video for my personal social media, however I occasionally do semi-professional jobs for companys or product-related projects.

I would love to provide content for my girlfriends instagram aswell. She generally post travel related content and mainly urban “environmental” fashion portraits. 

I thinking full/upper-body portraits with some nice bokeh/background seperation capabilities. I like to show the location/landscape behind the subject/model. So I do not wish to completely conceal the location.

I like to take photos in the same style, but maybe with more epic “wide” landscapes… 

So to sum it up… 

I would love to be able to take:

• Urban/environmental full-body portraits, with a nice (decent) amount of bokeh/backround seperation. 
• Wide epic landscapes (I have previously worked with stitching photos together for wide perspectives)
• And other travel/urban/street related stuff. 
• + have nice video capabilities and low light performance. 

I have found some photos, which I really like. I would be more than happy if I could get the somewhat the same look (editing aside) 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BozIkx5HPP8/ 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BnOXurPnSuu/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm8yuU_nSm3/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpCajIUF-k1/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpjh0Lslswp/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Boc2ZNVhkd6/

Credit to all the creator - check em' out!

I have considered following lenses:

Zooms:

• Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM
• Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM (or f/4)

Primes:

• Sony FE 35mm f/1.4
• Sony FE 50mm f/1.8
• Sony 85mm f/1.8 

Which ones would you go with? 

I maybe thought  24-70mm f/2.8 + 35mm f/1.4 would be a very nice setup. I just don’t know if 24mm would be wide enough… hmm..

I think the 35mm has a little more interesting FOV than the 50mm, while it might be “worse” a worse portrait lens when taking distortion into mind. Maybe pair the 35mm with a 85mm in the future and skip the “inbetweener” 50mm Any thoughts? 

Is there any budget solutions without big sacrifices? I know lenses should match the cameras potential.. but wow those GMs are expensive... what about other brands like Tamrons 28-75 f/2.8? Samyang 35mm f/1.4?

And at last - what are your experiences regarding Black Friday/ Christmas deals on cameras/lenses? Would love to know if I could save some money by waiting a little!

I would love to hear your thoughts! I hope you haven’t heard these types of questions too often (which you properly have). Anyway… sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes - I hope it makes sense!

-

Emil S.

[thefsb]

In your position, for those journeys and adventures, I would choose RX100M6.

[sixzeiss]

The RX100M6, as mentioned, and a Zeiss Loxia 25 mm for your A7.

Trust me, you don't go wrong with that combination.

[martti_s]

I really cannot tell from practical experience but I ordered the Tamron 28-70 mm after having read all the reviews and counted my money. I'll keep you posted when it arrives.