Holiday dilemma

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Not sure if this is the correct forum but as it's about equipment, I guess it is.

We are going on a two week cruise in September.
I'm planning on taking my Canon 450D, 18-55mm kit lens and Tamron 70-300mm lens.
Because I find the Tamron a pain to use without my tripod (me and camera shake = pain without IS lens).
My concern is that our party will get fed up with me setting up the tripod to use the Tamron lens when it comes to shots of places like Pizza.
My cashflow is a bit tight due to other financial comittments at the mo so a replacement Canon IS lens for the Tamron is more or less out of the question.
I've seen a Manfrotto MN679B Monopod & MN234RC Monopod Tilt Head for about £54.
I can stretch to this so do you think it would be fine for the holiday?
 
what is the weather going to be out there.
Unless you shake violently the shutter speeds should go up and anything over 1/500s even stopped down to f/8 on the tamron should be shake free.

edit: take your camera and lens into a shop and see if the monopod is comfy to use. also allowys you to put weight on the monopod so you can see if it's good enought to support the camera, also check if it can take the bulk of your weight as it doubles up nicely as walking stick in difficukt situations.
 
You might be better off with something like the Pod (have a look at 7day's site for it...) rather than a monopod. If you DO decide on a monopod, it just so happens that the setup you're considering is what I use, although I use it for motorsport rather than general travel/longish tele work (I have a 70-300VR but even that gets heavy after a few hours!).
 
same problem here, cruise in dec and limited kit for the 450d.
i have decided to not take my kit :'( and use the bridge instead.
reason being i dont want to lug a bag around and also as i shoot raw i would need a shed full of memory

i hand hold my tamron and as long as i use it between 80-250 it is not so soft and with AV mode i eliminate most of the shake
 
I don't why but I find the Tamron a bit heavy and a real pain to avoid camera shake with it.

animal168, I find the Lowpro bag quite comfortable so I'm happy to take my kit with me.
We are taking a laptop with us so I will dump the pics onto it on a daily basis.

I'm also thinking about buying a Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS but I understand the current UK stock on these is like rocking horse s***.
I'm reregretting buying the Tamron as I probably got sucked into the deal by the price when I bought my 450D.
Thanks for the advice guys, it certainly gives me food for thought.
 
Have you had a play with the Sigma 18-200mm OS (with stabilisation)? It's a pretty good travel lens and decent quality too...
 
I'm also going cruising in September, but mum won't let me bring too much gear :(

Unless you're doing low light shots, I don't think I tripod or monopod is necessary, turn the ISO up :)
 
Turn the ISO up a bit on not so good days.

The Sigam 18-200 is another option as well, not too expensive. Not the range of the 300mm Tamron, but you're not likely to use that on a cruise unless you are spying on neighbouring ships ;)
 
I gave up using a monopod years ago - even carting two bodies around, one with 500 f4 and one with 300 f2.8 on - keep it off the pod and let it swing free. You will get better pictures. The monopod restricts your movement - use your tripod and make them wait when you need to!
 
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