Choosing the Right Travel Camera

Are you a shutterbug?

*Carlsbad, CA Sony RX10 IV Edited in Luminar IV*

Last year, I wrote a three-part series on basic travel photography. One of my posts focused on a question that I get a lot. "Do I need a camera?" My conclusion is that most people today do not need a camera to capture images while they travel. Modern smartphones can capture remarkable photos at sufficient resolution to effectively share electronically or even print. As I returned from my trip to Yellowstone National Park earlier this week and reviewed my photos, I was again not surprised to find out that some of my favorites were taken with my iPhone (and this is coming from a pretty experienced photographer that knows how to get the most out of a dedicated camera). As I mentioned in my previous blog, these phones are applying a new capability commonly referred to as computational photography. The processing algorithms in the phones determine what your subject is and typically give you a pleasing result. They make blue skies bluer and make your model's skin smoother. It’s not uncommon for people that are accustomed to photography on modern smartphones to be disappointed when they see their first photos from their new $2000 camera. The key point is this: If you are willing to put in the editing work on your computer when you get home, your $2000 camera will usually give you the best result. But you need to be willing to do that editing when you get home. (To see my very basic explanation of post-processing, click here.)

So, if buying a dedicated camera doesn’t feel worth it to you, then you are in the good company of millions of other travelers that get great shots with their smartphones. And no need to tell the camera industry. They are feeling a lot of pain, with some important manufacturers like Olympus getting out of the industry completely. All this being said though, there are still some stubborn hangers-on (your humble author among them) that just can’t give up their cameras, can’t imagine not looking through a viewfinder, hearing the click of a mechanical shutter, or the subtle friction of an aperture ring. If that’s you.. Or if you think it might be you…. Then you’re a shutterbug and you’ll probably want to travel with an actual dedicated camera. The single most frequent question I get is, “What camera should I buy?”. So today, I want to spend some time responding to that question.

Let me start by saying that cameras are mainly mirrorless now. For a quick review of what that means, watch this short video. The most salient difference between mirrorless cameras and the more traditional dSLR cameras is that you now compose your photos through an electronic viewfinder, rather than the traditional optical viewfinder that employs a mirror to see through the cameras lens. While opinions differ, I prefer the new electronic viewfinders (EVFs) because the EVF can provide me a rendering of what my photo will look like after I press the shutter button. All of the cameras I discuss below will be modern, mirrorless cameras. Another key concept is the difference between fixed-lens and interchangeable-lens (ILC) cameras. As you can probably surmise, a fixed lens camera has a lens (either zoom or prime) permanently attached to the camera body. An interchangeable lens camera gives you the flexibility to change lenses based on your needs in any given photographic situation. While the flexibility is nice, carrying around a lot of lenses while you travel can be a hassle. I’ll discuss examples of both ILC and fixed-type below. Finally, before we get started, I think it’s important to note that cameras are expensive. You can buy a cheap camera. But in that case, you might be better off using your smartphone. My recommendations below start at just over $1000. On the other hand, I am not going to recommend any really expensive cameras. You could easily spend $7000 for a camera body alone, but these are typically specialty tools that offer little advantage to the traveler (or to any general hobbyist photographer for that matter).

So here we go. I’m going to make some specific recommendations based on what I think will make sense to certain sets of people. You may fall into one of these sets, or you may span two or more.

NOTE: Please be aware that I have no affiliation with any of the brands I am recommending. Neither do I have any affiliation with B&H, even though I will offer links to the gear I discuss. (If you are interested, I usually buy my gear from at Camera Mall in Anne Arbor, MI. They are awesome. Again, I have no affiliation with them.) I occasionally rent equipment as well form the highly competent team at LensRentals.com. The information below is based on my experiences and personal opinion. I make some assumptions about the intentions of certain camera manufactures but they are not based on any non-public information that I possess.

Set 1: “I am traveling, so size is the most important thing to me.”

Before I get started with this recommendation, I’ll try to convince him or her to get a good smartphone. But maybe they tell me that they prefer a dedicated camera and want higher resolution files that they can enhance (edit) on their computer when they return from their trip. They also tell me that smartphones don’t have very large zoom lenses (they're right) and that they may want to take some photos of distant subjects. 90% of the time, I’m going to point them towards a Sony RX100 vii. (Yes, Sony has made seven versions of this thing, and version vi is just about as good if you can find one.)

I love this little guy. It’s as small as a deck of cards but sports a 200mm zoom lens, and a pop-up EVF. Let’s talk about that EVF. When you take a photo with a smartphone, you do so by composing the image on the phone’s screen. That works fine in many situations but try doing that on the beach in Greece on a sunny Mediterranean morning. You just can’t see the screen, and that’s one of the reasons that dedicated cameras make sense to a lot of people. This RX100 is a truly pocketable camera that utilizes Sony’s impressive ½ inch sensor to capture a remarkable amount of resolution and dynamic range in an image file.

*Sundance, Utah RX100vii Edited in Luminar*

Keep in mind though that these smaller sensors are going to create challenges if you are doing a lot of shooting in low light. Without getting too technical, these small cameras can’t handle big increases in sensitivity (ability to absorb/record light), without some associated digital noise (graininess). (If you want to learn more, click here.) Don’t worry too much about noise though. First of all, you’ll probably be taking most of your photos in broad daylight. Furthermore, modern post-processing software does a reasonable job of diminishing noise related artifacts. I’ll discuss this in more detail below. BOTTOM LINE: This is a premium and truly compact device that will get you very flexible (editable) image files at a variety of focal lengths. (24mm-200mm equivalent. That’s an awesome range for general travel.)

Set 2: “I’m traveling, so I don’t want to carry around a lot of lenses. However, I don’t need a pocketable camera. I’m willing to keep it hanging on a strap, and I want the greatest flexibility I can get in a fixed-lens camera.”

NOTE: I’m going to recommend another Sony to here. I’m going to talk a lot about Sony in this post. Why? Because Sony was one of the first manufacturers “out the door” with advanced mirrorless cameras. Although other manufacturers are catching up, Sony still maintains a lead in many aspects that provide value to photography enthusiasts. Again, they are not the only option. Canon and Nikon are examples of brands that offer tremendous quality and (in my opinion) will soon catch up with Sony in mirrorless value/feature comparisons.

This traveler needs to take a look at the Sony RX10 iv. Again, this is the latest camera in the RX10 series, and the version iii is excellent as well if you can find one. This camera is an engineering marvel. It uses the same sensor as the RX100 iv, so you get essentially the same image quality. But the trick up the sleeve here is the lens. The lens reaches an equivalent of 600mm. Because its only using the ½ inch sensor, Sony can pack this reach into such a relatively compact package. Here's the RX10:

Now, here’s what a normal 600mm Lens looks like. In fact, a typical 600mm prime lens is even larger. The photo below is a very compact 600mm example.

Again, you have to realize that the RX10 is designed to be used in good light, but the possibilities are endless with such an incredible zoom lens. I think this would be an excellent light camera to take on a Safari, or perhaps a trip to Hawaii where you might have the opportunity to photograph surfers. I also appreciate the ability to zoom into subjects that are close to me, such as a flower, or the hands of a street musician as they interact with a guitar string. BOTTOM LINE: As the big brother to the RX100, the only things that will limit you while using this camera are low light and your own imagination. (Oh, did I mention that Sony has perhaps the best mirrorless auto-focusing chops in the industry? Both of the above cameras will keep up with the bulls at San Fermin.)

Set 3: “When I travel, photography is sometimes my main priority. I like the idea of always having the right tool, and don’t mind carrying extra lenses around with me.”

Now we enter the world of interchangeable-lens cameras. I’m not going to get too deeply into lenses in this post. (Look for a future post that “focuses” on lenses.) It is important to understand, however, that a digital camera body is fundamentally just a “sensor + processor” with additional features that vary by model. So, what I’m telling you is that it’s really just a computer. Cameras come and go. Glass (lenses) on the other hand can be investments for a lifetime. The upshot of all this is that lenses are typically more important than the camera body. So, the right body for you may be a function of the lenses available for that body and how they support your photography needs.

Beyond the question of the right lenses, now would be a good time to discuss sensor size in more detail. The illustration below reflects the size differences among traditional sensors, starting with small mobile phone camera sensors and increasing in size to the 35mm full-frame sensors so popular in today’s photography gear market.

So, what sensor size (and thus which camera body) is right for you? Larger sensors can give you an edge. The two most important advantages are low-light performance and depth of field. As I discussed above, small sensors collect less light. Therefore, they typically require a higher sensitivity (ISO), and this can result in digital noise (graininess). This can be corrected during the editing process, but the correction can result in lack of detail (smudging). Computational photography (especially in modern smartphones) is beginning to mitigate this problem in remarkable ways, but the bottom line remains. Low light photography is best attacked with a larger sensor. Incidentally, low light can mean a variety of things. It could be the inside of a cathedral. It could mean street photography in the early evening. It could mean a photo of your paella in a dimly lit restaurant. Only you know how much low light photography you want to do. (I personally don’t do a lot.)

Another advantage of larger sensors is what we refer to as depth of field (DOF). Larger sensors provide narrower DOF. What does this mean to you? It means that subjects can appear more isolated from their backgrounds. Many modern smartphones have a feature called "portrait mode". This mode uses computational methods to awkwardly simulate this effect. The subject of the photo appears isolated from a blurry background. This can be critical for photographers that mainly shoot people, since it gives the photos what many people consider to be a “professional look”. Interestingly though, travel photographers seldom require narrow DOF (although it’s a handy tool to have available). Travelers typically want to have as much in focus as possible in any given shot, especially for landscapes and cityscapes. So for these situations, a smaller sensor that provides a wider DOF, can actually be an advantage.

Travelers typically choose one of three formats in regard to camera bodies: Full Frame (35mm), APS-C (Crop), or Micro Four Thirds. It appears to me that the latter is sadly losing its market position and I do not have confidence in its future. Therefore, I will focus my discussion on APS-C and Full Frame. For traveling, I prefer APS-C. The reason is very simple. The cropped sensor size allows lens designers to offer smaller, less bulky (lighter) optics. A typical APS-C travel kit can be 1/3+ lighter than a typical full frame travel kit. APS-C is giving you more low light performance and potential DOF than either of the Sony cameras recommended above, while at the same time lightening your load.

Two of my favorite APS-C cameras are the Sony a6400 and the X-S10. The a6400 is a smaller body with less external controls. Sony offers some great APS-C lenses. However, Sony seems to me to be slowly encouraging their users to migrate to full frame where the company appears to me to be putting a majority of its R&D. Remember what I said about bodies and lenses. You really need to be comfortable with a manufactures range of lenses before you purchase one of their camera bodies. My guess is that Sony will continue to actively support the APS-C lens line at least for the next few years, making their APS-C bodies a relatively safe choice. One advantage to Sony is that you can start with an APS-C camera body and use certain Sony full frame lenses effectively on that body, meaning that your investment in glass (lenses) will not go to waste if you eventually migrate to Sony's full frame system.

Fuji’s X-series of bodies and lenses, on the other hand, is completely dedicated to APS-C sensors. In this context, buyers that think they are committed to cropped sensors for the long-term can confidently invest in Fuji equipment. The X-S10 mentioned above is one of several excellent X-series cameras. Fuji offers a wide range of even lighter and smaller APS-C cameras that vary in features. Fuji APS-C lenses (like Sony’s) are excellent and will cover any possible need you may have as a travel photographer.

Set 4: “Photography is the primary purpose of my trip, and I am willing to do whatever I need to do achieve the best possible image quality.”

Based on my discussion of sensor sizes above, it should be clear that this traveler is a candidate for a full frame (35mm) system. He or she is probably going to have a heavy backpack, but it may be worth it if they possess the skills to squeeze the potential out of a high-quality large sensor. For better or worse, full frame is all the rage these days. Manufactures are dedicating a majority of their resources into this larger format with the potential to provide the best possible image quality. In some senses this is logical, because they need to keep a wide gap between the quality of their images and the quality of images coming from smartphones. Nonetheless, it tempts consumers to purchase heavier and typically more expensive lenses as they build their kits.

The tricky part of this is that full frame camera bodies themselves are often smaller than crop sensor cameras, giving the buyer the impression that they are purchasing the perfect travel rig. It’s the lenses that can bog you down though. Depending on your expectations, and how much reach you need, there are good full frame pairings for travel such as this Canon RP kit. Third party manufactures such as Tamron are also producing smaller/lighter full frame lenses. In general, though, I think you really need to have an interest in photography beyond travel if you are going to buy into a full frame system.

While there are many excellent full frame cameras on the market these days, I believe that the best general-purpose option is currently the Sony A7 iii. Its competitive price point and excellent features, make it a relative bargain. If you are purchasing it for travel, you could pair it initially with the excellent Tamron 28-200. Again, I’ll be making some specific lens recommendations in a future post.

Wrap Up:

This brings us to the conclusion. I would like to close with the reminder that there are three things that go into a great photograph:

Choosing an interesting subject. Every photo has a subject.
Composing the subject in a way that tells the viewer about your subject.
Managing the light on your subject (exposure).

You can do these things effectively on any of the cameras mentioned above (including your smart phone). So please do not believe that the quality of your images depends on you spending a lot of money.

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