Best camera for bikepacking/rugged travel

Wozza · Jul 5, 2016

Hi all.

I haven't been around here for a while and haven't been taking pictures for a while which is getting me down. Got out of (insert relationship problems here) and am finally single again. Have been getting back into my hobbies, which were cycling and photography. Well been getting back into cycling anyway.

I'm mostly doing long distance cycling lately and want to do multi-day self supported bike packing which will give me awesome opportunities for landscape photography. The problem? My 7D is just too bulky and heavy, even if I only take a pancake lens. I want to keep my 7D, so this will be a second camera system that I don't want to sink too much money into. I don't mind paying for good gear, but my 'second' camera shouldn't be the cost of my main camera.

My 20mm seems to be my go to lens, so wide angles are a must, I can live without much zoom.
I can live with prime lenses.
I can live without interchangeable lenses if the built in lens is decent and wide.

I'd like as many of these things as possible:
Wifi or remote shutter for long shutter captures
Dust/Weather proofing and metal/robust body
Full manual controls that aren't fiddly
Good battery life
Viewfinder
Decent in low-light

Must be significantly smaller than my 7D as I plan on putting it in this style of bag with some extra padding:

Thanks to cyclefar.com for the image

A EOS M seems like an obvious choice, I really wish it had a (built in) viewfinder though - I guess I can live without weatherproofing if I keep it in a dry bag... as long as I can use it in the rain for peroids.

OMD 5mkII is the business, but hoping to spend a little less.

Open to non-interchangeable lens camera's as mentioned, but needs to shoot RAW and have good manual controls.

Looking forward to idea's - or what other people make work in these situations.

Thanks in advance.

robbins.photo · Jul 5, 2016

Couple of possibles:

Panasonic DMC-Fz300
Fuji Finepix S1

Panasonic GH3
Nikon 1 AW1

waday · Jul 5, 2016

The EOS M does seem like an obvious choice, as it's pretty light and you can use your existing lenses with the adapter.

What's your budget? Do you want a system that can utilize your existing lenses? I know you said you don't mind, but do you have a preference?

Do you mind advanced P&S as @robbins.photo suggested?

Also, what are the final uses/end products of the images? Do you want these for a website or print?

I have an "older" Canon S95 that I love taking with me on vacation and the like. Canon likely offers something similar now. It offers RAW format, manual control, and has a decent zoom. Not to mention it's about the size of my wallet. While I hate using it for action shots because the software is kind of slow, it's usually pretty good for street, landscape, general walkaround, etc. It also has options for focus stacking and exposure stacking.

I'm not sure if any of the new Canon advanced P&S have WiFi, but I'd suspect they do. Just as many of the other advanced P&S probably do.

jaomul · Jul 5, 2016

If you like the em5 mark 2, why not go for the original em5. They go for very small money (even can be got new) and the actual difference between the original and the mark 2 image quality wise is minimal

beagle100 · Jul 5, 2016

Wozza said:
Hi all.

I haven't been around here for a while and haven't been taking pictures for a while which is getting me down. Got out of (insert relationship problems here) and am finally single again. Have been getting back into my hobbies, which were cycling and photography. Well been getting back into cycling anyway.

I'm mostly doing long distance cycling lately and want to do multi-day self supported bike packing which will give me awesome opportunities for landscape photography. The problem? My 7D is just too bulky and heavy, even if I only take a pancake lens. I want to keep my 7D, so this will be a second camera system that I don't want to sink too much money into. I don't mind paying for good gear, but my 'second' camera shouldn't be the cost of my main camera.

My 20mm seems to be my go to lens, so wide angles are a must, I can live without much zoom.
I can live with prime lenses.
I can live without interchangeable lenses if the built in lens is decent and wide.

I'd like as many of these things as possible:
Wifi or remote shutter for long shutter captures
Dust/Weather proofing and metal/robust body
Full manual controls that aren't fiddly
Good battery life
Viewfinder
Decent in low-light

Must be significantly smaller than my 7D as I plan on putting it in this style of bag with some extra padding:

Thanks to cyclefar.com for the image

A EOS M seems like an obvious choice, I really wish it had a (built in) viewfinder though - I guess I can live without weatherproofing if I keep it in a dry bag... as long as I can use it in the rain for peroids.

OMD 5mkII is the business, but hoping to spend a little less.

Open to non-interchangeable lens camera's as mentioned, but needs to shoot RAW and have good manual controls.

Looking forward to idea's - or what other people make work in these situations.

Thanks in advance.

the original Canon M and 22mm f/2 pancake lens is around $250 - there is no viewfinder and it's slow focusing but I use it for hiking, bicycling & assorted travel (with the 50mm and other lens)
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless

jeffW · Jul 5, 2016

I did a short 9 day cycle tour last summer with my Canon 6d and two lenses packed nicely in a handlebar bag. But I agree, you will probably be happier with a much smaller camera. I have also biked a lot with a Sony Nex mirrorless and a couple of lenses (comparable to the Canon M in size) although in some ways mirrorless and dslr are still very similar in size and how they get packed.

While I like the idea of having a bigger sensor I might almost be inclined to only take a waterproof point n shoot like the Olympus TG-4. Being able to "quickly" access the camera and even stuff it in your back jersey at times seems to be nicest for taking pictures on tour. I thought I was going to do more serious photography and even brought a small tripod - it always seemed like I wanted to keep moving - I was camping the whole time so I wanted to find camp, pitch the tent, and eat before dark set in. Of course you might travel at a different pace.

Looking back I would of taken more pictures with a point n shoot - some of the best times for photography seemed to be when the rain forced me to take cover, that's why I would recommend looking at a waterproof option, both for taking pictures in the rain but also because of the humidity in your packs after a good soaking.

Of course only you can decide what type of camera you want to play with.

have fun

Wozza · Jul 6, 2016

Thanks to all suggestions so far, have looked at specs for all of them.

waday said:
The EOS M does seem like an obvious choice, as it's pretty light and you can use your existing lenses with the adapter.

What's your budget? Do you want a system that can utilize your existing lenses? I know you said you don't mind, but do you have a preference?

Do you mind advanced P&S as @robbins.photo suggested?

Also, what are the final uses/end products of the images? Do you want these for a website or print?

Using the same lens system is a bonus, although any lens I have apart from 50mm are too large take with me, which is a shame as I love my 20mm Sigma prime. Budget is as much as it needs to be for me to be happy I'm able to capture a scene as I want to be, but any money I save goes into my current bike build. (Surly Ogre)

I don't mind a P&S if it has manual controls, good image quality and is cheaper than a small DSLR. Weather proofing a bonus. So far I haven't seen any that tick these boxes that are cheaper than an EOS-M.

Use is web, but don't want to rule out being able to take a good sized print - I won't get to a lot of these locations very often so don't want to feel like I can't capture a scene the way I would like.

Gotta say I keep circling back to an EOS-M - I didn't realize how cheap they are, it's just a pity they aren't weather resistant and the viewfinder is optional. Gotta say, I did think it was just like an old rangefinder viewfinder, didn't realize it was digital - so should be accurate. So that is a plus.

Still open to suggestions, unless I am missing something though the EOS-M3 seems to have the least compromises in it's price range and I got to spend a lot more to tick off metal/weather sealed body and/or built in viewfinder?

Spending a little (if I can get a good 2nd hand deal) more and getting an m5 with the 14-42mm is also a good option though.

waday · Jul 6, 2016

I like @jeffW 's suggestion with the Olympus Tough camera. I think the newest version of it has RAW capability, as well. I'm a huge fan of the Tough series, as I've owned 2 in the past. The most recent one has been lost then found, dropped in a river, dropped onto rocks, fell into sand, etc. Still works like a charm. The image quality isn't the best, but that's relative. I'm okay with it except for when I have to crop certain photos. Also, I'm not sure of manual control on the newer ones, so if that's a deal breaker don't do a Tough camera. (See below for an example shot with the Tough camera.)

Outside of that, the EOS M3 looks pretty good! (I've debated that camera myself but haven't made any decisions, yet.) Most of the other cameras (like the advanced P&S ones) are either as expensive or more expensive. Just be cognizant of the added costs for the viewfinder and lens adapter.

For web, you should be fine. That said, I'm assuming you could get decent sized prints with the EOS M3, but you'd have to ask someone more knowledgeable than me!

Are you taking a tripod?

Pretty heavy crop on an older model Tough camera (click on the images to go to Flickr to view full size--I didn't want to take up too much space):

Handheld nighttime exposure bracketing/HDR on an advanced P&S (RAW format processed in LR--I think this was two shots combined):

Shot through the windshield, slight crop on an advanced P&S (RAW processed in LR):

astroNikon · Jul 6, 2016

I bought a Nikon p7800. For backpacking as it also fits into a hip pack easily. It's not for everyone as it has a small sensor but I did that because I wanted a deep depth of field for other stuff. It has a built in zoom lens ala P&S type cameras; and full manual controls.

Though as your sensor size gets smaller you shutter decrease drastically with all else being equal from larger sensor cameras. So ISO is important which it lacks great ISO flexibility. But I can also pop on the hot shoe other Nikon accessories such as a full size flash (it does have a popup flash). A bright EVF with lag. Simpler less flexible controls compared to a dslr. But it's not bad.

But if I wasn't so invested into Nikon I probably would have gotten a canon or Fuji instead. Controls are good unless you are used to a top end dslr (like me)

But there are so many options on the market new and used its just confusing. Figure out what is important to you including price and go feature Shopping.

beagle100 · Jul 6, 2016

Wozza said:
Thanks to all suggestions so far, have looked at specs for all of them.

waday said:

The EOS M does seem like an obvious choice, as it's pretty light and you can use your existing lenses with the adapter.
What's your budget? Do you want a system that can utilize your existing lenses? I know you said you don't mind, but do you have a preference?
Do you mind advanced P&S as @robbins.photo suggested?

Also, what are the final uses/end products of the images? Do you want these for a website or print?

Click to expand...

Using the same lens system is a bonus, although any lens I have apart from 50mm are too large take with me, which is a shame as I love my 20mm Sigma prime. Budget is as much as it needs to be for me to be happy I'm able to capture a scene as I want to be, but any money I save goes into my current bike build. (Surly Ogre)

I don't mind a P&S if it has manual controls, good image quality and is cheaper than a small DSLR. Weather proofing a bonus. So far I haven't seen any that tick these boxes that are cheaper than an EOS-M.

Use is web, but don't want to rule out being able to take a good sized print - I won't get to a lot of these locations very often so don't want to feel like I can't capture a scene the way I would like.

Gotta say I keep circling back to an EOS-M - I didn't realize how cheap they are, it's just a pity they aren't weather resistant and the viewfinder is optional. Gotta say, I did think it was just like an old rangefinder viewfinder, didn't realize it was digital - so should be accurate. So that is a plus.

Still open to suggestions, unless I am missing something though the EOS-M3 seems to have the least compromises in it's price range and I got to spend a lot more to tick off metal/weather sealed body and/or built in viewfinder?

Spending a little (if I can get a good 2nd hand deal) more and getting an m5 with the 14-42mm is also a good option though.

I think most of the mirrorless cameras have a detachable viewfinder that fits in the hot shoe. Go to a store and check them out, size, availability of lens, price, AF speed are all factors to consider. If the budget was not a factor I think I may have gone with Sony or Fuji as my "bicycling and travel" camera but I'm still liking the original M and intend on keep it for the foreseeable future (or at least until Canon gets serious about mirrorless which I'm convinced mirrorless is the future)

www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless

Wozza · Jul 21, 2016

Thanks for all the input here guys.

Got myself an OMD-EM10 in the end and a 14-42mm pancake. Was tempted by Canon, but couldn't bring myself to buy something that didn't have a viewfinder built in lol. So my first ever non-Canon camera, that's big news! Weather sealing would of been nice, but I'll get a dry-bag,

Charging the camera now, so no impressions apart from it's the same size as my Sigma 20mm prime with the lens fitted!!!

Also anyone looking, this was a good article I came across - although some models are now replaced. (even if it doesn't have the camera I ended up with haha)
Tour Aotearoa 2018: Cameras

The bag he is using is made locally, and seems like a good solution too.

beagle100 · Jul 21, 2016

Wozza said:
Thanks for all the input here guys.

Got myself an OMD-EM10 in the end and a 14-42mm pancake. Was tempted by Canon, but couldn't bring myself to buy something that didn't have a viewfinder built in lol. So my first ever non-Canon camera, that's big news! Weather sealing would of been nice, but I'll get a dry-bag,

Charging the camera now, so no impressions apart from it's the same size as my Sigma 20mm prime with the lens fitted!!!
Also anyone looking, this was a good article I came across - although some models are now replaced. (even if it doesn't have the camera I ended up with haha)
Tour Aotearoa 2018: Cameras

The bag he is using is made locally, and seems like a good solution too.

I think some of the Canon mirrorless cameras have a plug-in viewfinder that fits in the hot shoe
(but my Canon mirrorless doesn't have an EVF)
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless