Camera for Europe Trip. T4i + plus some lenses, or RX100?

[ctaborda]

Hello guys

Pleasure to be here, very thankful to all of you who share your time and experiences here.

I have an upcoming european trip. Myself and my wife we'll be traveling through Paris, Venice, Florence, Rome and Barcelona. I have been doing extensive research on my own about the best 'set' to take.

Here are my options:
DSLR Pack: T4i, 18mm-135mm (stock), 10-22mm and 40mm all canon lenses. This pack costs a around $1.6k/usd

P&S Pack: Sony RX100. This costs around $700/usd.

So, the reasoning for the DSLR package. The 18mm-135mm seems to be the best option as a stock lens, makes more sense in most ways, but im open to suggestions. The 10-22mm, I think I will need it primarily for museums, churches, architecture as well as some street photography. The 40mm pancake, I am not 100% sure of the usage, but from all I have read its more a general lens even if its a fixed lens.

Are my assumptions on the DSLR package correct?

The RX100 is simply stunning, fits in my pocket and its half the price. However, I have none of the other options I have in the dslr.

So as you can see the problem I am having is. Is luggin around the more expensive non-pocketable DSLR worth taking to the trip in Europe? I do not have either camera at this point and I have some time to choose. I need some help because I am worried about buying all this nice equipment and then feel like I should have gotten the RX100, or if I get the more limited RX100, then be missing the DSLR.

All in all, this is my first time in Europe. I want to enjoy this trip as much as I can and take as many amazing shots as I can.

I want some help from the more advanced users who can recommend which setup to bring, your experiences and such. Also any recommendations to improve my gear is super welcomed.

If you were in my position, what would you do!!!

Thanks!

Carlos.

 

[enzodm]

For me, one reason to buy a good camera is for traveling . However, if you never used a dSLR, you need to take some time to squeeze the best from it. You can always use it as a point&shoot and obtain better pictures, in particular in low light.
I assume you do not have budget issues due to your options: however, you could go with just 18-135 (and maybe T3i, now cheap), although the 10-22 would be a nice extra for city landscapes. No need for 40mm at this point, maybe consider the 35/2 instead but without previous experience you will not use them much.

 

[Solarflare]

"Fixed" lenses, i.e. prime lenses (they can focus and change aperture just fine, so they are really not "fixed"), have the advantage of being very bright, useful in low light situations, and allowing a shallow depth of field, which is useful for example for beautiful portraiture. They dont have that many lens elements and they allow much larger apertures. Even simple prime lenses usually allow f/2 or f/1.8, better ones f/1.4 or even f/1.2, while the best zooms end at f/2.8 and are much heavier, larger and more expensive than prime lenses.

The RX100 is a not too shabby compact camera. But remember: smaller size costs extra. The RX100 wont offer you better optical quality, just a more compact size.