Selecting a camera for traveling

[jeff kushner]

I read several of these similar themed threads with interest since my sweetheart and I just returned a few weeks back from a trip and I also had decided to buy a better camera before our next trip in Oct.

It occurred to me that if I wanted the best camera for me, I needed to list the most important features to begin the process.

For me, thee most important feature for travel was that the camera be able to , well, travel! In other words, it had to fit into my pocket because if it didn't, I would not have it with me all the time. I understand that for many serious photographers, a camera is like their child and no amount of discomfort or reduced playing abilities justifies NOT carrying all kinds of gear but I'm not wired that way so for me, I will always take the camera that fits into my pocket but often, I would leave my small dSLR platform old camera at home because it did not fit in my pocket so I knew that moving forward, I needed a "instamatic" type platform.

So that was the 1st requirement. Next, I had reviewed my 400-500 shots taken on our most recent trip and decided that for me, most of my shots were outdoors, many at considerable range(you really don't want to be 5 feet from the Lion) and many either included movement or were shots(attempted shots) taken of moving objects or people.

I also found that I had attempted several long range shots using the 18x zoom of my old camera so a generous zoom was also going to be high on my list. Then of course were the 6 or 8 "sets of selfies" that we took of ourselves. I say "sets" because the first would include my sweetheart only, the next would include my hair, then the next would be both of us....so yes, a tiltable screen would be an improvement for these situations. We also went diving and prior to going I had bought a dime store waterproof Minolta camera...but the junk never worked, even out of the box! I ended up buying a cheap instant underwater camera from the gift shop and returned the minolta junk after coming back home.

Using these parameters, I began researching the choices. While my first choices were those similar to the ZS100 and it's large sensor, I just couldn't wrap my head around the 7-800 dollar price tag. So I selected one without and while it sacrifices the large sensor, it shoots amazing 4K vid and most importantly, it fits into my pocket and has all of the other features that were important to me(I may buy an additional Cannon for underwater in the future).

The point is, many people, especially us new to photography get as overwhelmed by all the choices as I did. That's when I realized that I should let my very own pictures tell me what to look for in a new camera. Once you begin to see the types of shots that YOU actually take, the number of choices become a lot lower and the decisions, much easier!

Good Luck!

jeff