Unleashing my inner Hemingway one passport stamp at a time; writing, exploring, photographing while celebrating the glory of middle age. Now where's my camera! :)
Travel cameras for vacation photos & travel vlogging
This is an article aimed at assisting the everyday traveller to select the perfect travel camera for their needs, specifically vacation photos or vlogging. Let's face it, what better souvenirs are there than great photography from the cultural experiences and place your explored. So you're planning that first big trip away and pondering, what camera should I take or maybe your trusty old warhorse is on its last legs and needs to be replaced. Well I can help point you in the right direction, I have 35 years of photography experience and have been lucky enough to have travelled to dozens of countries and foreign destinations. I've photograph with many different camera brands, types and sizes so let's get started.
NOTE: The camera market is a dynamic space, there seems to be a new camera released every week. So rather than tell you which exact camera you should be purchasing, I'm going to focus on which features, functions and characteristics you should be looking out for when buying a new camera for taking those precious vacation photos. After all, everyone has slightly different needs, budgets and varying photography skills.
Some basic definitions
Ok, before we get started it will be helpful to understand some basic theory around cameras and photography. That way when that sales person is throwing around industry words like RAW, megapixels, DoF, ISO and image stabilisation, you'll know what they're talking about.
Megapixels: Typically the more megapixels a camera has the better the photo. While not always strictly true, its important that buyers understand what they’re going to use their photos for. If its just for blogging, social media and emails to friends then a large megapixel camera could really be overkill.
RAW: A RAW photo basically has not been processed in anyway by the camera and therefore contains all metadata about the photo including exposure. Post editing software packages such as Adobe Photoshop work directly with these RAW files giving the photographer a high degree of post processing control. RAW photos file sizes can be large, 25mb plus.
Sensors: The camera’s sensor captures the image through the lens, think of it as a old-school manual camera’s film. Basically the larger the sensor the better the quality and higher the resolution your travel photos will be.
Aperture: Most small compact travel cameras come with only one lens that cannot be changed. Therefore the characteristics of this lens are going to be very important. Aperture is simply a measure of the range a lens can opened or closed. It is expressed as f-number (f1.8, f2.8, f4, etc.) A low F stop makes for a fast lens, one which works well in low light. Photographers wishing to create strong Depth of Field photographs should look for a lens with a f-stop of 4 or below.
Depth of Field (DoF): With cameras, the depth of field is the distance between the nearest and the farthest objects that are in sharp focus in an image. A very shallow DoF can be used to great photographic effect, blurring out messy or distracting backgrounds. Some good examples of DoF can be seen below. Using DoF can be really useful when it comes to taking great vacation photos, particularly in popular tourist areas that may have lots of tourists.
An example of how depth of field can be used to focus the viewers eye on the subject rendering the background less distracting. In this case, the background adds context and tells a story without taking from the key subject of the photo.
Depth of field can be used to remove distracting subjects in the foreground and background if so desired. The back of the boys head adds little to this photo and the viewer is drawn immediately to the girls expression and face.
ISO: A bit of a legacy term that is a measure of film speed. Still used with digital camera, users need to understand how a higher ISO will enable them to take a photo in lower light situations. However, a higher ISO will introduce grain or diminish the clarity or quality of the captured photo.
Optical Zoom: Optical zoom is where the camera’s lens physically zooms in a photo, say zooming to a focal length of 100mm. When compared to digital zoom, optical is by far the best in terms of photo quality and resolution.
Digital Zoom: Is when the camera’s imagery software enhances the image to give the ‘effect’ of zoom. This results in poorer quality (pixelated) and lower resolution photographs.
Image stabilisation: More expensive camera will have image stabilisation features built into their lens. This basically allowing the user to take photos at slower speeds (i.e. in low light) and therefore potentially reduce motion blur. This can be an important feature if you may never be able to take your vacation photos or vlog content again.
Ok, so I could go on for ever but you'll get bored and probably go and read something more interesting. I think we've covered the main concepts and now you're better armed and importantly, you have a solid understanding of some of the basics of photography. If you have any other questions, you can always put them in the below comments and I'll get back to you.
Travel camera - popular functions & modes
Ok, so the modern compact camera comes with a wealth of amazing functions and modes these days. When purchasing a camera it's important to ask the question, what am I going to use the photos for? Paying a lot of money for a camera with dozens of features you’ll never use is crazy. Similarly, I’ve found over the years that your average person can take a better photo with a Smartphone than with a complicated DSLR with thousands of settings at 10 times the value. Below are some popular features you might want to look out for when choosing a travel camera.
High Dynamic Range (HDR) feature: Enables the user to capture high-contrast photos. Decent cameras have auto bracketing settings as a feature. This allows the camera to take multiple photos (typically 3) at different exposures, then combine these photos to create a single HDR photo. Basically shadows are exposed more and bright (highlights) areas are exposed less to create a more even photograph overall.
Time lapse photography is becoming very popular, you can watch some examples of time lapse photography in the short movie above.
Time-Lapse mode: Enables the photographer to choose a shooting interval, (say 1 photo every 2 seconds) and defined number of photos the camera takes, say 120 shots. The camera then capture the still photos and combines them into as a time lapse movie, at say 30 frames/second. Typically a tripod is used to ensure the camera doesn't move during the shooting although time lapse photography can also be done while the camera is moving, on an open air bus or boat for example.
Lens zoom range: This is basically a measure of how much a camera will see in its field of view. The lower the number the more wide-angle the photo and the more the photographer will be able to capture in a single photo. This is the focal length of the lens and its very important. A good travel camera will have a versatile focal lengths between 24-100mm.
Manual setting: Buyers should be looking for a camera with manual settings, i.e. the ability to override the automatic settings a camera will make when taking a photo. Benefit is that as their photography skills increase, they’ve got more options to play with & configure to get better results.
Travel camera - key features you should be looking for
Consumers are spoilt for choice in the camera market. Although a lot of users are moving to Mirrorless, I still think the compact camera (or ‘point and shot’) offer the best solution for the traveller or travel blogger. The bulkier and heavier cameras such as Mirrorless or DSLRs models may take a better photo, but the user also needs to be a much better photographer to achieve this. Post processing can also be more time consuming with DSLRs and Mirrorless options. The larger cameras also take larger file size photos which can present storage and cloud backup issues over time. If we remove the factor of cost, then size, weight and some other key functionality are what travellers should be looking for.
Size & compact design: Ideally, the camera should fit into a decent sized jacket pocket. You're after a camera with a lens that doesn’t protrude from the body too much when turned off. The lens needs to be as flush with the camera as possible.
Flip / tilt and touch screen: While not a complete deal breaker for vacation photos, a flip / tilt screen is a must have feature if you intend to travel vlog. Touch screen capability gives the user an alternative way to control their camera from the typical dial and button setup. Some DSLRs are even starting to have these types of feature, the Canon EOS 6D Mark II or Canon EOS R Mirrowless for example.
When purchasing a camera it's important to ask the question, what am I going to use the photos for? Purchase a camera that meets those needs. Don't pay for a top of the range camera with dozens of features you’ll never use.
Weight: Around the 10-12 oz range (280-340 grams).
Wi-Fi / Cloud Backup: A camera with built-in Wi-Fi can be setup to automatically transfer photos to your computer or a cloud storage solution if and when internet connectivity is available. Any feature that assist the user in protecting their photos/videos, is a very important consideration. This is a very important feature when it comes to protecting those all important vacation photos or vlog content.
4K video: If you're a vlogger, then you're looking for a camera that will take 4K video at 60 fps (30 minimum). If video isn't your thing than a 1K, 60 fps will do fine.
Travel camera - desirable extra features
While not deal breakers, there are many other features that you may find desirable when purchasing a new camera for travel. I touch on several of the more popular and handy functions or camera characteristics.
Fast focus: A slow focusing lens can be a real frustration, by the time your camera has focused, the subjected has moved. Test the cameras focusing abilities, particularly in lower light situations.
Wide Focal Length: Ideally 24mm up to 100mm if possible. This will allow the user to take nice wide-angle as well as zoom photos.
Battery life: An easy one to compare, long battery life is important. You can always have a backup battery but long life batteries are desirable.
An example of how a camera with a high dynamic range (HDR) function can be used to effect. Note how the internal detail of the room is well exposed, this would typically result in the outside elements being blown out over exposed. HDR compensates for this but does result is a slightly unnatural photo appearance.
