Travel Camera and Lens Recommendations

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Travel Camera Recommendations

Complete Listing of Ed and Julie's Travel Tips and Planning Tools

e're occasionally asked what kind of camera or lens is best for travel. (Only occasionally, if you've seen Ed's pictures!)

The short answer for the camera is, "The smaller the better." The more compact and easily carried, the more likely you are to have it with you when you want to take the picture.

We own a couple of good SLR bodies and several lenses, two compact cameras and a mid-range digital camera. Even on trips to Europe we've often carried two of the bodies, at least three of the lenses and one other camera, a pocket fixed-focus.

Probably the best balance between size, ease and photo quality would be one similar to the Canon SLRs with motorized single lens zoom and automatic focus. The bulk is acceptable, ease of use quite good and photo quality more than good enough for most of us.

A pocket camera doesn't have the flexibility or the image quality of an SLR but it's easy to keep in a pocket or purse - and for most of us having A camera at the right moment may be more important than having the "right" camera.

e've tried the video cam a couple of times and find we spend too much time setting it up and seeing the sights through a tiny viewfinder. Not to mention the bulk, reduced for newer models, but still relatively hefty. Unless you have the skills and equipment to do a semi-professional job of editing your tapes, do your friends, neighbors and relatives ... and yourself ... a favor and leave it home.

igital still cameras have much to recommend them. However, it can be troublesome for some to upload and edit the photos, and a reasonably good (read relatively expensive) printer is needed to produce good hard copies to send to friends and relatives. If you'll mainly be using your photos on the web or to send to friends by e-mail the digital camera can be an excellent choice. If your main use will be for photo albums and sharing with non-digital grandparents a digital camera may be inappropriate.

n the end, it's arguably easier, and probably cheaper, to buy postcards and professionally produced pictures and slide sets at your destination ... and the results will surely be better than Ed's, and perhaps yours.

Nonetheless, part of travel is taking photos as a memory-gathering experience. Whether you use an SLR or two, a point and shoot pocket camera, a digital or one of the disposables, is a personal choice. We do have a strong recommendation, though, about the lens.

hatever your camera choice, unless you're heavily into 'people' shots, get the widest lens you can afford. (Ed now usually carries one of the SLRs with a 17mm lens, in addition to the zoom digital, to get the widest possible view when needed.

As we've looked at our photos over the years, the thing that was always missing was perspective. Not in the technical sense, but in the sense that our eyes see nearly a 180^o image, but the normal camera lens falls far short of that.

We do like the single lens zoom cameras, but be careful of the lens range. Most emphasize telephoto reach at the expense of wide angle. We think you'll find a 28-85 zoom far more useful in travel than a 35-105. It's more than adequate for normal 'people' photography and has a decent breadth of image for scenic shots. There are times Ed misses the 300mm lens, but only about 1/10th as often as he uses the 17mm.

n alternative? Carry no camera at all!

Let's assume we're not speaking of trips with the kids where most everyone would want a camera.

For just the two of us traveling, though, given the quality of my photos, I often wonder why I bother. Postcards, slide collections, books sold on street corners ... all provide far better pictures than I can produce.

And I know at least one person who sends postcards to herself at least daily on the trip, noting special events or scenes of the day. The pictures and the notes will stimulate memories for years to come.

Still, there is that odd moment when the neighborhood urchins are splashing in the fountain with the droplets creating a rainbow effect, or that special moment with the rising sun shining splendidly on St. Peter's. Many of us might miss nothing at all if we took no camera.

f you will be taking your own photos, a few added thoughts from years of experience in taking so-so photos, and some not even that good:

Fill the frame. Use your feet or your zoom lens to get as close to the subject as possible. One need only look at the next travel homepage you visit to find a shot of "Marge at the Waterfall" where Marge is totally indistinguishable from a kangaroo because she fills such a small part of the frame.
'Bracket' your exposures if the lighting is at all uneven, which it usually is in summer travel photography. Take at least three shots of a scene you think important: one where the camera thinks the exposure should be; two using the controls most cameras have to both overexpose and underexpose the shot, usually by a stop or two in either direction.
Carry your camera with you everywhere, the advantage of a 'pocket' camera. You never, never, know when you'll come across a neat scene, in the restaurant, on the bus, lolling in the park.

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