Which Type of Camera Should You Bring on Your Travels?
Determining which camera option is the best for you and your travel needs.
Posted on Sept. 15, 2016 by Jin
When choosing a camera, you have to ask yourself which factors are most important to you. Price, image quality, features and weight are the main ones you'll want to consider.
Just the Phone
Oh, how I dream of traveling with just my phone and I. Every time I see someone traveling around in this way I envy their feather light existence. How beautiful it is to just live in the moment and be content with the satisfaction of capturing photos solely for memory's sake, without regard for pixel count or F-Stops. But alas, I have sold my back's soul and future for a few extra dots and a bit more bokeh. But in my next life this is absolutely the way I'd travel, especially now that the quality of phone cameras is really starting to impress.
For any traveler that isn't planning to get into photography professionally, a phone is really all you need. If your main purpose is to share your experiences with friends and family back home, I'd go as far as saying a phone is actually the best kind of camera to have when traveling. The ease of clicking a button straight from your phone's picture gallery and sharing it over Whatsapp or Instagram is so quick and effortless. Meaning, you'll just end up doing more of it.
Make sure to have a good system for backing up your pictures in the cloud, since phones have a slightly easier tendency to disappear or slip from hands into some watery grave.
Point and Shoot
Point and shoots are basically the jorts of the photography world. Wear jeans; wear shorts. Just don't ruin your travels wearing a point and shoot. You will end up having all the limitations in terms of photo quality as a phone, but now you have to carry around your phone AND a point and shoot, plus go through the process of transferring files over to your phone in order to share them on social media.
I would advise putting all that money you were thinking to invest into a point and shoot and just get a phone with a nice camera or put it towards a mirrorless camera or DSLR.
Really, the only legitimate reason to have a point and shoot is because you have it from yesteryear or someone gave it to you, and it so happens that you're so environmentally conscious that you've made an ethical decision to stick with your old flip phone. In which case, you are a gentleman/lady and a scholar; I tip my hat to you.
Mirrorless Camera
A mirrorless camera is like a DSLR in that you can attach and remove lenses, but has a smaller body size since it has an Electronic Viewfinder as opposed to an Optical Viewfinder. Image quality will take a slight hit if you would otherwise use a Full Frame DSLR, but that same difference won't be there when compared to a Crop Sensor DSLR. With both you will have the ability to adjust aperture to levels around F2, which is a huge plus. The features and feel of a mirrorless camera will make the transition to more professional equipment a little tougher. But if you are just looking for great quality images that can have a noticeable difference from your camera's phone, and staying light weight is important to you, this might be the type of camera to look into.
Mirrorless cameras are the trendy new kid on the block. Whenever I come across the fancy displays from Fuji, Panasonic or Olympus in a shopping mall, I can't help but feel some temptation to buy one of these even just to look sharp and on the cutting edge. And when I think about my DSLR camera bag of weighty bodies and lenses, that temptation rises up to a boil. The variety of lenses you'll find for your mirrorless camera should be enough to cover most purposes. Of course, collecting too many lenses for your mirrorless camera would cancel out one of its biggest advantages, that of being light weight. But you'd still be rocking that style.
Crop-Sensor DSLR
This is the type of camera you see the average beginning photography hobbyist carrying around. This type of camera is heavier than a mirrorless camera, but has a much closer look and feel to more professional cameras. Image quality is similar to a mirrorless camera, but depending on a few factors, can be better or worse. If you stick to the kit lens that comes with the body of your crop-sensor DSLR when you purchase it, take all your shots on the Auto setting, and never do any post processing work, the image quality will actually turn out worse than an advanced mirrorless camera. But with the right lenses and knowledge of photography, your pictures can get very close to professional. If you are interested to get into photography, but don't have a big budget, this is a good place to start. I can't think of a better stepping stone to more professional gear.
Full-Frame DSLR
This is the type of camera that any professional or person trying to look professional has strapped around their shoulders. But what is it about this type of camera that makes it so powerful? Based upon appearance, it's practically the same camera as a crop-sensor DSLR, only slightly larger with a lot more buttons. The main source of image quality difference comes from its larger light sensor. With the ability to pick up more light, a full-frame can capture sharper images, especially in low light. In addition, full-frames are able to give you a better depth of field. Meaning, more bokeh-licious pictures!
Despite its clear superiority, you really don't see that many people walking around with one and for good reason. The main disadvantage is obviously the price-tag. Not only does a full-frame body cost two to four times as much as a crop-sensor body, the lenses are generally more pricey as well. The second disadvantage is the weight. As soon as you start getting into the world of full-frame DSLRs, you can pretty much kiss your light travel days goodbye.
One thing to remember when considering an upgrade from a crop-sensor to a full-frame is that the cropping will be different. A 50mm lens, for example, will be cropped like a 35mm lens when you switch it to a full-frame body. This is helpful if you are trying to get more wide, landscape shots. But if you are trying to capture birds using maximum zoom, you might be disappointed in the lack of reach you'll have with a full-frame. Not making things easier, buying a quality telephoto lens compatible with a full-frame will cost you nearly the same as the full-frame camera body itself. So if you're into wildlife photography, going full-frame is not something I'd recommend unless you have a really good reason or big enough wallet to justify it. Until then, there's always NatGeo for all of us to marvel at.
