Choosing a camera has arguably never been harder, the massive choice of equipment often with little difference from one brand to another might provide almost unlimited options of specification and price point but it does nothing to assist in the selection of the right camera for you best travel camera for video.
The lightest, most compact camera which will do the job is the camera that won’t be left behind because it’s too big and heavy to lug around, so let’s consider cameras from each of three types starting at the lightest and most compact.
I’m ignoring super compacts, superzooms and other snapshooters and suggesting only cameras that will provide the quality of function and results the passionate photographer needs.
The advanced compact
Just about pocketable in a jacket or baggy chinos, the advanced compact has a built in zoom lens covering a modest range, full user control with lots of external buttons, built in image stabiliser to minimize camera shake and an excellent image quality which only falls off in lower light levels.
The Canon S90 or the new G11 are superbly engineered and designed examples of the genre. They are capable of producing terrific images in good light with class leading lower light image quality in the case of the S90.
On the downside the S90 and G11 offer slow performance figures, poor ability to create blurry backgrounds (except with close ups and to some degree at the telephoto end of the zoom) and limited low light function pus reliance on the LCD screen or tiny viewfinder for composition.
Consider the S90 or G11 for travel, casual nature and landscape shots, even street photography but not for shooting kids indoors under natural light or documenting the progress of your local football team.
The new semi-compacts with interchangeable lenses
Typified by the Panasonic GF1 and the Olympus DP2 a new breed of camera has recently emerged. Inspired perhaps by the classic Leica film cameras they use an image sensor almost as large as the digital SLR and offer fully interchangeable lenses. These new semi compact cameras offer a stylish and just about pocketable (with a small lens) alternative to the SLR.
Image quality can be superb and comparable to basic and mid range SLRs. Full user controls are par for the course. The excellent lenses including non-zooming primes (we’ve been zooming to long!!) are compact and pocketable but can be costly. The GF-1 is a great all rounder but loses it’s advantages once you add a long lens.
Ideal for high quality travel, street, botanical and landscape work but at a cost. Not bad for portraits and family stuff but definitely not the way ahead for those safari trips.
The digital SLR
Long seen as the only way ahead by many, I see a few chinks in it’s armour with an increasing threat from best of the previously mentioned cameras.
Get yourself a basic consumer digital SLR and you’ve entered a world of unlimited flexibility. Vast ranges of lenses and other accessories enable you to optimise your camera for any shooting scenario.
But beware. The equipment is relatively large and heavy and will you actually bother to take it with you?
Get started with the Superb Canon 450d or 500d with just the basic kit zoom lens and you can add the 50mm f1.8 Prime (non-zooming) for superb low light indoor portraits and maybe the 55-250mm Image stabilised (prevents camera shake) zoom and you have a relatively compact kit which will cover most shooting scenarios.