Travel
This page is a summary. For anything more specific, ask: /ask/which-camera-should-i-buy-for-travel, or any question as words after /ask/.
A travel camera has to be good at everything and light enough that you still carry it on day five. Landscapes, food, street scenes, people, the inside of a dim church: you'll shoot all of it, often in a hurry, and you won't want to change lenses on a crowded square.
What matters
- Size and weight. Weigh the camera with its lens, not the body alone. Anything that doesn't fit in a small bag gets left in the hotel.
- A versatile zoom. A travel zoom covering wide to short telephoto, around 24-105mm or wider in full-frame terms, covers nearly every travel picture with one lens.
- Image stabilisation. In-body stabilisation (IBIS) or a stabilised lens lets you shoot dim interiors handheld at slow shutter speeds.
- Battery life and USB charging. Charging from a power bank or a laptop cable means one less charger to pack.
- Weather sealing helps if you travel in rain, sand or snow, but it's a nice-to-have, not a must.
My picks by type
- The one-camera answer: an APS-C mirrorless body with a travel zoom in the 18-135mm or 16-80mm range (roughly 27-200mm or 24-120mm in full-frame terms). Small, flexible, good in most light.
- The pocket answer: a 1-inch compact with a 24-200mm-equivalent zoom. It fits in a jacket, and the pictures are clearly better than a phone's when you zoom.
- The fixed-lens answer: a compact with a large sensor and one fixed lens, like the Fujifilm X100 series (35mm equivalent) or the Ricoh GR (28mm equivalent). Superb pictures in a tiny camera, if you can live without zoom.
- The full-frame answer: a compact full-frame body with a small standard zoom. Best low-light quality, but the lenses get big quickly, so be honest about what you'll carry.
What to pack
One zoom, plus one small fast prime for evenings and food, is the classic travel kit. Add a spare battery, a second memory card, and a lens cloth. Leave the tripod at home unless you're going specifically for night or landscape photography; see landscape.
Common mistakes
Buying a big kit for a once-in-a-lifetime trip, then carrying it once. Taking a camera you've never used on the trip itself: buy it a few weeks early and learn it at home. And forgetting that a wide lens matters as much as a long one in old towns with narrow streets.
