I am travelling to South America, including Galapagos next year. I am looking for a reasonable travel camera. I don’t want something with huge interchangeable lenses, but simply a point and shoot camera with a decent zoom that takes good pictures. I expect I would have to pay around $500 or even a bit more. Any recommendations?
Looking for Camera Recommendation
dennisc on 10/11/2017 - 07:45
Comments
No. Phones are digital zoom. The second you zoom the quality is horrible. OP wants a lens with a good optical zoom.
As an SLR user I wouldn't give up my glass zoom either, but at the point-and-shoot end it's really not a great improvement. Some phones even come with a larger sensor, or two cameras.
Would be good to know what kind of phone the OP has, if they want something better than that.
dual lens one have a zoom.
I'm a dslr user so can't recommend any specific compacts.
But I can say a viewfinder will be helpful for sunny days when you can't see the screen.
And look at the specs for optical zoom and the focal length. You'd want focal length about 20-35 at a minimum, but for times when you might want to zoom you could go to 200+, and for times when you're inside a room and want to take a photo, as low as 10 (though not sure how common this is in compacts).
Optical zoom is basically the larger focal length divided by the smaller. So a 20-35 would be 1.75x but a 24-720 would be 30x (this one: https://www.teds.com.au/sony-hx90v)
Another handy feature is wifi which will allow you to connect to your phone and share your pics.
Have a look at these ones: https://www.teds.com.au/compact-digital-cameras/big-zoom-cam…
Sony a6000
rx100 mark 1
Panasonic Lumix LX100 or Sony RX 100
Try for a decent Casio model from a year or so back… from Gumtree.
People are ditching their P&S left right centre for their phones, so its your gain to get a good hardware from the used market.Are you one to carry a camera? If not, get the best phone camera you can afford. Google Pixel 2, S8, iPhone 8 plus or X etc.
Recent overseas travels have shown that most travellers now just use their phone, I myself you use to carry a camera, but now just lean to my phone as its easy to carry around and the shots are decent enough for 'sharing'
Sony RX100 mk3
Mk4 and mk5 have 4K video and that’s their only difference.
Mk1 had a few issues.
I'm gathering if you're going to Galapagos you might want a whole lot of zoom. Sony HX90V might be a good bet. Otherwise if you don't mind the bulk the RX10 can be a good travel "bridge" camera. If you want insane zoom, then Nikon P900. At the end of the day there will be a trade off between zoom range and image quality and price.
Your phone? A high-end phone beats out a point-and-shoot these days.