Camera Advice RTW Trip

Hello again! I plan on taking a bunch of great photos as I travel along and need some help from you experienced photography gurus. My trip will be that of a bag packer style with lots of hiking, staying at hostels / couch surfing, etc. So obviously I'm not taking pictures for National Geographic or anything, but seeing everything that I am going to see I still intend to take a lot of high quality pictures to bring back with me!

Looking for advice on brands, models, protective cases, accessories / chips or just anything else you guys might feel is important based on your own experience. I've been told that keeping the camera smaller is important, so I am definitely going to try and follow through with that measure. Also while I'm thinking about it - I am going to be taking some sort of smartphone with me. Do any of these newer age digitals have a way to connect with smartphone type devices so that I can upload pictures right through the phone and the like? I'm pretty tech savvy but have been busy this last year or so and have lost touch a bit with the world that is tech.

Look forward to the advice guys. Thanks!


Chris

P.S. If there are already good existing threads on this subject, feel free to send me there!

Hey

I'm currently doing an 8-10 month trip around Asia and Australia. I brought two cameras with me (Nikon DSLR w/18-105mm and a Canon S90). I like both options and I love having the DSLR but it definitely is a little too big sometimes.

The Canon S95 is a more recent incarnation of my camera that has HD video and the ability adjust aperture and shutter speed. There is also slightly more intense G series, that has even more features but is much smaller than a DSLR.

Hope that helps and enjoy your trip!

Heather

@gingernomad: Hey! This definitely helps out. What kind of gap in quality do you notice between your two models there? I actually had a couple of other guys on another board both agree that the Canon S95 or S100 were the way to go - so it is good to see you are somewhat linear with their views. Definitely trying to keep the camera smaller since the trip will be so long. I do like to keep my stuff high quality as possible though, so hopefully I can keep the size down on the camera but still have a model that takes some incredible pictures. How's the size on your S90?

Thanks again!

I began my trip with a Canon G11, it worked great. Small enough not to weigh you down, but still had all the manual settings. I scratched the lens in a country that didn't have quick turn around on repair, so I picked up a Canon S95 for temporary use. I've been using the S95 for the past 11 months, and love it. It's a great little camera. Fits in your pocket, weighs almost nothing, has all the manual settings and takes good quality video.

When I was planning my trip, I asked myself what am I traveling and taking photos for. My photos are for memories and showing people online, so I don't need SLR quality. Plus, the weight of a DSLR + Lens(es), was too much to consider lugging around for a long term RTW, but that's my preference.

Jason

At the beginning of my travels as a video blogger I sacrificed quality for light weight and easy shooting.

First I filmed a pilgrimage to Santiago so I didn't want to carry DSLR + Tripod and Lenses. So I took a lightweight tripod and a small camcorder.
This gave me "OK" shots. The benefit was that I could just point and shoot and capture things that would be gone 3 seconds later. Even though I was happy with the end result of my videos. I decided to upgrade my camera.

Documenting my trip for my followers is a biggy for me. So now I'm using a Canon 60D with a 50mm Prime and a zoom lens.
I love the quality. It's a bit more weight to carry around. But with my "throw away what you don't need" attitude, I've been able to keep my backpack under 9KG.

When taking expensive equipment like a SLR camera. Be sure to take a Camera Condom aswell. I messed up one of my lenses in Africa because of all the sand.

So If your a quality junky like me, take the good stuff. otherwise a point and shoot camera is way more efficient.