Finally I took the plunge into getting a good SLR camera. I wanted to buy one for the last couple of years and almost bought my brother-in-laws 2 year old Pentax, but decided that I wanted the latest and greatest that I could afford.
Until now I had evolved through two small point and shoot cameras that have served me well.
The first was a Richo with 3.4megapixels. This was a great camera as it allowed you to operate the camera when the battery died by replacing into the same compartment two AA batteries and you could take another 350 pictures before they too would be flat.
I moved onto a Panasonic TZ1 – with 12megapixel and 10x optical zoom this has proved to be a great little camera and I still use this today. The zoom button gets a little sticky at times but as a point and shoot and cased in a all metal body this is one tough little camera. You can take movies on this as well but remember it’s an older camera. Panasonic are now making a newer generation of this camera TZ12
When looking into Digital there are pros and cons when it comes to traveling. One is the size and two is what are you going to be taking pictures of. Unless you are a wildlife nut you are not going to need a telephoto lens, so save your money and stop looking for every lens that is made – you won’t need half the stuff on the market.
Make sure you get a good body. After looking at a lot of options on the market I settled between two brands Cannon or Nikon. Both are great, but remember that the lenses are not interchangeable between brands. There are some generic brand lenses that can be cheaper but you do get what you pay for.
After much reading I went for the Cannon 60D here’s the tech stuff….
With the EOS 60D DSLR, Canon gives the photo enthusiast a powerful tool fostering creativity, with better image quality, more advanced features and automatic and in-camera technologies for ease-of-use. It features an improved APS-C sized 18.0 megapixel CMOS sensor for tremendous images, DIGIC 4 Image Processor for finer detail and excellent color reproduction, and improved ISO capabilities from 100 – 6400 (expandable to 12800) for uncompromising shooting even in the dimmest situations. The Multi-control Dial enables users to conveniently operate menus and enter settings with a simple touch. The EOS 60D also features an EOS first Vari-angle 3.0-inch Clear View LCD (1,040,000 dots) monitor for easy low- or high-angle viewing. An improved viewfinder, a number of in-camera creative options and filters, plus HDMI output for viewing images on an HDTV all make the EOS 60D invaluable for the evolving photographer. With continuously curved surfaces, user-friendliness and exuding solidity and refinement, the EOS 60D is true digital inspiration!
I have to agree.
Glass or lenses are probably just as impotent, because this is what captures the clarity of what you see.
As I mentioned before, you get what you pay for but you can get quality for a reasonable price.
Something important to remember is the more you change lenses the more dust you allow into your camera. Most professional photographers will carry two cameras with different lenses to protect their camera mirrors (and to look pretty cool!).
As a traveler I have one lens that I find will cover most situations very comfortably. Get a good quality 28-135mm Lens with image stabilizer and macro tools. it’s pretty much all you need.
