How to choose a camera for your travels

Organizing to go on holiday is an exciting but stressful time. There are many things to consider, but one important aspect is often overlooked: how will you record your adventure for posterity. In the "olden days" one would take a diary with your Kodak Instamatic and/or an 8mm movie camera, returning home with rolls of films ready to develop, often of doubtful quality. Today, the serious traveller's images will almost certainly be taken on a digital camera.

The range of camera equipment available to the traveller has never been greater and, as a consequence, the options have never been more confusing. At the simplest end of the photographic scale is the camera in your smart phone or tablet. Considering the size of the lens and the sensor, these give remarkably good images when there is good light. At the other end of the scale is the digital single lens reflex, or DSLR, camera, with its interchangeable lenses. This equipment will give the best possible images at the expense of lugging around lots of heavy equipment. So what to take?

The important decision here is what do you want to get out of your holiday and what is the main reason behind it. If it's a once in a lifetime experience such as going to see the aurora borealis, climbing Mt Kilimanjaro or visiting Antarctica, you will probably want to take the best possible images for your own satisfaction and to show off to family and friends on your return. If, on the other hand, it is a regular visit to see relatives overseas, a more modest device will probably suffice.

Taking the former case first, you will need to have a good idea of your main subject matter before making your equipment choice. For arguments sake, if photographing wild animals on a safari is the primary purpose of the trip, a good-quality DLSR body and a telephoto lens with a focal length of at least 300-400mm is essential. At this point a bit of technical understanding of your camera's sensor size is required. Simply put, the smaller the sensor size, the longer the effective focal length of the attached lens will be. For example, for a full-frame camera a 400mm lens will be 400mm, however for a half-size sensor such as an ASP-C camera, the effective focal length will be 400 x 1.5, i.e. 600mm. For a camera with a four-thirds sensor, the focal length will be 400 x 2 = 800mm.

Continuing on the safari theme, if you are a professional or if money is no object, a fixed lens of say 400mm or more with a large aperture of f2.8 will be your lens of choice. This is for the serious photographer with an eye to publishing their shots in National Geographic. It will probably cost the same price of a business-class airfare to the other side of the world. For most of us, a zoom lens with a range of at least 150-300mm and a more modest aperture will have to suffice - bearing in mind that, for a camera with such a lens and an ASP-C sensor, this will give a very respectable 225-450mm equivalent capability. A word of warning, however, for the novice using a very long lens: they can be difficult to keep steady and require practice together with knowledge of shutter speeds to get the best possible results.

A good rule of thumb when using telephoto lenses is to not use a shutter speed longer that the reciprocal of the effective focal length. For example, if I am using my 18-250mm lens at maximum zoom of 250mm on my camera with an ASP-C sensor, the effective focal length is 250 x 1.5 = 375mm. This means that I shouldn't use a shutter speed less than 1/375th of a second. The closest selectable shutter speed on most cameras is 1/400th but 1/320th would also be usable. A lot of cameras and lenses now come with an anti-shake capability which will allow you to use a much lower shutter speed, probably by a factor of two or three from what the above rule would indicate. By resting your body or the camera on something fixed, much slower shutter speeds can be used, but only experience will tell how far you can push your abilities.

At the other extreme for the serious travelling photographer is the desire to take landscapes or architectural shots such as cathedrals or the insides of stately homes. For these images, wide-angle lenses are the order of the day. Typically 10-35mm focal lengths are the best for these situations. Special care are must be taken when photographing buildings, both interior and exterior, using short focal length lenses as significant distortions can occur. (Note that the same scaling, or more correctly "crop" factor, explained above still applies to wide-angle lenses.) The amount of distortion can be controlled by the angle at which the camera is held. The more horizontal the better. Of course, this may not suit what you want to frame in the shot and some recourse to photo manipulation using a program such as Adobe Photoshop may be required to remove the distortion excesses at a later date.

Depending on what your photographic ambitions are, the camera body and a selection of lenses will not be the only additions to your luggage. Other things to consider are spare batteries, additional memory cards, a tripod, external flash, filters, a portable image storage device and, of course, a bag to put all the equipment into. All of this will be quite cumbersome and taking a full photographic kit is not a trivial task, especially if you are travelling in a tour group and there is limited time at each photo opportunity. There is nothing worse than struggling with a tripod when your fellow travellers have taken their shot.

As always, there are compromises. For my own part, I leave my big full-frame camera with its wonderful but heavy lenses at home and travel with a camera with an ASP-C sensor, an 18-250mm and an 11-18mm lens. This combination of lenses and a reasonable quality body has provided me with good quality images for many years. With the advent of mirrorless bodies, even more compact combinations are possible.

A great favourite for travelling is what is termed the "crossover" camera. This is a cross between the small and limited point and shoot, and the fully-fledged DLRs with interchangeable lenses. These remarkable cameras now come with extreme zooms of 50x or more, are quite light and can take excellent photographs. By learning how to master the controls such as aperture, shutter speed and ISO instead of relying solely on the automatic settings, you will be able to significantly extend the range of photographic opportunities available with this style of camera. Unfortunately, you will need to read the handbook to take advantage of these functions, which can be a daunting task in itself.

If taking happy snaps, photos of relatives or "I was here" pictures is the extent of your photographic requirements, there is a new generation of mirrorless models with fixed or small zoom lenses now being produced by all the major camera manufacturers. They have high performance sensors and lenses which give very good quality images. They are extremely compact and crammed with numerous features. Some even include wi-fi connection for direct communication to other equipment such as smart phones or tablets. One limitation is that many don't have a conventional viewfinder, so all the images have to be composed using the rear screen - this can be a problem in bright light conditions. Also getting at the control functions through the menu screens can be a bit tedious. On the positive side, most come with the ability to take panoramas, GPS tagging, face recognition, inbuilt flash and so on. Coupled with a lightweight tripod, this sort of camera would make the perfect companion for the enthusiastic amateur who wanted a "holiday" from taking their full kit while still taking quality photos.

This only leaves the low-end point-and-shoot and the phone/tablet cameras to discuss. Given reasonable light levels there isn't much to separating the two types of camera. The point and shoot will give the operator some more options and, generally speaking, a slightly better picture, especially in low light conditions or where its inbuilt flash is required. However, the viewfinders - if it has one - are very small and difficult to use. The smart phone and tablet cameras give remarkably good images all things considered, but the quality of the image falls off markedly in low light and their inbuilt flash is only really designed for selfies. Composing an image in bright sunlight is also a problem and it is often just a case of "point and hope" to get your subject in the frame. Using a tablet is quite awkward because of their size, and the orientation of the camera lens relative to the viewing screen can make them difficult to use, especially for close ups. Tablets are also quite intrusive when used in a crowd and are anything but subtle when trying to get an inconspicuous shot. The big plus, of course, is the ability to send your images to anyone in the world straight away. This provides the ultimate in immediacy and in these situations the quality of the image is usually a secondary consideration.

Determining which accessories you will need will be influenced by a number of factors including the number and type of lenses you are taking, weight restrictions, climatic conditions, length of holiday, type of photography you intend to concentrate on and how you are going to store your images. Often compromise will be the order of the day.

For example, for a once in a lifetime experience you have decided to take your best possible kit: a full-frame camera with several lenses including a large zoom lens and a sturdy tripod. To store your images you have included a small laptop plus extra batteries, a couple of filters plus a backpack for all the gear. This will amount to many kilograms of weight which you will want to keep with you all the time, including on the plane. This is something to consider very carefully, especially if you not as fit as you used to be. Unpacking your gear to take a photo when travelling in a group will not make you many friends - especially not with the tour leader. This situation is fine if travelling alone or with a group of likeminded individuals on a specialist excursion.

If that's not to your liking but your trip is a significant one, a compromise is possible. Take a good quality medium-sensor camera body (APS-C or 4/3 style), with an 18-250mm or similar zoom plus a wide-angle lens for landscape and architectural shots. A small, lightweight tripod may be a consideration - they are a pain to carry around but may be useful for those more challenging night time shots. An external flash may be worthwhile to complement the camera's relatively low powered integrated flash. Be aware that the inbuilt flash will only illuminate subjects up to 3-4m away and even an external unit will run out at 10m or so. They are useless for photographing sporting events or big shows where the subjects are just too far away. You will also be limited in using flash in many museums, churches, historic buildings and especially art galleries. Learning how to take longer exposures will often allow you take photos in these areas and more importantly, the images will better reproduce the natural colours compared with the starkness of a picture taken with flash.

If a crossover, point-and-shoot or phone camera will cover your needs, there are very few, if any, accessories required. A lightweight tripod may be a consideration for night time shots or the occasional photo in a museum or cathedral. A clip-on telephoto adaptor may be worth considering for your phone camera and perhaps a Hoodman, which allows you to view your images on the screen in bright conditions.

There are some additional items which should be considered. Lenses should have a UV filter to protect the lens. A lot of lenses come with a sun shield to reduce the effect of incidental light - always use this, even in dark situations, since it provides very useful mechanical protection for the lens. The only other filter worth considering is a polarising filter. When fitted, the rotating ring is turned to give different lighting effects. It can eliminate glare from water, remove reflections from glass and improve the contrast of the sky. It is difficult to predict the extent of any of these effects in advance; you just have to suck-it and see. Be warned, this sort of filter reduces the amount of light getting to the sensor by about a half so you will have to take that into account when taking the picture. Before buying a UV or a polarizing filter, check the screw size of the target lens. Note that many crossover and point-and-shoot cameras will not accommodate such filters.

Carrying a camera around all day using a traditional strap can be literally a pain in the neck. A good alternative is the BlackRapid strap which supports the camera around the shoulder allowing the equipment to hang by your side. The camera attaches by a standard screw in the base and easily slides up the strap for taking a picture. It is one of the more worthwhile camera accessories you can get.

This brings us to the important question of storing your treasured images. There are many options and these will be dictated by how tech savvy you are. All the digital images have to be stored in memory somewhere and this will have a finite capacity. The amount of memory required will be determined by three factors: how many images are taken, the file type you have selected to capture the picture and the size of the sensor in your camera. As a general rule, most images will be in JPEG format and this is usually good enough for most applications, compressing the original image size to make a much smaller file without a significant loss in quality. Most cameras will give you three choices of JPEG compression which will correspond to different file sizes. Unless memory capacity is a real issue, always use the highest quality setting. For those after maximum image quality, use the RAW setting. This will give you the opportunity to make significant adjustments to your photos later using the full power of programs such as Photoshop. The downside is the file sizes are about 10 times the equivalent JPEG image. Also, unless you are taking a laptop of reasonable processing power with a RAW image processing package, you won't be able to view your photos except on the camera. One way around this problem is to select the "RAW and JPEG" function from the camera menu. In this mode, both formats are stored simultaneously when the picture is taken, giving you access to the JPEG version of the image for viewing and sharing and the RAW version, to be dealt with later on.

If you are a keen photographer and you are away for several weeks, it is not unreasonable that you will accumulate several thousand images. If they are in RAW, storage can become an issue. Since memory cards are relatively cheap, a simple solution is to take several high capacity ones with you or buy additional cards on the trip. When time permits, do some basic editing by reviewing your images on the camera screen and getting rid of the duds straight away. This saves time later on and frees up memory space. A better way is to take a small laptop. Each night you can download all your days' images, freeing up your memory card for the next day's shooting. This also has the advantage of allowing for some editing on a bigger screen before emailing your images to all and sundry when an internet connection becomes available. A laptop also gives you the ability to transfer your files onto an external disk drive via a USB for virtually unlimited storage. By transferring your photos on a daily basis, it is easier to catalogue for future reference plus, if your camera is lost, stolen or damaged, you still have a backup.

TIPS FOR TAKING YOUR CAMERA ON HOLIDAY

·Remember to pack the battery charger and lead. Don't forget the plug adapter for your destination. If the camera or flash, uses replaceable batteries, take a good supply of quality alkaline cells.

·For DLSRs, check the sensor for dust spots. This can be easily done by stopping down the camera to say f11 and taking a picture of a clear blue sky. If the resulting image has spots on it, get it cleaned professionally before you go. This can take up to a week so don't leave it to the last day.

·Check your lenses for dust. If there are finger prints or worse, get it cleaned professionally. If there are a few spots of dust, use a lens cleaning brush. If in doubt, leave it alone, a couple of specs of dust will have a negligible effect on your image.

·If you are going to a wet region such a rainforest check to see if your equipment is weather sealed. If not, make sure you have some plastic bags or a waterproof camera bag to protect your gear.

·If a very cold destination is on your itinerary, battery life will become an issue. Take several hand warmers to keep your spare battery from getting too cold.

·If you are anticipating taking night shots, make sure you know how to use the camera in manual mode. Take a small torch so you can see the controls in the dark. A head torch is excellent for this purpose. Remember to turn it off when taking the shot.

·At a minimum, read as much of the manual as you need to allow you to set up aperture or shutter priority to get the best possible picture when the automatic setting won't do the job. Also find out how to adjust the ISO setting for just the same reason.

·If you have bought a new camera especially for the trip, practise at home to master its basic operations.

·If you are taking a tripod, make sure all aspects are working and that the camera attachment plate is still there.

·Take the manual. They are generally difficult to read, but if something happens to the settings, the manual should be able to get you back on track. Worst case scenario, it will allow someone else to be able to help you.

·If you are taking a laptop, you will need either a cable to connect the camera for downloads or a card reader. Don't forget the charger, lead and plug adapter for the laptop. If you are carrying the laptop on the plane, make sure it is easily accessible for the security check.