Best Travel Cameras – Introduction
It’s always great to be able to combine your passion for traveling the world with your passion for photography. Unfortunately, a poor choice in travel photography equipment can make the whole experience a nightmare. That is why it is important to choose the best compact camera for travel.
This article will guide you through the best compact cameras for travel 2021, and know which camera to buy for travel.
What many people don’t realize is that you don’t need a DSLR camera to take great photos. In today’s market, many compact cameras fit perfectly and deliver great images. But what camera to buy to travel?
1. Panasonic Lumix TZ / ZS 200 – The Best Travel Camera
The Lumix TZ200 is one of the best cameras for pocket travel. It comes with an impressive 15x retractable zoom lens. Weighing in at 340g, it feels solid in your hand, thanks to the metal body.
It has a large 20.1 megapixels sensor, type 1 to ensure high image quality. Although not very fast, the TZ / ZS 200’s zoom lens covers an impressive 26-390mm focal range. This is ideal for travel photography.
Low-light performances are good, thanks to 5-axis OIS hybrid stabilization. You can raise your ISO to 12,800. The image will look too smooth due to aggressive noise reduction at higher ISO settings.
Images are composed and can be reviewed with the large 3-inch LCD screen. Although it is not tiltable, it does have touch screen capabilities. The TZ / ZS 200 has many automatic modes to make it easier for beginners. Experienced users will enjoy the ability to switch to manual.
This Panasonic has a 4K video at 30 fps and a 4K Photo mode. You can extract individual frames and save them as 8 megapixels still photos.
Battery life is good, guaranteeing about 350 shots before it needs to be recharged. Another great feature for the travel photographer is that you can recharge the battery with the AC charger or via USB, using a portable power bank.
2. Sony Cyber-Shot HX99 – One Of The Best Travel Cameras
When traveling, it is important to be comfortable, but able to cope with all kinds of situations.
The Sony Cyber-Shot HX99 is very compact and light. It comes in a package that weighs only 242g. Includes an extreme 28x optical zoom lens, a built-in electronic viewfinder, and a large multi-angle touchscreen; which puts it in an excellent position when it comes to awarding the best travel camera.
The camera has a classic 1 / 2.3 type sensor but a very high image resolution of 18.2 megapixels. Image quality is better than most camera phones. But if you value this more than the zoom range, you should look at compact cameras that have a 1-inch sensor.
Unfortunately, not many 1″ sensor cameras can cover the Sony HX99’s impressive 24-720mm focal range. Experienced photographers will also appreciate the addition of raw capture. This will give you more flexibility to adjust images after capture. Less impressive are the tight controls, but that’s the price to pay with many compact cameras.
3. Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II – The Best Compact Travel Camera
The Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II is the best compact camera for pocket travel, similar to the Sony RX100. If you like the RX100 M3 for its fast lens, but want a longer zoom, this Canon is worth considering. The driving experience is superior. The camera feels solid and is well built.
The large multi-angle tilting LCD screen is ideal for selfies and video bloggers. The pop-up viewfinder is very useful for shooting outdoors in bright light. The pop-up flash is ideal for taking pictures indoors.
Thanks to the large 1″ sensor, as well as a good dynamic range, it delivers very high-quality images with beautiful colors. A built-in ND filter can help you capture long exposures in daylight. This is a very good option if you find yourself near a waterfall or if you want to empty a tourist spot of the crowd.
Professional photographers will appreciate the fact that the G5 X II can shoot RAW images at 30fps. It comes with a pre-capture option.
AF is fast and accurate. But it can’t track moving subjects during burst shooting and the battery life is below average.
4. Sony Cyber-shot RX10 IV – Best travel Camera
The Sony RX10 IV is the best and most expensive travel camera on this list. Its price is well justified by the camera performances, which will appeal to expert and professional photographers on the move.
The Sony RX10 is quite a bulky bridge camera, DSLR style. While not the lightest and most compact camera on this list, the RX10 packs a wonderful zoom lens that covers the impressive 24-600mm range. It’s bright too, with a variable f / 2.4-4 aperture.
Optical stabilization is very effective. Combined with the fast aperture, it makes it easier to get good images in low-light conditions.
Other cool features include fast and accurate hybrid AF, fast 24fps burst shooting mode, and RAW image format. On the connectivity side, the camera includes NFC, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. These allow easy transfer of your images to a smartphone and remotely control the camera with it.
The Sony RX10 IV also records high-quality 4K video. The dedicated microphone jack port allows you to record audio with an external microphone. This makes this camera very attractive to vloggers.
5. Olympus Tough TG-6 – Travel Photo Camera
The Olympus Tough TG-6 is the newest model in the Olympus series of rugged cameras. This travel camera is designed for adventures. It is small and lightweight and can easily fit in your pockets.
It is shock-resistant from 2.1 m, crushproof up to 100 kg, dustproof and freezeproof to -10 ºC, and water-resistant up to 15 mt. Built-in optical stabilization ensures shake-free photos and videos.
Photographic capabilities are good. The 25-100mm zoom lens is suitable for landscape photography while being able to zoom in and isolate the subject from a wider scene.
At the wide end, the aperture is fast f / 2, which is ideal for low-light conditions. Zoom in and the aperture drops pretty quickly, down to f / 4.9 at the telephoto end of the zoom.
Despite the small sensor, the ISO can be set up to 12800, which helps in low-light conditions.
Images can be recorded as JPEG only. But the camera offers many automatic modes. These include a selectable underwater white balance mode, live composite, 9 artistic effects, microscope modes, and even focus stacking. Burst speed is good, up to 10fps.
The TG-6 offers Wi-Fi connectivity and includes GPS, compass, pressure gauge, and temperature sensors. This camera focuses on outdoor and adventure travel. However, if you like reports and people, there are better compact cameras for travel options.
6. Panasonic Lumix LX100 II – Good Camera For Travel
The Lumix LX 100 Mark II is a good and attractive travel camera. What sets it apart from the rest of the pocket-sized compact cameras on this list is its large four-thirds microsensor.
In a compact body, Panasonic packed a four-thirds microsensor. This is not much smaller than the APS-C sensors found in many DSLR cameras, and larger than the 1″ sensors from Sony RX100 & Co.
The multi-aspect micro four-thirds sensor allows you to shoot in 3: 4, 3: 2, and 16: 9 aspect ratios without cropping the image, and without losing pixels.
The retractable lens has a modest 3x zoom, which covers a fairly narrow 24-75mm focal range. While this may force you to zoom in with your feet, the lens is very bright. Combine this with the large sensor size and it’s not surprising that low-light performances are excellent.
We also find 4K video and photo quality, RAW format, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a large 3” touch screen (albeit fixed), and a camera that can be recharged via USB.
7. Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III – One Of The Best Travel Cameras
The EM-10 Mk III is the latest improvement in the entry-level line of Olympus OM-D cameras. This is one of the best compact and lightweight mirrorless travel cameras. The micro four-thirds sensor allows Olympus to keep the lens size very small. This makes the camera very portable, ideal for travel and landscape photography.
Image quality is excellent, even with the usual 14-42mm kit lens. Over time, you can expand your equipment with more lenses to cover shorter and shorter focal lengths.
The camera features 5-axis in-camera image stabilization, 4K Ultra HD video, tilting touchscreen with tap-to-focus and tap-to-shoot, 15 art filters, and different shooting modes.
Continuous shooting speed is up to 8.6 fps. Selectable AF points are 121, and it has a built-in pop-up flash and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Instead of an optical viewfinder, the EM-10 has a very sharp and responsive 2.36 million dot OLED electronic viewfinder.
The big advantage of using a mirrorless four-thirds micro camera compared to a classic DSLR is that the lenses are often more compact and lighter. They have to work with a sensor smaller than the classic APS-C and full-frame sensors used in DSLRs.
Professional and enthusiast light travel photographers should consider combining this camera (or any of the Olympus OM-D family) with the Olympus Zuiko12-100 f / 4 PRO, a great travel zoom.
Conclusion
Travel and photography are passions that often go hand in hand. We try to freeze the many memories of exotic destinations in time.
By choosing the right camera, you will enjoy taking photos even more but make no mistake. Dragging along full photo crews revolving around the latest pro-DLSR is often not the best option.
