🎥 How to Choose a Camera to Travel 🎥

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If you like to travel and photograph, you know what to do with a camera in hand, but maybe you pass away from considering yourself a photographer.

Even so, you already worry about the equipment that will take you with you: how to choose the best camera to travel?

Each case is different and there is no right answer. In this text, however, I'll tell you about my choices so far :)

DSLR Camera

This acronym, used for decades almost as a synonym for professional cameras, means digital single lens reflex.

Complex name that indicates something really elaborate: a system of mirrors and a pentaprism that direct the light that goes through the lens of the camera to the viewfinder on the back of the equipment.

To understand the importance of this mirror system, which makes the camera bigger, noisier and obviously more expensive, we need to talk about the problems caused by its absence, as with compact cameras - which amateur and traveling photographers often carry (or used to, before the arrival of smartphones, that today makes these models are forgotten in the drawers of the house).

The photograph is formed by the light that passes through the lens and reaches the sensor (or the film, in the analog equipment).

This light enters the moment you click, opening the shutter, and follows a straight path to the sensor / film. The problem is that the viewfinder, which you use before clicking, to frame the picture and think the composition, obviously is not in the same position, but next to the camera lens.

This produces a distortion known as parallax error, which is caused by the different viewing angles between what the photographer observes on the viewfinder and what actually reaches the sensor.

You know when you look at the viewfinder and it looks like the whole scene is properly framed, but when you take the picture, you realize that the result was a bit different? Maybe someone's head is cut out of the image, for example. That's what we're talking about. DSLR mirrors correct this problem by reflecting the same light that goes to the sensor to the viewfinder where the photographer makes the framing.

With this system, DSLRs are also able to measure the light that actually passes through the lens, not the light that is in the environment. Another advantage is the accuracy of the focus.

That's how DSLRs have become the favorites of most photographers, gaining ground over cameras that do not have this mirror system.

It is worth to say that the practicality of the cameras without the mirrors, but with the same resources, always had its fans, among them important photographers, like Cartier Bresson and Sebastião Salgado.

Mirrorless

The world changed, technology evolved and in 2009 arrived the mirrorless, another stage of the development of smaller and more practical cameras.

As the name says, a mirrorless is a camera that does not have such a mirror system. This brings some advantages and, of course, disadvantages.

On the one hand the equipment is lighter, can be a little cheaper and calls less attention.

Do not confuse with so-called compact cameras, which are much cheaper and bring sensors very similar to what we have in any smartphone. Higher quality mirrorless equipment has the same APS-C sensor, equivalent to 23.4 x 15.6 mm, which is available in most of the more economical DSLRs.

The best mirrorless are up to full frame, with 35.9 × 24 mm sensor. In general, a larger sensor means more image quality.

In a mirrorless there is also no optical viewfinder - you can frame the LCD screen on the back of the camera or by an electronic viewfinder, how to control the parallax error.

But the differences may be out there. The mirrorless ones also allow the exchange of lenses, just like the DSLRs. The problem is that, because they are a much newer system, the supply of available lenses is still much lower than for DSLRs. In addition, the camera may even be small, but the lens will not necessarily be. This can produce a strange effect, of carrying a camera lighter, but with most of the weight on the lens.

GoPro

GoPro, a brand that has become synonymous with images in adventure or aquatic sports, has become popular in recent years. I bought mine only in 2017, a GoPro Hero 4 Session. It has no display or LCD screen, is waterproof (no need for protective case), small and portable. It is also easy to use, whether for photos or video.

How to decide and other important aspects

I've had a DSLR for three years. It's a Canon 70D. The only thing that really bothers me about it - and that could eventually lead me to a mirrorless - is the weight. And precisely because photographing and traveling are two important points of my routine. As I tend to travel with only hand luggage, my DSLR and its lenses end up occupying a large part of the 10 kilos made available for free by the airlines.

On the other hand, I do not know if I would adapt easily to the mirrorless electronic display / screen. The few times I've tested such cameras, I've also missed the grip. Being much lighter, I had the impression that holding the equipment required more attention.

But my goal here is to show that you do not necessarily need the greatest equipment to take the best pictures.

If you opt for a mirrorless camera, carefully study its settings and see if they match that of an incoming DSLR camera, such as Canon's t3i, t4i or t5i (and so on) series. Another important point is to check if the manufacturer has lenses available for the camera. Since DSLRs already have a tradition, you are unlikely to have difficulty buying compatible lenses, but I have seen people who opted for a mirrorless lens and then had difficulty finding the lenses they needed.

Lastly, battery life and wifi connection are other important points. In the first case it seems that the DSLRs are still better. Wi-Fi, available on my Canon 70D and several models released in recent years, is essential to download the photos directly from the camera to the mobile phone, making it easier to access the images while traveling. For cameras without this function, there is a memory card that inserts the tool.

Finally, do a price analysis, considering the cost / benefit. The trend is for mirrorless to become cheaper over time.