Travel photography/Full systems
Photo: 根川孝太郎 (Kotaro Negawa), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
For travel, you want a camera body plus a set of lenses that covers most or all of the types of photo you want to take at a price that does not break the bank and a weight that does not break your back. This is often achievable, though usually some compromises are involved.
We cover simple systems that will suit many travellers in the main travel photography article. This article gives suggestions for a more elaborate system based on a camera with interchangeable lenses. Take these suggestions a bit sceptically since all the choices here depend on your personal preferences and priorities in rather complex ways.
An old adage is that to get the best system at any price point, you should spend around two thirds of your budget on glass and only about a third on the camera body. Many users today, though, do more-or-less the opposite, buying a good body but, initially at least, getting only the cheap kit lens that comes bundled with it. Many are quite happy with such a purchase, but most will sooner or later add more lenses.
Certainly lenses are a better long-term investment than digital bodies. Plenty of lenses made in the 20th century are still giving fine results, many could still be sold for a large fraction of their original price, and a few classics fetch more today than they sold for new. However, while older digital bodies may still give good results, they usually sell for far less than their original cost. Semiconductor technology changes fast; newer bodies will generally have both better sensors and better in-camera image processing.
Brands and systemsCompeting manufacturers almost always use lens mounts that are incompatible, so customers are often locked in to a single brand.
BodiesThe first thing to choose is the body; that will constrain all the later choices of lenses.
LensesWhile the camera's body records the image (either digitally or onto film), it would be utterly useless without a lens.
TripodsThe longer the lens, the more likely you are to need a tripod, both because the lens is heavy and because the magnification of the image increases the adverse effect of any camera movement.
General rulesOwning a lot of lenses may make sense, but for travel carrying all of them generally does not. You want to keep your carry-all-the-time kit down to two or three lenses, and some people do fine with only one.
Mixing systemsAn advantage of most DSLRs is that they use the same lens mount as older cameras so they can use older lenses. For most users, a film camera does not make much sense today, but see Travel photography/Film for discussion.
Putting a system togetherA common approach to assembling a good system is to pick one type of lens you really need, then choose other lenses to go with it.
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "Travel photography/Full systems" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: 根川孝太郎 (Kotaro Negawa), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons