Best Travel Cameras: 11 Cameras to Get in 2019 (Plus Accessories too!)

Updated: 1/5/2019 | January 5th, 2019

Today, professional photographer Laurence Norah of Finding the Universe, continues his five-part series on taking better travel photos. Many of you are looking to improve your travel photography so Laurence is here to help us do just that. In this post, Laurence goes in-depth on how to pick the perfect travel camera and gear for your trip.

There is a belief that better photography gear will equate to better photographs. While this is certainly the case in specific situations, the reality is that it is the skill of the photographer that makes all the difference. A pro-level camera in inexperienced hands will likely result in worse photographs than those taken by someone using an iPhone.

Knowing how to compose a great photo and how to use your camera properly are the two most important parts of taking a great photo, with the camera gear itself coming next in importance after these two.

Sometimes, gear does make a difference, particularly for situations such as fast-moving subjects or when there is less light available, in which case you might need a camera with a bigger sensor or a lens with a wider aperture. This is why you often see sports or wedding photographers carrying such expensive-looking equipment. But for your average travel photograph, the gear isn’t going to be the definitive factor. Rather, it’s important to get the right gear for you, your budget, and your skill level.

How much money do you want to spend?

There’s no point spending time looking at gear that isn’t in your budget. Set yourself a budget before you begin, and don’t forget to factor in lenses, memory cards, spare batteries, filters, and other accessories.

There is a law of diminishing returns, with a sweet spot currently of around $500–1,000 USD for a solid setup that will do everything you need.

Consider these price guidelines for all the equipment you’ll need:

• Budget: $150–300 USD
• Value: $300–500 USD
• Mid-range: $500–1,000 USD
• High-end: $1,000+ USD

How much gear are you willing to carry?

Weight is a serious consideration, and you have to be brutally honest with yourself about what you are willing to carry with you. I’ve often met people taking pictures with their smartphone who say they have a nice expensive DSLR sitting back in their hotel room that was “too heavy to bring out today.”

If you’re not the kind of person who wants to carry a heavy device, then don’t buy one in the first place. The best camera is always the one you have on you, so if you think you’re going to mostly just be keeping it light, then just invest in a decent smartphone or simple point-and-shoot.

For reference, your smartphone probably weighs around 6 oz., a point-and-shoot 8 oz., a mirrorless system with a lens around 16 oz., and a full DSLR system around 30 oz. or more.

The heavier the equipment, the higher the quality of construction, particularly of the optical elements, leading to higher-quality images. However, unless you are planning on selling your work for high-resolution printing, the difference probably won’t be noticeable.

This is another moment to be honest with yourself. Learning how to use a camera properly takes time, and if you don’t want to do that, then don’t invest in an overly expensive or complicated camera.

I’ve seen people with rigs costing in excess of $5,000 USD, shooting away in auto mode and wondering why the folks with the iPhones are getting better results. More expensive gear does not automatically equate to better photos!

There’s no exact science to figuring out how difficult a camera is to use, but difficulty indicators include costing more, having more buttons, and having a massive manual. The more complicated the camera, the more control that you have, but the harder it will be to achieve good results without investing time and effort into learning.

11 Best Cameras for Travel

The main difference between camera types is the size of the sensor inside the camera — the larger the sensor, the better the camera will perform in lower light, and the bulkier and more expensive it will be.

The following list is roughly ordered by sensor size, from small (smartphones) to larger (SLRs).

Getting the Best Travel Lens

If you are buying a mirrorless camera or SLR system, then you’re going to have to buy a lens. Consider spending at least as much on the lens as the camera body, if not more.

I suggest buying the camera body by itself and then buying a lens to meet your needs rather than the “kit-lens” that might come with it.

A lens has two specifications: focal length and maximum aperture.

The smaller the number of the aperture, the more light the camera will let in, allowing you to achieve various effects (as I described in the second post in this series).

The focal length is the zoom factor of the lens — the bigger the number in mm, the more magnification the lens offers; the smaller the number, the less magnification.

What to look for in a lens

For travel purposes, I’d advise buying two lenses:

• A cheaper “prime” lens with a fixed focal length of around 50mm and an aperture of 1.8, perfect for portraits or food.
• A good-quality “walk-around” zoom lens with a wide focal range to let you get everything from wide landscapes to close-up shots of people. Something in the range of 24-105mm would likely do.

The Best Travel Photography Accessories

You must factor in some money for purchasing accessories when buying a camera. I’d suggest the following:

• Spare battery: Most camera batteries last for 300-500 shots, so if you think you’ll be taking a lot of photos and might be away from power for a few days, a second battery could ensure that you don’t miss a moment. I’d advise buying the battery from your manufacturer to guarantee compatibility. Price: usually around $30 USD.
• External hard drive: Depending on the capacity of your laptop, you might find you need an external hard drive to store your photos. I travel with three Transcend ruggedized hard drives and store backups of my photos across two of them, as well as synchronize them to a cloud-based backup when I have fast enough Internet. Price: currently around $99 USD for a 2TB model.
• Filters: Lenses aren’t cheap. Pick up a relatively inexpensive UV filter for the front of your lens, and if you scratch it, you’ll just need to replace the filter rather than the whole lens. I would also suggest investing in a polarizing filter (as I mentioned in the second post in the series). Price: the larger the filter, the more expensive it is. $10–100 USD, with Hoya, B+W, and Tiffen being respectable brands.
• Memory cards: Memory cards are cheap, so pick up one or two Class 10 32Gb or 64Gb cards that’ll let you keep shooting for ages. I’ve not found much difference between brands, and have never had a card fail in all my years shooting. Price: $30 USD for 64Gb.
• Tripod: A tripod can really expand your creative possibilities, letting you take longer exposures and play with time. Even a small travel tripod can reap dividends for your travel photography. Again though, if you don’t think you’ll use it, don’t buy one. Price: $100 USD will get you a perfectly respectable model. I use the VEO range of Vanguard tripods, which fit nicely into a bag and weigh around 5 lbs, with prices ranging from $100 to $350 USD.

***

Never forget that the most powerful photography tool is you — not your camera! I traveled the world with an old 10-megapixel Canon Rebel SLR for years, producing both award-winning and income-generating photography from — by today’s standards — a very basic bit of kit.

It is far more important to invest time in learning how to take better photos than throwing money at gear. Do your research, figure out your personal travel style, and pick the gear that is right for you, based on weight, price, and your personal learning goals.

If that camera turns out to be a smartphone, awesome. The best camera for traveling is the one you are going to be taking with you whenever you walk out your door and head into the world and the one that fits your budget.

Laurence started his journey in June 2009 after quitting the corporate life and looking for a change of scenery. His blog, Finding the Universe, catalogs his experiences and is a wonderful resource for photography advice! You can also find him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

More Travel Photography Tips!

For more helpful travel photography tips, be sure to check out the rest of Laurence’s travel photography series:

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight
Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation
You can book your hostel with Hostelworld. If you want to stay elsewhere, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. I use them all the time.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance
Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

• World Nomads (for everyone below 70)
• Insure My Trip (for those over 70)

Looking for the best companies to save money with?
Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel – and I think will help you too!

4 Travel Gadgets Actually Worth Buying

Each month, Dave Dean from Too Many Adapters gives us great tips and advice on travel tech and gear. There’s so many options to choose from that Dave is here to tell us what gear and tech is worth it – and what should be avoided, speaking from his own personal experience. This month’s column is about gadgets worth taking on the road.

It’s surprisingly hard to find travel gear that delivers. There’s the tiny solar charger that took five days to half-charge my phone, the wind-up flashlight with a handle that snapped off the first time I used it, the travel mouse that chewed through batteries in a week, and the countless others I’ve tried and discarded over the years.

When space in your bag is limited, travel gear really has to work hard to justify its place on your packing list. To start with, they have to be able to go the distance — getting dirty, wet, jammed into backpacks, dropped, knocked around, and plugged into terrible electricity supplies. If they can’t, they’ll break in a hurry.

They also need to be small, light, and genuinely useful. Something you’ll use frequently and that noticeably improves your trip in some way.

With criteria like that, it’s no surprise there aren’t many tech gadgets I recommend for travel. But, now and then, I do come across something that bucks the trend and hits the sweet spot in terms of price, function, weight and reliability. Here are my current favorite pieces of gear for the tech traveler:

Mazzo Powerdrive

If you asked almost any smartphone owner what they want more of, it’s battery life and storage space.

The Mazzo Powerdrive deals with both problems at once, in an elegant and reasonably inexpensive device. I first came across it during its Kickstarter campaign and had the chance to use it earlier this year. It’s about the size of a deck of cards and weighs 7.5 oz. (around 215g). That’s not super light, but it’s not heavy enough to put you off keeping it in your daypack.

Inside sits a 7800mAh battery pack, and between 16Gb and 128Gb of storage. You can charge two USB-powered devices from it at once, and the battery is big enough to charge an iPhone 6 up to three times. The storage is designed for iOS, but I was able to get it working with my particular Android devices as well with an extra cable.

You’ll pay between $79 and $249 on Amazon, depending on the amount of storage.

This is an awesome device for those looking for extra storage space and power.

Monster Travel Power Strip

Charging my devices when I travel used to be a major pain (I have a lot). I have several devices from around the world, which means a mixture of different plugs and adapters needed whenever I want to charge a device… plus, lots of sockets!

I swapped out all of my non-US power cords then bought a Monster travel power strip to plug them all into. It’s lightweight and only around six inches long, and the cable wraps lengthwise around the strip to stay in place when I’m on the move.

I opted for the one with three US sockets and a single USB port, but there’s also a version that has four US sockets. Yet another variation has three sockets and two USB ports, and plugs directly into the wall.

Regardless of which option you go for, this lightweight power strip allows you to charge multiple devices from one outlet without the hassle of having lots of adapters too!

Chargers, Adapters, and Cables

Speaking of travel adapters, there are a lot of overpriced junk ones out there. I’ve seen country-specific adapters going for as much as $20 at airport stores, and they looked like the kind of thing that wouldn’t last a week.

Unless you know for certain that all the countries you’ll visit on your trip use the same plug type, buy a universal adapter. I’ve been using a super cheap model (four bucks on Amazon!) for four years — I had to replace it once when it stopped working, but I figure $2/year isn’t a bad investment.

I also like multi-part adapters — they’re more expensive but tend to have more options. Some models also includes a USB socket, which is a nice touch.

It’s also worth packing a USB charger. If your phone or tablet didn’t come with one, a decent dual-port charger will set you back around $10 — just be sure that at least one port is rated at 2.1 amps so tablets will charge properly.

Corsair Flash Survivor USB stick

A USB stick is useful for travelers as it’s the easiest way to share video files or lots of photos, and to get things like boarding passes printed out without logging into email on dodgy computers in hostels and internet cafes.

The Corsair Flash Survivor is a shockproof, waterproof, dustproof USB stick that comes in capacities up to 256GB. That’s enough space to back up photos from even the longest trips, as well as store enough music and movies to keep you entertained. That means you won’t need to carry a separate portable hard drive for backups, which often break and take up a lot of space.

You’ll pay a little under $100 for the 128Gb version, or around $150 for the highest capacity. That’s not bad for an almost-unbreakable, multipurpose backup device that fits in your pocket.

The key thing to remember when picking travel tech is don’t get carried away — easy to end up with far too much in your luggage. Pick a few accessories that combine two or more different functions into one device. Look for things that will save frustration, time, money, and space in your bag.

If you do, you’ll have an easier, more enjoyable trip — without carrying 20 pounds of electronic junk in your backpack.

For more advice and tips on the best travel gear, visit this page.

Dave runs Too Many Adapters, a site devoted to technology for travelers. A geek as long as he can remember, he worked in IT for 15 years. Now based out of a backpack long term, Dave writes about travel and tech from anywhere with half-decent Internet and a great view. You can also find him talking about the life of a long-term traveller at What’s Dave Doing?

How to Waterproof Your Travel Gear — From Shoes to Bags

Travel can be full of unexpected hazards, and weather will likely account for at least half of them. You can’t change the forecast, but you can take steps to avoid getting delayed by soggy feet or a soaked bag of clothes while you should be out exploring.

One of those steps is waterproofing your gear before your trip. A quick spray or rubdown can prepare you for surprise thunderstorms and make sure that you don’t accidentally sacrifice your favorite pair of shoes.

The vice president of marketing at popular waterproofing supply brand Nikwax, Heidi Allen, advises travelers prep anything they might possibly be wearing or carrying in the rain or near water. “I’ll waterproof my travel pants and even my jeans before a trip, to make sure even if I do get wet, things will dry as quickly as possible,” she said.

Related: 11 Waterproof Walking Shoes to Make the Most of a Rainy Trip

Every waterproofing product will have different requirements and instructions, but the basic prep steps should remain the same. First, make sure whatever you’re prepping is clean. Sealing water out will also mean sealing in whatever’s on there when you start, and dirt or factory chemicals may interfere with how well the treatment bonds to the material. Some of your rain gear may come with DWR, which stands for Durable Water Repellent, built in and should be able to regain its water-blocking abilities with a cleaning. Allen recommends testing it by spraying the item with water. If the water beads up, the DWR is intact; if it soaks in, the DWR has worn off and needs to be reapplied.

After the cleaning, you may need to leave your item slightly damp or even wet to apply the product — check the instructions. You should also make sure you do a spot check somewhere unobtrusive to see how the color and texture of the item react. Now, find a well-ventilated spot and get to work.