What to Look for When Buying Digital Compact Cameras for Travel

What to Look for When Buying Digital Compact Cameras for Travel

What I enjoy most when traveling is seeing new places and taking pictures of what I am seeing. I have a nice digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera but I find that sometimes it is just too bulky when I am traveling. Might it be that there just is not enough room in my carry on luggage for a larger camera bag, and dare I check it hoping that it will still be in my bag when I retrieve them from the luggage carousal? And not broken t either! This is one reason that I like nice compact digital cameras as they lend well to traveling, and some are small enough to fit inside your shirt pocket. What I found when examining the options is that the compact digital cameras are not just for amateurs, but rather that they are sophisticated enough for even the pros to use.

The best digital cameras are going to offer a number of specifications:

With this article I am providing a chart of the specifications of the cameras that I think are the "Best Digital Cameras for Traveling!" Fortunately the compact digital cameras are relatively small units. I did find that the "X" has the overall smallest size and weight.

Next you will want to examine options like ISO settings and scene modes. This is important when you are in especially low or bright areas. You may want to dial back the sunshine some or you might need to adjust for the low lighting by overriding the automatic setting so that you can capture the scene.

Most but not all cameras offer movie mode, and this is a nice feature to have when you want to capture just a few minutes of live action and you do not want to have to bring along your digital cam recorder. What you will want to look for is how long you can actually capture live video as well as the number of fps. FPS indicates the quality of the video. Anything above 26 fps will b adequate.

Does the camera have a zoom lens? They all do to some extent, but now the question is what type of zoom is offered? Is it digital zoom compared to an optical zoom? Optical zoom will allow you to get close to the action and digital zoom will allow some manipulation of the picture that you are taking. The best is a combination of both. Look for a optical zoom greater than 3, usually 4 times is best. Then look at the total zoom option, most are a 1:2 ratio, where you have a optical zoom of 4 times and a combines zoom of 8 times. This indicates that the photo taken will provide sufficient digital detail in case you want to enlarge the print to an 8x10 or 12x16.

Battery life will make or break which cameras would be considered a "Best Digital Camera for Travel" As you do not want to find yourself running out of batteries just when you are arriving at that final location on your tour that you have been waiting all day to obtain a picture of you next to the tower, painting, landmark, etc.

Another area that you need to take into consideration is how the camera feels in your hand as the better the fit the "better" that camera is for you, thus making it the "Best Compact Digital Camera for Traveling" to meet your needs. I have a larger hand so I tend to gravitate towards cameras that have some contour in the body that helps me to grip the camera firmly. If I have a firm grip on the camera I find that I tend to have a steadier hand when taking photos and this leads to getting the photo that I want and that makes for an overall better experience.

This is not a complete list of available cameras, but these cameras were all on the smaller size format that will fit into your pocket or purse well. They all offer both still and video image, even though I was not able to gather all the specs for every camera.

Please review GRID that shows the features of the Digital Cameras best suited for Travel

Published by Timothy Knuth

Network Virtual Support, originally Tim Knuth's Computer Services, began when I was a freshman in college. People that I knew kept me busy by requesting my services to help them with their computer needs:. View profile

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