Camera Advice

This is like asking "What are the best shoes". You will draw them out of the woodwork. We each take a Panasonic Lumix ZS1 on each journey. They aren't the very smallest, nor are they the most complicated. They take good pictures you can transfer to your laptop and computer printer. Their picture quality it exceptional, in my opinion, to most other little cameras.

One approach is to go to www.dpreview.com and look for the 'camera feature search.' Using this you can see many cameras in your price range. The brand we use is Canon. (Having said that, Costco has a Panasonic ZS25 on sale thru Sunday for just over your maximum price. It has lots of good features.) Enjoy your trip!

I think you pretty much can't go far wrong with anything in the Canon PowerShot family of cameras, and the FujiFilm FinePix family of cameras is also getting very positive reviews. Go to fujifilmusa.com and choose Products > Digital Cameras > Digital Camera Showcase to compare features. Likewise, go to www.usa.canon.com and choose Consumer & Home Office > Cameras > PowerShot Cameras. Once you narrow the field of choices, search for low prices. When I bought my first Canon at Best Buy several years ago the guys in the camera department were very knowledgable and helped me look at several models and make up my mind. They also helped me choose the needed accessories for what I wanted to use the camera for (extra memory cards, extra rechargeable battery, etc.). You might enjoy reading this recent thread: https://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/104802/tips-for-taking-great-travel-photos.html Good luck!

Thanks everyone. All of your advice helps a lot. Happy travels!

Mary, I'd suggest visiting a few of your local Camera stores to get some idea on the types of Cameras currently available that fit your criteria. You'll probably find a greater level of expertise at a "Camera" store rather than one of the larger stores like Best Buy. It might be a good idea to increase your price level a notch or two to give you a wider variety of models to choose from. For both travel and general purpose use, you might want to focus (no pun intended) on one of the cameras with long range zoom. Some of the models you could look at: > Panasonic DMC-ZS30 or DMC-ZS25 - excellent zoom range (20x in the ZS-30 & 16x in the ZS-25). I believe the high end model can also be controlled remotely with a Smart phone and also has built-in GPS (although I'd recommend switching that "off" as it depletes the battery faster). > Canon SX 280 HS - 20x image stabilized zoom. You could also have a look at other models of this type such as the SX 270 or SX 260. > Fuji F900 EXR - 20x image stabilized zoom. You could also look at other models in that series such as the F800 EXR. Once you've decided on a Camera, have a look at some reviews to see whether there are any "issues" to be aware of. If the Camera was recently introduced, there may not be any reviews yet. Some of the sites you could check: > www.dpreview.com > www.steves-digicams.com > www.imaging-resource.com Be sure to budget for Memory Cards, an extra Battery and possibly a small Case. All of the Cameras can take video, so having a larger and faster memory card will be an advantage. Some of the Cameras are capable of wireless transfer to a Laptop, while with others you'd have to remove the Memory Card and transfer via a Card Reader (not difficult). Good luck!

I don't think you can go wrong with a Nikon or Canon. Both companies produce cameras that take consistently good pictures in a lot of price ranges. Go to Costco and see what they have in your price range. Features I like: Big view window, it makes it easy to review your photos and edit out any obviously bad ones. It also helps you compose your shots and know what is in or out of the picture. Movement reduction, this will help save pictures that would otherwise be lost to camera movement. Low light capability, taking indoor shots without a flash is very useful. Many places have a no-flash policy. Optical zoom, many low-end cameras come with 3x optical zoom plus some digital zoom. Digital zoom essentially reduces the field of view, to a portion of what your camera is seeing, without actually zooming the camera. Optical zoom actually zooms the lens. Digital is worthless; I find an Optical zoom of 5x or more is very helpful. 3x isn't quite enough.

Full HD video, for shots that need motion (cliff divers in Alcupulco, waterfalls, music/dance performances, parades, etc.), an HD video option is really helpful. Take a variety of stills and video rather than all one or the other. Small, I lugged an SLR, bag, lenses, tripod, filters, etc. all over Asia years ago. My friend carried a small auto-focus Canon pocket-sized camera. My pictures were great; so were his. Mine weren't enough better to justify carrying the weight. Since then I buy the smallest quality camera I can find, change the wrist strap for a neck strap, and keep it around my neck and tucked into my shirt or jacket when I'm not taking a picture. Multiple memory cards, Rather than one very large 32 gb card bring an assortment in the 4 or 8 gb category. Although you have to change them occasionally, all your eggs (pictures) won't be in one basket. If you lose your camera, or a particular memory card goes faulty - you will still have the pics you took earlier and stowed safely in your luggage. I may think of more...

An extra battery is a great idea. The rechargeable batteries in most cameras generate a fairly consistent output until just before they run out of juice. Your camera will show a fully charged battery in the morning that may be dead by 10 am. Keep a charged battery with you so you don't lose a day (having to wait to recharge the battery in your camera). Along that line battery life, another nice feature is a camera that will take around 300 photos on one battery charge. Do a little research before you buy a camera so you can take pictures for at least one day without having to recharge your battery.

I like the Canon SX160 ($149), in some ways better than the 260. I especially like that it used standard AA batteries. No worry about a charger, extra batteries, ect., It would meet your standards completely.

Like shoes, just make sure you don't wait til a few days before to buy it - there are a lot of functions on cameras now and you want to have a good grasp on it before you leave - make sure you are comfortable with it - and don't forget your battery charger! More then a few times (when I worked in a camera store) we had people come in buying a battery charger because they left theirs at home. Nikon, Fuji (what I've owned 3 of) and Canon are all good. Canon seemed to be our most popular brand...the powershots...also, some of the Nikons (and maybe others...I've been out of the camera loop since last July) have a Bluetooth or similar function to upload to your laptop (I'm assuming you need wifi) without wires/connectors. If you are going to be on beaches/wet areas, you may want to consider a waterproof camera, but they limit your zoom capabilities.

The small rechargeable battery for the Canon PowerShots and the charger it slips into are lightweight and I have found that the recharge was quick at night. It's more environmentally responsible to use a rechargeable battery than to be dropping disposable AA batteries in regular trash where they then end up in landfills.

Don't know why the batteries have to end in a landfill. I used Lithium which give very long service which means I seldom use more than two batteries, bring 'em home and drop them off at the recycle. However, if that is important to you, then use rechargeable AAs and a charger but you still have the option of buying batteries locally should something happen to the batteries or the charger. It is call options and backups. As an old engineer I like back ups. On our most recent trip, our son forgot his charger and after nine days his camera was dead and that was with very careful usage of his batteries.

My Fuji takes 4 AA (it's a super-zoom) and I have 2 sets of rechargeable batteries...one to charge overnight and the ones in the camera. Haven't had them go dead yet (but I always carry the spares). My WTH moment - our first trip in 2008, my Fuji takes 2 AA batteries but I didn't check before we left and was using disposable...except I thought it took AAA batteries - I bought a couple dozen AAA (still have a few left) and after the first few hours when I opened up the camera and saw the AA...groan! I don't want to speculate on how much money I dropped in batteries in that trip, but I'm sure it was in the $50-60 range. And batteries are more expensive the closer to tourist traps we were...right outside the Coliseum I paid like 8 euro...then about 10 min down the road they were 3 euro...I learned 2 very impt lessons on that trip!

Stick with the best brands...either Canon or Nikon and you can't go wrong. I personally feel that the Canon brand is a bit easier to use, but that's me. I love a long zoom lens so I can get details on buildings...if you get a wide angle lens (18mm) you will get more in each photo. Trying to take a picture of a church when you have no room to back up with a camera that is 28mm, you only get part of the church in the photo. I learned that the hard way. It all depends on what you want from the camera. It sounds like you simply want to post on Facebook and have them for a slide show on your computer, so you aren't asking for an advanced camera of any kind. Most cameras will take movies as well, but I use my iphone for that, simple to post on Facebook for friends at home. Stick with Canon or Nikon, you can't go wrong. Target has a nice ion, and there is always Costco. I like to buy from a store so if there is a problem, it's an easy return. As another poster suggested, so get the camera well in advance of your trip and USE it so you understand the options and how to transfer to Facebook (i.e. to your computer to post)

If you have not bought a camera "in many years", chances are that you will be greatly surprised by the excellent photos even tiny bargain cameras (like the Canon Elph series and others that cost under $200) can take now, as well as many of the extra features they are able to pack in there - some useful and some gimmicky. It is also likely that any of the mid-level cameras mentioned here will be overkill for you. Nice cameras, yes, but you could be overcome with needless complexity. Heck, the current versions of the iPhone and iPod Touch have cameras on them that are better than most digital cameras of just 6-7 years ago. So I would simply urge you to go to a store with several entry-level models to choose from and play with them for a while. Pick one that seems the most intuitive to use. Give bonus points to those with longer zooms, feel sturdy and well-designed, and are made by a respected company like Canon or Fuji (and some others). Comfort yourself in the knowledge that even a $200 camera will pay for itself in one trip today vs. and film camera from 10+ years ago once you factor in the essentially "free" costs of digital photos - to say nothing of the convenience of being able to review the photos on-screen rather than simply hoping they turned out.

I very much appreciate all the advice and tips. Will be heading to the camera store and feel well informed on things to look for and avoid. Happy travels!

When I bought my Canon Powershot the salesman gave me some advice about the memory card. There are different types and I should get one that said it would be 'faster' to take pictures with than the other memory cards. After I did a little research I did discover that one made by a well-known manufacturer was faster than the the other ones by the same manufacturer. Also, with my Powershot I found that you cannot recharge the battery until it goes completely dead. So I bought three of the batteries so that I could keep shooting.