Point and shoot travel camera recommendations please

I bought a Sony DSC HX80 a couple of years ago when my old Olympus gave up the ghost. I've been quite happy with it, as there are several automatic modes as well as manual options. The main reason I picked it was the pop up viewfinder as an option to just looking at the screen, which I find hard to see in bright light. Plus it's got a very good optical zoom.

OTOH, DH uses a Canon and has been happy with his photos as well.

I’m a Canon gal. Besides my iPhone I’ll use a Canon G9X that I’ve had for 7 years.

Shop around for a good deal.

I have a Sony a 6000 mirrorless camera that works really well. I love it for my landscape photography. Not sure of the price these days but the model I have was around the $500 mark. Its compact enough to travel with you all day.

Do you have a phone with a decent camera? I have owned several Panasonic Lumix point and shoots and several Canon PowerShots as well but since I got an iPhone 11 pro I've stopped using them. The iPhone 11 (and newer and similar androids) take good photos. I have a Panasonic FZ1000 as my 'main' camera. It's not a point and shoot though it has all automatic setting options but it's much larger - about the size of a camera with interchangeable lenses but it's got a fixed zoom lens. It does take better images, in most cases, than the phone and has a much more powerful zoom and a viewfinder. If you are going to get a P&S without a viewfinder (which is most of them these days) then you are just as well off just having the phone.

Do you have an iPhone? You might consider an iPod Touch just for its camera. The OS is familiar and your icloud account will upload on wifi at every opportunity. Safer to use the iPod than pulling out your phone every time you want a photo.
I retired from my photography career four years ago and my recommendation to amateurs was to only buy as much camera as they needed. Don’t buy more lens than you can hold. No more mass than you can comfortably hang on your neck. No more resolution than required for the largest print you ever plan to make. No more money than you can afford to lose. No features that you know you will never use. A quick strart-up from Switch On to Shoot. Another thing I like is controls that can be manipulated with gloves.

My experience has been very good with Canon PowerShots.
Pros: Excellent quality images; durable; inexpensive enough so you don’t freak out if you lose it; all have the necessary features such as tripod socket and self timer, they us SD cards for storage.
Cons: Many new ones have only a back display for composing rather than a proper viewfinder
I don’t use my iPhone for pictures because the phone is too valuable for communication; it is too easy to drop and to misplace. Tuck away the phone safely but keep the camera at-the-ready so you don’t miss the social memories. Cameras also use SD cards so it is easy to have backups of photos.

Yes, I know, iPhones have wonderful cameras in them BUT I have witnessed several people smash their phones on cobblestones after slipping from sweaty hands in hot weather. I also watched a heartbreaking scene in Venice where a lady was recording her family and she dropped her brand new iPhone in the water. It must have been dramatic as the phone recorded its trip to the bottom of the Grand Canal!

If she had it all in the cloud, they can be retrieved. I loved my previous sureshot cameras, beautiful pictures. But I decided to get the iPhone 13 pro just fur the camera and am excited to use. It. I hope print pics come back clear. They never really did with my iPhone 10x

We are ditching the point and shoot for our cellphone camera (Samsung A32). It does a great job. As someone said, our photos are automatically loaded up to the cloud on Google photos. I will still have my dslr for some special shots that I plan on taking but the new cell phone camera is great.

My iphone13 takes great photos. I even print them on large canvases. No worries about losing the phone and losing all photos since the photos are backed up to the cloud. When my kids were younger, we went to Venice and I was worried about them dropping their phones in the canal. So I bought neck lanyards that worked great. Phones could be slipped under their shirt, but at the ready for pics.

Thanks for the replies! I don't have apple, I have a Samsung A32.

We are ditching the point and shoot for our cellphone camera (Samsung A32). It does a great job.

Interesting. Maybe I haven't paid much attention to the camera on my phone.

Given the current tech, a good point-and-shoot should be more than just a better lens than a phone's - it should still do what makes cameras special at a time when iPhones have so many advantages, and to me that begins with a viewfinder that you use properly, so you're taking photos with the camera against your own face and your elbows held against your sides, so that it isn't the software that's deciding how to make an image clear--ish but an actually clean capture.

Also, it should be used mostly on P and rarely on Auto, because you've taken the effort to get familiar with customizing the settings to the conditions, minimally that would be adjusting the white balance and the aperture. Customizing the white balance to the place and moment you're using the camera already gets you a long way towards outdoing all the tech wonders of current iPhones. Once your eye is accustomed to doing that, you'll see that so many of the snapshots you see have bad color schemes, even with all the fancy software.

The Samsung A32 has 48 mp. You need to explore the many functions it has such as food photography before your next trip. It’s really a good little camera.

The Samsung A32 has 48 mp. You need to explore the many functions it has such as food photography before your next trip. It’s really a good little camera.

Thank you, Mary. I used to have a galaxy phone and that camera was pretty good. I guess I wrongly thought this camera would be inferior. I'm going to Colorado next month, maybe I'll play around with it there and see how the photos turn out before spending money on a camera.

Phone cameras: I don't have an iPhone and thus cannot comment. However, a standalone camera still has merits over most phones. It's when the lighting is not perfect: when it's dark. Also, most of us are near or at retirement, and so our hands may have some degree of tremor. A camera deals with this better than a phone. Last but not least, sometimes a phone just locks up or freezes when you have that moment for a perfect shot! A camera is more convenient.

I shoot mainly with a dslr in manual raw/fine because I like greater control over some of my images and post process in Photoshop and Lightroom. But that being said the capabilities of the A32 are pretty darn good. You can control a lot of things with that cell phone that you could control with a dslr such as white balance. Pull out the camera manual for the phone and start playing with it. I took a number of photos in Costa Rica with the cell phone and I got some really good shots.

Lumix can be just what you are looking for. I’ve gone through 4 of them as technology improves, I upgrade. I have a Sony RX but that is $999. My lumix on trips is great. I hear Canons are great too, but I have kept on with Lumix. The dials and settings are all very similar.

Cellphone sensors are not as good as a camera. The camera allows you to shoot in RAW and therefore expands your editing and has more color. I shoot in RAW and JPEG.

It all depends on what you want to accomplish. I like the ability of controlling my shots with the use of many functions that the camera has. I will use my phone occasionally for less important events but for once in a lifetime travel places, I want to capture the moment with more creative options.

I’ve also taken online photo classes with Mike’s Camera to expand my knowledge with the point and shoots. It’s amazing functionality without having a big lens or DSL.

I loved my Panasonic Lumix that I used on my more recent trips to Europe. I lost it recently and plan on replacing it with another Lumix, just a newer model. It was easy to use, took great photos (some were better than I used to take with my SLR camera), and had just enough flexibility and different modes to get most any shots. Took great macro photos and made good enlargements up to 8x10s. I have some framed on my walls.

Before I had the Panasonic I used a Pentax P&S and it also took great photos.

I used to have a Lumix camera. Small, fit in a shirt pocket, took decent daylight pictures. I replaced it with a micro 4/3rds camera and am much happier with it. Someone earlier recommended a Sony A6000 mirrorless camera which is similar. The reason these cameras are better is because the sensor is so much bigger than what you get in a cellphone or a point-and-shoot. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APS-C and a review of one camera in this class at https://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/canon-eos-m200-review/

They give sharper images in daylight (useful when printing larger pictures on canvas at Costco) but where they really excel is in lower-light pics. If you want to take pictures inside a church, museum, etc. (especially when they say "no flash") then the larger sensor means you get a picture that isn't all grainy or blurred because the point-and-shoot needs such a slow shutter speed for the exposure that the inability to hold it perfectly still by hand affects the picture.

In your price range I think you can find these cameras. It may boil down to size and usage. If you want a shirt-pocket size camera then it's a point-and-shoot since the mirrorless cameras are jacket-pocket size. And if you don't care about interior pictures then you may be ok with a smaller sensor.

Thank you for the suggestions, I really appreciate it.

I often use an Olympus TG-5 camera. Waterproof, freezeproof, and dropproof with a razor sharp Olympus lens. It has survived England, Wales, Scotland, South Africa, etc. Includes a GPS as well.

They give sharper images in daylight (useful when printing larger pictures on canvas at Costco) but where they really excel is in lower-light pics. If you want to take pictures inside a church, museum, etc. (especially when they say "no flash") then the larger sensor means you get a picture that isn't all grainy or blurred because the point-and-shoot needs such a slow shutter speed for the exposure that the inability to hold it perfectly still by hand affects the picture.

This is pretty much the reason I feel I need something more than my cell phone. I'm going to Belgium and The Netherlands in autumn where there will likely be some overcast/drizzly days. I want something that will give nice photos in dimmer, overcast light, and yes, also indoors.

I like my Canon Power Shot SX740HS.

My husband would say that cell phone cameras just don't produce the quality of shots that he wants. He is a photo buff but realized he can't keep dragging all his lenses around. He went from a Nikon and Olympus to a Panasonic Lumix DC ZS70. He loves the convenience of it, the fact that he can stow it in his pocket and that there is a pretty good zoom capacity on it. He shot an osprey in a tree eating a fish from pretty far away and the picture came out great, for example. He loves it!