travelling with a point and shoot – part 4: lessons learned

part 1 // part 2 // part 3 // part 4

The 6 weeks I had in Cambodia were an amazing experience, and since I only took a single point and shoot camera with me, I was able to experience it without the burden of having to lug around large DSLR equipment or worry about theft. If I were to travel with just a point and shoot camera again though, there would be a few things I’d do differently.

Tripod

I did take a tripod, but it was one of those crappy tripods you get for free with your eBay purchase, considered a “gift” and not really meant to support anything heavier than Richard Hammond. I did have a Manfrotto 055 aluminium tripod but it was too bulky and heavy to take with me. It actually broke on me recently during a shoot which wasn’t nice, but I think the legs may have become brittle from exposure to sea water. Anyways, good reason for me to get that carbon fibre 055 I’ve been wanting.

Anywho, a tripod would have been useful in a few situations and would have helped to counteract the G9’s weak high ISO performance by allowing me to use a lower ISO and longer exposure during low light. Next time I’ll consider getting either a table top tripod such as the Manfrotto Table Top Tripod which would be very useful as long as I had something to stand it on, or the considerably more flexible, but only marginally more expensive, Manfrotto 725B Digi Tripod. Both come with a ball head which, compared to most pan and tilt heads, is very fast to move into the right position.

The table top tripod is smaller and lighter than the 725B, but I think I’ll get the 725B for it’s flexibility since there’s no point carrying a tripod if it’s not going to do what you need it to do. Besides, I probably won’t be taking it everywhere and at just over 1.4kg it’s not hugely inconvenient to carry.

Flash

The built in flash on the G9 is really only good if you like that overblown, arm length, self portrait MySpace/Facebook look that so many teenage girls fancy nowadays. I probably wouldn’t take a flash trigger and more than one flash as that would totally defeat the point of travelling light ( no pun intended ), even if it would totally awesome-ize the photos. What I’d take is a single Canon Speedlite 580EX as that would give me the flexibility to have an on-camera-fill during the day time and a nice ceiling/wall bounce light for interiors. It’s fairly small, about twice the size of the camera itself, and weighs less than a kilo with batteries.

Does look ridiculously big on the G9 though.

Camera

Would I take the G9 again? Sure would! But unfortunately for those among us who have not got a G9, you can’t get one anymore unless it’s second hand. That’s because the Canon Powershot G10 is out. I would recommend the G10 just as much as the G9 as I believe it’s pretty much the same camera. The upgrades aren’t really substantial, like going in for a boob job and all they do is add an extra nipple. Some may find the upgrades pleasing, but performance will be pretty much the same. The wider lens ( 28mm as opposed to 35mm ) is the only reason I would choose the G10 over the G9 and really that’s just personal taste.

Another camera I would consider getting is the Panasonic DMC-LX3 which in my personal opinion is a better camera. I do prefer the body of the G10 ( that control dial at the back is unbeatable ) but the sensor and the lens on LX3 is better ( again, in my opinion ). Canon played the numbers game by upping the G10 sensor to 14 megapixels and in so doing worsened the high ISO performance while Panasonic stuck with a 10 megapixel sensor with larger photosites which results in much better performance in low light.

Another feature of the LX3 that helps low light shooting is it’s image stabilised ƒ2.0-2.8 lens, a full stop faster than the G10 lens. Sure, the maximum zoom on the LX3 is only 60mm while the G10 can do 140mm, but I very rarely will zoom in fully with a point and shoot. Also, the LX3 has a wider 24mm lens which I find more useful than longer zoom. The only downside to the LX3 in my opinion is the control layout. It just isn’t as intuitive and fast like the G10. But then again, I usually keep the camera in aperture priority so it might not be such a big deal.

Summary

That’s pretty much it. I fully enjoyed all the benefits of the G9 on my trip and would recommend anyone not on assignment to consider a G10 or an LX3 for their next trip in place of a DSLR. I hope this was of some help and insight to anyone who may be asking “should I take a point and shoot camera for travelling instead of my $10k DSLR kit?”

Tags: cambodia, camera, canon, g9, lx3, panasonic, photography, travel
Posted in photography, travel