P & S or SLR

[GaryMcDonald]

Right now I only have a digital camera. I am not going to take a pc to which I can download pictures, and the portable hardrive thing I would have no utility for after my trip to Europe. These conditions combined with the fact that the camera has a proprietary battery and, even with my extra battery, the camera does not last the day, I have decided to buy a conventional camera. Now to my delima. I dont mind getting something like a Canon EOS T2 with a couple of lenses, but I have been told carrying them and keeping them safe from the elements and thiefs will be a task in itself. That leads me to Point and Shoot cameras. In order to get a decent zoom I will have to spend over half what I would spend on an SLR. I am lookin at the Yashica T4 and Rollei 130 b/c of the 28 ->100mm zooms. Any suggestions? Am I wasting my money. Should I bite the bullet and buy the SLR anyway. Does the advantage of having an SLR outweight the disadvantages of PS cameras? Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[Libby]

Ahh...You sound just like I do Gary!

I have an older digital that I rarely use because of battery life, size and memory limitations. I also have a Minolta SLR with all the bells and whistles that I use all the time. Unfortunatly, it's bulky and heavy. I took it camping with me to Newfoundland and actually climbed Gros Morne mountain with the thing strapped to my back. I got great pictures yes, but it almost did me in! I also had a slow leak in my water bottle that flooded my pack. If I didn't have my Minolta in such a good case I would have had a wet camera. Neither one of these would work for my upcoming trip so I bought a P&S.

I went with the Pentax Espio and I've been really happy with it. All the pictures I've taken so far have been clear and crisp. It has a fairly powerful flash and a really nice built in zoom. My only complint is that it's a bit of a battery hog itself. Mind you, I don't think it's so much the camera as it is me zooming in and out all the time.

I know that the pictures aren't as good as they would be if I had my Minolta, but I'd hate the thought of losing it or having something happen to my bigger camera if I were to take it.

[Eagle]

I also struggled with the problem of using a larger (film) SLR Camera and all the Lenses and other kit that goes with that for travel purposes. My venerable old Canon SLR takes great pictures, but unfortunately it's too big and heavy to comfortably take along on Backpacking trips.

The first alternative I chose was the Pentax Espio 135. It's got decent zoom, is capable of panoramic pictures, has fairly good automatic functions (although reading the manual is good idea), takes great pictures most of the time (subject to my skills of course), uses battery power efficiently (I'm still using the original battery!), and most importantly it's compact and easy to travel with.

The second alternative was the jump to a Digital Camera (Canon S-50). Although the zoom is a bit lacking in some cases (as with most P&S digitals, only 3X zoom plus digital zoom), that was a compromise. There are adaptors and extra lenses available to improve this, but I haven't really had the time to research the various types yet. The S-50 also uses proprietary Li-Ion batteries, and so far two batteries have worked reasonably well during travel for each day's photo shooting.

On my last trip I initially started out using both Cameras just about equally. However as the trip progressed I found myself "leaning" towards the digital much more strongly. The ability to re-take bad shots is fantastic, and it also seemed to have better low light capability (given the wide range of aperature and shutter settings possible with the S-50 -- that's one reason I chose a digital with both manual and automatic settings).

Gary - with regards to your dilemma, some comments and questions.......

First of all, did the batteries for your digital Camera always have such short life? Perhaps they are getting "worn", and two new batteries would provide enough power for a day's shooting?

Also, you might want to take your digital Camera along with whichever new Camera you choose? From what I can gather, facilities for processing digital photos are improving very quickly in Europe. You shouldn't have to take either a PC or a Portable Hard Drive to store photos, as there seem to be lots of places burning to disc these days.

Certainly it's going to be a bit more difficult to travel with the EOS T2 mostly due to the size and the kit that you normally have to take along (lenses, filters, etc.). However, many people travel with Cameras that size and have no problems; I imagine the "worry factor" would be about the same as travelling with a Digital SLR such as the Digital Rebel as the size is comparable.

A good quality and robust Camera bag is a good idea for protection of the gear. A larger (and seemingly more expensive SLR Camera) will probably be more of a "red flag" for thieves, but if one exercises reasonable care hopefully there won't be any problems. If you decide to go this route, it might be an idea to find out whether some kind of travel insurance is possible for the Camera? Also, store the film separately so that if the Camera bag is "nicked" you don't lose all your photos.

Good luck with your decision. Happy travels!!!

[GaryMcDonald]

The batteries have always had a short life. I thought that they were worn and ordered another and another charger in case that was the case. But the battery life is not the best.

I have been happy with my digital around home and the vacations here in the states I have taken. But I was staying in hotels and had the privacy to charge and use of my pc.

Perhaps some more information about my trip would be useful to determine the outcome to my delima. I will be in Utrecht from June 22 through Aug 6 for a law school program. We have four three day weekends to travel. While I am in and around Utrecht, I will have use of the pcs at the university. My concern is outside of that stay. I have never stayed at a hostel, so I don't know about the charging of the digital camera. The only foreign travel I have done in the past was during college in third world central America; there having and charging a digital camera was not a possibility. From Aug 6-9 I will be at the mountain hostel in Gimmelwald. From Aug 9-11 I will either be in Lucerne or Florence (if in Florence Archi Rossi, in Lucerne I have no clue). From Aug 11-15 I will be at Alessandro Palace in Rome. Then I fly back to the states.

Perhaps you know some particulars about the hostels I will be at and can advise me on the charging situation. I dont mind purchasing another couple of batteries if I know I will have the facilities to charge them without worrying about the camera getting lifted.

If I need to buy a 35mm, I have some personal philosophy issues about spending a bunch of money on a point and shoot when I am half way to a nice SLR. The point and shoot I have found with a good zoom and small size is the Roillei 130 or Yashica T4. It bothers me that a good point and shoot will cost 200.00 when I can get a Canon T2 with 2 canon lenses case filters tripod and others from cametta camera for 429.

Maybe I am overreacting and need to just buy the p and s and forget about the SLR. I have never had good luck with PandS's and have never had an SLR.

But I figured I could prevail upon the relative genius of the guideforeurope moderators to point me in the right direction.

[Eagle]

A few comments regarding your last Post. From the information you provided, it sounds like only very small capacity Batteries were supplied with your Camera. You might check some of the battery sites on the web to find out if anyone offers a higher capacity battery that will fit your Camera.

You also stated that you were worried about the Camera being "lifted" while it's charging. From that I assume the batteries have to be charged in the Camera? (it's not a DSC-V1, is it?).

I can't comment about the specific Hostels you mentioned, however generally speaking I haven't had any trouble so far in finding a place to plug Chargers in, either in the dorm room or in the "common room". Also, the front desk staff are usually willing to help guests by charging Cameras, etc. in the office.

If you do decide to take the Digital Camera, make sure you check the Charger to see if this can operate on 220 volt electrical systems. Also, a Plug Adapter will be required. Finally, be sure to take enough Memory Cards to last until you can get the photos burned to CD or whatever.

You might find it interesting to read some of the Posts from other travellers at this site - www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/graffiti100.html - it might provide a few hints on how to handle your dilemma.

Again, good luck with this.

[peterW]

I struggled with this for a while, but then my bank balance (or lack thereof) did the deciding for me. I ended up with a half way house, the Minolta Dimage A1 a couple of years back. Of course SLRs were a lot more pricey then, however this has suited me very well for the stuff I was doing. Still hanker over and SLR from time to time, the joy of being able to see though the eyepiece w/out a digital interface for one thing. I have found the battery time to be quite good on this, though I will always carry a spare with me. The same goes for the compact flash card.

Anyway, let us know which way you jumped and why!