To take the DSLR or not?

[jasminelee]

On our last cruise we treated ourselves to a new camera....Nikkon Coolpix (DSLR) in mini form....we have the big Nikkon, which I love but it gets too heavy to carry around all day plus the lenses. This little guy is 42wide, zoom , 4.3-180mm It's amazing! 4"x5" and a couple of pounds. Easy to carry. Can't change lenses, but so far we really haven't needed to for vacation purposes. My husband has a small point and shoot - but I could never hold it steady enough to get a good pix. This camera compensates for my klutzy hands, also. Has GPS...Great color and focus!

 

Which Nikon did you get, if I may ask. I, too, have a big Nikon with 3 lenses, etc, but sometimes want something a little "less" , but not exactly a point and shoot

thanks

[97t-bird]

I have only been on one cruise last March to the Bahamas, I am very heavily into photography and do weddings/portraits and various assignments as a second job. I have various levels of camera equipment from entry level to pro.

 

Here is what I took and used on my last cruise.

 

I took a Nikon Aw110 and used this on CoCoCay for the snorkeling photos, and various photos around the island. I wish I had brought my cheaper older dslr body to the island with me but realistically had no one to watch it. I also used this at coco beach when we stopped at port Canaveral, but also had one of my dslr bodies with me a Nikon D300s with 18-200vr lens with me, as I had some one to watch it while on the beach. Other then being in the water I used the Dslr for everything else, and very glad I did. I have great photos of the sunset from Fishlips restaurant with the ship in it, there were also dolphins swimming by and I was able to easily capture them.

 

I did purchase the Nikon 18-200vr lens as a travel lens and it worked very very well. 90% of my photos were taken with that.

 

I brought an older Dslr body and never used it, I left my full frame professional camera at home. I did randomly use my other lens' 10-24, and a 24-70 f2.8. Can't remember ever using my larger zoom as the 18-200 worked well. I maybe took 5 photos with a 50mm prime. I did use the several Flash units I brought taking formal photos of our selves and friends on an empty balcony over looking the promenade. We just moved a few chairs out of the way and set up light stands lol, of course didn't use the 18-200 for this but could have.

 

By just using the 18-200 I sacrificed on quality a bit, but was able to capture everything and not having to worry about changing lens'. I have photos at night of the ship in port at Nassau, and the same camera and lens took photos of us at various bars and restaurants.

 

I guess what I am saying is if you have a DSLR and love using it, TAKE IT and use it. If you think it will be a burden then sell it or just get by with a iphone/P&S, if you are happy with the quality that is all that matters.

 

I have amazing photos and beautiful prints framed that I would not have been able to take without my DSLR, and have even sold them to people. So it was worth it for me.

 

Any questions please feel free to ask

Greg