DSLR vs Point and Shoot

[madeditor]

I prefer a DSLR because I find it more versatile and it has a larger sensor than a point and shoot. You also have the option of adding different lenses to your collection. I have a small Fuji point and shoot that I use for snorkeling and for underwater pix in the pool. You can start with a simple zoom lens and if the spirit moves you add on some prime lenses.

Edited November 30, 2022 by madeditor
typo

[VelvetSkeeter]

RAW or JPEG both have pros and cons. Which format you use really depends on how you use your images or how much you want to edit. I typically don’t care with day-to-day photos and just use JPG from a point and click. When I do care – like a trip to Alaska, I will use RAW so I have uncompressed lossless files that allow me to edit every aspect of it without any degradation or processing the camera thinks it should have. 

 

This is a fairly good article comparing the 2 
https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/raw-vs-jpeg/   

Edited January 4, 2023 by VelvetSkeeter

[jdk4asu]

I know the original question was posted some time ago, however since I have experience with this excellent question, I thought I would post my answer here in case anyone out there has the same dilemma.

 

This is a great question, especially since I am a photographer that was not a happy camper after lugging all my gear on my cruise to Alaska five years ago. That was mainly because of the time limits you have, as well as (GOD bless them!), my family as well and making sure we all enjoyed ourselves. Mind you, I do have a nice 24"x36" Alaskan Sunset looming over our dining room table! 

 

I did lug two bodies, and three lenses, as well as a travel tri-pod. If I was able to sit and really work on a bunch of eagles, like we came across at Herring Bay in Ketchikan, and other sites, I probably would have been very happy. Part of our problem is that we just booked too many things and I did not give myself the time to utilize what I brought. 

 

That being said you do have several options to still bring something with you that will get you excellent results. Before I go further, one thing is for sure, LEARN and PRACTICE on whatever you are bringing so that you know and understand whatever camera you have and how to get the results you want.

 

Between my daughter and I we have two pro Canon bodies, a T7i and one of their top point-and-shoots the G7Xii. My daughter showed me some really great results with the G7Xii that she used when she was in marching band in high school. I say that as it shows how compact it is and she felt the lens length was good enough. I also know that it has a lot of similar features as its bigger brothers as you can practically go manual, even add a flat and use JPG and/or RAW. But it is compact.

 

I do not mind the bigger DSLRs as I am utilizing the lenses like the 100-400 that I brought specifically for eagles and my bear finding excursion. Yeah, I got ONE of those in by myself! LOL! Fast forward five years and now you have all the new mirrorless that are way smaller and of course do way more. By the way, as most pros mentioned all over You Tube and the internet, you can get very good results with non "pro" gear, you just have to know your camera. 

 

Before I go on, I want to give a shout out to Canon's refurbished product. About 90% of my gear was either bought through them or used. LOVE being able to get stuff from their site since a human put their hands on it and they are any where from 15-20% less, and more sometimes than new. Thing is they also offer long term extended warranties directly from them. One of the few I ever recommend in act.

 

Lastly is please do check out how to use your phone's camera. Again some top pros in the industry are not just talking about them as an alternative, but offer all kinds of information, videos, etc. on how to use them. You can even shoot RAW with an iPhone Pro, or just shoot using Lightroom Mobile when shooting! Scott Kelby is one of those you might want to look up, but I know there are others.

 

I know this is a lot, but you hit my button perfectly as I "been there done that"! 

 

[Host Bonjour]

On 1/15/2023 at 1:31 AM, jdk4asu said:

Lastly is please do check out how to use your phone's camera. Again some top pros in the industry are not just talking about them as an alternative, but offer all kinds of information, videos, etc. on how to use them.

 

Thanks for the thoughtful and insightful post! It's really helpful to share the pros and cons on some important factors for anyone considering investing in a camera for travel and beyond. 

 

These are truly some wonderful starting points for folks to consider when thinking about making the investment, to buy new or used (great pitch for used, and I concur as do many pros) and to buy pro-level bodies or elevated non-pro cameras, which have options to use in ways that mimic pro cameras and produce phenomenal results.

 

I think it's also important to talk about the size/volume of the camera... this was something that was critical for me. The bigger bodies on the more sophisticated cameras, I simply cannot handle; just too bulky for my hands, and even with today's lighter weight material, all rigged up, just too heavy. Above all for me, I am a mirrorless purist, but it just works out a better fit for me physically. I too think the Canons are amazing, but there are some others that do well.

 

Love, love the smartphone tips and also would add to search for podcasts with pros talking tips. They will help you convert your already decent smartphone shots into next level striking images. Listening to these podcasts, they pointed out things that were "hidden" on prior iPhones, which helped me do long exposures and create images with intentional camera movements (ICM). Bunch of other cool things too, prior to each equipment camera upgrade. 

 

Adobe also has free short videos for Lightroom, that break things down by tools/task (some YouTube videos are better than others) not every one is a great teacher, but some are. Dan Walter Scott (might be Adobe instructor, can't recall) is a kiwi who is excellent and easy to listen to; his intro videos are free and a great start. Adobe makes Lightroom. So having fun editing/playing with RAW images can also help you make the necessary adjustments to bring an image to as close as it looked with your eye, and or make adjustments that can do detailed adjustments, or let you get very creative with something out of the ordinary.

 

Don't want to use Adobe, all good. The in-phone programs these days mimic a lot of the same tools, as do some other camera apps, which either cost the same or less. No plans to promote anything at all here... Lightroom is more or less the industry standard, kind of like in the old days with Kodak film... even though yes, we know lots of photographers loved their particular films. 😉 Just kind of using Lightroom here as a catch-all term for editing software, not an endorsement or ad. But research and read about an editing program before you buy or subscribe!

 

And if you are wondering about RAW images, don't worry. Plenty of videos cover what you need to know, which for the moment is just that it's an uncompressed image file (large) which will take up space, but with which you have the most room/potential to make edits/adjustments. Once you've done the editing, you can compress the file (jpg, tiff, pdf) to save space. 

 

I'm running on now, but I got kind of amped by the previous post. I'm using Fujifilm mirrorless and iPhone 13Pro and love them. And I'm forever still working on it/learning...long ago my first classes were analog, which I'm glad I learned, including developing and processing. It would be awesome to try medium or large format... maybe sometime. 

 

Thanks again for the awesome post. Anyone wanting to chime in with suggestions for videos, podcasts, tips etc, lessons learned, please do. :

:) 

[eileeshb]

On 1/21/2023 at 1:06 AM, Host Bonjour said:

{snip}

 

I think it's also important to talk about the size/volume of the camera... this was something that was critical for me. The bigger bodies on the more sophisticated cameras, I simply cannot handle; just too bulky for my hands, and even with today's lighter weight material, all rigged up, just too heavy. Above all for me, I am a mirrorless purist, but it just works out a better fit for me physically. I too think the Canons are amazing, but there are some others that do well.

 

Love, love the smartphone tips and also would add to search for podcasts with pros talking tips. They will help you convert your already decent smartphone shots into next level striking images. Listening to these podcasts, they pointed out things that were "hidden" on prior iPhones, which helped me do long exposures and create images with intentional camera movements (ICM). Bunch of other cool things too, prior to each equipment camera upgrade. 

 

{snip}

 

Don't want to use Adobe, all good. The in-phone programs these days mimic a lot of the same tools, as do some other camera apps, which either cost the same or less. No plans to promote anything at all here... Lightroom is more or less the industry standard, kind of like in the old days with Kodak film... even though yes, we know lots of photographers loved their particular films. 😉 Just kind of using Lightroom here as a catch-all term for editing software, not an endorsement or ad. But research and read about an editing program before you buy or subscribe!

 

And if you are wondering about RAW images, don't worry. Plenty of videos cover what you need to know, which for the moment is just that it's an uncompressed image file (large) which will take up space, but with which you have the most room/potential to make edits/adjustments. Once you've done the editing, you can compress the file (jpg, tiff, pdf) to save space. 

{snip}

On the size/weight consideration, definitely consider this. When I was looking to upgrade from my first DSLR (minolta - great build quality) I was choosing between Canon and Nikon as they had the lens range I needed for sports. I'd initially decided on a Nikon for the spec but when I actually handled one in a shop it was an immediate no because the grip was too deep for my hands to hold for more than a few minutes. Hence I went for Canon and have a few bodies and lenses for that kit. However I also invested in a mirrorless Panasonic GM1 which is so much easier for walking around and travel use. The Canon kit is really only for when I need extended high speed range nowadays, so it's getting dusted off for Alaska but for my Caribbean and Mediterranean cruises the Panasonic and my phone were fine. 

I attended a couple of mobile journalism conferences held here in Ireland and there were some serious photography types at them giving all sorts of tips and tricks for mobile photography. some of the apps they recommended for editing includes: Snapseed and Retouch. VSCO is an app that will let you manipulate manual settings on your phone camera if the native camera app doesn't allow that access.   If you want something of similar power to Adobe Photoshop on desktop there is a free editor called Gimp that allows similar levels of manipulation but isn't as user friendly.

As an illustration of the pictures from camera v phone.. 

The first picture below is from the panasonic, and the second is from my phone (samsung S21).

[TenneSea]

You can have both.  As an earlier commenter said you can shoot raw+jpg.

 

I've shot many weddings using RAW.  Problem here with RAW is the storage space it takes on memory cards.  You may have to have more than one card and/or unload to laptop your images every night.

 

Shall we discuss full frame camera options ???  (Ouch, my shoulder hurts already). I have two monster Nikons and I would never take them on vacay - so heavy.  But the images.... !

[JanR]

I'm on the MSC Poesia World Cruise and if you count phones and drones, we have 9 cameras with us.  That being said, I think that the OP's question and my advice to anyone asking a similar question is what is your desired commitment to the photography experience?  There is no wrong answer here, but I think the level of effort the traveler wishes to expend in taking a picture really drives what type of camera they should use.

 

For example, should they wish to purchase a DSLR/mirrorless camera but will keep it on the green auto button...I would recommend staying with their phone.  The reality is that today's phones will take as good of photos as most DSLR/mirrorless cameras will in 80% of situations.  While there are differences in the photos, most people will never, ever notice the difference.

 

If they want to have more of the feeling of "being a photographer" and might not want to use up their phone's memory, then these folks might consider a bridge camera.

 

If the traveler wants to have more control in the picture taking experience beyond composition, then a DSLR/Mirrorless camera would probably be best.  And of the two, today I would absolutely take a mirrorless camera over the DSLR.  I think there are lots of reasons to favor mirrorless over DSLR, especially as manufacturers such as Canon are dropping consumer mirrorless cameras at relatively modest prices. 

 

As to the RAW vs JPEG debate...I think it also depends upon the level of commitment the traveler wants to expend in post-processing.  If they have have no desire to further post-process their photos other than the filters that Instagram provides while posting, then shoot JPEG (maybe HEIF?)  It's easier to share and has much smaller file sizes to store and share.  However, if they wish to invest in the time to post-process, then of course RAW is the right decision as it gives the photographer much more data to pull and push.

 

In the end, today's tools--phone, point-and-shoot, DSLR, or mirrorless--will all give you good results.  The traveler needs to just make an assessment on their desired involvement.  

 

My two cents . . .

[pierces]

On the Raw vs. JPEG subject, the decision is more complicated than it used to be.

 

This shot I took at a family gathering where I set up strobes and such outside for party pictures was the first one after sunset and I still had auto white balance on instead of setting it to 5600K. 

 

 

I was able to pull the shadows and set the WB easily in Lightroom.

 

Thank goodness for RAW, right? 

 

Wrong. JPEG only. This is the reason that the RAW vs. JPEG choice is more (or maybe less?) complicated. With the advances in processing software, the ability to repair even fairly egregious goofs has become possible in a JPEG. With massive storage available for pennies a gigabyte, the extra space for RAW isn't really an issue but on the other side, the in-camera processing has advanced so far that out-of-camera JPEGs are as good as you can get from converting RAW to post or print. 

 

Personally, I have just about abandoned RAW. My cameras produce excellent JPEGs and neat stuff like multi-shot HDR make JPEG a safe choice for nearly any situation. 

 

IMHO, of course.

 

Dave