Vacation

We're off to Italy and Switzerland in a few months and I have been considering the option of leaving the D90 at home as we will be doing a lot of walking etc. Has anybody got some comments or advice regarding alternative travel cameras or should I harden up and take the D90?

Regards Rob

The best vacation photography is produced from "just walking". I would take the D90 and some light weight lens such as the 18-105. If you are looking for something small with excellent quality, then buy the Canon S95.
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http://digitalphotonut.zenfolio.com/

I do a bit of travel for business inside and outside of the US, I take my D90 most of the time and the times I don't I usually regret it. Just got back from a vacation from Hawaii and shot 2000 shots with my D90. Just use common sense percautions to protect your camera and gear and get out there and use it.

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Everywhere I go, there I am! )

Dave.

Check out a Fuji HS20.

Magnum,

Many thanks for the reply, it looks like the concensus is the Canon S95. I was considering the Panasonic ZS3 (TZ10) but reading between the lines of a few reviews it appears to come up a little short for my needs (expectation) regarding low light and do I really need all that zoom?

Regards Rob

Robbie62 said:

We're off to Italy and Switzerland in a few months and I have been considering the option of leaving the D90 at home as we will be doing a lot of walking etc. Has anybody got some comments or advice regarding alternative travel cameras or should I harden up and take the D90?

Regards Rob

Click to expand...

Advice is to bring the D90 along everywhere with a long zoom if possible (18-200 has rave reviews) , 18-105 is a good choice too. If you have a good Bag, bulky Gear shouldnt be a problem.

this week i came back from a +3 months photo-vacation i had this Bag

http://www.adorama.com/TR5765BT.html

inside a D7000, 11-16 Tokina, 16-85 VR , 70-300 VR , SB-800 ,small External Hard drive, spare battery ,passport, small accesories etc.

This Bag made the Trip comfortable.

CH and Italy has lots of photo opportunities, you will have fun with a versatile Camera like D90 (fast AF, great colors, great DR etc.).

Enjoy your trip

cheers

Having been to Italy and France with our Chruch group on a tour the main thing I can tell you from my personal experience is to be careful with whatever camera stuff you bring. I actually caught a pick pocket with my wallet half out of my back pocket - in front of a nice hotel in Rome. They usually work in groups, one guy will stand in front of you, trying to distract you by shouting something at you or pointing at something while another guy is going through you camera case or wife's purse. They are very fast at it. The only thing that saved me is that I have a pile of receipts and discount coupons jammed into my wallet which made it hard to pull out of my pocket. Otherwise I would have been stuck in a foreign country with no money or credit cards.

Also, don't leave your camera unattended. Our group stopped to eat at a restaurant with an outside patio kind of thing. You had to go inside to get you salad at a buffet table. One lady left her camera under her chair. When she came back with her salad the camera was gone - so fast that no one in our group had actually noticed it being taken.

Finally, if you do bring a camera, I have found that Rome is not as big as I expected, sort of congested really and a wide ange type lens would be good. Also, bring a lot of change. The nice restaurants usually have an attendant in a fancy gown sitting at a stylish desk outside the door to the washroom and they expect you to drop a few coins into a bowl for the privilage of using their washroom. But the food and the wine in Italy are really good. Also, I am not sure if you are from the US, but a couple of ladies from the US joined our group in Paris. They only carried US dollar travellers cheques. No restaurant or shop that we went to would accept them and they ended up having to look for a bank to exhange them into Euros.

I just got back from two weeks in Italy on Sunday. Wonderful place. Spent some time in Tuscany, the Amalfi Coast (Positano), and a few days in Rome.

Like the previous poster, I was hyper aware (especially in Rome) of my surroundings at all times, and my camera bag never came off my shoulder. Wallet in front pocket. Didn't have any similar dicey situations despite walking (and it is all walkable) everywhere, although I expected it. So I guess I expected the worse, and my fears were not realized, although maybe related.

Italy is full of things you will want to photograph. Everywhere. Almost every church is pitch dark and would be a top 5 art museum/gallery in the US.

I couldn't even think of leaving the D90 home even for the very capable S95. It would have broken my heart at almost every turn. I guess it depends on what you are doing, and where you are going, and what you like to photograph.

Don't get me wrong the S95 is a very capable camera, and outside in good light it will get everything I got, except blowing out some blue skies to white in higher dynamic range situations but....

In Rome alone, let's go through the day at the Vatican. Shooting inside quite a lot, low light. At best, getting 1/15th ISO 800, at F4 lets say. Even the S95 getting into danger territory there (if not already squarely there).

The D90, on the other hand, eats that for breakfast. Take it up to ISO 1600 no problem.

I was shooting mostly with a super wide 10-24 (which didn't require a ton of shutter speed hand held), and with a fast prime (50 1.4).

Saint Peter's Basilica is just breath taking, but again, dark, dark, dark, even at mid day when we were there. Maybe getting 1/30th @ f2 and ISO 800. Breathtaking pictures to be had, if you can get them. Truly one of the more awe inspiring places I have visited.

Same situation in some very cool places in Pompeii or Herculenium. Lots of preserved rooms in really low light that are just amazing. Tons of shots outside as well, where the S95 will excel, but too much to miss.

If you want to come out of those situations with anything usable, D90 all the way. Otherwise, buy a postcard.

Just my thoughts. If photography is your thing, and I imagine it is if you are reading and posting in these forums, then the D90 goes with to one of the most photogenic places on earth.

If on the other hand you can live with yourself, the S95 won't kill you, but I am going to guess a few choice words will enter the mind in critical spots.

As a side tip, setup a private tour of the Vatican, and use one the the services to get in as a group to bypass the long lines for individuals, and get access to some private areas. Saved well over an hour of waiting in line, easily.

Two years ago I went to Hong Kong and Tokyo with just my Canon S90. The day time shots were fantastic, but I couldn't do any subject-isolation with shallow depth of field, the focus was slow, and the high-iso left me a bit dissapointed. It was good for a compact, but a couple of ISO800 shots that were really important to me lost a lot of detail. Last year when I went to Tokyo I wanted to get some good shots of Tokyo Tower, the beach of Kanagawa, Mount Fuji etc so I took the D90, the Tamron 17-50 and Sigma 50-150. It was good for the specific shots I had in mind, but for a general full day of walking around it got a bit heavy and bulky. I really wish at that time I had my GF1 (which have I only just recently acquired.)

I think, if you're thinking of buying something new for the trip, then micro 4/3 is the best compromise of low-light ability, compactness, and the opportunity to have a bit of bokeh with the Panasonic 20 f1.7. Also, if one of your friends takes a picture for you it's relatively foolproof (on auto) unlike the D90.
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Please spare a thought (and if you have, a dollar) for the people of Christchurch... And now Japan (boy, it's a bad time to be a Christchurch boy living in Japan.)