Eurotravel Planner

Section: Digital Cameras & Travel Photos

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"My last few trips to Europe have been with a digital camera.
I'll never go back to film."

--Travel Pete

Why Digital?

Ease-of-use. It's finally easy to use digital. This hasn't always been the case, but it has become as easy, or easier, than film cameras.

Instant Feedback. I get instant feedback on my picture taking, and I know the pictures turned out. There's no worry about whether the roll will develop right or not. Don't like the first shot? Try it again.

Peace of mind. Did I get the shot? Never ask again as the answer is always at your fingertips. Did the film load? Who knows... and who cares since you've got digital, with no film to load. BTW -- I've never, ever lost a picture with a digital camera (unless I erased it on purpose), and I've taken more than 11,000 pictures.

Film Developing. Uhhh, what film developing? :-) Here's a great way to cost-justify a slightly more expensive digital camera.

Negatives & Storage. Just dump it all onto your computer, now it's easy to organize, store, and find your old photos! Besides, were you really diligent about storing all your photos and negatives in protected, acid-free, low-humidity environments?

Sharing. With a film camera, the only ways to share are to have a party and invite everyone to see your pix, or to order 3 or 4 copies of each photo to send out to family and friends. With digital you can: email the photos, put them on a website, send them for printing, or burn them on a CD or DVD to view on your TV. All of this is instant, and easy, and less expensive than film cameras.

Oh, and there's one more fun advantage to sharing with a digital camera. You can immediately show people the picture you just took. It's been a great ice breaker on my most recent trips. Everyone likes to see themselves capture on the screen. Everyone. Trust me.

Printing. Digital means instant, on-demand printing is now easy with cheap ($80) color printers. Or, use Shutterfly or Ofoto or another online photo service to print for you -- and you only have to print the pictures that came out great!

Improve your skills. Digital cameras can make me a better photographer? You bet. There are two simple reasons. First, you can take unlimited pictures, at no cost. As they say, practice makes perfect. Second, you can see what you just took, so if it wasn't quite right, try it again until you get the right shot! This will teach you more about how the camera reacts to lighting and scene than a film camera, where you may not see the result of your photo efforts for days or weeks!

Instead of coming home and realizing what you did wrong, you can make corrections on the fly... Oops! I should have zoomed in and gotten more detail here! If you're developing pix at home, it's too late to make changes.

Research & Buy a digital camera

If you're willing to spend a couple hundred on film and processing for your vacation, think about investing / upgrading to a small digital camera. You can get a great 3 Megapixel camera for $300 and a decent 5 Megapixel camera for about $550. It gives you infinite picture capability, instant replay of images, and no concern about negatives, storage, printing.

Our last trip, during summer in France, for example, was 2 weeks on the ground, and we ended up with about 350 "keeper" photos out of a total 500 taken. That equated to filling two 128MB cards and one 64MB card on my 3 Megapixel camera. Easier nowadays would be to buy a 256MB card, or two, for about $55 each. So, your reusable film would cost about $100. That much film would cost $50 at least, and you'd have to carry it all around Europe. Then, you'd have to develop the film to see anything!

Features
When researching new cameras, I've found that all the technical mumbo-jumbo really isn't that important for most travel and vacation photographers. That's because most cameras these days have all the standard features. Here are a few key items to keep in mind when considering what you need in a digital camera purchase:

1. Look and feel. Get a camera that strikes you as a fun, usable design. If you can, test them in your hand and check for how comfortable the grip is, how heavy the camera feels, and how easy it is to find the viewfinder and push the buttons.

2. # of Megapixels. 3 or 5 are the big numbers today. I can tell you that I have a 3MP (3 megapixel) camera, and it works great and I've never been unable to enlarge a picture enough. Through Ofoto.com, I've ordered a 16x20 inch print that was fine from about 3 feet away, so that's a good indicator of what you can get with 3MP today. 5MP is just a bit of a splurge, and allows you to crop the photo (cut out all the unwanted bits) without losing a lot of clarity and sharpness. So, with 11,000 photos under my belt, not once have I realllly needed more than a 3MP camera (wanted more, haven't needed it).

3. Amount of zoom. First, ignore "Digital" zoom, it just takes the same picture and they try to make it sharper. Consider 3x and 4x optical zoom to be the same, so if you need more, you'll really have to get to about 6x or greater to see a big difference in close-up detail. Also, at 6x and above, you run into camera shake, so you lose sharpness without a tripod.

4. Battery type. Rechargeable or normal AA batteries? Really, you want a built-in rechargeable.

Research Tools & Websites

• Digital Photography Review: One of the greatest sites for very in-depth reviews of major brands and cameras. Be warned, the review can run to 20 pages or more... Definitely where to look when you want to know everything about a camera.
• PC Photo magazine: I suggest simply buying whatever the latest issue is. Always some good tips, and lots of pricing and vendors in the back for buying cameras cheap (via mailorder). Consider a subscription if you are new to digital cameras, it's a good mag that isn't too technical to understand.
• CNET Reviews: Updated pricing from select retailers, brand search, and feature lists, also editors "best picks." A great way to get a feel for cameras in your price or feature range. Good for what's new and hot.
• Friends & Family: I can't stress this enough. Check who already has a camera, and demand to play with it for a bit. Don't worry if you can't understand all the features, you'll get it down once you have your camera.
• Camera Stores: These are good to get the hands-on feel of all the camera lines. I've been surprised before. When viewing all the pictures on the web or in magazines, all cameras look the same size and feel. They are NOT!
• Travel Pete! When all else fails to satisfy, feel free to send me an email at photog@travelpete.com.

Cost
Here's a quick chart to give you an idea of what you'll spend, and why it may be worth it for you to consider a digital camera over your old film camera -- even if you already own a film camera and don't have that added expense!

NOTE: having a digital camera implies that you have a computer as well. Without a computer, it's difficult to find ways to download, store, and view the photos from your camera. Sure, you can often hook them straight to a television, but then what happens the next time you want to add new pictures? You'll have to erase the old ones.

Travel Photo Tips

Here are some great general tips for Photography Travel -- not specific to digital.

How the digital camera system works: Taking photos, storage, printing, sharing.

First the mommy camera and the daddy camera... uhhh, Still working on this section. Email me (address below) with any questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Still working on this section. Email me (address below) with any questions you have. FAQs will include:

• Q: How much memory do I need to bring on my trip?

• Q: How expensive is memory for a digital camera?

• Q: W

• Q: W

• Q: W

Finally, if you have questions about digital cameras, please feel free to send me an email at photog@travelpete.com.

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