I have a nice Cannon Rebel camera 300 zoom lens, many function, camera bag, etc. It can be cumbersome to carry all of this. It is a once (or twice) in a lifetime trip. I want the best pictures withouut the burden of a big camers and camera bag. Is anyone else an avid photographer with similar experiences? How would a cheap point and shoot or a point and shoot using the Advatex (sp?) APS type camera work for me?

kurt,

i was thinking of all my gear going with me too but couldnt afford the excess baggage and worries about keeping all of it safe, carting it around and virtually being a prisoner of the camera... done that before

so this trip.... a simple digital with equiv of a 35-130mm lens and im going to enjoy the sights and experiences but still get some good pics ...

(still wish i was taking the 35mm gear though!)

Kurt,

The APS topic got worked over a good bit in times past. Here are some links worth checking. This was from a search for APS, but other topics are covered too.
http://www.trafbb.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000276.html http://www.trafbb.com/ubb/Forum9/HTML/000007.html http://www.trafbb.com/ubb/Forum9/HTML/000014.html http://www.trafbb.com/ubb/Forum9/HTML/000015.html http://www.trafbb.com/ubb/Forum9/HTML/000022.html

What tour will you be on? That might influence any recommendations you get. I'm mainly a 35mm user myself. We did Best of Italy & Greece last summer. I believe I took 6 lenses to be used on my camera and a daughter's camera. I didn't use them all. I typically had one mounted (duh) and kept one or two others with me. I didn't fool with a camera bag. If you are not self-conscious, get a photographer's vest. Mine worked great for me. I used a 35-105 zoom outside and a 50mm f1.2 inside churches and museums where flash wasn't allowed. I might as well have left the 24mm and 70-210 zooms at home. My daughter used the 35mm f2 & a 35-70 zoom. Next time we go, I'll probably take a wide angle (28mm, I've decided I just don't care for 24mm), a 50mm f2 macro, and a wide to moderate telephoto zoom (perhaps not the same one as before). I might take a 200mm or a 90mm macro & 2x teleconverter instead of the zoom, but I'm not sure I can justify the weight. I'll also probably slide a 35mm point & shoot (non-zoom or not much zoom) into a pocket for times that I don't want to carry a lot of camera equipment (like when eating out at night). The photographer's vest kept the weight distibuted well plus I didn't have a big bag to bump into things. (One of those backpack camera bags would be cool, but I would worry about thieves cutting out the bottom.)

You might also try a "show all topics" in this category if you haven't. A lot of posts from last year have been deleted, but I found when I did the APS search that older threads referenced in a current thread could still be read.

Mike

Kurt,

My interest in photography is purely as a hobby so I don't profess to know alot. I can only tell you what I did when I went to Europe. I took my pentax slr (completely manual) with a 28-80 Macro zoom lens, lots of film (400 iso) including black and white so I could take shots that took a little more effort than point and shoot. In addition I took a Nikon point and shoot so when it came to taking quick shots or getting others to take a picture of me, there weren't any difficulties with setting up focus etc.
I'm happy with the shots I got and even though it was a bit of a nuisance carrying two cameras around it was worth the effort.

I actually carried three cameras -- one for color, slides, and black and white. I bought two 35mm point-and-shoot cameras from Walmart, one for $10 and the other $20, to back up my Pentax IQZoom 120.
I am a photojournalist by profession who uses a Pentax manual focus SLR. I actually felt that I moved around easier with those three than with the SLR and its two lens (one of them a HEAVY 70-210mm). Hope this helps
triom

P.S. : I took 28 rolls of pictures :O

Was is difficuly to carry your camera bags into the sites and through the cities?

Actually, I carried my cameras either around my neck, on my wrist or in a front pocket. Some people used their TT bags, and two people used camera bags with no trouble. However, if you have space in your TT bag, that seems to be the less troublesome way to do it.

triom

I have been a photojournalist for the past 15 years and have learned the hard way with taking bulky heavy equiptment on vacation and turning it into a professional photo shoot. It's the photographer not the equiptment that takes a good and memorable photo. Remember you will be in a vacation spot where there are people waiting for people like you to put your camera bag down for 5 seconds so they can take it and run. Take something small that your comfortable operating. You can get pretty darn creative with a point and shoot camera. It's been 3 years since I have touched bulky equiptment on vacation and am a much happier traveler! The choice is yours !!!!! happy shooting