Off on holiday but not sure I can be bothered to take my camera

[cjsuk]

I'm planning a multi-day trip to Iceland in the fall, and the question has come down to camera convenience. I have an Nikon DSLR I've used for years. It's a consumer model, so no bells and whistles. I have a decent prime lens but my zoom lens, frankly, sucks-it's heavy and slow.

Many, many years ago I had what they now call a bridge camera, a compact little Canon that had a 24x digital zoom. It seems like it was made for auto mode but had full manual override, and I really enjoyed it. I've been thinking of picking up a more modern version (the latest seem to have come out in 2017-19 so likely used). The Panasonics seem to fit a decent price-feature balance here, while the Nikons fall short and the Sony is just too expensive.

Does anyone have any experience with later-model bridge cameras? Any advice here for something compact I could use from site to site on an Iceland trip? I want something with a better zoom and image quality than my iPhone (15 Pro, might grab the 17 pro if the timing works out before our trip), but don't want to lug a ton of bulky lenses from place to place.

Depends where you’re going there. I did the whole ring road with my mirrorless. You’ll need something pretty wide but not a lot of zoom for most stuff. But if you’re doing whale watching or anything wildlife related you’ll need a zoom. I took the Z50 with 16-50 and 50-250 zooms. A 18-140 may cut it.

Good place for photography. Id definitely not just drag a phone out there.

Just a heads up though. You don’t want to go changing lenses there at all and put a neutral filter on the camera. The place is full of volcanic sand which sandblasts everything to bits. Cost me the coating on my 16-50 and sensor crap that needed cleaning out.

I know nothing about bridge cameras so can’t comment there.

Some pics I took which were on my phone (I have printed better ones)

 

[CopyChief]

If you were to define your ideal bridge camera, what features would it have, and what would convenience mean to you? When you're in Iceland, what sorts of images do you not want to miss? It seems your budget falls short of the Sony cameras - but what is that budget ideally? I'm guessing around the $1K USD mark if you're considering a 17 when it comes out.

My ideal bridge camera would have a substantial zoom (20x optical like my old Canon - I realized I typed “digital” before) and then options for full manual control. A 1” sensor seems to be the minimum for good, better-than-phone results. A moderately fast lens, 2.5 at the widest focal length, seems to be the best I can do.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like they’re updating these much anymore, so they max out at 20mp for resolution. That might not leave much for further cropping.

It sounds silly but the thing I’m looking for is the fewer trade-offs vs. an SLR or mirrorless, with the convenience (size) of a point and shoot. No small ask and completely ridiculous, I know.

 

[r.harris1]

My ideal bridge camera would have a substantial zoom (20x optical like my old Canon - I realized I typed “digital” before) and then options for full manual control. A 1” sensor seems to be the minimum for good, better-than-phone results. A moderately fast lens, 2.5 at the widest focal length, seems to be the best I can do.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like they’re updating these much anymore, so they max out at 20mp for resolution. That might not leave much for further cropping.

It sounds silly but the thing I’m looking for is the fewer trade-offs vs. an SLR or mirrorless, with the convenience (size) of a point and shoot. No small ask and completely ridiculous, I know.

Yeah, the closest I can think of would probably be one of the Panasonics. I'm not sure they have a 20x zoom, but there are billions, so I could be mistaken. It would be difficult to scrounge up a cheap-ish but fast >20x zoom compact camera, I feel (at least I haven't seen one). While not being particularly fast, many of the Panosonics do have high-quality glass though.

 

[CopyChief]

Depends where you’re going there. I did the whole ring road with my mirrorless. You’ll need something pretty wide but not a lot of zoom for most stuff. But if you’re doing whale watching or anything wildlife related you’ll need a zoom. I took the Z50 with 16-50 and 50-250 zooms. A 18-140 may cut it.

Good place for photography. Id definitely not just drag a phone out there.

[edited]

Awesome perspective, thanks, and great pics. We're still nailing down the itinerary for a couple of days, but will likely do a whale watching excursion, so a bit more zoom might be appropriate. I appreciate your help.

 

[CopyChief]

Yeah, the closest I can think of would probably be one of the Panasonics. I'm not sure they have a 20x zoom, but there are billions, so I could be mistaken. It would be difficult to scrounge up a cheap-ish but fast >20x zoom compact camera, I feel (at least I haven't seen one). While not being particularly fast, many of the Panosonics do have high-quality glass though.

Thanks. I've been looking into the Panasonics, and there are a few models that have a 15-20x optical zoom. You're right, they're not fast on the long end, but do start at 2.8 on the wider end of the zoom so that's not too terrible.

 

[cjsuk]

Thought I should update this one finally. I went into a slightly depressing haze one afternoon looking at the photos from the trip I posted at the start of this thread. They were just missing something. A quick visit to the optician confirmed that my eyes are crapping out as I get older so while helpful it wasn't related to that at least. So I took some notes on this over a few days and came up with some points, all completely subjective of course.

I will classify this as "mostly problems with the 15 Pro" only because it's really only relatable in context to that. Every phone is slightly different, although some of the image processing problems do carry across and the social issues are not unique to any phone.

• Even with some editing, everything feels flat. I assume that's a combination of the total lack of DOF and the very compromised lenses.
• The auto white balance you can't do anything with is terrible leading to a lot of over-orange images that don't look like reality.
• As the thing shoots in HDR you get what looks like a good photo on your phone but when you view it on a non HDR screen, say a Studio Display, it looks washed out, flat and disappointing. But the images appear to be optimised for viewing on an HDR screen I suspect because most people will just leave them rotting on their phone and iCloud forever.
• There is a lot of colour over-saturation, particularly on sunny days. Blue skies are much darker on the iPhone for example than reality. I think this is a processing decision by Apple.
• Some of the edges are heavily over-sharpened resulting in flaring and a weird fringing effect.
• Anything which is low light is almost totally unusably flared and some of the I assume ML processing is worse than just losing the information entirely.
• It's really distracting when you're taking photos. The device seems to encroach on your time enjoying where you are and actually seeing it with your eyes first. It literally takes your life away from you. Just one distracting message from someone and you are dragged back to where you were escaping from.

About 10 minutes after my conclusions were formed, I booked some plane tickets and jumped on a plane back to Italy last weekend camera in hand this time. I travel very cheap and very light at unsociable hours so this is not a massive expense from the UK. The phone went in my bag on silent during any specific trips and was used only for occasional communications, paying for things, maps and a little entertainment while stuck on a screwed up train for hours.

Conclusion is: take your camera and put your phone away!

Some photos - took about 1000 so it's going to take days to get through them.

 

[JamesMay82]

hours.

Conclusion is: take your camera and put your phone away!

This weirdly just hit home.. we are doing another Disney trip with the kids soon..

I think I will leave the phone in the hotel and just stick to the camera..

We lose so much time on these phones…

As I type my daughter whose 10 is on her iPad and I’m reading the news and this forum on my phone!

 

[_timo_redux_]

Conclusion is: take your camera and put your phone away!

Yep; totally agree. Nice shots. I'm going on holiday Saturday and taking at least two cameras along.

 

[geta]

The latest phone cameras are quite good for a quick point and shoot purposes, and sometimes their limitations can become a creative advantage.

However, a dedicated camera will always win, but at times it can be a hassle to carry around.