Travel photography is big business these days and an affordable travel camera really doesn’t cost the world anymore. With more and more people sharing their most extravagant, daring and outrageous travel pictures on Instagram, the question “which are the best cameras for travel photography?” can be a difficult one to answer. Enough people ask us “which camera did you use to take that?” that we decided to write a post about our camera kit and show you our top-rated travel cameras.
Neither of us TripGourmets are professional photographers or videographers so we don’t own the best professional travel camera. When we first started this blog, we had nothing more than our iPhones, and an old Nikon Coolpix, a lightweight travel camera, that I had bought on holiday a few years ago in an attempt to do justice to the gorgeous Calabrian coastline.
One of my earlier attempts at travel photography with an old camera
With a bit more blogging experience, we have learned that taking the best travel photos and videos we can, makes our blog posts look better, and gives our readers a better feel for the place than a few dodgy snaps. Even for the non-blogger, showing off fancy holiday snaps is much more attractive for your friends and family at home than looking at blurry, badly lit images.
Are these really the best cameras for travel photography?
As experienced amateurs rather than professional photographers, we do not have any top-of-the-range DSLR cameras. Let alone any of those zoom lenses that look like telescopes.
What we do have is a reasonable amount of decent enough kit. This means we can take attractive photos and videos that generally get us a lot of nice comments and love from our readers. So when we say our “best cameras for travel photography” we will provide a list of our travel camera kit that covers a wide range of different photo and video types for us as travel bloggers. We will also include some of our favourite examples of photos and videos we have done with our various devices, so you can see the results for yourselves.
This post about the best cameras for travel photography contains affiliate links. If you buy anything using these links, we will receive a commission from the seller, at no additional cost to you. All opinions and demo photos are our own.
So, here goes with the list! You can use the links below if you want to jump to a specific section to find a good camera for travel:
1. Fujifilm X100T – The best street camera
2. Canon G7X Mark II – our best point-and-shoot/video cam for travel photography
3. GoPro Hero 4 – our best adventure camera for travel photography
4. DJI Spark drone – our best portable drone for travel photography
5. Olympus TG-5 – The best camera for underwater photography
6. Smartphone – our best “cam you have with you everywhere”
7. Essential accessories for travel photography
Our best cameras for travel photography – the list!
Fujifilm Finepix x100T -The best street camera
This great travel camera is hands down Tom’s favourite possession in the world. It goes everywhere with him and easily tops his best camera for travel photography list. Hence it is the first one we feature as a recommended camera for travelling.
The X100T is the third in the X100 series and offers a number of upgrades from previous versions. It has a 16 megapixel CMOS sensor, both optical and digital viewfinders plus a 3″ LCD. This perfect camera for travel also has customisable function buttons that allow the user a great degree of control over the different settings. It also allows up to 3 pre-sets for the auto-ISO settings. This means you can pre-set the camera for different behaviours in different light conditions.
The jewel in the crown of our best cameras for travel photography – Fujifilm Finepix X100T
It does lack a zoom lens, which is not something that bothers us as we use it predominantly for street and landscape photography, although occasionally Tom gets brave enough to ask someone other than me for a portrait shot. For him, not having a zoom is actually a good thing. Before we got the X100T, he used to use an old Samsung hand-held camcorder that had a 10x zoom. He was so zoom-happy with it that watching his wildlife videos was akin to trying to bird-watch whilst on a fairground ride. Since getting the X100T, he has spent a lot of time learning about the finer aspects of photography and his pictures are about a thousand times better as a result. Even though it has already quite some years on its back (2014), it is still viewed as the best compact camera for travel in a lot of travel camera reviews.
Control buttons on Fujifilm Finepix X100T
Aesthetically, it is a beautiful piece of kit, that looks like an old-school Minox. It also has a WiFi connection so that you can activate the shutter remotely, and easily upload the photos to your phone or iPad without cables using the Fujifilm app. For Tom, it is the best camera for travel blogging.
See the results:
Some of Toms favourite pictures taken with the X100T are below.
Douro river in Porto, Portugal shot with Fujifilm Finepix X100T camera
Rhein river view, Cologne, Germany shot with Fujifilm Finepix X100T camera
Tom got brave enough to ask this couple for a portrait shot with his Fujifilm Finepix X100T camera
Click here to buy the Fujifilm X100T from Amazon US
Click here to buy the Fujifilm X100T if you’re shopping from outside of the US
Tom has an open leather case for the Fujifilm Finepix X100T together with a neck strap that is more cushioned than the one that came with the camera. It’s part of his trusted travel photography gear.
If you want a full technical review of the Fujifilm X100T, click here.
Canon G7 X Mark II – best point-and-shoot/video cam for travel photography
This is one of the newer additions to our best cameras for travel photography kit. I bought it after we decided we were really going to do long-term travel as I wanted a camera I could also use whilst travelling but that had some features not offered by the Fujifilm Finepix X100T. I also wanted something that can shoot good HD videos, as we started thinking more about how we could do some decent vlog footage of our travels. Because of this, I was looking for the best travel video camera.
After some proper research, I decided on the Canon G7X Mark II. This camera seems to be the best travel video camera among vloggers because it has a flip-up screen, meaning you can watch from the front as you are filming. The screen is also a touch-screen which I really like, as it is easy to focus when shooting either stills or videos. The image quality remains stable when shooting even with video. It also has a time-lapse video function, which I really like as it adds a lot to videos in post-production.
CanonPowershot G7 X Mark II – great for both video and still images
The G7X Mark II also allows you to control the settings manually if you are more of a technical photographer. Like the Fujifilm Finepix X100T, it also has WiFi connectivity so you can download the photos to your device remotely.
Top view of the CanonPowershot G7 X Mark II, also showing how the screen flips out
It is not as sexy-looking as the X100T, and whilst it is also not a pocket camera, it is smaller and lighter than the X100T. For me, it is the best camera for blogging and vlogging.
See the results:
I recently took the G7X out on a day trip to the Alsace Wine Route and got some great stills of beautiful medieval villages. I’m really happy with this canon travel camera.
Witches in Bergheim, Alsace, shot with Canon G7 X Mark II
Riquewihr, Alsace, shot with Canon G7 X Mark II
Click here to buy the Canon G7X from Amazon US
Click here if you want to buy the Canon G7X from outside of the US
Later in this post, we’ll present you our favourite camera for underwater photography. We would still like to mention, that with underwater housing, the Canon G7X also is a great camera for sealife photography. A perfect example of such a housing is, for example, the Canon WP-DC53, which keeps your camera waterproof up to 39 meters (130 feet).
Click here to get it on Amazon US
Click here to get it from Amazon if you shop from outside of the US
GoPro Hero 4 action camera – best adventure camera for travel photography
I got the GoPro Hero4 back in 2015, as a gift to myself for having quit smoking (don’t start, kids – nicotine is evil!), and because we were planning a big adventure trip to Panama and Costa Rica. It is still pretty much my favourite best small digital camera for travel, even since I got the Canon G7X Mark II. I love it because it is super-tough and with the solid backdoor. With this waterproof travel camera, you can even dive 40 meters deep without destroying it. It can shoot in 4k, meaning excellent video quality even when on the move. It also has a range of other photo and video shooting options, including time-lapse. All of these features plus its teeny-tiny size means it makes a great addition to our top travel cameras.
The tiny but mighty GoPro Hero4
The accessory options are endless. GoPro has hundreds of its own branded accessories. Or, if you search on Amazon you can find a bewildering array of third-party accessories. After a couple of years of using it, I tend to default to a head strap, wrist strap, small Joby tripod and a selfie stick. I find that between these three, I can manage to film in most circumstances I need. The tripod and selfie stick can also be doubled up for use with a smartphone if you have a mount. Multi-use accessories reduce pack weight and are therefore great for travelling with a camera.
The GoPro is tiny but it does require some basic accessories to qualify as one of the best cameras for travel photography
Click here to buy the GoPro Hero 4 on Amazon US
Click here if you want to buy the GoPro Hero 4 on Amazon from outside of the US.
Hero 4 or Hero 7?
GoPro have since released the Hero7 model. This offers a few upgrades such waterproof case without the need for additional housing, and a touchscreen as standard. The touchscreen is a fairly valuable addition, as for the Hero4 you do need the additional backpac. This adds to the cost of the bundle, plus it means carrying around additional housing accessories to accommodate the backpac. Nevertheless, the Hero4 is still a good compact camera for travel and given the range of the other kit we have, we are not feeling any need to upgrade just yet. In case it ever breaks, we would immediately replace it with the newest GoPro Model (which is the GoPro Hero7 at the moment).
Click here to get the GoPro Hero7 on Amazon US
Click here to get the GoPro Hero7 from Amazon if you shop from outside of the US
We totally recommend the Hero 4 as a perfect budget action cam. If you want to go more budget, check out the Akaso Brave 4. The Family Voyage wrote a great review about this budget action cam.
See the results:
Our Central America trip was a great opportunity to test the GoPro Hero4 on a number of adventure tours and traveling with camera gear. Click through below for some footage of zip lines and canyoning. If you have a chance to visit Panama or Costa Rica, we definitely recommend checking out some of the amazing adventure day tours you can do there!
DJI Spark drone camera – best portable drone for travel photography
This is a brand-new addition to our camera for travel photography kit and I cannot begin to tell you how excited Tom was that we have our first proper drone. We had played around with the idea for a while, as we like to travel as light as we can, and a drone does not help this. But on the other hand, drone photography and flying a drone is just an epic level of cool, right? As we are preparing for full-time travel, we had sold a bunch of stuff at a flea market, and banked all of the spare change we have been collecting for years in bottles. The resulting profit more than balanced out the cost of procuring a DJI Spark to add to our collection of the best cameras for travel photography.
Best drone for noob pilots
Classed as an entry-level drone, the Spark is smaller, easier to fly, and less costly than most of drones available on the market today. It is quick and easy to set up and start flying which makes it a good camera for travel photography. However, you must register the product with DJI in order to access all of the features and functionality.
We plumped for the bundle including the additional remote controller which makes flying easier and allows you to use the drone in “sport mode”, ie you can go at racing speeds of up to 50kph (30mph). The 12mp camera shoots in 1080p, which is unsatisfactory for professional photographers but absolutely fine for us as noob drone pilots and travellers. The gimbal keeps the footage very smooth when it is in the air, with little to no shaking or blurring.
The DJI Spark – newest addition to our best cameras for travel photography
Perhaps one of the coolest features about the DJI Spark is the gesture controls. You can control the drone by waving your hands around. Again, this is easy to activate and to use. Plus, y’know, it makes you feel like a frickin’ Jedi knight!
Drone use can be heavily restricted in some countries and regions within specific countries. For example, you are not allowed to fly them in any of the Canadian National Parks. The DJI software can help with understanding the regulations in some cases. However, it is important to check the rules before you take it out flying anywhere.
During our travels through Asia, Europe and Northern America, we were able to catch some amazing aerial shots and see our surroundings like never before. Because the Spark is very compact, it was always easy to just carry it around in our hand luggage. We also never had any problems while entering a new country. Although we heard stories of customs stuff in certain airports who sometimes confiscate drones.
See the results:
View over the Rhein river shot with DJI Spark drone
Halong Bay in Vietnam
Cahuita National Park in Costa Rica
Click here to buy the DJI Spark from Amazon US
Click here to buy the DJI Spark from Amazon if you shop from outside of the US
If you’re interested to find out more about the DJI Spark or some of the other best drones on the market, then check out our post about the best drones for travelling. Casey Neistat also does a great comparison of the DJI Mavic vs DJI Spark drones on his YouTube channel.
Olympus TG-5 – The best camera for underwater photography
Since we discovered the joy of discovering the underwater world with snorkelling and scuba diving, we soon realised that we have to get ourselves an underwater camera. After some thorough research and testing an underwater camera of a friend of ours, we decided that the Olympus TG-5 is the underwater camera with the best value for us.
The Olympus is, without a special underwater case, waterproof up to 15 meters (50 feet). With an additional underwater housing like for example theSeaFrogs Housing, you can take the camera even down to a depth of 45 meters (147 feet). This is even deeper than you’re allowed to dive on a recreational dive! The TG-5 shoots videos in a 4K/30fps resolution and shoots pictures in 12 megapixels. Some of the best features though are the superfast autofocus speed and the still unsurpassed macro shot mode.
Click here to get it on Amazon US
Click here to get it from Amazon if you shop from outside of the US
We love the quick autofocus of the TG-5
The Olympus also works great on the surface
We love how the Olympus captures the colours underwater
Smartphone – the best camera you have with you everywhere
There is a saying that goes, the best camera is the one you have with you. Even if we have left all our other photography gear at home, we always have our phones with us, which makes the phone camera the best camera to take travelling. Smartphones these days all have perfectly good cameras. There are even a number of travel bloggers and Instagram accounts with many followers who only use their smartphones for all photography.
Before we got much of our travel kit as just described, most of our travel photos were shot on our phones. You can see below a selection of photos that we took only using our smartphones.
No zoom involved. This Sloth was really that close!
You don’t always take your camera with you on a walk, but most of the times you’ve got your phone.
Beautiful moments can appear very spontaneous
Essential accessories for travel photography
There are a few other photo accessories that we consider are essential to our best cameras for travel photography kit.
Tripod
A tripod is not necessarily essential for all shots, but for those in bad light conditions when you want to avoid using the flash, it is necessary to increase the exposure time. This means you have to keep the camera stable for longer, which is when the tripod comes in useful. Particularly for capturing outstanding shots at sunrise and sunset, a tripod is really an essential piece of kit.
As we travel and try to pack light, we use an ultra-lightweight and budget-friendly tripod from Hama. This will not work in high winds or with a big, heavy camera but it is perfect for our needs.
Click here to buy the Hama tripod on Amazon US
If you are shopping outside the US, use this link to browse the Hama tripod in your local Amazon store.
Selfie stick
We don’t take a huge number of selfies, and there is nothing I hate more than having sticks flying all over the place in touristy spots. However, the stick is really handy for filming footage on the move. As mentioned previously, ours can mount any of our camera equipment and we have a special mount for the iPhone as well, meaning it’s really versatile.
External memory
We carry a number of memory cards, plus a 2TB external hard drive each. This means we can back up all images and video footage from the memory cards to the external hard disk, and re-use the memory cards again and again. We also don’t have to worry about our laptops getting full.
We do also use Google Drive for sharing some of our photos between us so we can both access them easily. You could also use iCloud for this, or DropBox.
Camera bags
Of course, it’s always very important to keep your cameras protected from the elements, and Erin at Large presents some pretty stylish camera bags on her blog. Maybe you’ll even find your personal best camera bag for travel. Check it out here!
Powerbanks/charging cables
Anything that can be charged via USB can generally be charged using a Powerbank. We carry a couple each that pack a high amount of power. They are a bit heavier than the small “one phone charge” versions. However, we can use them for our camera batteries and phones, as well as iPads whenever we don’t have access to a power outlet. Charging cables are also a must. Native Union do a great range in keyring cables that are unobtrusive and can be easily carried around.
Your next trip is going to be a bit wet?
Then check out our post about the Best waterproof bags for keeping your travel gear dry
This list is a fully comprehensive guide to all the camera kit we use for our travel photography. It may not meet the requirements of every traveller, blogger or photographer. A lot of people have their own best travel camera. But after multiple trips and tests, we think we have found a perfect mix of kit that works really well for our needs as travellers and bloggers. What do you think?
Of course, you don’t want your awesome travel photos just sitting on your SD card. Read about some creative things to do with your travel photos on Travelweekli.
If you liked this post and are looking for more tips and lists of things we use during our travels, then you can also check out our post about the best travel first aid kit packing tips.
Do you have any favourite kit or equipment you love to use whilst travelling? What’s in your opinion the best camera to travel with? Share your tips with everyone in the comments below!
Like what you see? Then pin it on your Pinterest wall.
75 comments
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I always carry Go pro with me, its quite handy and small in size which makes me feel very ease to click pictures and capture amazing videos. Hats off to these technologies. 🙂 And thanks Sarah for introducing the other varieties of camera. 🙂
You are welcome Aanchal, thanks for stopping by and for your comment! The GoPro is a great little cam – to be honest it could do a lot of the work of the others, but as bloggers we just like to have a range of kit to lug around with us, lol 😉
I really like this post because it’s made for the average person. Like you, I’m not a professional but do want better pictures than you can get with a cell phone. I personally like my Sony, because it takes great photos and allows me to easily transfer photos to my phone.
Thanks for the compliment Buddy! We tried to keep this post suitably non-technical in order to appeal to photographers of all levels and also because we are not actually professional photographers ourselves! 😀 The newer cameras are great because you can transfer photos to phone/tablet wirelessly which makes posting on social media much easier when out and about. Thanks for reading!
This is such a helpful post, thank you for providing such candid and detailed information on all of these cameras. I’m in the market for a new point and shoot camera, and still am not sure what will work best for me. Though after reading your tips, I think I’m closer to choosing! 🙂 I must get one of those little tripods in the meantime. Pinned to share!
Hi Claudia, thank you for your comment. One of the problems is, that there are so many different cameras on the market. The good thing is, that the cameras of the big brands like Sony, Fujifilm, Canon, etc. normally are all quite good. A tripod is essential if you want to make some nice long exposure pictures 🙂 I hope you’ll find the right cam for you. Thank you for pinning it as well!
Have a fantastic day
The post is a wealth of information about cameras and travel photography. Loved reading it.We now use a Nikon DSLR and iphone for our travel photography. Would love to invests in a Gopro for action and adventure photography soon. We earlier used Canon and recently moved to Nikon.
Hi Sandy, thank you for your comment. A GoPro is a really cool camera and you can use it for so many occasions. I heard good things about Nikon as well.
Have a fantastic day
II’ve had others tell me the DJI Spark is a good option for travel photography, too. I’m seriously thinking of getting one!
Hi Tami, it’s definitely compact enough to take it with you travelling.
Have a fantastic day
I also use Fujifilm (XT-10) and Canon G7X as my trusted travelling companion! As an amateur photographer myself, I actually am pretty happy with the results. I’m still learning to shoot a good video though and video editing too! Any tips? 😀
Hi DebbZie, thank you for your comment. Fujifilm is great, isn’t it? I had no problems with my cam so far and i’m very happy with it. We learn to make videos and pictures mainly through YouTube (for example Peter McKinnon) and a page called “Udemy”. Udemy has a lot of different online courses! Normaly they have every now and then some awesome sales where you can get the courses for 10$ (You can also find vouchers online). I hope this helped you a little bit 🙂 I also think you take some awesome photos already!
Have a fantastic day
This is a really interesting and helpful post – I love that you included photos (and video) that you have taken with each camera, it is very insightful. Do you have any ‘dream’ cameras on your wish list?
Hi Gemma, thank you for your comment. We included some pictures for people to see what you actually can do with the cameras. At the moment we don’t have any cameras on our wish list, but who knows, that might happen on our travels 🙂
Have a fantastic day
This is a fabulous list, and it’s really cool to be able to see the results, I’ve not seen people include exampels of photos they’ve actually taken on specific cameras when making recommendations before. Personaly I use the Nikon D5300 and have found this awesome an an entry level DSLR. GoPro Hero 4 is also in my essential camera kit, and I love it for adventure holidays, or underwater. Takes great shots!
Hi Meg, thank you for your comment. We thought we rather show the results than the exact specifics as you can get them very easy on more professional tech-blogs 😀 IT’s more important for us to show what you can actually do with the cameras. I personally never had a DSLR, but I’d love to use one once. So far I’m still happy with my Fuji though. The GoPro is so cool under water! I wish you many more great shots!
Have a fantastic day
Having a good camera is so important while traveling. After all one wants to capture the memories in the best possible way. We use Nikon DSLR and iphone for our photographic explorations. Gopro is something we would like to go in for, especially for action pictures. Would love to get a drone camera too.
Hi Sandy, thank you for reading our Blog. I agree that the camera is one of the most important tools of a travel blogger. The GoPro is really cool if you do some action stuff!
Have a fantastic day
Thanks for the great tips and recommendations. I’ll admit, I never thought Fujifilm would top your list. I’ve never even heard of that company! But I’ll definitely have to check it out. Maybe I’m missing something truly spectacular! I’m fortunate enough to have a Canon T3 Rebel, which is a little dated at this point, but it gets the job done. Does the Fujifilm camera allow you to adjust things such as aperture and shutter?
And thanks for the drone recommendation. I’ve been considering getting one because I think it would allow me to capture some unique angles that I wouldn’t be able to do from the ground. I’ll definitely have to look into it.
Hi Kiyoko, thank you for reading our post. Fujifilm has some really great cameras and especially for street photography the x100t is quite popular. It’s like the Canon T3 Rebel a bit dated, but I love the quality of it’s photographs. You can adjust aperture, shutter speed, ISO and many other things, but you can use it perfectly easy also on Automatic mode if you’re not that much into setting control.
The drone is awesome! I mainly used it at home so far, but i’m looking forward to use it on other places as well!
Have a fantastic day
That pic from Cologne is stunning!
This is a robust list. Sounds like you guys are all geared up for the monumental journey ahead 🙂 Looking forward to seeing more pics!
Hi and thank you very much for your compliment! We are quite happy with our equipment and ready to finally hit the road.
Have a fantastic day
Nice post, totally agree with your equipment even if I have different things! but yes, one drone, one gopro, one camera and tripod!! really loved your blog and i will follow you!!
Hi Rocio, thank you for reading this post and you positive feedback! The different stiles of cameras really make your shots look more diverse. I haven’t played much with the drone yet, but I already love it 😀
Have a fantastic day
Thanks for a great photography equipment review! It’s always a little tough to decide what to bring with and what to leave at home when travelling (since you have to carry it all!). We recently invested in a DJI Mavic and love it. But then DJI released the Spark a couple months later and it looks so small and light! Looking forward to seeing some of your drone footage!
Hi Nick, thank you for your comment. I know exactly what you mean! All my tech stuff has to fit in a 25l backpack, so I have to be very cautious about what all I pack. I’d love to fly the Mavic, but hey, again, 25l backpack 😀 So far we’re quite happy with the quality of the spark. I wish you many great shots.
Have a fantastic day
Wowzas hey! So much detail and ideas running through my head at the moment. I am a die hard iPhone user and each version seems to bring me closer and closer to believing I actually may be ready to get a real camera. Your post was therefore, really great with info & will help lots in moving forward. I bought a GoPro a couple of years ago too but apart from a few attempts, never got into it, having a Drone (although amazing) is just a total fantasy!!! Agree with all the extra power too, have a bank of them and use them all the time. Great post to refer back to. Thanks.
Hi Anna, thank you for taking some time and reading our blog. I am/was a die hard iPhone user as well, and it is still my weapon of choice when i have to take a spontaneous shot without my Fuji 🙂 The drone was on our wish list for a long while, but finally they brought a small enough one on the market so we can actually take it travelling with us.I wish you many good shots.
Have a fantastic day
Soooo overwhelmed with all your gears! Hahaha! I look at all your beautiful blogs and just dream of taking photos like that! I like looking at good photos and still debating whether to invest in a decent mirrorless camera. I guess that will come with time and money 🙂
Hi Muryan. We have to admit that it really is a lot of gear, but then again, we use all of it 🙂 I think you have some great pictures on your blog yourself. You don’t need a good camera to be a good photographer, but once you can capture some great shots you just want to improve yourself with some better gear. We for example don’t have a mirrorless camera at all 😀
Have a fantastic day
Always to buy a drone and a cam. Thanks for the Noob info on this one. Suits someone like me. Love the drone pics too!
Hi Sreekar, I think you would love to fly a drone (and then again, who wouldn’t) 😀 We just decently got ourselves this drone, so we’re still experimenting a bit with it. Thank you very much for your kind comment.
Have a fantastic day
That’s quite a big list of equipment but it’s true that when we travel, we can’t resist getting all the best pics and videos possible so we make the sacrifice of not traveling too light… I often travel with my two DSLRs lol.. I see that you have a DJI drone, I was just looking at getting one yesterday – I think DJI drone are pretty expensive, would you recommend getting a cheaper one first? Or is it worth getting a DJI right away?
Hi Julien. It’s true that it is quite a lot to carry around, but in the end, this will be our job for the time coming 😀 I had a cheaper drone once and it was quite bad. The video quality wasn’t good and it had no flight stabilisers. It’s fun to play with a cheap one, but you can’t use it for any professional videos or pictures. We decided for the cheaper DJI Spark, mainly because it’s smaller than all the other DJI drones and not as expensive.
Have a fantastic day
I would love to know how you get on with the drone. My husband bought me one for my birthday which is over two months ago and still I have not used it. It always seems too windy and frankly we have struggled to get it off the floor. There is just such a bewildering array of equipment that for a beginner it is mind boggling.
Hi Anne, thank you for reading our post. To be absolutely honest, we have no problems flying the DJI Spark. I had a smaller drone before (One fore about 100$) and it was a lot more difficult to fly that one. One of the cool things included in the bit pricier drones is a flight stabiliser who allows the drone just to hoover at a certain hight. This makes it so much easier to keep it in the air 😀 I hope you’ll find some joy with your drone as well.
Have a fantastic day
Perfect timing for this article. We are actually in need of a new camera and looking at the Canon G7x. I’ve just seen your comment that it doesn’t support an external mic…that’s too bad because we want to do more vlogs. Good tips about the drone. The footage we see from other bloggers is amazing, this is worth investing in as well. Thanks again for the great recommendations.
The Canon G7X does have good sound quality even without an external mike. I was browsing Amazon last week and saw that you can actually get a small detachable wind muffler for the built-in mic so also plan to try that for vlogging outside. There are lots of great other options for vlogging cams too. We are really excited to try our drone during our big Asia trip in October, look forward to sharing the footage. Thanks for your comment guys, wish you a great weekend!
Loads of infomation here! You really know your stuff and have now shared it to help others. I learnt so much reading your post I studied photography when I left school but we were still using film and a dark room. How things have advanced but for the good. Keep taking amazing pics and sharing them with the world!
Thanks Lisa for your kind words! Photography has changed a lot over the last years, and we still have a lot to learn. But we love taking the best pics we can for our blog – it is a matter of personal pride but also we want our readers to be able to share our experiences! Thanks for stopping by and wish you a great weekend.
That’s an awesome set of cameras you have! I see that many love fuji film cameras and with your review, I now don’t wonder why. And you really deserve that gopro, btw!!!
Thanks Trisha… we are really happy with our kit although of course we are always looking for ways we can get better pics or videos. Really looking forward to putting it all to the test when we start our big trip in a month! Thanks for your comment, have a great weekend!
We own a drone, go pro and SLR and its really difficult to lug around sometimes but we just have to go for it haha. I like how crisp the photos are taken with the fujifilm. Im on a hunt for a new camera and leaning towards a Sony. But great gear guys! 🙂
Thanks Janna – good to know we are not the only ones lugging around half a ton of kit! 😉 Tom loves his Fujifilm but I’ve also read good reviews of the Sony. Hope you get one that is right for you. Thanks for stopping by and for your comment.
The shot from the bridge in Cologne is just stunning! It’s funny though, I think your best shots are from your iPhone and I’m not an iPhone fan. I like that you showed each camera, the equipment, and the results. So many people just tell you about their favorite camera but it’s nice to see that you have several options to choose from. I have my Samsung Galaxy that takes incredible pictures and my Nikon D7100 for the more detailed work. Great info!
Thanks for your comment Mia, and for the compliment! Tom will be happy 🙂 We also find that a lot of camera posts focus very much on the technical aspects of the cameras without showing some real-life results, hence we tried to make our post a bit broader. For phone shots, we are now intrigued by these Huawei phones and will definitely consider this if one of our iPhones breaks (although afraid to say we are both die-hard iPhone fans – I had a Samsung as my work phone and don’t like using it at all!)
I have been playing around with cameras for sometime now along with my travels, and since I turned a blogger and became serious about photography. Mine was Nikon first, then moved to SLT Sony alpha. I have tried Canon too, and Go Pro is on my list next! I can’t wait to experience that!
Thanks for stopping by Reshma! Decent photography does really make a difference on a blog, and we have only really become more serious about photography and camera equipment since we started blogging. GoPro is a great little camera, loads of feature and kit to explore and really fun to play around and experiment with. Have fun with it and thanks for your comment!
that shot from Canon G7x is superb!!! anyway.. if you like to upgrade your phone.. I suggest you check out Huawei P9 or P10.. for mobile photography.. you can do manual mode with them.. 🙂
Hey, thanks for your comment and the compliment! The G7X shots are mine and usually Tom gets all the photo love. We checked out your phone cam recommendation – that looks AWESOME. Really thinking of getting one just for the cam firepower. Thanks for the cool recommendation, we may yet update this post with a new piece of gear! 🙂
I keep hearing great things about that Fujifilm camera — and y’all took great shots with it! I’m in the market for something a little less of a pain to carry around than my DSLR but that still takes high-quality photos, so I’ll have to consider that one.
Hi Carrie, thank you for visiting our page. I’m so happy with my Fuji x100t! When Sarah gave me the camera as a birthday gift I was quite surprised first that it hasn’t got a zoom. I did learn to live without the zoom though and with time I even started to appreciate the non existing zoom. It makes you think so much more of what and how you want to capture! I can fully recommend this camera.
Have a fantastic day
Nice choices for travel gear. I debated on the Fuji Finepix vs the Sony a6000 but went with the Sony instead. But love the retro look of the Fuji. Your drone shots came out great. I’ve wanted to get one for a couple years but haven’t made the plunge yet.
Hi Debra, thank you for your comment. Getting the right camera can be quite tough! In the end some really small details can make the difference. We love our drone and we can’t wait to test it on other places as well 😀 Wht makes you hesitate to get a drone?
Have a fantastic day
Loved your post. I;m thinking about getting a new camera, as my phone feels not really enough anymore. I was thinking about gopro hero4 for everything, but I’m not sure about landscapes and street photography. Have you try it there? is it really bad for this?
Hi Ana, thank you for your comment. I know exactly what you mean with the phone is not enough anymore 😀 The Go Pro Hero 4 is amazing, but we wouldn’t recommend it for street photography though. But if you’re mainly doing action activities, you could as well use it for all your other pictures as well. If you’re not that much into action, we rather recommend to get something like the Canon G7x.
Have a fantastic day
This is so helpful! I have no photography experience, but I’ve been thinking that taking better pictures could really help my travel blog. Thanks for the recommendations!
Hi Ashley, thanks for stopping by. I used to take photos mainly with my phone, and some of them were actually not that bad. But since I have my new baby, the Fuji x100t, the pictures really gained on quality. It’s not super easy to use it, but when you invest some time in learning some basic skills it increases the fun in taking pictures drastically 😀
Thanks for sharing! I have been looking for a new drone. I may have to look into the spark. I have the go pro drone and it is hard to manage.
Hi Rosemary. Why is the Go Pro drone hard to manage? We had a look at it first as well, but it didn’t seem to be small enough to travel with it. That’s what we really love with the Spark. And it’s super easy to fly as well 🙂
Have a fantastic day
This post was really helpful for me, I’ve instantly bookmarked it as although I’m an experienced traveler (6 years continuously) I’ve only been blogging for a few months. And I have to admit up until now, my traveling pictures have just been snapped on my phone and not the quality of some of the pics I see in blogs nowadays. Some of them blow me away so thank you very much for this post 😀
Hi Amit, thanks for visiting our blog. 6 years! Bloody hell, that’s a long time! But that also means you must really love it 🙂 We are blogging since a year now, but only start long term travelling in a month, so excited! I think you have some fantastic pictures on your Blog. Phones have quite powerful cameras nowadays and with all the different apps, you can make your pictures even more spectacular!
Have a fantastic day
Excellent guide! We have a very similar travel style with the gear and accessories you highlighted. I love the photos you shared using your Fujifilm. Beautiful shots expertly done. We’ve been using a Sony Nex-6 for years and the back LCD screen has cracked, so we’re considering getting a new camera. I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about the Fujifilm cameras lately, and your article is certainly a testament! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Heather for reading and for the compliment, Tom will be pleased as he does most of our photos 🙂 He LOVES the Fujifilm – he was happy enough when we bought it but since he has had chance to use it on many different trips and hone his technical skills a bit more, it is really his favourite piece of kit – although the drone is now competing for that position! It is a great cam. good luck with your search, and wish you a great weekend!
Love the post!! I’ll admit I skipped straight to the drone section, because we’ve been looking at trying out drone photography on our trips. One thing I’ve been really nervous about, though, is the legal aspect of even using a small drone like the Spark in foreign countries. I’ll definitely keep the Spark top of mind (and add it to my Amazon wishlist 🙂 ). Thank you for all the info!!
Haha, everyone loves the drone! I wouldn’t worry too much – it is easy enough to find info online about where drones are allowed or not, or if they are allowed but their use is restricted. You can also find courses on platforms like Udemy on becoming a drone pilot. They are such fun to fly and the footage is so awesome that it is worthwhile having to do a bit of homework! Glad you enjoyed the read and thanks for your comment 🙂
Great post guys! We’ll actually be looking for a new camera equipment for our cycling trip so this is really great for us, I have been thinking about a possible upgrade to the Hero 5 & think it might be a good idea to consider a camera that is good for video too, so much to consider so it’s fab to have an overview on what you have! Adam is definitely the decider of the tech equipment so I’ll send him the link to this so he can have a read too 🙂 I would also really love a drone, in case you hadn’t already gathered, think it will be great for shots when we’re back in the UK for a while & if we get really good with it we could even drone film us cycling!! Thanks again for sharing everything with us 🙂
Thanks for reading and for your comment Kelly 🙂 The drone is fabulous – it does have a “follow” mode so you could use it for some cycling footage. You are right – bloggers have so much to consider when making purchases – it took me AGES to decide on the Canon! Hope you guys are having a great weekend
Oh that’s awesome, thanks Sarah ? There are so many things to consider which is why articles just like this are so helpful, thanks for sharing! We are having a great weekend thank you, hope you guys are too ?
Great post guys! Thanks for sharing this with you. Tim is a big Go Pro guy and has unfortunately lost 2 of them in the past year :S But he now has a new one and is loving it. Though we are noticing that when it comes to a bit more artsy video scenes a better digital camera would provide more options. This Canon Mark II seems interesting, we might have to take a look. Anyways, thanks again for sharing. We are looking forward to seeing what you can do with all of this fire power!
Thanks for reading guys! We also had the “lost a GoPro” experience – Tom managed to lose his when we were rafting in Panama last year. He fell out of the boat (or as he describes it, “had a near death experience” lol) and when he was hauled back in, the GoPro was gone 🙁 I can recommend the Canon G7X Mark II – it is a great all-rounder 🙂 Look forward to sharing our best footage and shots from around SE Asia very soon! Wish you a great start to your day 🙂
Great stuff guys! I was actually looking at the canon g7 as well, I am glad to hear you love it! Would you recommend it for vlogs?
Thanks for reading Chad! Still getting used to the Canon G7X but yes, can recommend it for both stills and videos. The video quality is great, I will put some footage on YouTube once I get chance to do some video editing (instead of packing, lol). The only drawback I would mention is that it doesn’t have any connection for an external mic. I haven’t tried to use it in noisy place so not sure if this is an issue for the sound quality of the inbuilt mic. And I guess it depends on how polished you want your vlogs to be at the end. But I can recommend it anyway as a great all-rounder. Have a great day ahead 🙂