I’m seriously considering not taking my DSLR on our London vacation. I bought a tripod for my iPhone so I won’t miss the weight.
@pratik unless you are going to shoot landscapes mostly unnecessary I feel (based on my experience). Plus a tripod with iPhone will give you terrific shots!
@supremus Reading about your experience made me think that. I waited too long to process my DSLR photos from the last trip.
@pratik No we didnt get insurance; most won't cover covid related cancellations. If you don't require that, then it might make sense - but in general they are too restrictive.
@pratik i have mostly mothballed my Nikon since my iPhone 12 PM takes such good pics. Been considering getting a tripod. Did you get something aimed at iPhone or a normal tripod with special phone connection?
@pratik one thing I will say is that shooting with my Nikon is markedly different than shooting with the iPhone. With the Nikon I think about my composition more than with the iPhone and there is a detectable improvement in image quality. I expect the latter to diminish with successive iterations of iPhone.
@mbkriegh Oh definitely yes. I will always take my Nikon where I have the time and space to shoot at leisure. If I had a smaller and lighter DSLR for cityscapes, I wouldn't mind that.
@supremus Got it. I meant for health-related reasons i.e. if you injure yourself or fall sick.
@pratik it's still not worth it unless something really serious happens that requires hospital stays. Regular illness etc so much cheaper outside of usa. We have never bought health travel insurance for any country unless the country explicitly asks for it.
@pratik suggestion, get a small second hand m43 camera with a few compact lenses. I did something similar, camera with three lenses, full frame equivalent would be 28 + 24-70 + 70-200, and everything fitted in one pocket in my jacket
@jemostrom Do you mean these kinds of cameras? They still look just as big. I was considering mirrorless ones which can be compact but my wife denied that request.
@supremus Cool. I can now mark one item as done from the list that my wife assigned to me :) I'm adding a note/reason as - Coz S said so.
@pratik These are old cameras, you can buy the GX80 new but the rest you need to buy second hand (I would check MPB.com.
This is the LUMIX GM1, old, less capable, I don't use it much but it's the smallest mirrorless (as far as I know) in the m43 family
This is the LUMIX GM5, old but small, compact, decent picture quality (the photos I've posted today and the last few days are taken with this combo).
This is a LUMIX GX80 (GX85 in the US), a bit heavy but good picture quality and quite capable. I use this often together with the lens you see.
Add a few second hand lenses - the smaller cheaper zooms - and you have a small very compact kit. If you want a really small compact kit I would go for a GM5 + kit zoom, a 35-100 zoom (ff 70-200) and a 20mm/1.7 (for when it's dark). If you don't mind the extra weight GX80 + suitable lenses.
@pratik your regular health insurance should cover you anywhere in the world. You may have to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed.
@pratik Also, if you pay for the trip with a credit card, chances are they cover hospital bills up to a substantial amount, (pls check first).
@jemostrom Okay I keep wanting to sell my DSLR (my iPhone does so much) but these tiny little mirrorless cameras always get me re-interested in carrying a camera around again.
@hollie yeah, I have a couple of different mirrorless and I tend to use different ones depending on where I am. At work or in the city I like the GX80 or GM5. At home or out in the forest I'm usually carrying bigger cameras. I like my phone and use that also but in many situations I prefer a camera.
@jemostrom If you don't mind me asking, why do you prefer a camera?
The purpose of this question is that I keep thinking I sould just sell the camera body and go to my iPhone only. I have the 13 Pro Max so it's no slouch. But then I will find myself thinking that I miss "the kind of photos I get with a camera," and this feeling is so vague that I can't tell if there's really anything to it. Like, do I miss carrying a camera? Or is there a big difference in the shots I'm getting with the camera vs. the iPhone?
@hollie For me it comes down to a few different things. I'm now thinking about when I'm out for taking photos, not "I'm at work and I want to capture some funny stuff that just happened"-mode
Ergonomics, I find that a camera feels better in my hand, which makes it more enjoyable to use.
Concentration. For some reason I "feel"/"think" differently when I'm holding a camera and my brain goes into "photo mode". And my phone have so many distractions that my camera doesn't have.
Sometimes I take photos where a phone doesn't really work that well for me, for example sports, bad lighting, the need for telephoto lenses, flashes, etc.
while it's certainly is possible to take technically good photos on my phone, I'm more consistent using a camera.
I also like that I'm learning how to take and edit photos in a way that I don't do on a phone.
and other similar reasons.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a phone as a camera, I do that quite often myself, but using a dedicated camera gives me more joy, makes it easier to focus on what I'm doing, and gives me more consistent results.
But I'm usually mixing what camera I'm using, on a normal day I might use 2-4 different cameras (I'm including the phone) depending on my mood and what I want to photograph.
@jemostrom I think I didn't reply to this, my apologies! Thank you so much! Those are all great reasons. I also notice that I go into a "camera mode" that I don't do when my phone as much. I really like the new iPhone but I think I will look at getting a smaller DSLR in the future. I'd also like to take a Photoshop class.