Camera for European Honeymoon

[Mark1616]

Just having returned from my own honeymoon and as anyone knows I'm a very keen shooter mainly using a range of Canon dSLRs, I would say that my dSLR only got used 10% of the time and my pocketable P&S was used the rest. I will admit that it is an underwater P&S so took many trips to the pools and the sea with us but still it was my choice for just popping in a bag and taking along to capture the moments rather than any major artistic shooting. One essential piece of equipment that also went everywhere was a gorillapod which made life so much easier for photos of the two of us, whether I put it in a tree, on the ground, a bench etc etc etc, it meant I could get photos easily all the time. With a night portrait mode I could do a slow shutter with flash and get acceptable (not great) shots next to things like the pool etc at night.

If I hadn't had the dSLR then I might have put my Canon SX1 in (similar to the Panasonic mentioned) but still I preferred the small form of my quite little Panasonic waterproof.

[shoturtle]

Waterproof does not seem as important, except for maybe london. But in France and Italy you will have allot of great shooting at night. If you go with a bridge, like mark recommend get yourself a gorillapod regardless if it is a point an shoot or a dslr. They make a variety of sizes. For a small dslr like a canon t1i or pentax k-x the gorillapod dslr zoom would work nicely, for a bridge camera or compact micro 4/3 the standard gorillapod dslr works great, and if you go with a compact point and shot like mark's the gorillapod compact are good.

But like Mark point out the point and shoot and bridge camera will not give you great results at night just okay. Part of it is from the much smaller sensor they use.

[mtclimber]

For many years my husband and I travel all over the world extensively. A DSLR is on paper the optimal camera, but the reality is a good deal different, as Mark1616 pointed out so well.

I have traveled with everything from multi-lens DSLR kits to small point and shoot cameras. The bottom line is your preference, endurance, and packing space. A m4/3 camera is much easier to travel with than a Canon T-1i with three lenses.

So when making this decision you will have to be very honest with yourself. A month is a long trip, if you are pretty much "on the road" most of the time. Believe me, it takes a rather special mindset to tolerate and carry a multi lens DSLR kit for a trip that long.

Sarah Joyce

[shoturtle]

Very true Sarah, I will have a month off in Dec. And for that trip I doubt my dslr will be accompanying us. It will be epl-1 and the 4 small lenses that will make that trip. It is 1/3 the size of my T1i with comparable lenses setup.