Before You Buy Digital SLR Cameras and Lenses for Travel

If you have worked with a film SLR and yearn for the same amount of control, then the time is right for a digital SLR. Resolution has reached--and some say surpassed--that of film.

But new cameras hit the market with amazing frequency. Why? Well, in the old film days things were simple. Once you found a brand you liked, you bought their professional camera and you were set for decades. Each year pictures got very slightly better due to advances in film technology.

Digital cameras contain the film. Each advance in color depth, resolution, and noise comes from the works stuffed inside a new camera.

You might be tempted to look for the smallest, lightest camera you can find, but consider these things: a smaller camera might not fit your hands, so check it out first, and a light camera is more difficult to hold steady for a shot at low shutter speeds than a heavier camera. Plus, the camera is only one part of the equation. A lens will add weight, and a fast, professional lens will add lots of weight. More glass equals more light and usually less distortion. But the compromise is weight.

Manufacturers like Olympus put the shake reduction inside the camera. This means that all the lenses you buy with benefit from shake reduction. In-camera shake reduction isn't quite as efficient as in-lens shake reduction though, but if you're on a budget and don't want to travel with a tripod, it'll save you money.

Cheap lenses have maximum apertures of 3.5 or 4 at wide angle, and are as slow as 5.6 at moderate telephoto focal lengths. A smaller aperture means that you can focus your viewer's attention on the subject you're presenting by blurring the background, making for a far more pleasant picture than the type of picture you might take with a pocket camera where the whole frame is in focus.

With a digital SLR, dust tends to stick like glue to the filter on top of the sensor and sit there. This is likely to happen when changing lenses. New cameras offer technologies to deal with dirt and dust. They're not perfect yet, and your sensor will likely need cleaning at some point.

So have a peek at my recommendations. There's a budget kit, and recommendations for the best lenses used for travel pictures if you're not on a tight budget.