Top Digital SLR Cameras for Travel

I use a Canon EOS 20D for most of the the pictures you see on Europe for Visitors. The new 40D is quite a step up, featuring compelling new features like a much larger LCD screen, more resolution and color depth, dust management (if you need to change lenses on the fly, you will be guaranteed to get dust on the sensor that will show up in your photos), and spot metering. This digital SLR will shoot 6.5 frames per second and sRAW, for when you want to shoot a smaller picture, yet maintain the superior editing capability of a RAW file (compared to a compressed JPG). I suggest you buy the body only and opt for the incredible lens below - the 17-55 mm f2.8 IS lens. If you can't afford it, the kit lens is fine for most shooting.

The same camera as above with the kit lens: Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Zoom Lens. The lens is "image stabilized" meaning that you can hand hold it at 2 or 3 shutter speeds slower than is usually necessary for a blur-free picture. Be aware that due to the 1.6x cropping factor, the kit lens is really equivalent to a 39mm lens. This is not wide enough for much of the shooting I do as a travel photographer. If you have relatively deep pockets, you'll want the 17-55mm lens below, which offers a 27mm equivalent view.

I've been photographing professionally for over 30 years, and this offering from Canon is my favorite lens of all time. It's fast for a zoom, 2.8f throughout the zoom range, and the IS is spectacular. Pictures taken in an almost completely dark church at 1/6 of a second hand held are sharp as a tack. It focuses reasonably close. It's expensive, but worth it if you value your work and need the flexibility the lens offers in terms of getting shot under horrible light conditions. You'll also want the shade, which is unfortunately offered as an expensive accessory-- especially considering that it's just a plastic shade.

Don't have deep pockets? Here's a great idea that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. The 4/3 system eliminates the useless area on 35mm pictures, a format that originated with wide screen movie film. The lenses and cameras are lighter and more compact, and the pictures are almost perfectly formated to make an 8x10 enlargement without much cropping. The E-510 offers CCD shift image stabilization, meaning that you can control camera shake without buying specially equipped (read expensive) lenses. Olympus has always made great lenses, and this kit comes with two of them, covering all the range a travel photographer might need, for under $900. And that, folks, is a bargain.