Choosing a Camera

The camera is the most basic and fundamental piece of equipment any photographer will have. It is the tool that captures the photographer’s vision, recording light in a way that allows a particular scene be shared with others.  Choosing a camera is a daunting task to begin with, and the specific needs of the traveling photographer make choosing the right camera even more important.

Digital or film is a personal choice.  I shoot digital and swear by digital.  I have no desire ever to return to the chemical smell of the darkroom, or limit my bursts of photographic creativity to 36 image sequences.  Digital has helped me become a better photographer more quickly, as I’ve done much more shooting (and therefore experimenting and practicing) with digital than I could ever have with film.  If you still prefer to shoot film, that’s fine with me, but most people use digital these days.

What I think we need to be more concerned with, is the format of the camera we choose; whether we shoot with a compact point-and-shoot, SLR, or medium or large format camera. For backpacking, keeping weight down is key, but unfortunately, in the world of cameras, smaller cameras generally mean lesser quality.  Point-and-shoots have smaller digital sensors, which means that image information gets crammed and compressed into a smaller area.  They usually have wide-range zoom lenses, which optically are usually inferior to fixed-focal length and shorter range zoom lenses.  Few have the level of control that SLRs do, and most don’t offer the ability to record an image in the RAW format, which is ideal for high quality work.  Point-and-shoots do have one major obvious and important advantage though; they are small, lightweight, and packable.

Digital SLRs, on the other hand, can be bulky and cumbersome.  Packing them is a royal pain, and because they accept interchangeable lenses, a basic setup for photography may involve three or more individual pieces of gear.  However, they offer exceptional control for the photographer and outstanding image quality.  Not all digital SLRs are the same though.  Of the models currently on the market, only a handful have a full frame 35mm sized sensor.  The rest have cropped sensors ranging from 1.3-1.6x the magnification of a full frame sensor, meaning that that the sensors are smaller, and therefore need to be more densely packed to record the same amount of data.  This can result in more digital noise and less detail in cropped sensor cameras when compared to full frame cameras.  Cropped cameras do have the advantage of being less expensive and sometimes smaller in size, and for those who photograph wildlife, the increased magnification means you can get more reach with a shorter, lighter lens.

Medium format digital cameras are very expensive, but can record a tremendous amount of image information and detail.  They are larger and heavier than standard digital SLRs, but offer the same precise control.  Hasselblad just came out with a new 40MP medium format camera.  It costs $30,000, which is more than all of my camera gear combined.

There is also a new genre of cameras on the market, those that conform to the micro four-thirds system.  These cameras are smaller than traditional digital SLRs and also have smaller sensors, but they accept interchangeable lenses, allow complete manual control, and have the ability to record images in a RAW format.  These cameras are the “in between” in the step from point-and-shoot to DSLR.

So which to choose?  The answer: it depends.  Some of today’s modern point-and-shoots are very good performers and offer RAW recording.   They don’t have quite the same versatility that an interchangeable lens camera offers, usually limited by a small aperture range and the inability to accurately manually focus, but do allow some creative control in the right hands.  For times when saving weight and reducing bulk is key, a point-and-shoot may be the only way to take photos.

This was the case when I biked across the United States from Virginia to Oregon last summer.  It was my first ever bike tour and a very long trip.  Photography was not my focus, but of course I wanted a way to capture images, and I wanted a camera that would be good enough to produce salable images from the trip, knowing I would visit places that I was unlikely to ever see again.  I ended up packing a Canon G10 and Gorilla Pod as my only camera gear, and that setup weighed around one pound.

My DSLR hiking setup, on the other hand, weighs somewhere between eight and twelve pounds, depending on what exactly it is that I choose to carry.  My 5D Mark II produces beautiful files and is not limited by the noise issues, limited depth of field, and restricted focal length and other drawbacks of the G10, but at the cost of a much heavier and more expensive package.  Because I was spending every day on the road, in all weather conditions, and went for weeks at a time without shooting, it made sense to pack lighter, and after my first crash with my bike, you can be sure I was glad I didn’t have a pricier and more fragile camera with me.

For trips where photography is my focus though, I always take a DSLR.  My backpacking/hiking setup consists of my 5D Mark II, 17-40mm f/4, and 70-200mm f/4 IS, plus two filters and my tripod and ballhead.  Sometimes I’ll add extension tubes and/or a teleconverter as well.  This setup is quite versatile and allows for a lot of shooting opportunities using high end, professional equipment that will give me fantastic results in most conditions that I am likely to encounter when I am out backpacking in the wilderness.  If weight became more of a concern or I was hiking through an area where I’d spend more time photographing wildlife than landscapes, I might consider taking a 1.6x crop body instead of my full frame 5D Mark II.

I’ve been intrigued by the micro four-thirds system cameras, but I still find the lack of lens options and introductory DSLR price tag to be prohibitive.  As of right now the only cameras utilizing the micro four thirds system are made by Olympus and Panasonic, and there are less than half a dozen lenses specifically designed to fit them.  Regular SLR lenses can be attached to the cameras using an adapter, but I don’t really consider that an option as it defeats the whole purpose of a smaller system.  If I were a dedicated backpacker photographer, who did all my photography while days out on the trail, I might consider investing in one of these camera setups instead of using the P&S/SLR combo I use now, but there are very few circumstances where I feel I would be justified leaving my DSLR at home to use this instead.

I don’t own, can’t afford, and have never used a medium format DSLR.  For me, I can’t justify the cost, and I would be unlikely to want to carry the weight on an extended backpacking trip.  Old school photographers have lugged medium and large format equipment all over the wilderness, but that’s just not my style.  I like to keep things simple when possible.

Here is some suggested reading:

• My article on using the Canon G10 on my bike trip across the country
• My friend David Clapp’s review on the Panasonic GF-1 micro four thirds camera for shooting landscapes