The Best Camera For Overlanding

[DiploStrat]

To add another thought, I turn it around the other way. One of the reasons that I have a 4x4 is specifically to be able to carry more and heavier cameras than I would be able to carry were I on foot, biking, or traveling by public transport.

As always, YMMV.

 

[mtnbike28]

The best camera is always the one you have with you and know how to use. I have a burning desire to get a Fuji mirrorless, but the reality it will not be any better than my Nikon D7000 and older prime lenses. I have always suggested to friends who do not want a dSLR, get the latest Canon G series, read the manual and take pictures. Good quality, nice zoom range and fits in a large pocket or any bag.... makes it easy to always have with you.

 

[kojackJKU]

Well, after playing and learning my two fujis (x10 and x-s1) They are the two perfect travel cameras. NO lenses to swap out, photos are amazing from them, They are built like tanks actually. Both cameras are all metal, even the knobs and switches are metal. The only piece of plastic in these cameras are the rotary thumb dial. The lens cover on the x10 is even metal. They are solid built, and the photos from them are great. The x10 is great for general travel photography. Its small, has a decent zoom range for normal stuff, the photos are amazing, it takes great low light shots and feels like a classic rangefinder in your hands. The X-S1 is more of the outdoors/nature camera. It has a 426mm equivalent lens and can get the birds, animals and scenery brought in close to you easily without swapping lenses. Again, the x-s1 also takes great low light photos. I am buying a group of teleconverters for both cameras, not because I need them, but rather because I want to experiment with how each of these work with the cameras. Other than that its just a Fuji TTL flash, and a group of filters for the lenses.

My whole kit, including my tablet for photo quick photo editing fits in a very small lightweight backpack now instead of a super heavy large backpack that could barely fit under an airplane seat. I hope there is space in the pack for my surface pro 3 for full editing and my asus tablet will then retire from travel. I have a 1TB drive that I store all my photos on when traveling. Great to have a nice windows tablet with USB that makes it super easy to store many photos and Keep it lightweight. I had android and apple tablets and neither could do that easily.

When choosing gear, DON"T listen to others figure out your needs then buy the proper gear to fit them. Took me awhile, well actually, I had a Fuji 9100, and sold it. Should have kept it. I loved the photos from it. Now I have the upgraded version of it and could not be happier.

 

[Ryanmb21]

Take advice from good photographers about photography equipment.

 

[kojackJKU]

A good photographer can take a great shot with a 4 MP point and shoot, a crappy photographer can take a really poor shot with a D4X.

 

[Honu]

Been a full time pro most my life

When I switched to digital about 2001 I bought two canon 1D and a 1Ds since then pretty much all cameras stomp these in the ground upgraded every model jump after the 5D MKII things did not change as much and jumped over to Nikon

Back to old days
My 1Ds forgot ? 11MP ? Crap ISO really lower dynamic range and color depth than basic cameras today etc.... Been in architectural digest numerous times with it was in Conde Nast Travel all the time both these sometimes with double spreads food & wine numerous times and many other high end mags etc.... If you had been to Maui before I moved away you saw my work most likely
Those are high end demanding mags ! Today my E-M1 would smear my 1Ds in every way

I did have a shot turned down with my 1D MKII was for a Maui calendar went reshot it with the S all was good

These days I use a Nikon D600 and OMD mostly
Am looking at sony A7 waiting for next gen most likely see where they go I do think mirrorless is the future and love shooting them over my FF DSLR gear

I gave up on 1 series bodies after the MKIII I loved em but I never shot sports the 5D and the following 5d MKII and after were awesome wedding and commercial cameras
Today D600 or d800/810 no need to rent med format backs IMHO at least also the canon 5d is in the same boat

My fav camera is something most never heard of called a cambo wide has wood handles

I never lug my Nikon out unless it's work related and even then I shoot my omd tend to get about 50/50 now

Agree kinda depends on what end use is but reality it's the one you like all are great and a great shot with say a sony rxIII or a d800 will be a great shot and if someone notices tech side rather than content it was not a good shot


If I won the lottery I would still shoot what I do now gear wise

 

[kojackJKU]

Got some nice shots of a Hawk in our back garden today using my Fuji xs-1. I have to load them on the computer and run some PP for cropping and positioning. I love the two Fuji cameras. What a great setup for traveling. No extra lenses needed to take with us, lightweight kit because of it. Just need the surface pro 3 for PP and storage and away we go on our travels.

 

[Vegas_Nick]

A good photographer can take a great shot with a 4 MP point and shoot, a crappy photographer can take a really poor shot with a D4X.

That is exactly what I was going to say! Not saying that this is the OP's stance but I hear way too many fan boys doing their "this was shot with a Canon 5D MxIIII 3x 33 1/3", bla, blah, blah! I have shot film on a 40 year old Yashica and sold those photos to as many magazines as anything that I have shot with Canon 7D. For that matter, I have seen entire art galleries shot from a Holga! (look it up, it's a fun camera)

When I travel, I have three cameras that serve three different purposes. The GoPro is always mounted on the rig and I have extracted still images from the video that have been awesome. If I am hiking any distance away from camp, for the most part I have my Canon G12 because it is just so darn light! My go to camera for the rest of my work is the Canon 7D. I ended up with it because of burst rate because I used to shoot a ton of air show photography. Quite honestly, some of the canon pro-sumer lines now make me drool! The T5i is an awesome an inexpensive camera that would work well out in the field.

Moreso than a camera, learn how to use it. Learn about aperture and shutter speed and lenses, etc. Learn the mechanics and no matter what camera you buy, you'll enjoy it much more.

 

[kojackJKU]

That is exactly what I was going to say! Not saying that this is the OP's stance but I hear way too many fan boys doing their "this was shot with a Canon 5D MxIIII 3x 33 1/3", bla, blah, blah! I have shot film on a 40 year old Yashica and sold those photos to as many magazines as anything that I have shot with Canon 7D. For that matter, I have seen entire art galleries shot from a Holga! (look it up, it's a fun camera)

When I travel, I have three cameras that serve three different purposes. The GoPro is always mounted on the rig and I have extracted still images from the video that have been awesome. If I am hiking any distance away from camp, for the most part I have my Canon G12 because it is just so darn light! My go to camera for the rest of my work is the Canon 7D. I ended up with it because of burst rate because I used to shoot a ton of air show photography. Quite honestly, some of the canon pro-sumer lines now make me drool! The T5i is an awesome an inexpensive camera that would work well out in the field.

Moreso than a camera, learn how to use it. Learn about aperture and shutter speed and lenses, etc. Learn the mechanics and no matter what camera you buy, you'll enjoy it much more.

Exactly. To many people get caught up in the moniker SLR these days. Just because you can swap lenses don't make the camera magically capture amazing photos.

My 2 fujis will pull off amazing travel and wildlife photos, their low light capabilities are awesome. If I was shooting high speed sports, then obviously the D4x series Nikon would be my choice. But, as it stands now, Im taking travel and wildlife photos, and the fujis rock for these types of situations. For the price of an entry level slr and 2 lenses, I picked up the X-S1 which has a 35mm lens range of 28-624mm. and the x10 "rangefinder" style which has an effective 35mm range of 18-112mm. Both have the same sensor and processing package so which ever camera I pick up, as they are setup the same, My photos look the same from either camera. The Dynamic range of the Fuji's outdo lots of mid level SLRs available now. I can enlarge the photos to pretty well any size I desire and not have an issue.

A win win of cameras in my books.

As for the holga, I had one but I sold it again as the only photo processor here closed up shop. SO I have to ship my film to get developed so I gave up on the idea. I love them tho. I can look at holga photos all day.

 

[Lost Canadian]

I think everyone agrees that great pictures can be taken with just about any camera, I don't see any argument there, but there are limitations to every camera, be it size or capability. I think it's naive to simply say any camera can do xyz, because not every camera can create certain looks and not every camera is as capable as the next. The look of an 85 f1.4 or 200 f2 on FF can not be duplicated with a small sensor camera, it just can't, not without some magical imaginary f0.12 lens or without having to be 5 blocks away with a super long lens, it's physics. Conversely the bigger the sensor the bigger lenses will need to be to cover that sensor, so portability starts to become a factor. The question every photographer deals with and has dealt with since the days of film when there were debates over 35mm, medium and large format, is what is best for the creative photographers desired goals and outcomes.

So as it relates to overlanding I think one simply needs ask themselves what do they want to achieve. If you're traveling and want to focus on stylistic portraiture your gear is going to differ from someone wanting to simply document the journey photojournalist style. You can pick any style of photography and gear requirements are going to change. Finding the balance of appropriate gear and desired outcomes is a completely personal one and not something, that I feel anyway, can be concluded in a matter of fact way. If you have no idea what you want to do, I agree with Ryan and say take the advice of good photographers. The great thing about living in the age we do is it's easy to go to sites like 500px, look at everything and find a number of photographers images you really really like and see what they use. If you want to create images like that you're likely going to need gear similar to what they are using.

 

[kojackJKU]

I think everyone agrees that great pictures can be taken with just about any camera, I don't see any argument there, but there are limitations to every camera, be it size or capability. I think it's naive to simply say any camera can do xyz, because not every camera can create certain looks and not every camera is as capable as the next. The look of an 85 f1.4 or 200 f2 on FF can not be duplicated with a small sensor camera, it just can't, not without some magical imaginary f0.12 lens or without having to be 5 blocks away with a super long lens, it's physics. Conversely the bigger the sensor the bigger lenses will need to be to cover that sensor, so portability starts to become a factor. The question every photographer deals with and has dealt with since the days of film when there were debates over 35mm, medium and large format, is what is best for the creative photographers desired goals and outcomes.

So as it relates to overlanding I think one simply needs ask themselves what do they want to achieve. If you're traveling and want to focus on stylistic portraiture your gear is going to differ from someone wanting to simply document the journey photojournalist style. You can pick any style of photography and gear requirements are going to change. Finding the balance of appropriate gear and desired outcomes is a completely personal one and not something, that I feel anyway, can be concluded in a matter of fact way. If you have no idea what you want to do, I agree with Ryan and say take the advice of good photographers. The great thing about living in the age we do is it's easy to go to sites like 500px, look at everything and find a number of photographers images you really really like and see what they use. If you want to create images like that you're likely going to need gear similar to what they are using.

Well said.

When I think overland photography I think packing light and have good quality. That's why I recommend the two models I have. I have owned various DSLR systems from canon, sony and Olympus. I started with a Fuji s9100 bridge camera. It was a nice camera but could not do low light worth a damn. Now with the EXR sensors, the Fuji's rock. Plus the all magnesium construction of them, they are amazing, strong, great travel cameras. If I were to go SLR again, I would return to Olympus E series. Using an E-5 with oly's top tier glass. Fully weatherproof, amazing image quality and the zukio lenses are down right spectacular.

I know one photographer who went on one of these Nikon mentor series shoots with his e-3 and a few people were making comments about how he should get a new d2x at the time, he took his oly off and threw it in the river and said do that with your Nikon. ha ha ha. picked it up wiped it off and continued on. The sealing in the oly system is awesome. Plus, the smaller size of the 4/3 lenses and bodies make a multi glass system lighter and more compact.

 

[Patrollife]

Hi everyone! Thought to kindly join the conversation as an ordinary guy who enjoys photography but doesn't claim to be a "photographer". I can't answer the principal question of this thread because I'm not technically qualified to do so, but I can say that I usually carry my GoPro Hero 3 White (which I regret buying - should have gone with the Black edition), Lumix DMC-GF2 and most current iPhone that I own. I don't plan on upgrading my Lumix because I really enjoy the camera, and it was my first "complicated" camera that I ever owned and operated...and it's seen a lot of travel so there's sentimental value in it for me.

I'm thinking of purchasing the Garmin Virb Elite Action Camera to replace my GoPro, so if anybody has experience with the Garmin I'd love to hear your feedback. The reviews seem to be pretty good.

 

[kojackJKU]

Well after flexing my kit this week in nova scotia, I can say that its awesome. From my X-S1, to my Nokia 1020 (which I bought for the amazing camera). I Got some amazing shots from our trip. Just need to do a quick PP session and they are done!

 

[peneumbra]

The real problem with all these digital cameras is---

The shutter doesn't sound right. I want a camera that sounds like you're dry-firing an M-1 Garand when you press the button.

The closest thing I've found is the Nikon D800. Or I suppose one could use a Hasselblad, although they're a bit... spendy.

Speaking of which, Scott B. says that you can get a digital back for the Hasselblad. For only $56,000.

 

[kojackJKU]

I love all the sweet cameras like Hasselblad, however, its impractical to be lugging a crap load of gear when you can have such a light kit. Mine all fits in a small lowepro pack, and I am missing nothing from my alpha multi lens kit. You could maybe get a better image from the 50,000 dollar Hasselblad when blown up to 60x120 or whatever, but really, My Fuji photos are great even at fairly large prints.