Hey Guys,
Travelling overseas for a couple of years and looking for a compact camera.
Currently using an IPhone 13 Mini. How would compact cameras compare? Would it be better to go with the iPhone?
Budget is around $300. Happy to go with secondhand cameras.
Thanks!
Even with an Rx100?
I was surprised to see some have sold under $300 on eBay, so I'll retract that and say it will be tricky to get something in that budget, but not impossible.
Scored a RX100 M3 for $100 on Marketplace with spare batteries.
Compact camera may have a better sensor and lens than an iPhone or Pixel, but these days its all in the image-processing software.
Unless you need a long zoom (e.g. birdwatching?), its not easy to beat a good phone on a low budget.
ERM… Use your mobile phone?
Whatâs the intention with the photos? Viewing them digitally? Do you plan on printing them out? If so, what size?
As said above, if your budget is $300, youâre probably best to keep using your phone.
Phone
If you can source one at an acceptable price, I'd suggest an Olympus Tough TG-6 or TG-5. I don't like using my iPhone underwater and the TG5/6 have awesome macro and microscope modes.
your iPhone is fine, just free up your memory before you go.
used Nikon D5300 + used Nikon AF-S 35 mm f/1.8G lens
Thanks! But I am after a small lightweight camera that I can fit in my pocket.
You can probably get someone's used Sony a5000 set for a little bit more than your budget.
How does that compare to RX100 IV? I can get one for around $280
@Cynicaloflife: Different animal, it's more for if you want to compose your shots and make photos that have good possibility of editing. RX100 does cover a lot of the semi-pro gear functions but it's strongest in point and shoot with the occasional SLR like functions.
On a basic level the photo quality is very close to a layman but I would only get the a5000 only if you know what you're doing with the lens system. Otherwise the Rx100 iv is a great camera.
@plmko: Thanks! I am an amateur with photography. Looking for something where I just click photos in âAutoâ. Donât really take videos either lol.
But really happy to learn photography
Travelling overseas for a couple of years and looking for a compact camera.
Suggest getting gopro if you're keen to vlog your journey as a travel memoir
Use your phone for photos
I have done a detailed comparison of my APS-C mirrorless camera (with a kit lens) with a friend's iphone 13 pro, and I found that when taking pictures at 1x zoom, the iphone images have better colours, but the images from the mirrorless camera have higher resolution and more detail. By editing the images it is possible to get good colours from the mirrorless camera as well. If you do not want to spend time learning to edit your images, you should stick with your phone.
At higher zoom levels, the image quality on the iphone falls apart very quickly, especially if you do not use the exact zoom level provided by the lenses (1x and 3x). The mirrorless camera's images look much better. However it is difficult and expensive to get ultra wide angle on a mirrorless camera which is as wide as the phone. So if taking zoomed in pictures is very important to you, you should get a compact camera, and if taking ultrawide pictures is important, then you should stick with your phone.
In low light situations, the iphone's handheld night mode produces similar images than the mirrorless camera when handheld. However if you try to use the ultrawide lens or the zoom on the phone the image is much worse as those lenses let in less light than the main lens. However a compact camera will generally perform much worse than a mirrorless camera here, due to the worse lenses and smaller sensor size. So if taking pictures at night is important to you, you should stick to your phone.
When recording video, modern phones can record 4K 60FPS while only very expensive cameras are able to match that. Beware that on some phones (especially samsung, iphones are affected less) image quality will drop significantly when recording 60FPS videos. Phones generally also have more slow motion capabilities compared to cameras. If you need 4K 60FPS or slowmo videos, you should use your phone. Otherwise for 4K 30FPS, the video quality is similar to the image quality.
If you decide to purchase a camera, just remember that you can still use your phone to take pictures and videos when you need to, so you get the best of both worlds.
If youâre travelling overseas for a âcouple of yearsâ, this sounds like a massive life decision, perhaps itâs an extended working holiday, or you have a job lined up. In my opinion, for such a length of time, it will become a nuisance to carry a camera with you at all times in addition to a phone. If youâre staying somewhere for months at a time, which sounds likely, you can purchase a decent camera like a dslr or mirrorless ILC for when you need great photos, and leave it in your apartment when not using it. May even be cheaper to purchase overseas.
SLR > High end mobile phone > decent mobile > cheap mobile phone.
Based on that, for $300 you be getting a second hand cheap mobile.
Recently did a backpacking trip to Vietnam and I was only carrying my s22 ultra as a camera. I have a Sony a6000 but didn't take it as didn't want to carry too many gear/bags.
was quite happy w S22 ultra as a camera.
$300 is unlikely to offer benefits over your iPhone, in my opinion.
To have better photos than what comes from a iPhone you really need to step up to larger sensors and changeable lens, which are costly systems.