Practical Photography - UK (2019-09)

I’moff on holiday

soonandit’sa

place w ith plenty

of photographic potential.

The only problem is I need

to t ravel light, so that means

leaving my DSLR at home.

Can you recommend a good

lightweight camera?

Anthony Fisher, Bolton

Ben says: Yours is a common

issue, Anthony. Trying to find

a good compromise between

image quality and ease of

transportation is a problem for

many photographers, and it’s

nothelpedby thefactthat

many manufacturershave

effectivelygivenup on the

compactmarketin theface

ofever-

improving

phone

cameras.

Thereare

st ill enough

compact

models onsale

to give yousome

choice, butas theytend

to fulfil different,sometimes

ni che, demands, you will

need to decide where you are

willing to compromise and

where you absolutely cannot.

One area where compact

travel cameras have phones

beatenis in theruggedness

st akes.Thereareseveral

modelsavailablethatcanbe

ta kenunderwater,dropped

offa small

cl iffand

buriedin

sandwithout

sufferingany

illeffects.

Thesecameras

are brilliantfor

tr avellers,butthey

won’tgenerallydeliver

the verybestin imagequality.

If you reallyneedto travel

as light as possible,andevena

CSC cameraanda singlelens

is too muchto carry,thenyou

will need tolookatthemore

premium compactsto deliver

thegoods.Thesecameras

te ndto comewitha premium

price-tagtoo,butwe’vegota

fe wsuggestionsforyouhere...

74 PrACTICAl PhOTOgrAPhY

Can I travel

light but still get

great shots?

tip

carrya

beanbag

If you’retravellinglightand

can’tcarrya tripod,pack

a small beanbag– they

makegreatcamera

supports.

AboveTheOlympusTough

TG-6is water,dustand

even crush-proof.

Three of the best premium compact cameras

Panasonic Lumix

L X100 II £800

Delivering probably the best combo

of quality and pocket-fitting size,this

update to the ever-popular L100 gives

DSLRs and CSCs a run for their money.

It packs a 17MP Micro Four Thirds

se nsor and a Leica lens with a 24-75mm

zo om range. panasonic.com

Fujifilm

X100F £ 110 0

Beneath the unashamedly retro body,

of fering the creative controls thata

se rious photographer demands, lurks

a 24 .3MP APS-C sensor that delivers

outstanding results. It’s a fixed lens

sy stem, which may be a bit of a

compromise. fujifilm.com

Leica Q2

£4250

If money is no object, Leica’s update

to the already-remarkable Q (Typ116)

is the ultimate compact camera. Fully

weather-sealed and boasting a full-

frame 47.3MP sensor, it’s all the camera

you need – as long as you don’t want to

change lenses. leica-camera.com

yossarian6