nymphlys

This summer I will be going abroad by myself for my first time! I will be studying in France and then travelling to Italy, Germany, and Switzerland after my summer semester is over. I recently bought the newest Canon DSLR camera, and was wondering if I should bring it with me or not. I love photography but am not an avid photo taker. The main thing holding me back from bringing it is the fear that it will be lost/stolen when I am traveling after the program. I will be staying in many hostels/air bnbs and I'm not sure if I want the responsibility of constantly worrying about my camera. I'm also worried that having a nice camera as a small, young girl will make me more of a target for thieves. I have an iPhone that can take pretty decent pictures, but am worried that they won't be as great of quality as I would like. Thanks for any advice.

janisj

Someone would far more likely steal your iPhone than a big SLR. But wether you take it or not really depends on how much you think you'll use it. You will have amazing Photography opportunities - but maybe your phone and/or an inexpensive point and shoot would be enough for you.

MmePerdu

My thought is why have a camera if you don't take it where the opportunities are? It can be stolen anywhere, not just in Europe, if you don't take the usual precautions. Personally, I'd go without my phone rather than my camera, just a question of priorities. Your call.

michelhuebeli

I had a similar quandary for the last few years - not just the risk of having a full-size DSLR stolen, but also the bulk and weight and how/where to carry it is often a problem.

I largely solved it by buying the small but mighty Olympus TG-4 (T as in tough - can be dropped and won't break, can be under water and is sealed). Very light-sensitive, just about never need the flash!

Then after a couple of trips when I was very happy with the results except for the desire to go wider and longer, I splurged on the wide screw-on lens attachment, and now I can take in the full width of ballrooms in castles and city squares etc without having to try pano shots.

Then I splurged further on the tele screw-on lens attachment, and now I'm a happy camper. The camera is usually in a chest pocket on a lanyard around my neck, the two lens attachments in a belt pouch, and I take LOTS of pix and they come out pretty darn well and can be enhanced at will (I shoot raw files). And the videos aren't shabby, either. An amazing little beastie.

So if you can throw money at your problem, that's a way of doing it.

NYCFoodSnob

If you plan to only photograph in JPEG mode with either camera, the quality of the file won't matter much because they will be similar. JPEG is a compressed file, which means it's the lowest quality by default, no matter how sophisticated the camera you use. If you studied digital photography, you would fully understand this.

Your dslr will certainly offer more features and lens options, but the iPhone is pretty feature-rich, too. If you're only shooting JPEG, and both cameras are shooting in Automatic mode, traveling with both cameras could be redundant.

If quality is your primary desire, then you need to shoot in RAW. Knowing how to shoot in RAW properly requires a bit of study. In order to bring creativity into your photography, you need to learn how to shoot in manual and forget about Program (automatic) mode.

nymphlys

@NYCFoodSnob I do shoot my photos in Manual mode, so I know that there are some great photo opportunities.

Thanks to everyone for the advice!

greg

You have to decide what values are relevant to you. Some people think the value and the price tag are the same thing and continue to hold onto this view through their life. While others might start from the price tag-value equivalence in their youth, but eventually realize something else is more valuable, such as missed opportunities that never come back.

As another indicated, your iphone is likely to be more of a target than a camera.

A larger view is to integrate the chance of equipment loss against what you can get out of it while it is in your possession to come up with overall risk/benefit picture. The trade-off point is different between the individuals. If the value is in the picture as opposed to the hardware, you can protect yourself from the collateral loss of the hardware by backing up pictures. I backup all my pictures every night. Even if my hardware is lost, all I would lose is a day worth of pictures. For me, that is the only value of owning a camera.

I take a high-end compact camera on my trips similar to what another poster mentioned. It takes nearly as good pictures as a DLR while small enough to put it into my jacket pocket. In my view, a camera with me all the time is worth infinitely more than a greatest camera left at home.

Andrew

NYCFoodSnob: <i>If you plan to only photograph in JPEG mode with either camera, the quality of the file won't matter much because they will be similar. JPEG is a compressed file, which means it's the lowest quality by default, no matter how sophisticated the camera you use. If you studied digital photography, you would fully understand this.</i>

JPEG compression is not equal among cameras, either. Don't expect a cheap P&S or an iPhone to necessarily produce JPEG files of equal quality to a Canon DSLR. Cheaper cameras have cheaper circuitry, and doing really excellent JPEG compression quickly required more involved circuitry that costs more.

JPEG allows for different levels of compression as well; the less compression, the better the quality but the larger the file. That's why "Super Fine" JPEG shots may have better quality but will be larger files on your memory card.

Nonetheless - even though I shoot RAW+JPEG all the time with my Canon DSLR, the JPEG files are pretty damn good, too, and I suspect almost no one would ever be able to tell the difference. I've printed JPEG files many times from my DSLR, even very large prints. The biggest benefit of a RAW file, really, is that you have much more control over manipulating the final image - and it's easier. You have more color information stored in a RAW file, so you can alter the image over a wider color range. But honestly, the average photographer is not going to care about much of this stuff.

Even so, what really matters much more than JPEG vs. RAW is the sensor in the camera. I guarantee you the sensor in the Canon DSLR can produce far superior images in many lighting situations than the best iPhone. In perfect light, you might not notice much difference. The difference would be more apparent in lower light situations. Even the best phone cameras have much smaller sensors than DSLRs, and the bigger the sensor (in general) the better it can handle low light images without "noise" or "grain" in the images.

There's nothing wrong with shooting with automatic modes if you know how to use them. I usually shoot in P (Program Mode) for daytime snapshots; one benefit of using RAW for photos like that is that it's much easier to correct exposures with RAW files. I shoot in Manual mode only when I'm taking what I believe are super nice shots - or night shots on a tripod. Otherwise, it's just way too time consuming to shoot everything in Manual when I'm walking around a city and exploring and taking pictures with my DSLR.

StuDudley

We spend 1 month in June/July, and 1 month in Sept in France every year. My wife has a "point & shoot" and usually takes about 3-5,000 pictures per year. No problems with theft or loss. When we get home, she spends about 1 month per trip developing a Shutterfly book for each trip. We've been doing this since 1999.

Here is the book from our June/July trip last year. She is still working on our Sept trip.
https://stududley.shutterfly.com/53

Click on Full screen.

Stu Dudley

WoinParis

Hi
The question was to take or not to take. Not how to use a camera.

I am also of the advice that if you have a nice camera it is because you like to use a nice camera. And to use it you have to take it.

So Nymph have a nice trip !

tasmangirl

I have considered this when planning my trip to Europe...and decided I will put up with lugging my Canon DSLR around because I will get much better photos and can use all the settings for a perfect shot.
Use several SD cards so if the camera is lost or stolen you have not lost all your photos. I can buy another camera but replacing the photos means another trip.
You have the camera = you like photography = take it.

jamikins

I wouldn't dream of leaving my Nikon Dslr at home! We love photography and that is a huge part of the enjoyment of our trips. I just take it with me everywhere!

hetismij2

I always take my DSLR with me when I travel.

It will be a great opportunity to learn about your new camera and develop your skills too.

Do print out the photos of your trip. Maybe make a book of the best ones. Photos taken on phone tend to stay on the phone and rarely see the light of day again. The same thing can happen with DSLR photos once transferred to a computer. Printing a book, or a few favourite photos means you can enjoy and share the photos.

menachem

nymphlys I think a DSLR will make you photograph less, not more. The camera doesn't matter much: your enjoyment and attention do. You could also buy something like olloclip to give you a better lens on your iPhone. That way you have many of the imaging options (but not top notch image quality of course). I photographed rescues in the Mediterranean last autumn and I used my iPhone for that because it was less threatening to the people we got on board and because it was just so easy to have it on me and not have to grab the "real" camera. I did use an olloclip wide angle lens though.

Snapseed is a great editing app for editing on the go.

I do a lot of reportage nowadays, for which I bought a secondhand Fuji X-T1: it's a small camera, the lenses can be small and it has a great wifi connection function so I can upload to the web through my iPhone. For me that is the ideal combination. Also consider the weight you'll be carrying while walkabout in a city. If you think it might make you leave your camera in the hotel, you've already made your choice.

NYCFoodSnob

<i><font color=#555555>"I do shoot my photos in Manual mode, so I know that there are some great photo opportunities."</font></i>

That is interesting. The vast majority of amateurs do not know how to photograph in Manual. Whether they do it or not may not be the issue. Do you know what you're doing when you shoot in Manual mode? I know a few people who call themselves professionals, and they don't know how to shoot in Manual either.

And of course, if you want to shoot anything of "value" in low light situations on Manual, you're going to need a tripod. The vast majority of travelers who travel with a camera do not travel with a tripod. Without the tripod, you limit yourself in a serious way, IMO.

When you use the word "value" and JPEG in the same sentence, you end up with the words cheap, worthless, and pre-manipulated. But I can't help not using my professional brain power to analyze your question. Yes, you may be able to do a few clever things with the JPEG photos you take while you travel, but, without an education in digital photography and without good RAW files, you will never know what you could have produced with those once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunities.

The truth is, it takes a lot of work and a serious education to take a masterful digital photograph. Most tourists wouldn't know what that looks like or what you need in a digital file to produce a master print of true value.

True value - money and time spent, matters to some amateurs, but most people only wish to acquire a visual memory of their travel exploits. You certainly don't need to burden yourself with two cameras shooting JPEGs if a visual memory is your only goal.

I don't normally address photography questions on travel boards. I think there are more appropriate places to get a worthy education in photography. The correct answer to your question depends on what your goal actually is. For instance, if you want to seize the opportunity to use your trip to better learn the dslr, then the answer is simple: take it and deal with the extra weight and redundancy. As someone said above, I believe street thieves prefer the iPhone over any Canon dslr. The dlsr is much harder to sell on the black market.

Good luck and safe travels.

hetismij2

OP, a further thought or two, regardless of what mode you use to photograph, will you have a computer with you or some other means of backing up photos taken with a DSLR?
If not then stick with your phone which you can set to back up to the cloud.

If you do have a computer with you then the DSLR is not the only thing you need to worry about when staying in hostels. Generally there are lockers available for a fee though.

The best camera is the one you have with you, and a good photographer can take fantastic photos with anything that will take photos. No amount of gear will turn a mediocre photographer into a great one. Practice and understanding your tools will help, but a good eye is essential.

WoinParis

I take pics by looking at the target and clicking.
Same as when I use a rifle actually.
Would there be more to it ?

NYCFoodSnob

Shooting is shooting.

AJPeabody

If you have the camera stolen, you will travel with no camera and no SLR pictures. If you do not take your camera, same result, so what's the difference?

F4 and be there.

menachem

WoinParis, I always tell people I coach that photographing is just knowing when to push the button. But ah! the magic is in the "when".