Best camera for touring

[hamster]

I was once told that one of the most important aspects of photography is knowing your camera, working to it's strengths rather than fighting it's weaknesses. This was way before the time of digital, let alone phone cameras, but I think it's even more true today.

I absolutely agree - it has taken me a year to feel comfortable with using a new digital SLR body. I take a lot photos for work (I am not a photographer), typically 10,000+ annually.
If you are talentless, a pricey camera will only enable you to take high quality bad photos.

My favourite cycling camera is a Panasonic FX35. It's 8 years old now, but I know its weaknesses and it's so tiny (fits inside a cigarette packet) that it drops into a jersey pocket, so tends to get taken everywhere. The only weakness is a slightly slow shutter release.

[andrew_s]

Guardian photojournalist Dan Chung, covered the London Olympics with an iPhone and a pair of binoculars, demonstrates the point rather well.

I should point out that the binoculars were a £1200 image stabilised pair, not just your average ones.

[PH]

Guardian photojournalist Dan Chung, covered the London Olympics with an iPhone and a pair of binoculars, demonstrates the point rather well.

I should point out that the binoculars were a £1200 image stabilised pair, not just your average ones.

Ha, yes I didn't look that far, though I assumed they weren't the same as my £50 pair. Still, even the quality of the magnification doesn't override the phones limitations, it's own lens, aperture, sensor size etc... There's also some good shots there that are obviously not shot through the binoculars.

[ossie]

I had a nice little Lumix that was small enough to stow and although only 8mp bit the dust after a rain ridden month tour around Europe.....damn shame after 8 years.

The problem is the market encourages you to go bigger in the pixel states so I ended up going 20mp Nikon however its much larger, which is fine for everyday use but too big for touring. The potential for damage / water ingress etc means that I will be buying a cheapo point and shoot £50 job for my next tour....it will probably be the same capacity as my now defunct Lumix but the ability to whip out something small with semi decent picture ability completely overrides something that takes some handling.