What Kind Of Camera To Take On A Vacation?

Written by James Fohl

So you are going on vacation and have everything packed. Your clothes, your CD player, pretty much everything you are going to need on your trip is all packed nice and safely in your suitcase, while you have your airplane tickets and wallet secured in your front breast pocket of your jacket.

A Camera Is Important When Going On Vacation

One of the many things going on inside your head right now is which camera you wish to take on your trip. In today's society bulky film based cameras are not the only option, as modern sleek digital cameras are also a very viable option. Many people however still tend to take their film based cameras with them, because they either do not know how to operate the digital camera they received for their birthday last year, or because they think film based cameras take better pictures.

For years, the latter statement was true; older digital cameras could simply not compare to the quality of a good film based camera. Fortunately, as digital camera technology became better and better, so did the overall quality of the digital photographs taken by digital cameras. Simply put, any modern digital camera can take pictures equal to, or even better than most film based cameras.

While Older Digital Cameras Have Bad Battery Life, Newer Digital Cameras Are Relatively Efficient

Another complaint that is often heard about digital cameras is the fact that they have horrible battery life. While film based cameras seem to be able to use the same two double A batteries forever, the first digital cameras were battery hogs that ate batteries almost as fast as a user could take pictures. Again, this problem has been resolved within recent years by making digital cameras both smaller and more efficient. Today's digital cameras also now use rechargeable lithium ion batteries that are much more efficient than regular alkaline batteries, boasting both more power and smaller size than double A alkaline batteries.

Now that we have put the negative sides of digital cameras to a rest, let us discuss the positive sides of taking a digital camera on a vacation instead of a regular film based camera.

A Digital Camera Is So Nice When Compared To A Film Based One

The first reason is of course convenience. If your digital camera has a large enough memory card (128 megs or larger is a fair amount) than you will never have to bother changing the memory card; you can just continue to shoot your pictures and not worry about changing the film. Right there is a major plus, since you do not have to carry a small collection of film canisters around your trip. All of your pictures will be safely digitally stored on the small memory card residing in your camera; you will not have to hunt for a specific canister of film for a specific photograph, since all the photographs taken will be available on one specific memory card.

Another plus is the small size of digital cameras. Today, companies such as Canon and Fuji make some pretty impressive cameras that are feature rich and fit right in a shirt pocket. This is a major plus for several reasons. First, you can also have your camera with you and eliminate the worry that someone is going to steal it. Second, although the camera is very small you will still be able to take some really high quality photographs with the camera.

For the reasons listed above, I can only recommend somebody is about to leave for a vacation to take a digtal camera over a regular film based one. While the other people are changing the film of their cameras, you will be out front snapping pictures with your digital camera.