Your cell phone is a great way to capture a quick photo. In fact, the cameras on cell phones are rapidly improving in quality.
But to discover the ultimate travel lens and get some truly awesome pictures you need to use a good quality DSLR with the right lens. When you’re travelling you can’t afford to be carrying lots of different bulky lenses with you; you need one good one.
The Standard Wide Aperture Lens
This is the one that you need if you are only taking one lens with you. This is far more important than the number of pixels your camera has or even the sharpness of your picture. You want to capture the scene properly.
A standard 24 – 70mm f/2.8s will allow you to do this, but it’s not the best choice. Not if you want the photos to feel intimate and personal.
The Micro Four Thirds System
Many professional photographers will shudder at the thought of this but this is the system that gives you amazing results which can’t be achieved with a standard approach to photography.
This system uses different glass and x2 crop. It is aimed solidly at the travel photographer.
This system allows the size and thickness of digital interchangeable lens type cameras to be dramatically reduced. But it allows you to take wide angle shots beyond what you can see in your viewfinder. It is also excellent at handling moving images.
At the same time, it is exceptionally compact and lightweight.
Choosing the prime as your lens is a personal decision but the emphasis of the manufacturer of these lenses is to create the ultimate travel lens. The quality and other factors remain the same; just the size of the lens is reduced.
Mitchell Kanashkevich
Kanashkevich is a professional travel photographer who has used the Olympus 17mm f/1.8 and the Panasonic Lecia 15mm f/1.7 for many years. He rates these cameras with their micro four-thirds system and prime lenses as better than any of the conventional DSLR cameras with 30mm, 34mm or even 40mm lenses.
It might be difficult to believe that these can offer as good or even a better picture than the lens you are currently using but you shouldn’t knock it until you try it. Then you can decide if Kanashkevich has got it right or not.
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