Which Compact Digital Camera is the Absolute Best for Travel?

Find a camera that is perfect for your Travel or Vacation needs!

Canon PowerShot SX20 IS, Nikon P100, or Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ40

The requirements for a good travel/vacation camera include great Image Quality, the ability to take Landscapes and Cityscapes with wide angle lens, yet also able to zoom in on a distant scene. Another essential feature is being able to capture images in low light and bright light ranges. All these cameras qualify, and all have excellent video capabilities.

Cameras in the travel/vacation category were chosen because they have excellent ratings by camera review sites and buyers alike. There is nothing like the recommendation of a fellow buyer who actually uses the camera for its intended purpose.

Canon PowerShot SX20 IS

From the Manufacturer:

Discover the HD difference. With the classically stylish PowerShot SX20 IS, you can produce magnificent HD movies and dazzling photos. Loaded with features, it’s got a high-powered 20x wide-angle optical zoom with Optical Image Stabilizer, 12.1 megapixels, a big 2.5-inch Vari-Angle LCD, Blink Detection and more.

The PowerShot SX20 IS is equipped with many of the same features as a higher-end camera: an ultra-powerful zoom, eye-popping resolution and advanced picture-improving technology. 12.1 megapixels of resolution gives your photography incomparable depth and ensures that any section of any shot can be enlarged and cropped with no loss in quality when you edit the image even if you choose to print the image. It can create crisp, clear 13 x 19-inch posters.

Features at a glance:

• 12.1 megapixel resolution
• 20x wide angle optical zoom (28-560mm equivalent)
• Image stabilizer to reduce camera shake
• 2.5" LCD with vari-angle (articulates to multiple positions)
• DIGIC 4 Image Processor - Canon's newest processor
• Smart Auto intelligently selects from 22 possible shooting situations
• 720p HD video with stereo sound and playback to your HDTV

User ratings at Amazon.com are very good with 4.22 out of 5 stars, while at dpreview.com the rating is 4.12 out of 5 stars.

I found this review by Kirk Tuck on amazon quite informative. And since he is a professional photographer, I think his opinion would carry a lot of weight:

All in all the build quality and the easy operation make the camera a winner for me. These days clients are more interested in using images and video in a wide range of multimedia and the SX 20 is a great tool for anything that's headed to the web. I still own traditional DLSR cameras and use them but left to my own devices I find the smaller sensor cameras to be highly competent and very usable.

You can read the full review at Amazon.com.

Nikon Coolpix P100

A quote from the Nikon press release:

"Zoom closer, shoot faster, and do more with Nikon's Coolpix P100, with its new CMOS sensor, 10.3 effective megapixels and incredible 26x optical Zoom-Nikkor ED glass lens. The cameras huge bright 3.0-inch high-resolution HVGA (460k-dot) vari-angle LCD and Electronic Viewfinder makes it easy to compose and share your pictures. Shoot Full HD (1080i) video with stereo sound as well as high-speed 10fps shooting at full resolution. Nikon's 5-way VR Image Stabilization System takes incredible pictures, incredibly easy. Nikon's Smart Portrait System; automatically detects your subjects face, takes a picture when they smile, smooth out skin tones and warns you if they blinked."

The important stuff:

• 10.3 megapixels for stunning prints as large as 16 x 20 inches
• Backside illumination CMOS sensor
• 26x wide-angle optical zoom-NIKKOR ED glass lens
• Bright 3.0-inch vari-angle high resolution HVGA Clear Color Display
• Full 1080p HD movie recording at 30fps; HDMI output
• 5-way VR Image Stabilization System; Smart Portrait System
• Electronic Viewfinder
• Optical Image Stabilizer
• Stereo microphone
• 10 frames per second continuous shooting at full resolution
• ISO sensitivity up to 3200
• Face-priority AF and subject tracking
• 11 shooting modes, 16 scene modes including backlit scene HDR
• Program, Shutter-Priority, Aperture-Priority and Manual Exposure Modes
• Subject tracking
• Battery life: 250 shots

Always look at the user ratings. This will tell you what people who actually bought the camera think of it.

Amazon buyers (69 of them) have posted an impressive 4.1 out of 5 Star rating, while at DPReview, 21 users have posted an average of 3.75 out of 5

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ40

Panasonic has a history as "King of the Zoom Hill"

A great feature set:

• 14.1-megapixel resolution
• 24x optical zoom with 25mm wide-angle Leica DC Vario-Elmarit lens
• 720p HD movies in AVCHD Lite format; 3.0-inch Intelligent LCD
• 3.0-inch LCD with 230,000 dots resolution
• Intelligent Resolution technology for outstanding image clarity
• ISO sensitivity up to 1600 (Hi-auto up to 6400)
• Intelligent Auto (iA) mode; new My Color mode
• Capture images to SD/SDHC memory cards

User ratings are excellent for the FZ40. At Amazon.com 18 (totally) satisfied customers submitted and average rating of 4.8 out of 5.

Here is an excerp from one customer at Amazon:

"...This camera is easy to use, quick focusing, and has all the manual adjustments and flexibility you will ever need. It's well-designed and built for the active photographer..." (read the whole review HERE )

The Bottom Line

While I am a total fan of the ability to control what the camera is doing, which is possible with the Canon Powershot SX20 IS and the Nikon Coolpix P100, I can not deny the user ratings and instant popularity of the Panasonic Lumix DMS-FZ40. This camera is also the recipient of some high level technical upgrades that will prove to be very helpful when it comes to travel/vactation photos. That along with Panasonic's reputation in the point and shoot cameras would force me to put my $$$ on the FZ40. Find links to all these special digital compact vacation cameras at the Camera Store.