It has been more than a year looking and thinking about a photo camera, just to try to figure out what was really needed and match it to a real product. And now - as you know it - it is all gone in a few minutes (Vera would say hours). Gone? Wait a minute, no way!

To the pleasure of Jean-Christophe (shhh, don't tell Vera about it…), this article will present the rationales for having a camera on the road. Hmm… sorry, did it scare you away? No, no rationales then, let us talk about ideas that could help you choose the right photo camera for you and for your travels.

So lets forget about Jean-Christophe and start with you. What are you planning? What do you need? What are your skill? A long trip, that's it! And in one or many countries where you are unsure to find power outlet to recharge your batteries. You are going to the wilderness, mountains or desert. You will have beautiful landscapes (pretty static), fantastic creatures (quite speedy), beautiful flowers (static but so tiny) and so on. Your constraints would be the weight, your backpack not being littered by accessories.

How does these translate into photo camera features? That is what you are going to discover in this article.

So the first thing to do is identifying the needs. Then, the problem you will probably face is that puting them all together might produce unexpected results.

• light
• relatively small

• affordable

• resistant to dust, rain and scratches (→ dust remover)

• takes portrait, landscapes, architecture, flora and fauna

• minimize the size of pictures

• good autonomy → status LCD, nice viewfinder

• videos
• able to preview the image in the LCD monitor

• stabilisation system
• quality in low light

• retouch picture on the go

• good ergonomic

• what do you want it to be when you're not travelling?