Take your Travel camera to the backyard to capture great garden photography
A maple leaf stands out in its bright fall colour among the spent ferns in the Woodland garden.
What’s the best camera for garden photography?
Can you use a travel camera to document your garden?
Absolutely you can. Not only can you use a small, point and shoot travel camera to photograph your woodland garden, but it just might be the ideal camera to get the job done.
A high-quality travel camera is small enough to easily fit into a pocket, but most pack a full set of features including a very long zoom lens that lets you get in close to most birds and wildlife. Their macro capabilities are also perfectly acceptable to photograph garden flowers, butterflies and insects, and their list of built-in filters turns the art of photographing and documenting your garden over the seasons into a creative adventure.
This Panasonic Lumix Travel camera is an ideal choice for garden photography.
Although the travel camera category was designed as the one-stop solution to capture a vacation with a single point-and-shoot camera that tucks nicely into a purse or pants pocket, what’s not to say it can’t be used as the ideal “staycation” camera in your backyard?
Click on the link to see a complete list of Panasonic’s Point and Shoot cameras.
Using it on a regular basis in the garden is also great practise for the time you need it to document that epic vacation. There is no better way to learn the ins and outs of a camera than to use it on a regular basis.
This close-up of a red squirrel shows the telephoto capabilities of the Lumix DMC-ZS50 camera.
(If you are interested in exploring garden photography at a higher level, be sure to check out my comprehensive post on the Best camera and lens for Garden Photography.)
Many travel cameras are about the same size as a smartphone but offer so much more flexibility and creativity.
Let’s make this clear, this is not a review of a specific camera. I’ll let camera experts do that on their blogs or YouTube channels.
This is a general article to help guide gardeners with their photography needs. Although it focuses on a particular camera, this is not the latest travel camera and lacks features many modern cameras now support. The article explores the “travel camera niche” and how gardeners can get the most out of using these types of cameras on an everyday basis in their backyards or travelling to some of the great gardens of the world.
In this article, we’ll use the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS50 travel camera (about 6 years old now) and feature a number of photographs taken with it one fall morning.
Image of raccoon high in the forest canopy. The image was taken with the DMC-ZS50 at the full 700mm telephoto.
Although I am using the Panasonic Lumix, the article pretty much pertains to any good point-and-shoot camera on the market today.
The modern Panasonic Lumix travel camera is the Lumix DV-LX100 Mark ll, which sells for upwards of $1,000. For those who like to compare specifications, this 21.7 MP Four Thirds MOS sensor camera sports a 24-75mm Leica DC Vario-Summilux F1.7-2.8 lens, comes with wi-fi and bluetooth and a 3-inch touch screen monitor. It has 4K video and 4K photo technology at 30 frames per second.
As you can see, these new cameras are packed with high-end features.
Using a soft focus filter gives a dreamy effect to this image of a Flowering Dogwood in fall colour.
I decided to use my Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS50, a travel camera that made its debut back in 2015, to document my fall garden. The camera, which originally sold for as much as $500 back then but can now be purchased used for a fraction of that cost, comes with a 30X optical Leica zoom lens ranging from a lovely 24mm wide angle to an almost unbelievable 720mm telephoto lens. This kind of power will easily fill your viewfinder with everything from a humminbird to that colourful cardinal.
It handles low light conditions admirably and includes a Live View Finder to enable you to take photographs when lighting conditions make it difficult to use the 3-inch LED screen. The technology available in these point-and-shoot cameras, even a six-year-old model, is impressive. An eye sensor in the camera, for example, automatically detects your viewing preferences and switches image display to the Live View Finder when you are ready to use it.
If you are looking to purchase a new travel camera, deciding which of the many cameras to purchase involves some research on what features mean the most to you.
Besides the high quality Leica lens in the Panasonic cameras, I particularly like the ability to easily be in control of the camera settings. The Lumix DMC-ZS50, for example, includes a control ring around the lens that reminds me of my older manual focus cameras.
The Control Ring provides smoother manual control of the exposure, zoom and focus: leaving the photographer free to concentrate on shutter operation with their other hand.
The camera maker describes it this way: “Its intuitive design, precise focusing; plus smooth and silent operation, gives you total control over every picture and video taken.”
Speaking of video, these travel cameras’ abilities to shoot high-quality video just keeps getting better with the introduction of each new model.
Many models even allow you to easily shoot time-lapse sequences.
Why would I want that, you ask? Imagine setting up your camera on a tripod in front of your favourite flower and watching it open up over the course of the day, but seeing it all happen in 20 seconds on your computer screen or television. Or, set up the time lapse feature on a monarch butterfly about to emerge from its pupae and experience its transformation before your eyes.
Maybe you just want to set up the camera to document a day in the garden and how the sunlight changes over the course of the day. The time-lapse feature will get the job done.
Japanese Maple leaves in fall colours cover ornamental grasses and wildflowers.
Today’s Travel Cameras
Modern travel cameras come equipped with an even larger array of features, larger sensors that produce even higher quality images and videos. You can expect to pay anywhere from about $500.00 to more than $1,000.
The highly rated Sony ZV-E10 is priced at more than $1,000 Canadian, while Panasonic’s Lumix G100 sells for close to $700. Nikon’s Z fc will set you back almost $1300 U.S. or close to $1,400 Cdn.
Many have adopted features such as touch control focus on the back screens similar to a smartphone or tablet.
This article is not a review of the latest cameras. For a full comparison of modern travel cameras, check out this link from Digital Camera World for the latest in portable travel cameras for 2021.
