Talk of The Villages Florida - Camera advice for Alaska Cruise/Tour

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Several people asked what kind of pictures we would be taking, landscape or wildlife. The answer is hopefully both. 80% or more will probably be landscape and our cell phones can do a good job on these, but we do have several excursions scheduled that will offer opportunities to see wildlife (bears, elk, moose, whales, seals, etc...) and this is where a camera with a good zoom is a must.

My wife and I are not camera buffs, and although I'm sure it is a wonderful hobby, I don't see either of us ever being interested in it. This is the main reason that I don't want to invest very much in a camera and will probably end up going for one of the cheaper options.

Someone else mentioned booking our tours with locals instead of going through Princess Cruise Lines. The tours that interested us were offered by groups other than Princess, so we don't have any excursions booked through the cruise line.

I mentioned in my original post that I had ordered a monocular to try out with the camera on my phone. It arrived this afternoon and I tried it out. I said that I was expecting very much from it and I'll just say that I wasn't disappointed. It did do away with the pixelization, but the picture quality was not good and it was very blurry. A lot of this was probably the fault of the photographer, but I could tell that it was something that I wouldn't be able to master. I have already got a return code and just need to drop it off at Kohls later this week.

Thanks to everyone who responded for your input. Even though there was a lot of contradictory advice given, it was all given in a sincere and helpful manner and it helped me to see what all of you thought. I appreciate each and every one of you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MandoMan (Post 2225390)

:clap2:

I use an iPhone 13 max, and I bought it specifically for the camera. If I turn on the camera and press 3x, it turns on the sort-of telephoto lens that is the equivalent of a 100mm lens on a 35mm camera. By comparison, your Samsung—a good one!—has the equivalent of a wide angle 35mm lens and a super-wide 28mm lens. Yes, if you zoom on any phone lens, including the iPhone, it will pixilate or at least lose definition. But the iPhone telephoto is the real deal, just as sharp with most lens. If you are at the zoo, your photos will be much closer if you use 3x.

Did you order your telephoto lens for your phone on Facebook? I did that. It was a complete scam. A total piece of junk. It was not at all like what was on the ad, and the photos were so blurry that they were unusable. Getting a refund was a farce. If I wanted a 100% refund, I would have to ship it back to China, with postage costing as much as what I paid for the lens. I just threw it away.

The Canon Rebel is a good camera, but no sharper than my iPhone. Usually it comes with an inexpensive 50mm lens that is considered a “normal” lens. It will bring you a little closer than your phone, but not much. I edit all of the photos I keep on my phone or iPad, and I delete most of them and only save the best. Do you know how to use the advanced photo editing tools your phone has? They are amazing. I generally crop the photo, maybe adjust the exposure or color balance or saturation. I can make my photos look so much better. So can you. Learn how.

Here’s the big question to ask yourself before your cruise to Alaska: Do you want to take photos of majestic mountains and glaciers and beaches, or do you want closeups of bears and birds? If the former, then your phone and a knowledge of the photo editing tools is all you need. Don’t ever use the zoom function on your phone. Just crop the photo later. Below you can find a couple of my photos taken with an iPhone. (The bird is 3x, but the bird was only twenty feet away. The others were taken with an old phone. The originals are sharper than what you see here.) But if you want relative closeups of eagles and deer, the Canon Rebel will NOT do it unless you buy a very good zoom lens. At least 300mm. 500 mm is better. Think $2,000 for a good one, plus the camera. And then you need a good tripod or monopod, too—another $100 or more if you aren’t buying a toy. And then, when you have that lens on, you miss out on the wide angle shot. Instead, you stand at the deck rail with your expensive telephoto lens waiting for the right photo, then you miss it. Good wildlife photographers may wait for days for a good shot. You can’t do that. If you spend $2,500 on a decent quality camera and telephoto lens to take on this cruise, chances are you won’t get any amazing photos with it from the ship. Thus, I recommend that you stick to just your phone and don’t buy a camera. Just learn to edit your photos and improve them and stick to the big picture. If you see a bear a hundred yards away from the ship, just watch it and enjoy it and don’t waste your time trying to take a photo. Leave the astonishing wildlife photos to the pros.

You can find a book of my photos here. Forty year old slides taken with an Olympus OM1, but digitized, then edited on my iPad: Amazon.com

Love your philosophy and photos! Also, love using my iPhone on trips. So with my iPhone 14, I turn it on and press three times to see 1x. Is there a way to make it 3x or is your 13 max the key?

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Originally Posted by Sandy and Ed (Post 2225387)

Just returned from our second Alaskan cruise. IMHO: use the phone camera unless you can get a small enough camera to fit easily in your jacket. I saw folks lugging around cameras - didn’t look like they enjoyed.

They often look pretty smug as they get off wielding their expensive monster, then very fed up lugging it back on board at the end of the day.

But, if your interest is in taking top-notch photos...

Quote:

Originally Posted by bp243 (Post 2225563)

Love your philosophy and photos! Also, love using my iPhone on trips. So with my iPhone 14, I turn it on and press three times to see 1x. Is there a way to make it 3x or is your 13 max the key?

In the photo below, notice the 0.5, 1x, and 3 near the bottom of the photo screen (on the side if the screen is horizontal). Just press the 3 with your finger and you will be in optical telephoto.

Note that cameras can have an "optical zoom" or a "digital zoom" feature. The optical zoom setting acts like a telephoto lens where you get the same number of pixels in the photo regardless of the setting. But, the digital zoom setting reduces the number of pixels in the photo, and is basically the same as "cropping" the photo.

We went with our phones. iPhone 14 and Samsung 20. No problems at all. My wife had a clip on telephoto lens the really worked well for the long shots ($40).

With all the scenery and animals in Alaska you will want to get up close in many situations. The versatility in the Panasonic LUMIX FZ-80 is a winner. Under $400.00.
The most camera for the money available today.
https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=d88bc...LWZ6ODBr&ntb=1

Quote:

Originally Posted by retiredguy123 (Post 2225581)

Note that...the digital zoom setting reduces the number of pixels in the photo, and is basically the same as "cropping" the photo.

Bearing in mind this fact, it is better to take the photo without zooming in and crop it on your computer once you have downloaded it.

May seem counterintuitive, but you're more likely to do a better job of it by taking some time, rather than when "on the hoof".

You can, of course, zoom in to see what the shot will look like, but zoom back out to take the photo.

My “opinion” is DON’T do it !

While there is no doubt that a stand alone camera with a telephoto lens will take better pictures, also consider the inconvenience of having to carry it around with the telephoto lens and possibly other lenses as well .

Then consider that getting enthralled with taking pictures will have a negative effect of you enjoying the scenery unhindered by the desire to continually taking pictures.

Your smart phone , for the most part, will give you excellent results without the extra hassle .

As for those long distance shots you would be taking with a telephoto lens, I’m sure that you can find a variety of photos posted online while using professional grade equipment of the exact same thing you’re looking at ……

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjdmlhw (Post 2225243)

My wife and I have an Alaska cruise tour scheduled in August and we think that we probably need a better camera than the ones on our phones. We have Samsung A13 5G phones which take fantastic pictures, but when you try to zoom in the shots become pixelated. Our daughter (who is going with us) has a Samsung S21 and the camera is better, but I'm not sure if it is good enough.

Do any of you have suggestions about what type of camera we should buy? Will a point and shoot be good enough or should we get a DSLR? I really hate the idea of paying a lot of money for a camera that will likely go in the box wih my 40 year old Nikon 35mm camera to never be used again, but Amazon has Canon Rebel camera kits for $400 which is cheaper than what I am paying for most of the excursions that we will be taking in Alaska.

I have ordered one of the monoculars which can attach to your phone and used as a zoom lense, so that might solve the problem. I'll test it tomorrow when it arrives from Amazon.

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

There are two sites that I will post. The first is the best Bridge cameras for 2023 and one is the Amazon link for the Canon SX70. A bridge camera has a good zoom but only one lens. No worrying about changing lenses. When I went to Alaska, I had multiple lenses for my DSLR camera but I wouldn't recommend a DSLR for someone who doesn't have experience with cameras and you stated that after the trip you probably won't use it. For quite a few years I traveled with a Canon bridge camera and took some great photos. Reviews:The best bridge camera in 2023 | Digital Camera World and the link for the Canon camera: Amazon.com

We did Alaska last year, all the way up the inside passage, then the overland journey to Denali and Fairbanks.

If you were a photographer, you'd already have the camera. So my advice is to upgrade your phone, if you think it's inadequate. If you're like me, you're not taking "photographs", you're just preserving memories. For that, you just want you phone handy. Unless you're a pro, you'll never do the scenery justice, regardless of the camera.

There were two times when I wish I had a telephoto lens. One was at Glacier Bay, when the boat didn't get close enough to see the glacier calve. But I never would have caught it, anyway. A good pair of binoculars would have been more useful. The next day we were in College Fjord and got very close, and watched lots of calving glaciers.

The other time was on the Denali tour, when they kept point out bears and elk so far away that they were just dots. Once again, though, I think binoculars would have been better, because they'd just be fuzzy at that range in the camera.