Travel Recommendation

[Kit-V]

I need to make a decision regarding equipment to take to Hawaii. Since whatever I take will be relegated to a carry-on bag, my 2 options are: (1) go simple with a Canon G11 & small, folding tripod. By doing so I give up lens options. (2) Take my DSLR & a monopod. This would be my preferred option, but with on niggling question. Not having a lot of experience with any monopod, at what slower shutter speeds that I can reasonably expect to shoot with a camera/lens combo weighing < 5 lbs.?

I realize that if I had sufficient experience with the camera/lens & monopod the answer to my question would be self-evident. But lacking that experience, I would appreciate your guidance. Thank you.

[AndrewKulin]

Not having a lot of experience with any monopod, at what slower shutter speeds that I can reasonably expect to shoot with a camera/lens combo weighing < 5 lbs.?

Depends what you define as slow.  15 seconds - Not really.  1 second - maybe? if you have steady hand.

If your lenses (or camera) have image stabilization that will help.

[stever]

my recommendation is the DSLR, small folding tripod (which can be effectively used as a monopod), and a remote release (or even self timer)

my experience with monopods is that they are useful for sports with long lenses that you can't hand-hold and little else.  not much better than hand-holding for panos, and not much better than hand holding at slow shutter speeds

[Ken Bennett]

I agree with Steve, a monopod is useful for supporting a very heavy lens, but doesn't add enough over hand holding for me, especially if I have I.S. lenses. A small tripod is very useful -- I just got the Gorillapod SLR Zoom, which will hold most anything I put on it, within reason. And it fits inside my small courier bag.

By the way, for a big trip I would bring both the SLR kit and the p+s camera. There are plenty of times I want to have a camera with me at dinner, etc., but not the SLR.

[Plekto]

Another option is to get one of the tiny mirrorless type ultra-compact cameras like the Olympus E series.  With a lens, it's barely over a pound and uses normal lenses.  With a pancake zoom lens, it fits in a jacket pocket quite easily.(I'd rate it 20-30% larger than the G11 at most - almost toy like small)

[Lightsmith]

I have taken a macro and 17-55mm and a tripod as well as a flash. For flower shots the tripod was a big help. At other times I left the tripod in the hotel room or trunk of the car. If I was hiking for miles I would have simply replaced the Gitzo with my small Cullmann 1002. Graduated filters and polarizing filter are also good items to take.

Not much to be gained by taking a P&S with its tiny sensor. The sensor on the G11 is 43 sq. mm in size. Compare that to a Canon APS-C with its 330 sq. mm sensor. Bigger is better. Even a four thirds camera will have a sensor area that is 6x the size of the G11 sensor.

[Plekto]

Yeah, the Olympus sensor is huge by comparison.  You don't need the PEN(though it IS fantastic), even an E420 would be fine.(~$320 New Old Stock)  It consistently comes up in the short list for "DSLR camera that's almost pocket-sized.".  Great for trips.  The replacement E520/E620 is bigger and loses some of that magic.

I'd also look at the Samgung NX100  just because it's pretty much the same thing as the PEN, just with better pricing. The Ifunction is also nice - it allows you to use the focus ring in auto mode as an additional control of your choice.

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/samsungnx100/  This is a new class of mirror-less DLSRs (IMO, a mirror just adds cost and is largely useless if you have live view)  Perfect for trips.