TheDailyNathan recommends Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 as Best Digital Camera for Travel, Compact, Easy, and Under $750.

There’s perhaps no other area of photography that calls for as much versatility and overall performance in all situations as travel photography - while traveling the world you’re bound to encounter anything from panoramic landscapes to simple portraits of your friends and families, towering landmarks in busy streets to art pieces in museums and galleries. Travel photography calls for a little bit of everything, and so what we’re looking for is a camera that covers all bases as well as possible Attributes we’re looking for:

• Wide angle lens: One of the most useful features for travel photography is a wide-angle lens. While most cameras have lenses that have a wide focal length (the furthest you can “zoom out”) of around 35mm, there are some cameras with a 28mm lens, giving you a wider angle of view and allowing you to capture more in the scene - say the entirety of a towering skyscraper or some sweeping landscape, instead of chopping off the edges. Having a wide-angle lens is also great for indoor pictures when there’s not much room, and you want to maybe take a large group picture with a bunch of people. With all the benefits offered by a wider angle lens, and considering that most travel photography (landscapes and landmarks) is done at the wide-angle end, a 28mm wide-angle lens should be a must-have feature. However, given the compromises in compact cameras, not many cameras actually sport a wide-angle lens, making your options somewhat limited.

Having a wider angle allows you to capture more in the picture

• Long zoom range: On the other end of the zoom spectrum, you’ll also want a camera that came “zoom in” very close - this is known as a long “telephoto” focal length. While most travel photography uses the wider range of the zoom, having a telephoto zoom gives you much more flexibility and greater variety - usually telephoto is better suited for portraits of people, zooming in on faraway wildlife or architectural details on buildings, and even for landscapes. Many cameras advertise “6x”, “10x”, or “12x” zoom lenses, but what you really want to focus on is the telephoto focal length. For example, a “3x zoom” camera might actually have a 35-105mm focal range, with 35mm being the widest you can zoom out, and the telephoto 105mm being the furthest you can zoom in. At least a 200mm lens (about 6x) is a good minimum, but the more range the better.

A telephoto range is useful for a variety of things, including landscapes and portraits

• Low-light capabilities without flash: As with all cameras, for a travel camera one of the most important aspects of image quality is how it performs in low-light situations: outdoors at night, or indoors with dim light. These days, just about every camera from a cheap $100 HP to a $1000 Digital SLR performs great when outdoors with plenty of light. It’s only when the scene gets darker that image quality begins to break down, either due to blur from a slow shutter speed, or from grainy/noisy images from using a high ISO. While one could always use flash, flash is undesirable for a number of reasons: it only works for close distances (useless for scenery or landmarks), can’t be used in places like museums or galleries, and overall tends to produce very boring, flat pictures. The two features that will help most with low-light shooting are Image Stabilization (IS) and High ISO. Image stabilization works by stabilizing a lens or sensor element inside the camera, reducing the blur that comes from camera shake. High ISO works by increasing the camera’s sensitivity, allowing you to use a faster shutter speed that will also reduce blur. There are drawbacks to each - image stabilization still uses a slow shutter speed, so subjects that are moving (such as people) will still come out blurry, although it works great for still subjects like buildings or landscapes. High ISO uses a faster shutter speed, so even moving subjects will be sharp, but the drawback is that it produces noise or grain in images. However, for the cameras with the best high-ISO capabilities (note this is not the same as a camera with a high maximum ISO, like ISO1600), this noise is rarely noticeable unless one were to make poster-size printouts. Having one or both of these features will be a huge benefit if you plan on taking pictures indoors or at night.

Bad tourist!: Using flash on treasured historic artworks while visiting museums is bad for the art, and the pictures don’t look great either

• Long battery life: One problem somewhat unique to travel photography is the risk of running out of batteries. Unlike other kinds of photography, you take your camera out for a whole day at a time without a chance to recharge, and if you’re headed out into the wilderness, you may not have a chance to recharge at all for several days! Depending on where you’re going, and how many pictures you take, battery life could be a big concern. Battery life is measured by the number of pictures per battery charge, measured according to a CIPA (Camera & Imaging Products Association) standard. On a typical day of travel, one might shoot anywhere from 100-200 pictures, and maybe up to 400 if you’re particularly shutter-happy. While it will depend on your shooting habits, 200 pictures per charge should be a minimum, and 400-500 pictures per charge should be the target if you plan to take lots of pictures or may not be able to recharge everyday. An alternative would be to simply carry a second battery, or if the camera uses AA batteries, carry a backup pack of AA batteries with you.

• Compact size: Unless you’re planning to turn this trip into a nonstop click-happy photo-sabbatical (and hey, we won’t stop you, although your family/traveling mates may have something to say about that…), the last thing you want is for your camera to become a burden you have to carry around. While many larger cameras offer better image quality and features not found in compact cameras, the main purpose of your travel is enjoying the trip while you’re there, not simply documenting it with all the great photos you took. To that end, we want a light camera that can be carried around all day, and is also small enough to fit into a bag or jacket pocket.