I still have my Canon EOS 80D from my 2019 World Cruise. Canon has issued updated DSLR bodies, but none have anything I consider worth spending money on. But I did change my lens.

In the past I had two zoom lenses: a 24-70mm and a 70-300. I use the smaller for day-to-day pictures and the larger mostly for wildlife and distant landscapes. The problem is changing the lenses when needed. You always have the chance of letting in dust and dirt into your camera. At the end of my world cruise, I was having issues with spots on my images that I just couldn’t clean.

For this cruise I bought a single combined 28-300 lens. I don’t have to worry about swapping, and the total weight is reduced. However, it does make the camera weigh more than any single one of my configurations before. I mounted a camera clip on my backpack strap to help even the load and make the camera more available while hiking. A neck strap just doesn’t work with a camera that heavy, especially if you are hiking over anything that is not flat.

However, having such a powerful zoom lens and large hiking backpack reduces the ease of use in more crowded (urban) situations. I think I need a middle camera such as a zoom compact. My phone camera works well, but there are plenty of times that I just can’t get close enough to my subjects. I can then get a light-weight pack (maybe a cross-body sling?) that can hold my phone, water and small things while the compact camera is on a wrist strap.

I’ll think about it more.