From epic landscapes to urban street scenes: the best Canon kit for travel photography

The temptation might be to pack everything, but when it comes to choosing the right cameras and lenses for travel photography, you have to be a little selective. Space and weight are always at a premium, but with the ever-growing Canon EOS R System, you get more versatility than ever before.

You might not be able to pack everything for a trip, but you can still pack everything you'll need. The Canon EOS R5 Mark II is an all-round powerhouse of a camera for travel assignments. Versatile, fast and accurate, it sets new standards for performance and image quality.

It's the combination of 45MP stills at up to 30fps and up to 8K 60p RAW video recording – and the capability to move seamlessly between them – that makes the EOS R5 Mark II such a standout travel camera for professionals. Canon Ambassador Ulla Lohman says that both sides of the camera help her capture her stories. "If I am interviewing people on-camera, they open up and then I can take better photographs. Or if I photographed them before, then they get used to the camera and I can get a better filmed interview."

A robust yet lightweight magnesium alloy chassis, together with extensive weather-resistant seals to protect the camera from moisture and dust, makes this a mirrorless camera that's ready to take on adventures in harsh environments. Ulla used the camera on a volcano documentary for Red Bull, and explains that at one point while filming on a recent lava flow, it was still hot beneath the surface – "so hot that the tripod started melting from below – but the camera kept performing."

With a 24.2MP full-frame CMOS sensor in a remarkably compact and lightweight body, supported by up to 7.5-stops² of image stabilisation, intelligent subject detection and high-speed shooting up to 40fps, the Canon EOS R8 Mark II is a travel camera that lets you explore your creativity – whether you're on a city break or a wilderness adventure.

"I think the EOS R8 Mark II would be great for people who are getting serious about the craft of photography and want to step up a level without investing in a professional camera," Frauki says. She adds that compared to the EOS R5 Mark II that she usually shoots with, the EOS R8 Mark II "feels a lot smaller and lighter", which is a benefit when you have to carry everything you need to survive on an adventure in the great outdoors as well as your camera equipment. "Before, I had to try to keep my camping gear really light so that I could pack a bit more tech into my backpack," she says. "I think with this camera, it will make that decision a lot easier."

The body is a similar size to an APS-C DSLR, making it easy to carry it with you wherever you go, while still offering the step up to full-frame quality. It's packed with features that have trickled down from advanced cameras like the EOS R6 Mark III, including more intelligent automation like Register People Priority, which lets you register up to 10 individuals on the camera and a further 100 people on a memory card for the autofocus to prioritise in a scene. Register your travel companions, for example, and the camera will automatically detect and track them as you move around a busy market, city square or bustling street. You can even add your own face, helping to keep yourself in focus when taking selfies or vlogging on the move.

It’s a camera that helps preserve those once-in-a-lifetime holiday memories, thanks to Pre-Continuous Shooting, which starts capturing images half a second before you fully press the shutter button. Shoot at 40ps, and you'll have around 20 additional individual RAW files to choose from, helping you capture the perfect moment in unpredictable situations – such as a whale breaching or a cook flambéing a dish at a street-food stall.

When you want to travel even lighter, a compact APS-C mirrorless camera is ideal. With a feature set inspired by more advanced EOS cameras, the 24.2MP Canon EOS R10 offers a brilliant blend of performance and portability.

Pro photographer and Canon Ambassador Martin Bissig used an EOS R10 on a month-long trip to Sri Lanka, where the camera's discreet size and versatility helped him take shots he might otherwise have missed. "I captured a lot of moments on the EOS R10 that I wouldn't have caught on my bigger cameras, because I just wouldn't have taken them out with me," he says.

The EOS R10 weighs just 429g with a card and battery but carries a wealth of features you might expect to see in a professional camera twice its size. Intelligent autofocus with deep-learning AI can tell if you're photographing people, animals or vehicles, for example, and track the subject around the frame according to the priority you've set. Eye Detection AF brings added precision when you're photographing portraits. Dual Pixel RAW technology lets you micro-adjust sharpness and bokeh when you process your images.

There are plenty of creative tools to try as well – such as Panoramic mode for epic views, and 4K or Full HD time-lapse movie recording that's ideal for showing familiar destinations in a new way.

Canon's ultra-wide RF zoom is an impressive lens that opens up a range of creative possibilities. "It's incredibly sharp," says UIla. "It is just the right lens to use for travel photography when capturing landscapes."

"The RF 15-35mm F2.8L IS USM is well-suited to vast landscapes or interiors," adds John. "If you want to capture the magnificence of buildings at close range, for example, you want an ultra-wide lens such as this one."

When you need to go wider, the RF 10-20mm F4L IS STM is a great choice for travel photography focused on landscapes, architecture and interiors, while the RF 7-14mm F2.8-3.5L FISHEYE STM mounted on a full-frame camera gives you a professional-quality 190° circular or 180° full-frame fisheye image.

If you want a more compact version of this aspirational lens, the Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM is a lighter weight, more affordable option and an excellent choice if you want to carry a compact and light lens that's also very high quality. The 50mm focal length offers a similar perspective to human vision, so your shots will appear very natural. The wider aperture will also allow you to be more artistic and blur busy backgrounds – which can be useful in crowded locations, such as a market place or street.

"I'm always looking to stand out from other photographers, and this lens helps me do just that," enthuses Ulla. "It's a fairly heavy lens, so it's not necessarily the everyday lens you put in your camera bag, but the weight is worth it for the image quality it delivers."

The Canon RF 45mm F1.2 STM is a more affordable alternative to the RF 50mm F1.2L USM and, at less than half the weight of the L-series prime, is easy to carry on long travel shoots. It offers a slightly wider view with an ultra-fast maximum aperture for creative control over depth of field, making it an excellent choice for low-light photography, street photography and environmental portraits.

If you're restricted to one lens or need to travel light, then this lens should be the one you take. With a very versatile focus range, it also sports Canon's Nano USM autofocus for quiet and fast focusing, while the 5-stop Image Stabilizer increases to 8-stops when the lens is mounted on supported cameras with IBIS.

There are alternatives if you don't need L-series performance in a standard zoom, though. Although it doesn't have the same telephoto reach, the RF 28-70mm F2.8 IS STM is a flexible standard zoom with a faster aperture and 5.5-stop optical image stabilisation, making it a good choice for low-light travel photography. If you're moving up to full frame camera with the EOS R8 Mark II, the RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM is a compact, lightweight zoom that covers a useful range for landscapes, portraits and all-day travel photography.

The 100-500mm focal length range that the RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM offers makes it ideal for bringing distant scenes closer, and is particularly useful if you're planning to photograph wildlife on your travels.

I hesitated before buying this lens, because I wanted the RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM," explains Ulla. "But for photographing from a distance, whether that's animals, birds or people, the RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM is much, much better. I don't mind that it's only f/7.1 at 500mm, as you automatically have a fairly blurred background."

The IBIS in the EOS R8 Mark II and EOS R5 Mark II, combined with the IS in the lens makes it possible to use slower shutter speeds for more creative imagery when you're shooting handheld. The ISO range also enables you to use higher shutter speeds for fast action shots.