I didnt see a thread for this, so i figured I'd throw up one up. I am going on a trip with some friends to Asia in a few months. I have never had a decent camera aside from cell phone camera's and a GoPro Hero. I have about $400 in Visa giftcards that I want to throw into my Amazon account and get a decent camera for the trip that I can take really great pictures with. My total budget is around $500 (Ill throw an extra $100 if needed). What are some good recommendations? Planning to take pictures of scenery and cityscapes. Are Canon Coolpix any good? Are DSLR cameras worth it?
The question is, what size camera are you willing to carry? "Worth it" is not a meaningful question. They are better. If it's better and sitting in your hotel room because you won't carry it everywhere, that's not useful. So: will you carry a DSLR slung over your shoulder everywhere? Or do you need something that will be light or go in a jacket pocket/very small bag? Or do you need something truly pocketable that will fit in your shorts? It's really the most important decision and the one that will dictate whether you're happy with your purchase. Broadly, cameras fall into 3 major categories - DSLRs (largest, heaviest, best battery life, best image quality); mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (much smaller, lighter, still have interchangeable lenses, image quality is good but not as good as DSLRs); point-and-shoots (can be as small as actually fitting in your pocket, image quality not as good). The P&S cameras are not as good but if you won't carry a larger camera, they're still better than a cell phone. I feel like the mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras are kind of a sweet spot for a lot of people. Still pretty small/light but much better quality than the P&S. Something like the Olympus PEN series, or the Nikon 1 series.
I took the size thing into consideration and tried out a Nikon D7100. That thing was way larger than I was willing to lug around on the trip. I did much more research and hit the "sweet spot" you mentioned. Got a Sony A6000 with a 16mm-50mm lens. Arrives later this week, looking forward to it.