When I took off for Paris last week I was prepared for a full three day schlepp, from boutiques to antiques markets to museums. Not the ideal circumstances to carry the hefty digital SLR camera around that I normally use for pictures. Luckily Sony offered their A5000, a handy system camera that is small, light but still takes great 20.1 megapixel pictures. It has a 3-inch 180° tiltable LCD panel with 460k-dot resolution, which was excellent for taking selfies as I could see the shot I was taking in the LCD panel.

I haven’t tried using the flash, the video mode or the 4fps burst mode yet, but almost all of the pictures in the upcoming Parisian posts were shot with the Sony A5000. I used it with the Sony E 16-50mm lens, the smallest lens available for Sony system cameras. In its retracted position, the Sony E 16-50mm lens is less than 1,2 inch (about 3 centimeters) deep, so it fit perfectly in my purse. Even with the lens, the Sony A5000 proved to be a very handy travel companion.

Another, even smaller Sony lens I enjoyed using was the DSC-QX10. The QX10 is remarkably compact at only 1.2 by 2.5 inches (about 3 by 6 centimeters). It features clips that attach to a smartphone, with a shutter button and zoom rocker on the side of the lens. So your phone suddenly feels like a normal photo camera! I ended up using the screen on my phone to take a picture more often than the shutter button, but I can see how that differs per person. The cool thing about the QX10 is that since it connects to my phone through wifi, all the pictures are immediately stored on my phone: ready for Instagram. And if you take a lot of selfies you may especially enjoy using your phone as a remote control, placing the lens a little further away to actually snap a picture of you with two arms.

There are other trips planned in the next few months, so you can expect more tips and tricks from on the road!