If I Ever Get To Travel Again...I Am Taking A Tamron Variable Zoom Lens

Serious photography can be bulky, heavy and, well, serious. Modern SLRs of the digital variety are less heavy and bulky than their predecessors; but, they are still far less convenient than your Smartphone camera. For non Zoom situations, the phone camera can be fine, since most of us only use it to post photos on the Internet. But, the most versatile lenses are the variable zooms; and, the Tamron 28-300 mm lens checks the boxes for me. It will never match a $6,000 lens, of course; but, for $600, you get normal to super zoom length, a small, compact light body, and you can even go wide angle to super zoom with an 18-400 mm Tamron lens. I have both, and use the 28-300 for most applications, like zoo photography and walking around the neighborhood. Carrying the Canon T6 with the 28-300 mm lens mounted is hardly more cumbersome than carrying a smartphone around. Actually, I still take Smartphone photos when walking around Sunken Gardens or the Zoo, because they are immediately uploaded to the cloud via WiFi, and I have immediate access. The T6 requires me to stop for a few minutes, while I connect the camera to WiFi and upload the photos manually. I do this several times a day, because it gives me a running picture of the day's work. I can shift gears, if necessary, or, I can even retrace my steps if I missed something I want to explore in more detail. I really don't miss the days when I might shoot all day with a film camera, and come home to the darkroom, not knowing what I had until the slides or negatives had been developed. Yes, you can love the process of creating photographs in the darkroom; but, you can also grow to love the instant gratification of a digital camera and WiFi. Pick your poison.