An Escapologist’s Diary: Part 78. Travel in Pictures.
This series of posts — starting with a 2009 escape and running to the present moment — answers the question “what would I do all day without a job?” in a sarcastic level of deatil.
It’s the end of 2024 and I’ve been on the road for almost two months. Here’s where I’ve been, in tantalisingly (pointlessly?) context-free pictures.
Paris:
Utrecht:
Amsterdam:
Back home for five minutes:
Barcelona:
Belgrade:
Zagreb:
Athens:
London:
Montreal:
(Should I get a better camera? I use a very old and tired iPhone 6. I’m still blown away by the quality achievable by such an old camera*, but it would be so cheap and easy to raise my game by upgrading to, say, a second-hand iPhone 11. Is that what I should do? Or should I get a cheap DSLR or something? Please leave a comment or email me if you know about these things).
(*That first pic from Paris was taken with someone else’s newer phone, so ignore that one if assessing image quality. The light was great in that coffee shop too).
About Robert Wringham
Robert Wringham is the editor of New Escapologist. He also writes books and articles. Read more at wringham.co.uk
Hi, Rob,
Nice pics, and the quality of them is, as you say, rather good.
My take, which may have limited value as I don’t know enough about DSLR cameras to write authoritatively about them: Unless you’re wanting to be able to produce pictures for more specialized reasons, I’d say upgrade the phone. It allows you to have one item that does myriad things as opposed to having one item that does one thing well plus another (the phone).
Enjoy your travels, and a very happy 2025!
Keeping it all in a single device is definitely the minimalist’s choice. I’ll do that (if I do anything at all). Thanks.
I agree, keep it simple with a high-quality iPhone camera. If you want to get a used phone, I would look for an iPhone 13 Pro or higher. The iPhone pro cameras are amazing. This is coming from someone who’s been using SLR‘s since the 80s.
Thanks very much Brad. Is the difference between an iPhone 11 and 13 significant? Going from a 6 to an 11 would be a giantic stride in my situation, so do you think the additional £100 (between an 11 and a 13) is worth the difference? I am very tempted of course.
EDIT: the website I’d probably buy from is saying “While both models have the same 12MP camera, iPhone 13 delivers crisper photos at 1170 x 2532 px resolution compared to 828 x 1792 px on the iPhone 11. There are also upgraded sensors on the iPhone 13 that tends to give you brighter, more vibrant and improved low-light performance overall.” Do you agree with that assessment?