What to camera to take on vacation

I know it comes down to personal choice but am curious what camera you would take.

In July I'll be heading to Norway and Iceland for approximately 10 days. I will have a rental vehicle in both countries and plan on doing at least 3-4 hikes (likely ranging from 4-8 hrs each). There will also be some general site seeing when I'm not hiking.

My options are a Canon G1X (MK1) or my Canon 80D. If I took the 80D I would likely only take the 15-85 lens and leave the 70-200 at home to cut down on weight.

No matter which I take, I have filter adapters for each and will bring a CP filter and a 6 stop ND. I will also be bringing along a lightweight tripod with ballhead.

I was in Iceland last fall and used my sigma 17-70 (7d mkll) for at least 80% of my shots.........if you want to shoot puffins however you will need longer.......enjoy your trip.

I was in Iceland last September. I would take the 70-200 but not hike with it. I found myself taking a lot of landscape photos with a longer lens. I had a 100-400. But I agree that you will use the 15-85 for most of your photos.

I also had a 10 stop ND filter and tripod to take silky photos of the literally thousands of waterfalls. When you get out of the city you will rarely be in a place where you can't see at least a couple of them.

If you want to get an idea of what you will be seeing my pics from the trip are HERE.

Of your options, I would take the 80D and both lenses. I also carry an SLR on a daily basis because on the days I leave it home, sunset ends up being incredible and I only have my phone and I'm inevitably disappointed. So I'm used to carrying gear around, and I'd seriously regret missing shots on a super cool vacation because I left a lens at home. Actually, come to think of it, I'd bring the G1X too, in case I dropped the 80D down a waterfall, so I had something to take pics of the remainder of vacation . Practical? Not necessarily. But like you said, personal choice, and that's just me.

I'm going to the Azores in June, probably bringing my 5d2, 7d2, 17-40, 24-105, 100-400, and 35 f/2. And tripod with ballhead and filters. I may not take the whole backpack all day every day (i.e, the 100-400 is primarily for a whale watch and hikes with possible wildlife, but not exploring towns), but want to have those options.

On the Inca Trail in October, I'm planning on bringing a 7d2, 10-22, 35 f/2, and 55-250 (and tripod, etc). This is probably as minimal a kit as I'll ever take on a once-in-a-lifetime trip... My fiancée and her dad will each have a Rebel SL1 with 24mm pancake.

Thanks for the replies! I've decided to take the 80D with 15-85. I'd like to take the 70-200 as well but will be moving around to different locations in both countries and don't like the idea of leaving the 70-200 unattended in the car while out hiking for a few hours.

I may just suck it up though and carry it in my hiking pack but am trying to cut down on the weight as much as possible.

I bought the latest version (used) of the stm 55-250 for just such situations.

I left my excess equipment in the car in Iceland and was not worried about it and had no problems. I definitely made sure it was covered up but again, never felt worried about it being there when we got back.

Just wanted to give an update. I got back from the trip last night and took both the G1X and 80D (15-85 and 70-200) and a light tripod.

I took the 80D, lenses and tripod on a hike and found it to be such a pain to have to stop all the time, take it out of the bag, undo the tripod(for some shots), set up the shot, etc..... So for the other 3 hikes and the rest of the time I left the 80D at the cabin or hotels we were staying at and just took the G1X.

I felt that it was just to much of a burden to be carrying it around everywhere. I will be shooting my sister's wedding this Fall but after that wouldn't be surprised if I put the 80D and lenses for sale, keep the G1X for a little while and then at some point upgrade that to have something compact with good image quality that I can still use to get some nice landscape shots.

In all seriousness: the best camera to take is the one you'll use the most.