I left my bag of pro gear at home and took a cheap mirrorless camera and superzoom on vacation. Here’s how it went…

As I was packing for a brief three-day weekend away, I eyed my camera backpack that has two bodies and several bright prime lenses tucked safely inside – and then I grabbed a cheap mirrorless camera and an all-in-one superzoom lens, tucked it into a small bag, and left.

I didn’t take my usual and much beloved Fujifilm camera gear on my last vacation; instead, I grabbed the Nikon Z50 II and the Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD. That camera and multi-purpose lens were the only digital gear I brought besides my Pentax K1000 film camera (and my iPhone, if that counts).

It may seem strange not to reach for the camera with pro-level capabilities every time, particularly on a road trip driving an SUV with plenty of cargo space. But when I grabbed the all-in-one lens instead of my usual and much beloved primes, I wasn’t thinking about image quality; I was thinking about how liberating it felt to use a compact camera when I flew to Florida earlier this year.

I was thinking about how my mental health needed a break from the stack of photos I still had to edit, a break before the busy fall season started.

I wanted to channel that digital minimalism and, more importantly, the ability to hike without wearing a camera backpack. I eyed my waterproof camera, but this latest trip I knew was filled with trails for birding, and I wanted something that balanced portability with a bit of telephoto reach – and that’s where the all-in one superzoom comes in.

Superzooms earned the moniker because they contain both wide-angle focal lengths for snapping landscapes and longer telephoto lengths without swapping lenses. The Tamron 18-300mm in particular also has fairly close focusing capabilities that enable it to function like a half macro lens.

Did Tamron’s affordable all-in-one zoom lens deliver images on par with those from my bright primes? Of course not.

Tamron’s 18-300mm may be fairly good compared to similar lenses that pack wide and telephoto into a single optic, but there’s some edge softness, barrel distortion, and vignetting to contend with. Most noticeably the narrower aperture requires upping the ISO, which introduces more grain and tends to muddle those fine details.

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Yes, I did miss the bokeh on my beloved 50mm f/1 lens, but I did not miss wearing a bunch of gear on my back. This was, after all, supposed to be a mini vacation.

A budget all-in-one lens isn’t going to deliver pro-level image quality, but it does deliver the ability to pack light, leave the backpack behind, and still get wide, telephoto, and macro shots. It may not be as trendy as compact cameras, and it certainly doesn’t fit in a pocket, but that superzoom was my compromise between wanting to snap a variety of different photos without hauling a lot of gear around.

I happen to be lucky enough to turn my two biggest hobbies – writing and photography – into a career. But there’s a subtle shift that happens when hobbies become work in that it’s hard not to feel like I’m always working.

I don’t mean to say that I no longer enjoy photography; I do, even when I’m photographing a paying client. But I do find that, when I spend my weekends and vacations taking more photos, I end up getting out of bed on Monday morning feeling like I haven’t really had a weekend at all.

Shooting with more minimalist gear makes my photography feel more like a hobby again – along with (gasp!) not editing those weekend photos and just sharing JPEGs. Keeping a genre strictly as a hobby, as I do with birding and wildlife photography, also helps retain some semblance of a photography hobby.

Am I going to run out and buy the Tamron 18-300mm? (That writing-photography career also means I have the opportunity to try more gear than most, but I do still have to send it back.)

I’m tempted, but there’s gear that sits higher up my wish list (like a brighter telephoto zoom for birding and something wider than 18mm for astrophotography). But I don’t think it’s a bad buy, particularly for hobbyists who can’t afford to get multiple lenses.

The experience also got me excited that Tamron is working on a 25-200mm f/2.8-5.6 that doesn’t reach as far, but has the option to shoot with a wide aperture, or a longer focal length, and still even includes half macro.

There are plenty of trends that I roll my eyes at, but minimalism isn’t one of them – and an all-in-one zoom is a compromise between a compact camera and a heavy backpack full of kit.

More all-in-one zoom lenses

Take a look at the best superzoom lenses for Nikon cameras, and check out some popular options like the Tamron 18-300mm, the Tamron 28-200mm, the Nikon Z 28-400mm and the Sigma 16-300mm.