7 ways to get better travel photography with the EOS R8 Mark II

Want to take better travel photographs? Want to capture images that encapsulate your experience rather than just generic views?

Here, German professional photographer Frauke Hameister, who goes by simply Frauki on social media, shares her secrets and hacks for better travel photography and how the Canon EOS R8 Mark II helped her achieve them on a 48-hour trek from Oslo all the way into the mountains in Norway.

1. Travel light without compromising on quality
2. Capture full frame detail in both landscapes and close-up shots
3. Shoot confidently in low light
4. Capture the action with fast continuous shooting and IBIS
5. Keep the subject in focus with intelligent autofocus
6. Unlock your creativity with easy connectivity, Picture Styles, and more
7. Canon EOS R8 Mark II: a travel camera you can trust

• The advantages of a mirrorless camera such as the EOS R8 Mark II for travel photography include light weight, compact size, and ease of use.
• A small camera with silent shooting such as the EOS R8 Mark II can capture people behaving more naturally.

In the past, Frauki says, she used to think twice about having to carry a workhorse camera around with her. "Sometimes I ended up leaving it at home and regretted it, because of course those are the times when you encounter an ibex, a super interesting bird or striking clouds."

A modern mirrorless camera such as the EOS R8 Mark II is more lightweight and compact, making it the best camera for travel photography. "It fits easily into your backpack and doesn't add much more weight to it, especially with a compact lens such as the RF 45mm F1.2 STM, for example, that I've been using," Frauki comments. "It's almost like bringing just an extra water bottle."

The EOS R8 Mark II E's RF lens mount gives you a wide choice of outstanding RF/RF-S lenses to meet your travel needs. The lightweight RF 45mm F1.2 STM offers a natural perspective or a little closer, ideal for shooting both landscapes and people. "It's my new favourite lens," Frauki says. The RF 28-70mm F2.8 IS STM is an affordable, weather-sealed zoom lens that delivers premium performance in low light. If you have room in your backpack for just one lens, the RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM delivers a wider zoom range, while the versatile 10x RF 24-240mm F4-6.3 IS USM will cover almost all travel situations in a single lens.

What's more, the EOS R8 Mark II is easy to use, with refined EOS ergonomics and intuitive, customisable controls that feel familiar from the first shot. For Frauki, it meant she was always ready for the moment and was able to respond more quickly when it counted.

A smaller camera can help you capture the authentic experience in other ways too, Frauki adds: whether you're photographing locals or your friends, "I feel that a lot of the time, people aren't as natural around a big camera. I think the EOS R8 Mark II doesn't draw a lot of attention to itself, but the results speak for themselves."

In addition, if you need to shoot without disturbing your subjects, the EOS R8 Mark II offers completely silent shooting with electronic shutter among the other advantages of a mirrorless design. This is invaluable whether you are photographing slumbering babies or skittish wildlife you encounter on your travels.

• The Canon EOS R8 Mark II's full frame sensor helps capture the details in both wide shots and close-ups.
• The EOS R8 Mark II's full frame sensor helps add depth of field to isolate your subject.

"I travel to places, yes, and of course I look at the amazing landscapes and take a step back to admire them," Frauki says. "But then I tend to become a little kid again and look for rocks and plants and bugs, and where the light and shadow becomes interesting. I really enjoy capturing light patterns, structures, little details to help tell the story of the landscape." On her Norwegian trek with the EOS R8 Mark II, she says she loved using the Canon RF 85mm F2 MACRO IS STM lens for such detail shots.

Frauki's images often find the quieter moments inside big landscapes – a road before a hike, the ripples in the otherwise still surface of a lake, drops of condensation on a window, a hardy plant clinging precariously to a cliffside. Her work feels intimate and personal because she is not just photographing where she goes, she is giving attention to what makes her stop.

As well as capturing all the detail in a sweeping landscape, the EOS R8 Mark II's 24.2MP full frame sensor can help you add separation between your subject and the background, especially at wide apertures. Whether the subject is a person or an interesting plant, a dramatic background blur can really help it stand out. Frauki relished this capability using the EOS R8 Mark II with a very fast lens such as the RF 45mm F1.2 STM. "If you have a nice flower or a cool tree you want to highlight, then you can get that incredible depth of field."

In addition, Frauki continues, the wider perspective captured by a full frame sensor gives you the opportunity to crop in on details post-shoot rather than being restricted to the tighter framing imposed by an APS-C sensor.

On her Norwegian trek with the EOS R8 Mark II, the camera's vari-angle screen was a big benefit too, making it easy to get up close and photograph interesting plants and bugs from low angles without having to lie on the ground.

• The EOS R8 Mark II has outstanding low light performance.
• The EOS R8 Mark II's electronic viewfinder helps you shoot in low light conditions.

There is one hack that Frauki uses to help her get travel photos different from the ordinary: "I really enjoy going to places in either the early morning or late afternoon," she reveals. "They tend to be less crowded, and the light is more interesting. I also like it when the weather forecast is less than ideal – a little bit of rain and fog can make for very magical landscape scenes. Light and weather can make a place completely different from the sunny postcard pic you may have seen on Instagram.

"I do a lot of camping, and 'blue hour' is my favourite time of the day to shoot."

So, for Frauki, outstanding low light performance is an essential in the best camera for travel photography. With its 24.2MP full frame sensor, the EOS R8 Mark II excels in low light, and its autofocus is effective down to -7.5 EV. This matches Canon's flagship EOS R1 and means the AF can operate in a night scene lit by little more than a starry sky. Frauki found it was no problem to "really push the ISO, or shoot inside when it's dark and you want to capture scenes without flash."

What's more, the EOS R8 Mark II 's electronic viewfinder enables you to frame your composition and preview your image in any conditions, even when it's too dark to see with the naked eye – "it's perfectly clear, crisp, and you can see what you're shooting at what settings," Frauki enthuses.

• The EOS R8 Mark II's 40fps burst shooting and Pre-Continuous Shooting help ensure you never miss the moment.
• The EOS R8 Mark II's in-body image stabilisation means sharp images when shooting handheld.

Travel photography sometimes entails action photography – things can happen very quickly. As well as having a lightweight, responsive camera that is quick to deploy, it helps if it can capture fast-moving events reliably.

The EOS R8 Mark II's continuous shooting at up to 40fps with electronic shutter helped ensure Frauki never missed the moment. In addition, its Pre-Continuous Shooting feature (available in H+ mode) starts capturing half a second before you fully press the shutter button, giving you up to 20 extra images and that much more chance of getting the perfect shot.

When she includes herself in shot, Frauki typically mounts her camera on a tripod, but otherwise she usually shoots handheld, and the EOS R8 Mark II's powerful in-body image stabilisation (IBIS) was invaluable for capturing steady shots. It delivers up to 7.5 stops of stabilisation,¹ meaning you have that much more latitude with your aperture and shutter speed to get the exposure right – handy when you're shooting in low light, Frauki comments.

• The Canon EOS R8 Mark II's intelligent autofocus can track people, animals and vehicles to ensure your subject stays in focus.
• The EOS R8 Mark II's Register People Priority feature automatically keeps selected people in focus.

Frauki has been experimenting with very slow shutter speeds to capture the feeling of movement, but usually – as in most photography – it is critical to get your subject in sharp focus. Apart from anything else, this helps direct the viewer's attention where you want it.

The EOS R8 Mark II features Canon's renowned Dual Pixel CMOS AF II with deep learning, enabling it to recognise and track people, animals and vehicles, right across the frame. When you select people, the autofocus can track face, eye, head and body, so that the focus doesn't hunt around even if your subject turns away briefly.

"The autofocus is crazy good. That's my biggest takeaway," Frauki laughs. "It makes my job a lot easier because I don't need to retake and retake and retake. Out of maybe 20 images in a burst, every image is in focus."

The EOS R8 Mark II also has the breakthrough Register People Priority feature introduced in Canon's professional EOS R System cameras. This enables you to program the camera to prioritise specified faces, which can be faces you shoot on the spot or faces previously saved on the memory card. Frauki found this locked on with impressive reliability and was "super useful" when she wanted to keep a specific subject in focus in a crowded scene.

• The EOS R8 Mark II makes transferring and uploading images easy with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
• With the EOS R8 Mark II, you can apply creative effects using customisable Picture Styles, colour filters, and more.

The EOS R8 Mark II offers seamless wireless connectivity, with automatic cloud backups for peace of mind, and on her Norway shoot Frauki found transferring her images to her phone "a very smooth experience". Her preference is to shoot RAW+JPEG, so she has RAW files for editing when she gets back home and also JPEGs she can easily share with friends. "Sometimes, if I really want to share an image straight away, I'll import the JPEG to my phone, do some really minor editing on there, and then upload it to an Instagram Story."

In fact the EOS R8 Mark II gave her a wealth of creative options, including a range of customisable Picture Styles and colour filters. Frauki envisioned these as a useful hack for quick image edits. "Let's say you're out with friends and you just want to send them some images without having to take them home and edit them. You can prepare your own Picture Style, add it in-camera, and then just share those images straight away."

This kind of effortless workflow means you can concentrate on being creative rather than having to think about making things work.

• The Canon EOS R8 Mark II is a lightweight, easy to use, high performance travel camera.

In short, the EOS R8 Mark II makes travel photography easy. It makes full frame photography more accessible than ever, in a body as lightweight and compact as an APS-C DSLR and with all the mirrorless camera features and power you need at your fingertips.

"I think a lot of people make excuses for not going out to a place they want to go, or say 'Oh, I need this lens or I need this specific piece of gear to start.' You do not, you just need to go at it," Frauki advises. "You will never regret going outside and immersing yourself in nature. The answer is literally just go and see for yourself."

On her Norway shoot, the EOS R8 Mark II proved to be a travel camera Frauki could keep close when on the go, react with quickly and confidently in the moment, and trust to perform when the light and conditions changed. Canon's best camera for travel photography enthusiasts, the EOS R8 Mark II is designed not just for the big hero shot, but for capturing all the moments around it and bringing home the authentic experience.