I have a Canon DSLR camera that I love, but it's just too heavy and bulky for travelling. And I remember how that love quickly turned to animosity hiking up an exceptionally difficult mountain in France.

It's far more convenient to take photos with a phone that hardly weighs anything, especially since phone cameras are better than ever.

So I'm looking at this Canon PowerShot SX730 HS ($579), pitched as a travel camera, wondering if it could possibly be my new travel buddy.

The size is great. It's small, compact and at just 39.9 millimetres thick, it easily fits into a pocket in your jeans or in your bag.

But the zoom is the standout feature on this camera. The PowerShot has an impressive 40x optical zoom. When I travel, I like taking shots of people going about their daily lives in the monasteries of India or the streets of Paris, so a decent zoom means I can be discreet and still get the shot.

Crappy quality zoom photos are the big failing of phone cameras; I have taken far too many grainy long-distance shots with them.

Conversely, the quality of zoom photos with the PowerShot is great. Zoom shots of flowers and fences are crisp with good detail, nice shadows, and natural colours.

Skin tones are particularly good: the selfie I took while recovering from a cold makes me look positively healthy. And the 180-degree tilt screen makes it easy to shoot yourself.

For social media enthusiasts, the device can connect to your phone and transfer photos to it with Canon's free Camera Connect App (for Android and iOS devices).

The PowerShot is worth considering if you want a simple, compact camera for travelling, particularly if you're after excellent zoom.