Photographers - help!

[Chris Puttick]

I'd set a budget for camera/case/strap and lens (or 2), decide what the lens requirements are (e.g. a 50mm f1.4 for "street photos" and a low end zoom (70-200?) for wildlife etc. then head to Park Cameras site to see what they have in the budget. A used semi pro DSLR body a couple of generations old will be a great learning tool, capable of producing images of a quality that underline that megapixels isn't everything (or even a major factor, once you get up to say 20MP) compared to (a) decent lens (b) knowing the how and why of the settings to produce the image you want.

But budget is everything. The next zoom lens I want is £1k, and that's used.

 

[Chris152]

For learning photography with modern kit (as opposed to pinholes, film etc) it'll be essential that whatever camera you get, it can have full manual control. The key variables are shutter speed, aperture (f-stop) and iso ('film' speed (sensitivity)). With control of those, you can photograph anything from a fast moving car to a streetscape at night. The easier those controls are accessed, the better. I think an older, better quality camera with easy-access controls will be much easier to work than a new one with buttons and deep digital menus for the same money.

Don't get hung up on lens quality, reading endlessly about image quality and sensors etc, the course/ exam assessments will be about what's been done with the camera, not what the camera is capable of. Some of the very best photographs in history were made with the most basic equipment; ownership of advanced equipment will make little difference, imo.

 

[glenfield2]

Son is doing A level photography and needs a digital SLR. I know zero.

Any recommendations of a quality camera and basic lens (second hand fine if you get more bang for buck)

He could start by asking his teacher/tutor. My daughter teaches photography at a sixth form college and is always giving her students advice - and on a whole lot more than photography
I’ll ask her too for you.

 

[wiley198]

I would ask your daughter if she wants what is now 'old school' DSLR or the new mirrorless systems first.

I have two Canon prof bodies (1 series) and a bunch of L series lenses. State of the art...'in their time'...but their time is almost over.

Mirrorless is 'where it's at' now. Canon (I only use Canon...I bought into the system 30years ago and stuck with it) are investing all their efforts into this now. EOS DSLR will soon be a thing of the past.

Great for an old fart like me. The second hand market is beginning to bulge at the seams. But maybe not for someone young moving forward with 40+ years of photography ahead of them.

If I was buying now, I would buy Canon mirrorless (without a seconds thought). My friend Steven is a professional wedding photographer...mine was the very first wedding he ever did 19years ago...multi award winning, ranked in top 5 in the world in his field in certain categories and always in the U.K best wedding photographers list uses this system. Like me, he had DSLR kit. Switched it all out in 2019 and moving forward for the Canon mirrorless system.

Honestly, in my opinion, DSLR is going to get you a lot more for your money right now but mirrorless is the future.

You can check out Stevens work here...

https://stevenrooneyphotography.com...0UEVpdddT8NDV0dvGU_aem_kSOSqrGJQwuzbjQHmRGuWw

 

[spiritburner]

Have a look at the Fuji range of cameras while they dont have the "badge" of Canon, Nikon or Olympus they make incredibly good cameras that regularly come out on top of the leaderboards with a very good price.

This site here is probably the best online presence for reviews, I'm a VR360 photographer in my real life and part cinematographer. DP Review

 

[paulrbarnard]

What's the advantage of mirrorless vs DSLR?

Edit: sorry that was very lazy - think I have a vague understanding from this

https://www.techradar.com/cameras/mirrorless-vs-dslr-cameras

The article you link is trying very hard to be balanced to the extent it doesn’t give a clear answer. DSLR are the past, mirrorless are the future. A very important consideration to make is if this is going to be the start of a life long hobby or even job then start on the path that has a future. The BIG issue with photography is that lenses are not compatible between brands. They all have their own mount which locks you in to that brand. What you are actually choosing is the type of lens mount you are using rather than the camera brand. With mirrorless you can adapt lenses but that’s a different discussion. Take my own case as an example. I started out with Canon SLR in 1976 then switched to Minolta in 1985 which meant I switched not just the camera body but also my lenses. I only had three at the time but it was a very significant cost. I made the switch due to the arrival of auto focus technology. The Minolta mount was called A-Mount. Over the years from there to 2017 I went through multiple different camera bodies including DSLR but the common thread was they were all A-amount bodies to be able to use the A-Mount lenses I had acquired over the years. In 2017 I went mirrorless. I went to Sony as they were pretty much the only full frame option and they had adaptors to be able to use A-Mount lenses. I was still using the lenses purchased all the way back to 1985. I quickly found that mirrorless offered much more potential than DSLR and rapidly replaced my old A-Mount lenses with modern FE-Mount (Sony mirrorless mount) lenses. I currently have 9 lenses plus a couple of tele converters which cost significantly more than any camera body in the range. I have ‘upgraded’ my camera body three times since 2017 to get access to faster burst rates, better focusing or in one case better battery life. My point in all this is the part of the photography kit that sticks with you over the years is the lenses. It can be very expensive to switch brands once you get on the band wagon.

My advice would be if this is possibly a passing phase just grab a second hand enthusiast level DSLR with a kit zoom lens. Nikon or Cannon are both solid choices for that with lots of options.
On the other hand if this is likely to be a long term passion then do not go for DSLR get straight into mirrorless. As it stands today So y offer many more body options and massively more lens choices because they had a multi year head start. Both Nikon and Cannon have very good options now but much more restricted lens line ups. I listed the order previously as 1 Sony, 2 Canon, 3 Nikon and highly recommended making choices in that order. If you can’t find something that suits you in 1 look in 2. Only look in 3 if you really can’t find something to suit you in the first two.

As a specific recommendation look at the Sony A7 range. Third generation bodies and later are exceptional but even the first generation A7 is winning photography competitions.

 

[glenfield2]

He could start by asking his teacher/tutor. My daughter teaches photography at a sixth form college and is always giving her students advice - and on a whole lot more than photography
I’ll ask her too for you.

This is my daughter’s reply:
Depends how much you want to spend. A Canon750d is all singing all dancing really nice camera that will last, but it’s not so cheap.
Otherwise one of these second hand. Or a 4000d or 2000d or 1300d but those are getting a bit old now, but it would be pretty cheap probably second hand so could be a sensible buy for a camera that will be chucked in a school bag and locker! Or one to buy and if the student falls in love with photography they upgrade in a year or so.
Nikon is the second choice, but you can buy more accessories with canon mount that are generic. Eg fit a canon but made by a random brand and sold
on Amazon! Like lens etc.
Shame the school he is going to don’t have cameras the students can borrow, it’s seems a bit divisive that you have to buy a camera to do it! All we ask students to get is an sd card. They could borrow a camera every weekend for two years if they wanted.

 

[Jacob]

Yes to Canon. Mines an old 450d but still works perfectly. Very cheap second hand and lenses compatible over a range of other models earlier and later. Means you can update parts of the kit, the camera body itself, or the lenses, as and when you want to. Keep it simple - though even the older ones are pretty sophisticated but you can do everything simply using the basic settings.
My first camera was a Pentax S1a which was superb and is still in use by my daughter 60 years on! She's into retro cameras and celluloid film, amongst other photography things.

 

[Doris]

For learning photography with modern kit (as opposed to pinholes, film etc) it'll be essential that whatever camera you get, it can have full manual control. The key variables are shutter speed, aperture (f-stop) and iso ('film' speed (sensitivity)). With control of those, you can photograph anything from a fast moving car to a streetscape at night. The easier those controls are accessed, the better. I think an older, better quality camera with easy-access controls will be much easier to work than a new one with buttons and deep digital menus for the same money.

Don't get hung up on lens quality, reading endlessly about image quality and sensors etc, the course/ exam assessments will be about what's been done with the camera, not what the camera is capable of. Some of the very best photographs in history were made with the most basic equipment; ownership of advanced equipment will make little difference, imo.

I second this. I use to sell camera kits to Photography students years ago and it was essential then that all manual functions are used in order to demonstrate understanding of shutter speeds, aperture etc. Back then they had to use 35mm film cameras though, not digital.

I recently bought a Nikon D40x, nice cheap but well built camera that's a few years old but all the functions are there. The kit lens (18-125mm) should be enough for what he needs to do with it.

 

[Chris152]

I second this. I use to sell camera kits to Photography students years ago and it was essential then that all manual functions are used in order to demonstrate understanding of shutter speeds, aperture etc. Back then they had to use 35mm film cameras though, not digital.

I recently bought a Nikon D40x, nice cheap but well built camera that's a few years old but all the functions are there. The kit lens (18-125mm) should be enough for what he needs to do with it.

Alongside my main gig, I taught undergrad photo students within fine art - there's no doubt they learned best from the most basic (but capable) kit.

 

[GuitardoctorW7]

Son is doing A level photography and needs a digital SLR. I know zero.

Any recommendations of a quality camera and basic lens (second hand fine if you get more bang for buck)

Do his lecturers not have any recommendations?

 

[paulrbarnard]

Sorry to keep banging the mirrorless drum but this graph shows the situation.

The problem you will get just asking a random group of people is that unless they have been making buying decisions in the last three to five years they are basing their recommendations on history not the future. The photography equipment landscape has dramatically changed. No one is making new DSLR any more.
Only go DSLR if this is likely to be a one of two year fad. If you expect to be sticking with camera based photography for the next ten or fifteen years go MILC.