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| Who says you need to spend thousands of dollars to make good images. This was made in 2012 with a 16mp Olympus E-M5 with an inexpensive Lumix 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. (click to enlarge) |
In my last post, I wrote about how I believed that most reviewers and articles I saw on the Internet and/or YouTube seemed to always advocate for full frame, top-of-the-line or near top-of-the-line cameras and lenses. That is fine for advanced photographers who have lots of money to spend but I also thought that was a real disservice to those who are thinking about getting into photography as the cost associated with those cameras as well as their complexity would dissuade many from pursuing the craft. When you really don't fully understand what you are getting into and you are doing your best to figure it all out, you tend to rely on what the 'experts' are saying. If they are telling you the wrong things, that can end the exploration into photography. You can read that post here.
A friend suggested that I follow-up that post with another post suggesting some lower cost cameras and lenses that would well serve the needs of a beginning photographer or someone who might be moving from his or her mobile phone camera to an interchangeable lens digital camera. However, as we all know, buying a camera is a complex process. You have to ask yourself quite a few questions* before making a final decision but I'm not going to get into that here.
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| Hopi House; Grand Canyon, Arizona. Same camera and lens as above. (click to enlarge) |
Here are some suggested camera and lens kits, both DSLR and mirrorless, that I believe would serve well as entry level kit without breaking the bank. All, with a kit lens, can be purchased for $1000 US or less. The prices quoted are current as of the date of this post's publication.
Canon
(Mirrorless) R10 w/18-45mm lens $1000
(DSLR) EOS Rebel SL3 w/18-55mm lens $750
Fujifilm
(Mirrorless) XT-30 II w/15-45mm lens $1000
Nikon
(Mirrorless) Z50 w/16-50mm lens $900
(DSLR) D3500 w/18-55mm lens $708
Olympus
(Mirrorless) E-M10 Mark IV w/14-42mm lens $800
Panasonic
(Mirrorless) G85 w/12-60mm lens $700
Sony
(Mirrorless) A6400 w/16-50mm lens ($1000)
I may have left out some viable combinations that fit the $1000 US or less criteria. I'm certainly not an expert and this is not an all inclusive list but just a place to start looking if you are interesting in becoming a new or even a casual photographer. I believe all of the camera/lens combinations I've listed can produce excellent photographs.
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| Gathering Storm, Cape Blanco Light, Oregon. (click to enlarge) 16mp Olympus E-M5; Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8 lens |
About 10 years ago I made two coast-to-coast (and back) road trips, including my first Route 66 trip as well as a Pacific NW trip, with only the 16mp Olympus E-M5 and a couple of lenses. To this day, I don't regret taking a camera with a larger sensor, more pixels or additional or more expensive lenses. Again, you don't need to spend $3500 US on a camera body and another $4000 on lenses to achieve excellent results.
I do have two suggestions if you are interested in buying your first DSLR or mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. If there is a camera store near you, I suggest you pay a visit, look at what they have for sale in the way of low cost camera/lens kits, pick them up, handle them, fiddle with the dials, look at the menus, change settings, ask a lot of questions (please make sure with whomever you are speaking actually knows a lot about photography, cameras, lenses, etc. If he or she can't answer your questions, thank them and find someone who can. It's too important.) and see which one (or brand) feels most natural to you.
Buying a camera sight unseen and never holding it in your hand and up to your eye, never looking at the menu system and never adjusting the controls can easily result in spending money on something you don't like using and end up sitting on a shelf.
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| Waterfall and wet rocks; Oregon Coast. 16mp Olympus E-M5; Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8 lens; 1/3 sec. @ f/14; ISO 400; handheld I used a slow shutter speed to record movement in the water. (click to enlarge) |
I would also suggest not deciding to buy on the spot and not buying it on your first visit. Take a bit of time, go back and research the one or two cameras you think you would like to buy before returning to the store to actually make the purchase. Find some unbiased information about the cameras and look for things such as ease of use, reliability, available lens selection (future proof your purchase with good lens options as you will want additional lenses as you improve) and others' thoughts about actually using the camera for a more than a week or two as is the normal case with YouTube reviews. Then return and make your purchase knowingly armed with all the information you need to buy the camera that best suits you and allows you to make the kinds of photographs (and/or video) you want to make.
You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to buy a good camera and lens and start your photographic journey. In fact, I can't think of a single camera sold today that is not capable of making excellent photographs, so the technical quality exists at every level. You just have to educate yourself to make the best decision you can.
*Questions such as what types of photographs do you want to make? What do you want to do with those photographs? Print them or just share on the web? How much money do you want to spend? Do you want an interchangeable lens camera or a fixed lens camera? DSLR or mirrorless? How much is video important to you? And so on and so on.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
All content on this blog is © 2013-2023 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.
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