Photography is an exciting and creative hobby for millions around the world and an amazing career for a lucky few, so is something that is definitely worth jumping into and giving a go.
But for such a creative pursuit it’s also incredibly gear focused, with far more out there on the latest gear than there is on the actual pursuit of the photographic art.
Chasing the latest and greatest gear (called GAS, for Gear Acquisition Syndrome) can be a hobby in itself, but can also lead to photography being an incredibly expensive pursuit.
So to (hopefully) cut through the clutter and provide some common sense advice for those starting out - which camera should you buy?
Start with what you already have
If you’re just starting out with photography the last thing you want to do is throw a bunch of money at a new hobby that you lose interest in 6 months later, so when starting out work with what you have - your smartphone.
The reality is that when you’re starting out your smartphone will give you most of the tools, and with it’s computational photography functions, better results than you’ll get with a ‘fancy camera’.
So start out with your phone - focus on composition, lighting and storytelling using the ‘standard’ photography settings, then move to the ‘pro’ settings that will give you control over things like shutter speed, ISO and white balance, so you can start to understand what’s going on with image taking.
Beg and Borrow
Once you are bumping up against the limits of what your smartphone can do to support your creativity, it’s time to ‘expand’.
Beg, borrow, or even rent a number of different cameras from different makers to find a system that feels good to you - that you like to use and encourages your creativity rather than getting in the way.
If you're upgrading to a real camera you’re actually going to be buying into a system for an extended period of time (camera lenses can last 20 or 30 years, or longer if looked after) so you want to make sure you’re buying into a system that works for you and that you can grow into over time.
This is the point of the beg and borrow stage - to try as many systems as possible to find the one you like.
Buying your first ‘Real' Camera
The truth is, when compared to your smartphone, every ‘real camera’ on the market is a dinosaur, not much more advanced than the old film cameras from last century. So you don’t need the latest and greatest - after all it’s just a box for capturing light with a few controls attached.
So the first ownership upgrade from your smartphone should probably be second hand.
Starting out, you don’t need fancy (and expensive) gear - you need good, simple equipment that you can easily learn to use and master. With some careful shopping you can get a good, second hand DSLR (a digital camera that will take different lenses) and a kit lens for as little as a few hundred dollars from Facebook, Trademe, or for a bit more the second hand section of photographic stores.
Suppliers of good quality second hand gear include (amongst others):
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*Links in this post are informational only, the products or services they link to are not necessarily recommended, nor are there any sponsorship or affiliate payments associated with these links.
Going Forward
As you master your gear and go forward in your photographic journey your needs will grow and change - you’ll outgrow your kit lens and want ‘something more’,
This is where being ‘smart’ at the start of the journey comes in - with the right system you’ll be able to continue to grow with second hand gear, finding the lenses, tripods and other gear you need for way less than new.
But at some point the lure of new gear will overcome you, perhaps when changing systems, of you develop a passion for a certain genre of photography, such as portraiture (and want a fast 85mm lens), street photography (with a good 35mm) or wildlife (with a 400 or 600mm telephoto), and you'll get GAS.
New gear is where photography gets expensive, and it’s the point where you need to ask yourself ‘do I really need to spend $5000 on a new lens?’ or would the money be better spent on experiences that improve your photography.
For $5000 you could easily do an international photo tour to somewhere like South America, Thailand or Vietnam, or you could do a whole bunch of courses and workshops that build your skill set and let you meet a bunch of other cool photographers.
Heck, for five grand you could even take a month off work unpaid to work on a photo project that excites your passion
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Some final notes on Buying Second Hand
If you’ve gotten this far as a Newby to photography, here are a couple of things to be aware of when buying second hand (or even new gear for that matter).
None of the points below are intended to ‘warn you off’ or scare you, it’s just some background into what’s been happening in ‘the industry’ over the last few years.
When starting out avoid film cameras - film is wonderful, but expensive to work with and when you’re starting out it can be difficult to work with.
As the camera market has changed over the years a number of manufacturers have changed their product offerings, so buying on the second hand market could potentially see you with an ‘orphan’ camera, that isn’t really supported anymore.
Canon has stopped manufacturing for the M mount compact cameras,
Fujifilm have also slimmed down their lineup in the last couple of years, and for all the fuss on social media over their X100 range it is still a somewhat specialist piece of kit that isn't actually a great camera for most people.
Sony hasn't really put much development into the APS-C 6000 line of cameras, so for the most part they're a little dated these days.
Meanwhile Olympus and Pentax have been ‘struggling’ for years.
Canon is the most popular camera brand in the world, and as such there are a lot of good second hand cameras available. BUT they have recently changed the lens mount for their cameras from the EF to R mount as they move to mirrorless cameras (their newer models all start with an R prefix such as the R3, R5, R8 etc). This means that in the future it’ll get harder to get new lenses for the old EF system, so you may need to replace your whole camera system as you continue to grow and upgrade your gear.
NOTE - Nikon has also recently changed their mount as well, so the same issue may apply.
*Links in this post are informational only, the products or services they link to are not necessarily recommended, nor are there any sponsorship or affiliate payments associated with these links.
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