What Should I Upgrade First - My Camera Or My Lens? Please Help Me! Hi and welcome to Episode 121 of the Photography Explained podcast.
I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google. No offense Google but needed this time.
Want me to answer your photography question? Get your thinking caps on, more on this at the end.
Here is the answery bit
You should upgrade your lens before you upgrade your camera if you want to get higher quality, sharper images. Upgrading your camera lens will generally improve the quality of your photos more than replacing your camera body. You will also be able to shoot a wider range of subjects with a new lens. Camera lenses also have a longer working life than cameras, and are upgraded less frequently by manufacturers.
There will be times when you need to replace your camera first, but I will come onto them.
But first, let me tell you where I am starting from. This question assumes that you have a camera with a kit lens, or a basic lens if it is not a kit lens. And not a shiny, state of the art full frame DSLR.
Right – let’s do this.
The range of subjects that you can photograph
Replacing your camera body will not help you photograph a wider range of subjects. Well apart from changing camera system, to a larger, or indeed smaller sensor, which affects the crop factor. I will come back to this.
No, the focal length of a lens will be a major influence on what you can take photos of. Talking of which.
Focal lengths of lenses
Wide angle lenses give you a wider field of view, you can get more stuff in a photo, but things are further away. Standard lenses give you a field of view similar to how we humans see the world. Telephoto lenses get you close in on stuff, with a narrower field of view.
The smaller the focal length number, the wider the field of view, the more you can get into a photo. The larger the focal length number, the narrower the field of view, the less you get into a photo.
This is of course a subject all of its own.
But it is the lenses that give you these options, not the camera body. And this is why we have so many lenses.
Lenses last longer than camera bodies
Manufacturers upgrade camera bodies more often than they upgrade lenses. Camera lenses generally last longer than camera bodies.
There is more tech in camera bodies. Camera lenses are all about the optics, so there is only so much that you can change/ improve/ update.
Sure lenses improve over time, but the improvements are incremental. A great lens is a great lens.
And lenses hold their value much better than camera bodies, they have much better resale values, over much longer periods of time. So they are a better financial investment too.
Quality
The lens is the thing that captures all that good stuff that goes into a photo. A higher quality lens will give you a higher quality image capture.
Of course cameras vary in quality, but you will get a more significant increase in the quality of the photos that you take by upgrading a camera lens than you will upgrading your camera body, in general terms of course. And pound for pound, dollar for dollar, Euro for Euro. And any other currency – apologies if I did not mention yours. Let me know if you want me to mention the currency where you are in a future episode. Oh not, what have I started here?
Sorry for that currency diversion. Modern DSLRs and mirrorless cameras are amazing these days, more amazing than ever.
When it is best to replace you camera first?
- If your camera is really, really old.
- If you really, really want a shiny new camera.
- If your camera is broken.
- If a change in crop factor will really benefit you. I think that I need to cover this in the next episode ok? That is a step too far for this episode. Great, that is the next episode sorted.
The talky bit
I will start by saying that if you just want a new camera then that is fine. I am not saying that you must get more lenses before you get a better camera.
And of course upgrading your camera body will help you to take better photos.
But, in general terms, pound for pound, or dollar for dollar, oh no I covered that earlier, you will benefit more by upgrading camera lenses than you will by upgrading your camera body.
Being able to capture a wider range of subjects is the starting point. And upgrading the thing that captures a scene and sends that stuff to the camera sensor makes sense right?
Having the ability to capture a wider range of things makes sense doesn’t it?
You cannot take wider angle photos with a different camera body. You cannot replicate what a wide angle lens can do by changing your camera body.
Sorry but to me this is just common sense.
Camera bodies are upgraded more frequently than camera lenses. Camera lenses last longer than camera bodies, so are a better, longer term investment. And just because camera manufacturers upgrade their cameras more often does not mean that you have to upgrade your camera more often. Far from it. Unless you want the latest kit, which is fine. But given the choice a new lens is a better investment than a new camera body.
Once you have a great lens you can put this onto new camera bodies. Lenses last longer than camera bodies.
As I said, I need to cover crop factors and how they can affect the photos that you can take, which I will get straight into next episode.
What do I do?
Well I think I mentioned this in the last episode. I was in the fortunate position of being able to upgrade from a cropped sensor camera with kit lens to a full frame camera, the Canon 5D, with the splendid Canon 24-105mm lens all at the same time.
I then bought the Canon 17-40mm lens, which I needed for my architectural photography work. And then I bought a 70-200mm lens.
I had a problem with my Canon 5D, so bought a Canon 6D. Same lenses though, and this was way back in 2015 ish.
And I am still using these lenses today.
So what I am telling you is what I do. Well did. You know what I mean.
Having got the lenses that I needed, I only replaced the camera body because I needed to.
The last word – ooh – a new bit that just came into my head – I like this!
Sure there are reasons how and why upgrading your camera makes sense, but in general terms, you will get more benefit from upgrading your camera lens than you will from upgrading your camera.
Next episode
Well I mentioned it in this episode, so feel duty bound to cover this next – Photography Explained Podcast Episode 122 – What Is Crop Factor? How Does It Affect The Photos I Take?
Do you want me to answer your question?
Or questions? You’re not limited to one question. My podcast has been created to answer your photography questions, not mine, so please get in touch with your question, and when I answer it I will give you a number of shout outs in that episode, which will exist in podcastland until podcastland is no more. Just head over to photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start ,where you can also find out more about my podcast and do stuff to help me.
This episode was brought to you by a cheese sandwich. With pickle. And some salt and vinegar crisps. Washed down with a Diet Pepsi which I am sipping sat here in my home made soundproofed recording emporium.
OK - I’m done
I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here, yes it really does), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time. I really do appreciate you sharing part of your day with me, and look forward to hearing from you and answering your question.
Cheers from me Rick