How to choose your next camera

Choosing your next, or possibly first, camera is a big decision. You might have some experience of photography, through either a camera system or your smartphone, or you might be completely new to it.

Here are some key considerations:

Budget - this will be a big factor for most of us. It will also depend upon your commitment; are you serious about photography, or just trying it out? Is it a potential career, or a hobby for when you have a vacation?

New or old - One way to offset the investment cost is to buy used. I certainly started that way and it gives you access to higher quality gear. Just make sure you check out each item fully and make sure you have a guarantee to protect you.

What style of photography do you want to do? This is a critical question as it will play a big part in determining the features you need in the camera and what you need for your kit. Do you need a wide-angle lens? A telephoto lens? Subject tracking? Good low-light performance?

Whether this is your first camera, or a step up from your current equipment, the most important thing you can do is to put together a list of pros and cons for what you have used to date. The pros give you a starting point for your wish list, while the cons highlight the additional items and features you will need.

I share some ideas in the podcast, and you can find a more detailed checklist in my eBook: "Focus on photography: A beginners guide"

I hope you enjoy it.

It's time for another podcast...

Thank you for listening. Please remember to take a look at the website as I have a few things going on, including mini-workshops to help you with your photography: www.ge.photography

Or join the mailing list... and I'll tell you myself!

Transcript

>> Graham: 0:08

Foreign. Hello again. this is a subject that I've spoken about in the past, but looking back on previous podcasts, it's been quite a while since I covered it and since then as well. So I will plug an ebook that is on the on the Graham Elliott Photography website that takes you through key things to think about for this week's podcast, which is how to choose your first camera. And this is also relevant to you I think if you have been taking photographs for a while, maybe on, on your smartphone, maybe on a camera that you've acquired somehow and you want to just raise your game, you're perhaps finding what you've been using a little bit limited and you want to know how to go to the next step in your photography, which is great. So that's what I'll be talking about in this podcast. Please remember to like and subscribe. That'd be great. You can buy me a coffee. Even better. I never. I like to plug that. Okay, so, what should you think about? Well, I'm going to start with the two main types. Now in the PDF I do go into more types, but the dominant types of camera that are available at the moment are DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. And DSLR stands for digital single lens reflex essentially. the thing really, or the main characteristic of that kind of camera is that it has a digital sensor and it has exchangeable lenses. And with I'm going to say with mirrorless cameras, and I know this is wrong because it's not always true, but the kind of mirrorless cameras I'm talking about also have exchangeable lenses. And the reason I want to focus on those two types of camera is that ultimately they give you the greatest flexibility. Now having said that, you may not need that flexibility, so I'm going to come back to that in a moment. But just to briefly explain the difference between DSLR and mirrorless cameras. So DSLR is developed from the old SLRs, which are the old film cameras, and generally we think 35 millimeters for an SLR, ah, camera. And they've been around for quite a while now, 20, 25 years, that sort of period in one form or another. And I think it's fair to say that although DSLRs give you a ah, huge range of different lenses that you can go for, so you can do all sorts of specialized photography. So that could be wildlife, sport, macro, all sorts of things like that. And also shift tilt lenses, things like that. For really specialized work. It's also fair to say that DSLR is probably, we're on the sort of downward slope of certainly DSLR development. Most major manufacturers at this stage are focused on mirrorless camera development. And so if you're looking for something that will stay with you for a while, you may well be better served by going for a mirrorless camera system. Now again, the reason I'm saying system is that you do have a camera body, you'll have one or more lenses. And in my experience it's the body that tends to change and the requirements of the body tend to change more than your lens will. So what I mean by that is that in my own kit at the time of recording I'm still using DSLRs. But, but both of the lenses I, ah, sorry, both of the bodies I use for my DSLR work are newer than the lenses I use. So the lenses that I'm currently using I've had for 20 years and one at least if a couple of them originally used with a film camera. And the reason that I'm using old lenses is that they are professional level lenses. And if you've had a look at new camera equipment recently, it is not the cheapest thing to invest in. So you might be lucky and have like unlimited budget, but most of us don't. So you need to then be very careful about where you choose your, where you choose to invest your money and therefore you want to invest the bulk of the money in the part of the system that is likely to stay with you the longest. And I would argue that in many ways the lens is the most important part of the system because that's where that's what you're looking through that will ultimately give you the image that you want. The body itself will have features on it that may well be useful. But if you are going to mirrorless, particularly because it's a technology that is still developing now, it's not changing as rapidly as it did when I've recorded these kind of podcasts even a couple of years ago. just be aware that the chances are that you may need to replace the body before you replace the lens. So I would, so it's difficult for me to give you general advice, simply because I don't know what you're doing. So I regard this, so please regard this as just general advice that may not apply to you, but I would invest more of my money in the lenses than I would in the body itself. So and that's regardless of whether you're looking at DSLR or mirrorless. So what have you got with dslr? Well DSLR essentially has a viewfinder. It has a flip up mirror in the body and some people like that because those who, those of us who who have used cameras for quite a while have got very used to looking through viewfinders. I like viewfinders as well because I find them easy to use particularly in bright conditions. it's, it's a lot easier. You can, it's easy to shade a viewfinder. Normally. It's, there's a rubber sort of thing on the end of it. That means you can press your eye pretty much up against it and have a really good view. with mirrorless you don't have that. You'll use a screen on the back which you may also have with DSLR. So the DSLRs, I have also have a, what they call a live view mode. They're canons. And that means I can look at what's going on on the back of the camera and also do it remotely through a connection onto a laptop or something like that. I just find with the screens in brighter conditions it can be much harder to see what's going on. But this comes down to personal preference and whatever works for you. But that's the bigger difference. So what does that mean? It means that DSLRs tend to be a bit bigger and heavier than the equivalent mirrorless camera. Now that also means that lenses as a general rule for mirrorless cameras will be smaller than the equivalent focal length on a dslr. I'm not going to dive into all the differences but the, the what size sensor you have as well would be a factor. And I don't want to, I don't want this to get too technical either. but there are basically you have a full, what we call a full frame sensor which essentially is the same size as an old 35 mil negative more or less or a cropped sensor. And that basically means the sensor is physically smaller. So what's the difference? Well with a physically smaller sensor you can have a physically smaller camera, but it does impact the actual, the actual focal length you're shooting as against to the focal length of the lens. It basically means with a crop sensor you are effectively zoomed a little bit compared to a full frame sensor. so if I've got a 100 millimeter lens on a full frame, I'll be using it at 100 millimeters focal length. But if I pop that lens onto a cropped frame, a cropped sensor camera, I'm effectively zooming a little bit. So I do explain that more fully in I think the E book. I do definitely in the course just what the difference is. But most in most cases these days. Having said all of that for general photography there is not much advantage in having a full frame sensor over a cropped sensor. and the crop sensor camera is likely to be a bit cheaper. the only reason you would want the full frame sensors if you really want big negatives, or big RAW files. And the reason you might want a big RAW file is so that you can blow it up into a big image, or you need high resolution for some other reason. So for general photography there is absolutely nothing wrong with starting at least with a cropped sensor. And that will mean that you're paying less for the camera and it may well be a little bit smaller. So that's the I guess the first thing to think about. Now other differences between DSLRs and mirrorless DSLRs will generally run longer on a single charge because they are not drawing so much electricity out of your battery because you can switch the screen off at the back, it's not using so much energy in the screen. the mirrorless camera is using the screen all the time. So traditionally mirrorless cameras would run for a much shorter time on a single charge than a dslr. As with all things, these days technology, and research is changing that picture. So although again as a general rule a mirrorless camera won't run for as long or take as many photographs on a single charge as a DSLR will. There is less difference between them. So this comes back to how quickly you can get your camera recharged. You can also use a second battery is another way around that if that's a big issue for you. So there are workarounds and this is just how to think about the two. So I think the most important thing though is that the is going back to this point about dslr. Ah, development has the most manufacturers finished. like everything, it'll probably make a comeback. I mean film is making a comeback at the moment, so who knows in the future. In theory that means that you can get a better deal on a dslr. But what I found in practice is that there are now fewer DSLR options available. As manufacturing of DSLR slows down, development has slowed down pretty much to stop and the market is definitely shifting towards mirrorless. So people who sell camera gear will want to be selling mirrorless rather than dslr. So the chances are after all of that is you're probably looking at a mirrorless camera. And I'd say it's not a bad choice either because really it is where the future appears to be at the moment. Certainly that's all the evidence, so that's the safe bet. so what is the most important criteria after that? And this you have to answer yourself because it comes down to the type of photography you want to do. Now if you've already been shooting on something, whether it's a smartphone or another, or a camera, maybe a cheap camera or one that you've borrowed, whatever it is, then the chances are you already know what works well on that camera system, I'll refer to it that way, and where the shortcomings are. So in other words, where it doesn't deliver. So it might be that the ah, zoom range that you have on the current system is not enough for what you want to shoot. It could be that it's not very good in low light situations. It could be that the resolution, resolution is pretty poor. It could be that, you do, you need to do a lot of burst photography. So it might be sports photography or wildlife, things like that, where you hold the camera down and then the camera just fires away, fires away as fast as it can and you get multiple images, you get a sequence of images of something going on. So this is really the most important thing and the most important decider for you. First of all, what is the type of photography that you are doing now? And I'm going to assume that you want to carry on doing that type of photography, but is there another type of photography that you would like to get into? But your current camera system really limits you in what you can do. So again, an example of that might be general family photography or portrait photography, shooting with friends. It could be, travel photography. But you'd really be able to like to do a bit more sort of zoom photography or long telephoto, that kind of thing, just to getting close to, you know, a feature on a cathedral or a sporting event or something like that. So really this is probably the most valuable exercise you can do at this point is to start writing down what you need your new camera system to deliver. And that will start with the type of photography you're doing and then start to write down the pros and cons of your current system and obviously the pros on your current system. So that might be Ease of use. it might be a bright screen so you can see what's going on. there may be other things about it that you really like. It might be that it's easy to get accessories for it. For example, these are the kind of things you want to keep in the next system. Okay, so where the, so this is part of what you're looking for in that system. Then when you come to the cons, the things that are holding you back, obviously these, the additions that you need to add into the new system. So the new system will start off with the pros on your current setup and then you add in the list of things where you're short. So for example it could be zoom capability, it could be zoom lens availability or just long focal lengths. You might find that you do a lot of photography where 400 mil lens for example might be exactly what you want. So that's going to produce a wish list. And from that wish list you then look at what's available essentially now. So what sort of camera should you be looking at? So the big driver in my opinion, is likely to be cost as the next thing to look at. So can you afford to invest in a new system? And the benefits of a new system generally are that you've got manufacturer's warranty. So if there's something wrong with it then you can return it. you've got the full life, you know how it's being treated because you're the one doing the treatment of it. So it's always nice to get a new camera. However that might not be an option. So then it's a question of looking at used gear and what used options do you have available. So the advantages there are obviously lower cost and I would always recommend that you buy from a store, camera store, specialist store. and the reason for that is if something goes wrong you can always go back to them. You really want to make sure you've got a warranty. Now I haven't bought anything from a store for quite a while, but I used to look for a minimum of a three month warranty because that gave me time to really check out the camera, even try things. I wouldn't normally use features I wouldn't normally use that make sure that they're working. If you are going to do a kind of hybrid solution. So you may choose to, let's say buy a new body because that might be more affordable and you buy second hand lens because the lens component is new, very expensive again where you can, I recommend that you go into a store, take your camera with you, put the lens on it and what I would do is stand in the doorway. I mean not do a runner, but stand in the doorway and take some photographs and see what you've got. ideally if you can expand them up on the screen on the back of the camera, that will give you a good idea. Ideally what you want to do is just stick them on a laptop or something or a bigger screen so you can really have a good look at them and make sure there are no distortions, there are no little pixels missing anything like that in the image. So basically the image needs to look sharp, it needs to be well exposed, it needs to be evenly exposed, evenly focused. you want to be getting the kind of focus that you're expecting. So for example just shoot a lens camera combination at different apertures. You can go into an aperture priority mode for example and just shoot with different depths of field. See what results you get. Are they what you're expecting? And if you're not sure what to expect, you probably want to just. I've got Yeah, so there are some, have a look at sites like Nikon used to do one, I think they still do, where they'll show you what to expect from different lenses in terms of magnification. I think they give you an idea as a simulation of what you can expect with different apertures. So if you really don't know anything about it, I guess the best thing to do would be to take someone along with you who does. But if not get it, have a look online and just to get a feel for what different apertures should give you in terms of depth of field on different, on particular focal length lenses because that will vary with the lens. So the bottom line there is where you can try things out. If you have bought online, just make sure you have got a warranty, you can return it and make sure that as quickly as possible. You just do a real run through the whole camera to make sure it's all working. The camera and the lens set up to make sure everything is looking good. the advantage you have with that kind of situation is you can stick the images on your computer or onto a television, anywhere where you've got a big screen really and then you can start to see what sort of resolution you've got and you're really looking for areas, maybe little areas that are out of focus, or look kind of blurry. there might be pixels missing. so if you're looking at a camera body, this may mean that your sensor is dirty. And if that's the case, I use a camera specialist to clean my sensors every now and again. Because what happens with sensors is that overuse, they do gradually acquire slowly, a sort of level of grime, if you want to think of it that way. So periodically it's a good idea to just get them properly cleaned. I don't. Unless you know what you're doing. I don't recommend doing that yourself because camera gear is quite delicate when you start digging around inside and you really do know what you do really do want to know what you're doing. the same with lenses. If you've got an older lens, just get that properly cleaned because depending on how it's been stored, you can get things like mold and stuff like that growing inside the lens. And this can appear on the lens elements. Now on the one hand it won't be in focus because you're so close to the sensor, that the lens will pop it wildly out of focus. But on the other hand, some, an object, a foreign object, let's call it on the lens, even though it's out of focus, will create a haze. It's reducing the light getting to the lens. It will create some, potentially some distortion. So always check things out where you can. Okay, so just to recap, I guess, there are other styles of cameras, the bridge cameras, stuff like that. And do have a look. there's a book on the website, it's about €4, I think 4 or €5. It's not very much, it's PDF. I have been doing ebook formats but I find they don't work very well with ebook formats don't work very well with images. So currently as I record this on my website, the ebook versions are on there but I will be removing them and there is a PDF. So that's the. I feel more comfortable with that. So in that book I go through a lot, a lot of stuff to think about when you're starting photography. But the purpose of this podcast is to really highlight the key things and that is that if you're starting with nothing, I would recommend not spending too much money, buy a kit if you can with So the ideal kit would have a short, like a wide angle zoom. And I'm hesitating to give you focal lengths because I don't want you think this is what you need to do because it will vary on the camera. Because I've already mentioned that if you've got a cropped sensor which you're more likely to have, you can get away. A shorter focal length will actually give you more of a zoomed look on that kind of sensor anyway. But I would suggest starting just get a kit you can comfortably afford. Approach it from the perspective that you're going to be replacing some of it at least. I don't like plastic kits. but that's because the environment, I mean often I'm hiking for a while, I might be on a boat. The camera potentially can get knocked around a bit. So the kind of things I do to minimize that are for example I always have the lens hood on the lens because if it camera swings while it's hanging on the strap it will be the lens hood that connects with whatever it's going to connect with, not the lens. So do that kind of thing. I always put a neutral density filter in the screw it into the, the lens itself. Some people don't like doing that. They claim there's lost quality. I don't honestly think so, but that's my opinion. but what it does do, it means that if it stops the lens itself getting scratched, you know a neutral density filter is a hell of a lot, sorry, a lot cheaper than buying a new lens. So think about those things. so buying new, like I say it comes down to budget and what you can afford. if you want a better quality camera, think about secondhand ones. A lot of secondhand ones are really good. If you've got a good quality, like one of the professional type camera people, their cameras are generally pretty good. So even a secondhand one will will do very well. look at the shutter counts, things like that and maybe google that particular model to do a bit of research. See what a, an acceptable shutter count is for that particular model. So shutter count is simply how many times the shutter's been pressed. because like anything the you know, these things are mechanical. This is for DSLRs. These things are mechanical and they will wear over time. So do a bit of research on the kind of camera you're looking for but go back to that list, get that the primary thing to do is get that list of what you need. So if you're starting from scratch you might not have one. So you need to just look at the kind of photography you want to do. Maybe look for recommendations about what's available on the market. These days for that kind of photography, the most, the best ones, a lot of reviewers will split them between sort of budget level intermediate and then professional level. So you can hopefully find something that meets your budget requirements. And if you have been using a camera for a while, whether it's your smartphone or something else, you'll have probably a more developed list of what you need the new system to offer. But do remember it's all you know, the goalpost constantly moving to use a football metaphor. So you're likely to find that technology will change over time anyway. The lenses that are available from a certain manufacturer will change. You might want to consider independence these days. Certainly the main independents are good quality lenses as well. but look for reviews, I always do that. So I absolutely recommend that you, you do that. And of course your own style will change as, as you photograph more and as you get inspired by different things or you try different types of photography, you'll what you need from a camera and a camera system is also changing. So this is another reason to look at this as an investment, but possibly a short to medium term investment in equipment because you don't know what's around the corner either from a technology perspective or from the requirements that you have to get the most from your style of photography. Okay, so that is just really some thoughts on what to think about when you're buying a camera and I hope that's been useful. I do recommend you to the E book and I'll ah, speak to you in the next podcast. So good luck and bye for now. Well I hope you enjoyed that. Now I just want to say thank you for tuning in and joining me in the wildlife and Adventure photography podcast. If you have enjoyed today's episode, please give me a like a subscribe, maybe tell your friends, and by all means leave a comment and if there is a subject you would like me to cover in the future, please let me know and I'll be very happy to do my best. So thanks again for joining me and I look forward to seeing you again next podcast. Bye for now.