Which Camera Should I Buy?

This is a much more personal question than people realize. It’s more like ordering food at a restaurant than going to grab the newest, best, up to date phone model. Here are a handful of questions I always ask people when they come to me asking which camera to buy:

Let’s talk about important factors first:

Weight: If this is the most important thing for you, you’re going to want to go with a mirrorless camera. They’re smaller and lighter, and generally easier to carry around.

Price: Cameras are expensive no matter what kind you’re looking at. If price is the top factor, you likely want to pick out something used (I always shop B&H Used if I can) and you might want to look at DSLR cameras. From lowest to highest price, the types of cameras are generally as follows: Crop Sensor DSLR Cameras, Crop Sensor Mirrorless Cameras, DSLR Cameras (Full Frame), Mirrorless Full Frame Cameras, Medium Format Cameras. Generally mirrorless crop sensor cameras and DSLR full frame used cameras hover around the same price, so if longevity/not having to upgrade is important, lean towards the DSLR full frame options.

Longevity/Not having to upgrade: If you don’t want to outgrow your camera gear anytime soon, consider a heftier budget and start looking at the DSLR and mirrorless full frame camera models. For a solid camera with 30+ megapixels, you might want to consider setting aside around $2-4000 for the camera body and a couple more thousand for a great all purpose lens.

Ease of Use: If you don’t care about the mechanics and you just want something for vacations, street photography, and more artful qualities than your smartphone, there are a lot of great pro-level point and shoot style cameras with manual capabilities. The Fuji X100 series is one of those vintage style cameras that has a street photography cult following. The Ricoh GR line fits in your pocket and is also a favorite of street photographers (I used to have one and can vouch for it). If you have cash to burn, Leica makes a point and shoot with similarly robust features.

Lots of Lens Options: If this is important to you, you might want to stick with the trusty DSLR lines at Nikon and Canon. While they’re both moving primarily into a mirrorless future, their lenses are their legacy, and there is no shortage of them.

Now for your budget:

Up to $1500: For something like this, you can find used kits of DSLR cameras of high quality, and some crop-sensor mirrorless options. If I were to suggest one camera, it would be the Fuji XT line, which is often referred to as the “poor man’s Leica” - though honestly I felt much richer than a Leica owner using this camera based on the quality, the feel, and the price. It feels a little more like winning the lottery. The only downside is that Fuji only makes crop sensor mirrorless cameras before jumping up to medium format, which isn’t something the average photographer would ever need - also it’s expensive. If you’re ok with that, go with Fuji! If you’re budget is more on the Under $1000 range, consider one of the pro-style point and shoots.

Up to $3500: This is more a full frame price range. Here you can consider some more robust full frame DSLR and mirrorless bodies, ideally used, with a little extra room for a quality lens. If you’re wanting to shoot a handful of subjects and foresee needing multiple lenses right off the bat, you might want to consider a mid-range DSLR camera - full frame if you can find one - and then pick out two affordable, used lenses rather than one nice, more expensive investment lens.

Up to $5000: If you have this much to spend, you can likely choose most any camera body, and a really high quality lens, or two mid-range lenses. If you’re buying used gear (always smart!) it’s worth buying the best camera body you can afford for the most important standards to you, start out with one lens, then build up your collection over time.

I am loaded, money is no object: If this is the case, do you want to buy me a camera? But really, choose your camera based on what’s most important and what you like to photograph, rather than price.

What do you want to photograph?

This is mostly a lens question, but some of these have camera body recommendations too!. Let’s dig into it:

Travel and landscapes: you’ll want a nice all-purpose zoom lens, something like a 24-85mm range lens. This allows you to zoom in a little when you need it, and zoom out wide enough to get a really expansive landscape. If you only want to shoot landscapes, you can tighten that zoom up to something like an 18-50mm lens, since you want to generally shoot wider scenes.

Portraits: you’re going to want a longer lens; anywhere from 70mm to 200mm is a good place to start. This is because wider lenses distort on a spherical plane, and they can cause peoples’ faces to look round, wide, and generally with much bigger nose than how they present in real life. By pulling back the shot with a longer lens, you’re going to have a much more accurate and proportionate portrait.

For other kinds of studio photography like product photography, depending on the kinds of products, you might want to consider a macro lens. Especially if you’re shooting small products, jewelry, or items that can fit in one or two hands. These lenses will allow you to get some really crisp, highly detailed shots, up close. For something larger like a flower arrangement or food, you can work with a high quality fixed 50mm lens for just as much detail, but a more mid-distance shot.

Action or Wildlife: This is a great subject for investing in a telephoto lens. There are plenty of gigantic, expensive telephoto lenses out there, but if you’re like me and prefer lighter gear, there are a handful of really great telephotos that are easy to use handheld - made easier by the stabilization features - and they tend to be considered more “entry level” because of their size, but honestly I’ve gotten work published many times using these lenses, so it’s all about what you can do with them.

Events & Concerts: This is going to fall in line with the same reccomendations as the travel and landscape recs, but you’re going to want to make sure you have the widest aperture option possible due to variation in lighting. As for a camera body recommendation, aim for a full frame camera with some great low light capabilities.

Weddings: If you’re getting into wedding photography it’s worth investing in multiple camera bodies, ideally full frame, and a range of lenses. Most wedding photographers have two camera bodies, sometimes they’re the same, sometimes they’re two different camera bodies, and each has a different lens. This is because there is so much happening: Granmda is crying in the front row, the flower girl is waddling down the aisle 50 feet away, the groom is crying, and someone’s kid is having a solo dance party behind all the guests. You need a couple different lenses that cover a range of 24mm to 150mm with wide apertures to be able to capture everything, and if you try to change your lens in the midst of the action, you’re going to miss a lot, so it’s industry standard to have two cameras with varying lenses to switch back and forth in an instant depending on what’s happening around you.

Fine Art Printing: For this, you’ll want a full frame camera body with as many megapixels as you can afford, and ideally one very high quality lens. The 14-24mm lens range is very popular for fine art landscapes, nightscapes, and more. You may want to consider other lenses depending on the content of what you’re shooting. If you’re already working in fine art photography and are ready to level up, it might be time to consider a medium format camera.

Lastly, what’s your stature?

If you checked off boxes 1, 4, 5, and 6, you’re going to want to see what your options are in the mirrorless world of cameras. Mirrorless cameras tend to be lighter and smaller, great for people of a smaller stature or with back pain, and those who prefer electronics that can better fit in their hands if they’re smaller.

If you prefer bigger electronics because you have bigger hands or larger fingers, it’s worth considering what DSLR options work for you, as the buttons tend to be bigger, spaced further apart, and spread out throughout the body of the camera.

If you have a combination of preferring bigger electronics, but have a bad back, there are mirrorless options out there that are lighter, but are still physically big. This can also be adjusted by simply considering lighter lenses, if you don’t want to make sacrifices on the camera body itself. Lenses hold a lot of bulk, and by choosing a lens with plastic components as opposed to metal, you can still find quality lenses without the weight.

Ultimately it’s about what fits you best, not what’s objectively the best, the most expensive, or the most trendy. If you don’t take the time to really discover what you need and want, you’ll spend a lot of money on something that’s going to be more frustrating than fun, and we always prefer fun.