How to Buy A Camera
How does one get started in the art of photography? Firstly one needs a camera, more specifically, a camera with a lens. That seems simple enough, there are literally hundreds of millions of cameras in the world. How does one go about picking the best option to start their journey through this medium?
Firstly, set a budget. Photography can be an incredibly expensive hobby if one is not careful. The intention of this guide is to provide maximum fun and enjoyment for minimum coin. That being said, there is a certain threshold one must be able to stomach in order to acquire reasonable equipment that you will be fully able to grow and develop with as a novice. In the Fall of 2020, a reasonable budget to complete the task is around $250.00, you could probably do it with $200.00 or even $150.00 but that would probably require a degree of understanding regarding camera equipment and its relative value that a beginner would not possess. That being said, I am a Nikon user and most familiar with the Nikon ecosystem of cameras and lenses so the following exercise will be carried out focusing on acquiring a Nikon DSLR setup. This could also be done with Canon equipment. The quality of lenses and cameras between the two companies is about equivalent across their entire product ranges, so if one has a friend who shoots Canon and can lend advice, go for it and ask for them to help.
With our budget of $250.00 firmly in hand, it is time to find some gear. Ebay is a deep resource for finding all kinds of camera equipment on a budget. Thrift stores and yard sales are also an option, but camera quality and functionality are much less of a sure thing and should not necessarily be trusted. I would say the same about Facebook Marketplace when it comes to camera gear, people don’t know how much to charge for used camera equipment, so they tend to overcharge. This problem is not entirely eliminated on Ebay, but it is significantly reduced thanks to seller feedback. If you are lucky enough to live in an area with a thriving photography scene and camera stores, these can also be a great place to find camera gear. Before we get started, it should be noted that Nikon’s DSLR lenses are universally branded Nikkor. Nikkor is an in-house brand created by Nikon back in the 1930’s to designate their most premium lenses. However, just about every modern lens made by Nikon (~98%) has been a Nikkor.
Put simply, when starting out in photography, the order in which one should obtain their gear is lens first, camera body second. Although this may seem an unintuitive order to go about buying a camera, this is a way to pragmatically build out your initial gear collection. Furthermore, your first lens should be a “normal” prime lens. This means a lens with a fixed focal length between 35mm and 60mm. Longer than that and you would be dealing with a telephoto lens, shorter than that and you would be dealing with a wide angle lens. This is not to say that wide or telephoto lenses are worse, rather that they tend to be less versatile for beginners and often times harder to learn to use. So, what is the best lens for a beginner to start with? In the Nikon ecosystem, I believe it is the Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G... It is not really that simple, but it also is. You could pick up a 50mm lens or an older 35mm lens (the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D is a personal favorite) but there are some compatibility issues with certain camera and body combinations. The fact of the matter is that the 35mm f/1.8G will work with just about any Nikon camera body a beginner should be considering, and will provide more performance and room to learn than just about anything else in our price range. The rough Canon equivalent would probably be the 40mm f/2.8 and would be my choice if I were trying to put together a Canon setup. In good condition on Ebay, either the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 or Canon 40mm f/2.8 lenses can be found for around $125.00 with a bit of searching.
Having selected a lens, the next step is to find an acceptable camera body, this depends on the lens that one wants to use/start with. In the modern Nikon ecosystem there are G lenses and D lenses. Thedifference between “G lenses” and “D lenses” is rather technical, but it boils down to D lenses requiring cameras that have a focus motor in the camera body, whereas G lenses have the focus motor in the lenses. There are some cameras that can use either kind of lens, but the camera bodies we will be targeting generally cannot use D lenses. That being said, start searching on Ebay for a used DSLR in the $100.00-$150.00 price range. Go to “Shop by Category”, select “Cameras & Photo”, choose the category “Digital Cameras”, select the brand “Nikon”, check the box “Digital SLR”, and set your price range. Cameras that are compatible with G lenses only would be the D3000 series of cameras as well as the D5000 series of cameras. Cameras that are compatible with G and D lenses that might be in the realm of consideration are the Nikon D90, D200, D300, and the D7000 series of cameras. If this is too complicated, the clipping I took from Wikipedia below should straighten things out with regards to camera/lens compatibility, cameras in yellow need G lenses while cameras in green are generally not very good for beginners and tend to be rather pricy even on the used market (I would also say that the D1s and D2s are similarly bad cameras for beginners). Canon’s cameras do not have this issue, any Canon EF lens will be able to autofocus on any EF body.
Cameras in grey and green can use D and G lenses, cameras in yellow can only use G lenses
Once one has come up with a lens and camera combination within their budget, they should consult with someone with a bit more experience to make sure that everything looks good. One should never submit a first draft without making some revisions, neither should one make a purchase without having it double checked. The more experienced the checker is, the better. If one does not have an acquaintance with whom one can communicate with, one could also look for reassurance online. Be careful though, much of the online photography community is very critical and toxic. Photography tends to be very tribal and some lose sight of the fact that the main point of photography is to take photos rather than discussing and collecting gear. Megapixels are not the be-all end-all of camera quality. I believe that most people will be fine with more than 8 megapixels and happy with more than 10. Once one feels confident in their selections, there is nothing left to do but pull the trigger and purchase your gear.
Hopefully if one follows all of this advice, even a beginner can put together a very competent camera setup that should serve them well through the first parts of their journey into photography. It should be said that these first purchases are not all that binding. Most professional or enthusiast photographers are not using the gear that they first started out with. The first gear that one starts out with will most likely eventually be replaced with newer and nicer kit as time goes by. That being said, the gear strategy outlined in this guide can result in a camera and lens setup that would be hard for anybody to criticize, and more importantly provide a set of tools for a novice to grow and learn with.
