What Camera Advice
Discussion
I fell out of love with photography a while ago, but now realise that I miss it and my phone is not up for the job.
I have had a basic Nikon DSLR with a Tamron 18-200mm lens, which was great for everyday use. I have also had a Panasonic TZ200 which did roughly the same job, but in a smaller package.
I want to spend no more than £1,000, but if I can spend less I will obviously be happier.
Do I go for a DSLR with an all purpose zoom lens or a compact like the Panasonic again?
What other options are available? Is the mirrorless route a viable option? Or is there something I have not thought of?
Sorry for all the questions and thank you in advance for the advice.
I have had a basic Nikon DSLR with a Tamron 18-200mm lens, which was great for everyday use. I have also had a Panasonic TZ200 which did roughly the same job, but in a smaller package.
I want to spend no more than £1,000, but if I can spend less I will obviously be happier.
Do I go for a DSLR with an all purpose zoom lens or a compact like the Panasonic again?
What other options are available? Is the mirrorless route a viable option? Or is there something I have not thought of?
Sorry for all the questions and thank you in advance for the advice.
What do you want to take photos of?
How much 'effort' are you planning on putting into taking photos? ie. if you want to take photos of landscapes are you the type of person who buys some filters, sets up the tripod and is there for ages taking long exposures or will you leave the camera on auto and press the shutter without breaking your stride?
How much 'effort' are you planning on putting into taking photos? ie. if you want to take photos of landscapes are you the type of person who buys some filters, sets up the tripod and is there for ages taking long exposures or will you leave the camera on auto and press the shutter without breaking your stride?
The best advice I can give is forget the technology in the first instance. Go to a camera shop (John Lewis is good), and hold a few in your hands and play with them.
Go for what your feel most comfortable with within your budget Or as on my case budget x 3!!!
Whatever you get, use it and enjoy it.
Go for what your feel most comfortable with within your budget Or as on my case budget x 3!!!
Whatever you get, use it and enjoy it.
MesoForm said:
What do you want to take photos of?
How much 'effort' are you planning on putting into taking photos? ie. if you want to take photos of landscapes are you the type of person who buys some filters, sets up the tripod and is there for ages taking long exposures or will you leave the camera on auto and press the shutter without breaking your stride?
To start with it will be on auto for everyday use. But I would like to start to put more 'effort' into my photography and learn about the settings, etc. I used to have a polarising filter on my Nikon and found it fantastic. It is one of these things that I want to develop over time and explore my local area more. How much 'effort' are you planning on putting into taking photos? ie. if you want to take photos of landscapes are you the type of person who buys some filters, sets up the tripod and is there for ages taking long exposures or will you leave the camera on auto and press the shutter without breaking your stride?
You still need to answer the question of what you will be taking photos of, because that is really important information. We need it to narrow down what might be suitable.
People and portraits?
Wildlife?
Landscapes?
Street scenes?
Architecture?
Sports?
Travel/holiday?
Etc
Different cameras are better at different things, and different lenses are certainly better at different things.
As an example:
My experience is that you can get away with cheaper DSLR or mirrorless cameras and lenses if you are shooting things like landscapes, because you don't need a camera that can shoot fast or handle high ISO. You can simply set the camera to it's lowest ISO, stop down to an aperture on the lens which is sharpest, stick it on a tripod for a slightly longer exposure to compensate for the low ISO and smaller aperture, and you will get extremely pleasing RAW images which be manipulated fairly well in Lightroom or whatever.
If you are shooting sports or wildlife, the requirements of the camera change almost completely, and will get a lot more expensive as you need things like weatherproofing, blazing fast shutter/buffer speeds, the ability to handle high ISO easily, lenses with a large aperture AND a long telephoto range etc.
I used to photograph a lot of country sports, such as pheasant shooting, and the only time I was satisfied with my images was once I traded up to a Sony A7II full frame mirrorless and an 85mm 1.4 lens (£1500 for the lens alone). That gave me the sharpness and shallow DoF I wanted. Even though much of my stuff was shot at 1.4 I rarely had an issue with focus or sharpness.
In contrast to all that, these days I mostly shoot street scenes, architecture, cities at night etc, and I have found that a pocket sized Ricoh GRIII is absolutely amazing for that sort of thing, so thats what I have these days, and I'm very happy with it.
People and portraits?
Wildlife?
Landscapes?
Street scenes?
Architecture?
Sports?
Travel/holiday?
Etc
Different cameras are better at different things, and different lenses are certainly better at different things.
As an example:
My experience is that you can get away with cheaper DSLR or mirrorless cameras and lenses if you are shooting things like landscapes, because you don't need a camera that can shoot fast or handle high ISO. You can simply set the camera to it's lowest ISO, stop down to an aperture on the lens which is sharpest, stick it on a tripod for a slightly longer exposure to compensate for the low ISO and smaller aperture, and you will get extremely pleasing RAW images which be manipulated fairly well in Lightroom or whatever.
If you are shooting sports or wildlife, the requirements of the camera change almost completely, and will get a lot more expensive as you need things like weatherproofing, blazing fast shutter/buffer speeds, the ability to handle high ISO easily, lenses with a large aperture AND a long telephoto range etc.
_Hoppers said:
If you want to take photos with shallow depth of field you'll struggle with a compact/bridge camera. If that's the case an SLR is the option to go for.
Indeed, but I would say buy mirrorless not SLR these days. I used to photograph a lot of country sports, such as pheasant shooting, and the only time I was satisfied with my images was once I traded up to a Sony A7II full frame mirrorless and an 85mm 1.4 lens (£1500 for the lens alone). That gave me the sharpness and shallow DoF I wanted. Even though much of my stuff was shot at 1.4 I rarely had an issue with focus or sharpness.
In contrast to all that, these days I mostly shoot street scenes, architecture, cities at night etc, and I have found that a pocket sized Ricoh GRIII is absolutely amazing for that sort of thing, so thats what I have these days, and I'm very happy with it.
If you're not wanting fast autofocus, shallow focus or clever video stuff then you can't go wrong with:
https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-powershot-g...
I've used mine every day for 3 years, as it's small enough to live in my pocket - every one of these (apart from drone shots) were taken with it:
http://www.stevecarter.com/latest/latesttorridon22...
The only thing I'd disagree within the review is the battery life... it's astonishingly good.
Currently £849 at WEX.
https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-powershot-g...
I've used mine every day for 3 years, as it's small enough to live in my pocket - every one of these (apart from drone shots) were taken with it:
http://www.stevecarter.com/latest/latesttorridon22...
The only thing I'd disagree within the review is the battery life... it's astonishingly good.
Currently £849 at WEX.
RosscoPCole said:
The camera is for everyday use so a jack of all trades. Will be used on days out, travel, around the house. If I see something I like I want to take a photo of it. Sorry to be vague, but it is an everyday camera that will cope better than what a phone can offer
In that case, I would look at the Canon G5 X as posted by Steve above, or the Sony RX100 Mk VI or VII.RosscoPCole said:
The camera is for everyday use so a jack of all trades. Will be used on days out, travel, around the house. If I see something I like I want to take a photo of it. Sorry to be vague, but it is an everyday camera that will cope better than what a phone can offer
I have an iPhone 13 pro and my Canon G5X mk 2 is much better... It's a camera! ETA... it doesn't do any fancy filter stuff mind, if that's your bag.Also had two Sony RX and results are good... but a bit fiddly to use and the menu is hard work.
The fact is that many phone cameras these days are really very, very good, and when you couple that with the instantaneous ability to share/Tweet/Instagram/Facebook there is huge appeal. People always have their phones with them too, which is almost always not the case with their camera.
However, it sounds to me like you want to spend some money, and there's nothing wrong with that. It also sounds like you feel the Nikon is too cumbersome to have with you all the time.
As suggested in a reply above I would go into a shop and try a few, see how they feel, get an idea of the size you like. Which shop? Well London Camera Exchange would be my suggestion. They are almost always staffed with people who know what they're talking about and will give good advice rather than try to sell you a camera.
However, it sounds to me like you want to spend some money, and there's nothing wrong with that. It also sounds like you feel the Nikon is too cumbersome to have with you all the time.
As suggested in a reply above I would go into a shop and try a few, see how they feel, get an idea of the size you like. Which shop? Well London Camera Exchange would be my suggestion. They are almost always staffed with people who know what they're talking about and will give good advice rather than try to sell you a camera.
So my take might be off but
I fell out of love with photography a few years back, at the time id didnt know why i was not getting enjoyment out of the process, i still had the want to take photos but always felt unfulfilled
so i analyzed what was wrong and realized i was spending too long sitting at the PC looking at 100 odd photos in Lightroom after a 'shoot' .
For some people that works well, but with an office job, more time in front of a screen was not my motivation
I realized what i loved had slowly been ebbed away with clever electronics and automation as i changed cameras through my life.
I needed to move back to film photography with manual focus and light metering!
I loved being on site and then analyzing not just the composure but thinking about the lighting, can the film handle the dynamic range ? what exposure do i want , protect highlights or have the shadows etc, the handling of the camera as you dial in the settings enjoying the mechanical feel of the whole thing and slowing me down on the process, for me that was the point of the hobby/ enjoyment
Added benefits were going to the local camera store more regularly and talking cameras with the staff as you hand in your film, then returning the next week to pick up your negatives, full of hope and excitement, to be dashed with them being disappointed, yet again
but really, think about what you want, and why you fell out of love with it
Phone cameras are so good now if its to just get a picture then its easy to use, but if you enjoy taking photos, then rethink your instrument of choice
A second hand camera doesn't need to be a Hasselblad, a simple Minolta X300 and a 50mm prime will cost very little , just try it, you might get hooked again!
I fell out of love with photography a few years back, at the time id didnt know why i was not getting enjoyment out of the process, i still had the want to take photos but always felt unfulfilled
so i analyzed what was wrong and realized i was spending too long sitting at the PC looking at 100 odd photos in Lightroom after a 'shoot' .
For some people that works well, but with an office job, more time in front of a screen was not my motivation
I realized what i loved had slowly been ebbed away with clever electronics and automation as i changed cameras through my life.
I needed to move back to film photography with manual focus and light metering!
I loved being on site and then analyzing not just the composure but thinking about the lighting, can the film handle the dynamic range ? what exposure do i want , protect highlights or have the shadows etc, the handling of the camera as you dial in the settings enjoying the mechanical feel of the whole thing and slowing me down on the process, for me that was the point of the hobby/ enjoyment
Added benefits were going to the local camera store more regularly and talking cameras with the staff as you hand in your film, then returning the next week to pick up your negatives, full of hope and excitement, to be dashed with them being disappointed, yet again
but really, think about what you want, and why you fell out of love with it
Phone cameras are so good now if its to just get a picture then its easy to use, but if you enjoy taking photos, then rethink your instrument of choice
A second hand camera doesn't need to be a Hasselblad, a simple Minolta X300 and a 50mm prime will cost very little , just try it, you might get hooked again!
satans worm said:
So my take might be off but
I fell out of love with photography a few years back, at the time id didnt know why i was not getting enjoyment out of the process, i still had the want to take photos but always felt unfulfilled
so i analyzed what was wrong and realized i was spending too long sitting at the PC looking at 100 odd photos in Lightroom after a 'shoot' .
For some people that works well, but with an office job, more time in front of a screen was not my motivation
I realized what i loved had slowly been ebbed away with clever electronics and automation as i changed cameras through my life.
I needed to move back to film photography with manual focus and light metering!
I loved being on site and then analyzing not just the composure but thinking about the lighting, can the film handle the dynamic range ? what exposure do i want , protect highlights or have the shadows etc, the handling of the camera as you dial in the settings enjoying the mechanical feel of the whole thing and slowing me down on the process, for me that was the point of the hobby/ enjoyment
Added benefits were going to the local camera store more regularly and talking cameras with the staff as you hand in your film, then returning the next week to pick up your negatives, full of hope and excitement, to be dashed with them being disappointed, yet again
but really, think about what you want, and why you fell out of love with it
Phone cameras are so good now if its to just get a picture then its easy to use, but if you enjoy taking photos, then rethink your instrument of choice
A second hand camera doesn't need to be a Hasselblad, a simple Minolta X300 and a 50mm prime will cost very little , just try it, you might get hooked again!
Completely see where you're coming from. Done that myself... but I assume you have a darkroom (as it's pretty pointless using film if you don't), and how many people are prepared to turn a room in their house over to a darkroom these days?I fell out of love with photography a few years back, at the time id didnt know why i was not getting enjoyment out of the process, i still had the want to take photos but always felt unfulfilled
so i analyzed what was wrong and realized i was spending too long sitting at the PC looking at 100 odd photos in Lightroom after a 'shoot' .
For some people that works well, but with an office job, more time in front of a screen was not my motivation
I realized what i loved had slowly been ebbed away with clever electronics and automation as i changed cameras through my life.
I needed to move back to film photography with manual focus and light metering!
I loved being on site and then analyzing not just the composure but thinking about the lighting, can the film handle the dynamic range ? what exposure do i want , protect highlights or have the shadows etc, the handling of the camera as you dial in the settings enjoying the mechanical feel of the whole thing and slowing me down on the process, for me that was the point of the hobby/ enjoyment
Added benefits were going to the local camera store more regularly and talking cameras with the staff as you hand in your film, then returning the next week to pick up your negatives, full of hope and excitement, to be dashed with them being disappointed, yet again
but really, think about what you want, and why you fell out of love with it
Phone cameras are so good now if its to just get a picture then its easy to use, but if you enjoy taking photos, then rethink your instrument of choice
A second hand camera doesn't need to be a Hasselblad, a simple Minolta X300 and a 50mm prime will cost very little , just try it, you might get hooked again!
As I say, been there, and it was fun, but Lightroom does exactly what I did with 'dodge and burn' in a tenth of the time, but with no chemicals making me feel ill!
ETA... or burning holes in my jeans.
Edited by GetCarter on Thursday 18th August 17:07
GetCarter said:
satans worm said:
So my take might be off but
I fell out of love with photography a few years back, at the time id didnt know why i was not getting enjoyment out of the process, i still had the want to take photos but always felt unfulfilled
so i analyzed what was wrong and realized i was spending too long sitting at the PC looking at 100 odd photos in Lightroom after a 'shoot' .
For some people that works well, but with an office job, more time in front of a screen was not my motivation
I realized what i loved had slowly been ebbed away with clever electronics and automation as i changed cameras through my life.
I needed to move back to film photography with manual focus and light metering!
I loved being on site and then analyzing not just the composure but thinking about the lighting, can the film handle the dynamic range ? what exposure do i want , protect highlights or have the shadows etc, the handling of the camera as you dial in the settings enjoying the mechanical feel of the whole thing and slowing me down on the process, for me that was the point of the hobby/ enjoyment
Added benefits were going to the local camera store more regularly and talking cameras with the staff as you hand in your film, then returning the next week to pick up your negatives, full of hope and excitement, to be dashed with them being disappointed, yet again
but really, think about what you want, and why you fell out of love with it
Phone cameras are so good now if its to just get a picture then its easy to use, but if you enjoy taking photos, then rethink your instrument of choice
A second hand camera doesn't need to be a Hasselblad, a simple Minolta X300 and a 50mm prime will cost very little , just try it, you might get hooked again!
Completely see where you're coming from. Done that myself... but I assume you have a darkroom (as it's pretty pointless using film if you don't), and how many people are prepared to turn a room in their house over to a darkroom these days?I fell out of love with photography a few years back, at the time id didnt know why i was not getting enjoyment out of the process, i still had the want to take photos but always felt unfulfilled
so i analyzed what was wrong and realized i was spending too long sitting at the PC looking at 100 odd photos in Lightroom after a 'shoot' .
For some people that works well, but with an office job, more time in front of a screen was not my motivation
I realized what i loved had slowly been ebbed away with clever electronics and automation as i changed cameras through my life.
I needed to move back to film photography with manual focus and light metering!
I loved being on site and then analyzing not just the composure but thinking about the lighting, can the film handle the dynamic range ? what exposure do i want , protect highlights or have the shadows etc, the handling of the camera as you dial in the settings enjoying the mechanical feel of the whole thing and slowing me down on the process, for me that was the point of the hobby/ enjoyment
Added benefits were going to the local camera store more regularly and talking cameras with the staff as you hand in your film, then returning the next week to pick up your negatives, full of hope and excitement, to be dashed with them being disappointed, yet again
but really, think about what you want, and why you fell out of love with it
Phone cameras are so good now if its to just get a picture then its easy to use, but if you enjoy taking photos, then rethink your instrument of choice
A second hand camera doesn't need to be a Hasselblad, a simple Minolta X300 and a 50mm prime will cost very little , just try it, you might get hooked again!
As I say, been there, and it was fun, but Lightroom does exactly what I did with 'dodge and burn' in a tenth of the time, but with no chemicals making me feel ill!
ETA... or burning holes in my jeans.
Edited by GetCarter on Thursday 18th August 17:07
I fully get the argument you went digital and no longer have the film affect, but for me it works and back in love with the hobby , more so than ive been in the 35 years ive been playing with cameras.
I guess what i love about photography in all is the sheer vastness of ways to be a hobbyist, so i guess for the OP, the above is how I found to be back in love with it, might not work for you , but just think about what it is you enjoy exactly, the journey to find the location (ie an excuse for a hike/ visit a city etc) the act of taking the phot (ie messing with a camera and drinking in the details to get it right by yourself), the light room tinkering on a negative or printing something and showing it off with pride to family, maybe creating a calendar each year with the challenge of getting 12 good shots a year
What ever it is that should be your focus to the new equipment, dont just assume its the most expensive and tech laden equipment, it might just be a box brownie
RosscoPCole said:
I fell out of love with photography a while ago, but now realise that I miss it and my phone is not up for the job.
I have had a basic Nikon DSLR with a Tamron 18-200mm lens, which was great for everyday use. I have also had a Panasonic TZ200 which did roughly the same job, but in a smaller package.
I want to spend no more than £1,000, but if I can spend less I will obviously be happier.
Do I go for a DSLR with an all purpose zoom lens or a compact like the Panasonic again?
What other options are available? Is the mirrorless route a viable option? Or is there something I have not thought of?
Sorry for all the questions and thank you in advance for the advice.
I've owned a range of compact, bridge, SLR and M4/3 cameras, currently with a Panasonic TZ50 and G7.I have had a basic Nikon DSLR with a Tamron 18-200mm lens, which was great for everyday use. I have also had a Panasonic TZ200 which did roughly the same job, but in a smaller package.
I want to spend no more than £1,000, but if I can spend less I will obviously be happier.
Do I go for a DSLR with an all purpose zoom lens or a compact like the Panasonic again?
What other options are available? Is the mirrorless route a viable option? Or is there something I have not thought of?
Sorry for all the questions and thank you in advance for the advice.
All produced high quality images, the G7 added 4K video. I use the TZ mostly and the G7 when it fits the bill.
Which camera is best for you depends on what you want to use it for. Most cameras are a compromise. In my case, I opted for two.
FunkyGibbon said:
The best advice I can give is forget the technology in the first instance. Go to a camera shop (John Lewis is good), and hold a few in your hands and play with them.
Go for what your feel most comfortable with within your budget Or as on my case budget x 3!!!
Whatever you get, use it and enjoy it.
FG is, in my opinion and experience, spot on. Go to a camera shop and play with those on display until you find one that suits. UI is vitally important, as is the feel in the hand. Go away, have a think about it, and return to buy the next day. I have Park Cameras near me. They were very helpful. No pressure, although they knew I'd be back.Go for what your feel most comfortable with within your budget Or as on my case budget x 3!!!
Whatever you get, use it and enjoy it.
FG's experience with regards budget is all too common, but it's better to pay a little more if it is what you want.
Edited by Derek Smith on Friday 19th August 16:15
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