Cheap portrait setup - What would you buy?

[anonymous-user]

What cheap/used/secondhand camera and lens would you buy if you just wanted to take family/kids portrait type photos with decent bokeh?

I sold all my gear a couple of years ago and since then have shot purely with a Ricoh GRIII fixed 28mm (which I absolutely love) as I mostly shoot cityscape, travel, and street stuff. But it's not great for portraits.

Recently my wife paid a professional photographer friend of hers £200 for some photos of her and our little boy, and honestly, I know I could have done way better myself with my old A7II and 85mm 1.4 and a quick whizz through Lightroom. The photos were over processed, skin smoothed too much, and I could tell a lot of the bokeh was fake. It just irritated me. Even my wife thinks they 'look a bit fake'. But, since I don't have anything capable of taking portraits anymore, trying out her friend seemed like a good idea.

I know it was only £200, but could have put that £200 towards a cheap camera and lens and just take my own photos whenever I want.

I looked at used Sony A6000 series maybe paired with a 50 or 85mm, but was surprised at how much they were. I then looked at older Nikon full frame bodies and lenses and thought they seemed cheap, as did Nikon lenses. Not looked at much else.

So if you wanted a cheap old banger of body and lens combo for taking portraits while out and about what would you buy?


(Previously I have had heaps of Nikon DLSR gear, Sony and Panasonic compact cameras, and latterly Sony A7 II bodies and variety of prime lenses, so I'm well used to using any system, so not worried about learning a camera or it's menus etc)

[Simpo Two]

The camera is largely irrelevant, what you want is lighting.

50mm lens on a crop sensor is fine but you can go longer if you want.

Budget?

[anonymous-user]

Simpo Two said:

The camera is largely irrelevant, what you want is lighting.

Budget?

Well you say that, but I was kind of never ever happy with the bokeh, shallow DoF, or general look of my images, until I started shooting full frame with an 85mm 1.4. Every camera and lens combo before that never did it for me personally.

I will be having absolutely nothing to do with lighting or flash.

It will purely to be used outside, in good natural daylight, handheld. I shot heaps of documentary style portraits, in all kinds of varying daylight conditions, using my A7II and 85mm 1.4GM, mostly wide open or at 1.8, and I could not have been happier how they came out.

Would like to spend around £500. The images will be getting shot RAW, tweaked in Lightoom, printed and stuck in frames on my walls. They won't be pixel peeped or printed huge. My days of owning £5k worth of bodies and lenses are over as I just don't get the time anymore

I was thinking maybe a crop sensor with am 85mm 1.8 might be fairly cheap.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 16th December 13:34

[sociopath]

Look at London camera exchange or mpb, you can get good second hand gear that can do what you want.

[dozen]

Whatever camera you want plus a Jupiter 85 off eBay:

https://phillipreeve.net/blog/review-jupiter-9-85m...

The Jupiter 85 will give you beautiful pictures like no one else is taking. It has a fantastic ‘analogue’ feel to the images.

[Simpo Two]

Lord Marylebone said:

I will be having absolutely nothing to do with lighting or flash.

It will purely to be used outside

As you didn't mention that I assumed it would be in a studio or otherwise indoors. You also said 'portrait set up' which implies a bit of effort.

Edited by Simpo Two on Friday 16th December 15:18

[anonymous-user]

Simpo Two said:

Lord Marylebone said:

I will be having absolutely nothing to do with lighting or flash.

It will purely to be used outside

As you didn't mention that I assumed it would be in a studio or otherwise indoors. You also said 'portrait set up' which implies a bit of effort.

Sorry, my error in terminology there. Apologies.

But yes, just to shoot outside and get some nice pics of the kids etc for sticking on the walls. Bokeh on a budget.

[Simpo Two]

D700? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234765877710 - certainly cheap if 12Mp is enough.

[anonymous-user]

Simpo Two said:

D700? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295387598950 - certainly cheap if 12Mp is enough.

That is cheap. Good suggestion.

I reckon 12mp would be more than enough. People get carried away with megapixels as we all know. 12mp is 4290 x 2800, and almost all my Lightroom exports which I print from are 3500 pixels long edge, so smaller than 12mp.

[C n C]

Lord Marylebone said:

Well you say that, but I was kind of never ever happy with the bokeh, shallow DoF, or general look of my images, until I started shooting full frame with an 85mm 1.4. Every camera and lens combo before that never did it for me personally.
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I was thinking maybe a crop sensor with am 85mm 1.8 might be fairly cheap.

I think the first part of the quote gives you the answer to your last comment.

You'd be better off looking at a full frame body with an 85mm f1.8, rather than a crop sensor.

As you are also not interested in pixel-peeping, and only looking at moderate enlargements, even quite an old full frame body willl likely give you plenty of resolution above what you need.

I'm not familiar with Nikon/Sony, but something like the following would likely give you the results you are after at about the right budget:

Canon 5D mk 1 (12.8 Mp) - under £200 from MPB
or
Canon 5D mk 2 (21 Mp) - £200-£400 depending on condition from MPB

Canon EF 85mm f1.8 - £250 from MPB

[Simpo Two]

Lord Marylebone said:

Simpo Two said:

D700? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295387598950 - certainly cheap if 12Mp is enough.

That is cheap. Good suggestion.

I reckon 12mp would be more than enough. People get carried away with megapixels as we all know. 12mp is 4290 x 2800, and almost all my Lightroom exports which I print from are 3500 pixels long edge, so smaller than 12mp.

I'd agree.

And here's a lens for it you might like to keep an eye on: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334663345570
Somewhat cheaper than a new one! https://www.wexphotovideo.com/nikon-85mm-f14-g-af-...

Edited by Simpo Two on Friday 16th December 15:52

[toohuge]

Go for a Nikon ... you can probably pick up a leggy d800 - 36mp - I say nikon because you'll have access to the older af-d lenses , which are brilliant for portraits.

The 85 1 4 afd is spectacular imo, 50 1.4 afd lovely and a hidden gem is the 180 2.8 af or afd - aperture for aperture an equal to the 200 f2 imo.

Canon wise - the 85 1.8 is OK- I love mine but it's not my first choice for portraits, the 135 f2 is epic but much more expensive. Other (decent) canon lenses are more expensive compared to the older nikons

[Turtle Shed]

As already mentioned, and my first thought when I read the original post.

D700 and 85mm f/1.8 afd

I used to shoot a pair of D700s, only got rid of them when second hand D750s became affordable, but also because the shutter is quite loud and I used to shoot in fairly quiet situations. They have an image quality that remains the best I have seen from a Nikon DSLR.

I owned that lens too for many years, only got rid of it because it was rarely used. (Not due to the image quality but because I almost always had a 24-70 on one body and a 70-200 on the other).

[Thats What She Said]

Theres plenty of decent used kit around for that kind of budget.

Nikon D800
https://www.parkcameras.com/used/cameras/nikon/use...

Nikon 50mm f/1.4G
https://www.parkcameras.com/used/lenses/nikon/used...

Nikon 85mm f/1.8G
https://www.parkcameras.com/used/lenses/nikon/used...

Edited by Thats What She Said on Tuesday 20th December 23:00

[Turtle Shed]

Thats What She Said said:

Theres plenty of decent used kit around for that kind of budget.

Nikon D800
https://www.parkcameras.com/used/cameras/nikon/use...

Nikon 50mm f/1.4G
https://www.parkcameras.com/used/lenses/nikon/used...

Nikon 85mm f/1.8G
https://www.parkcameras.com/used/lenses/nikon/used...

Edited by Thats What She Said on Tuesday 20th December 23:00

Hope you don't mind me mentioning it but both of the lenses you've linked to are 85mm, they've got the listing title wrong on the first. Also, the D800 costs £500 and the f/1.4 lens is £800. The OP specified a total budget of £500 unless I've misread.

To come within budget Wex have a D700 in very good condition and low shutter count for £278:
https://www.wexphotovideo.com/nikon-d700-digital-s...

Park Cameras have an 85mm AF-D at £219:
https://www.parkcameras.com/used/lenses/nikon/used...