What do you actually need as a beginner?
We all know that starting photography is hard. The first challenge of buying your first camera gear isn’t any different from that unfortunately. After this guide though, you shouldn’t have any problems acquiring your first camera gear.
If you have already gotten your camera gear and are struggling with the basics, I highly recommend reading my prior newsletter by pressing the button below:
The camera body
Let’s start with the most obvious one, the camera body.
Firstly, this is the part that most people go wrong about. This is because they think that the camera body is the most important part of getting good and sharp photos.
This is actually false. I will tell you more about this in a second.
The camera body is still one of the most important decisions, because each brand and camera type have their own unique lenses. You can’t just use a Canon lens on a Sony camera. This makes things more complicated, but don’t worry I’ll help you.
There are three important things to think about when choosing the camera body:
What lenses fit the camera
What sensor size does the camera have?
What features does it have?
The lens is the most important part and that’s what you should be looking at first.
Then there is the sensor size. There are many sensor sizes but crop-sensor and full frame sensor cameras are the most common ones.
What is the difference then between a crop-sensor and a full frame camera?
As the name suggest a crop-sensor has a crop factor. This varies between different camera brands but most are 1,5x or 1,6x crop. Only Panasonic and Olympus use 2x crop factor.
What this means is, anytime you use a lens on a crop sensor, you have to multiply the focal length by the crop factor.
While this may sound like a bad thing, it really isn’t. The reason it’s so good for beginners also, is that it’s way cheaper than full frame. Also, on higher focal lengths such as 200mm, you practically have a 320 mm lens if you have a sensor with 1,6x crop factor.
What is the advantages of a full frame camera then?
Well, one of the biggest factors is the ability to capture a wider dynamic range. This basically means that when shooting a RAW photo, you are able to capture more of the highlights and shadows in one singular image. This means that when editing the photo, we have more information to work with.
Full frame sensor has a lot better low light performance. This is because the sensor is bigger and is able to capture more light. It prevents you from having to increase the ISO to capture a low light scene, which means you’ll have less noise in the image.
The third reason why many people decide to go for full frame is that it has shallower depth of field. Meaning, you are able to get those beautiful blurry backgrounds and bokeh shots even when using higher apertures.
Full frame also has a little higher quality and sharpness than a crop sensor but that is not a reason I would consider choosing the full frame over the crop sensor.
The biggest difference between the two is definitely the price. While you can get brand new crop sensor camera bodies for like 400€, full frames start around 2000€. I suggest every beginner to start with a crop sensor camera, like I did. Especially, if you don’t know if photography is your thing yet.
The only time I would consider a full frame over a crop sensor in the beginning, is if you intend to photograph in a lot of low light scenarios. But even then, modern denoise features are able to remove really high noise levels from your image, so I’m not sure if it’s even worth it.
The last thing you should think about when choosing your camera body, are the features.
While some of them are really nice and provide some quality of life changes, they often don’t provide a lot improvement in the photo itself.
I started with a Canon M50 Mark II, which is a great camera. It’s a crop sensor and it’s released in late 2020. Then I upgraded to full frame because I needed higher resolution for prints and also better low light performance. I went for a Sony A7R III, which is released in 2017.
This meant that I lost a lot of good features, while also spending triple amount of money. In the end it comes down to what you need as a photographer.
One thing I do want to note is that pay attention to the screen types. For example, Canon cameras have flip screens, which you can turn and swivel in every direction. You can even see the screen from the direction you are shooting in, which is great for content creation and self-photography.
Most Sony cameras don’t have that for some reason. They have tilt screens that you can only tilt upwards and downwards. Recently they have started using the flip screens though so you can expect to find better screens on the newer Sony camera models.
The lens
This is the most important one in my opinion. The lens matters more when it comes to sharpness than the camera body.
The build quality, optics, glass and everything else have such a big impact on the sharpness. But how can you choose the correct one?
There are two main types of lenses: zoom lenses and prime lenses
Then there are some special lenses like macrolenses and anamorphic lenses. At the start I would only focus on the main types.
Zoom lenses are the obvious ones. They are lenses with a zoom function. But what are prime lenses?
Well, they are lenses without the zoom function. But the reason they are so good is that they produce incredible sharpness and low aperture.
If you are looking to buy a crop sensor camera, I would highly suggest you look in to the Sigma lens lineup.
For just 300€ you can get a 30mm f1.4 lens, with incredible sharpness. It’s still the best lens I’ve used to this date. The value you get is incredible and it just works so well.
Also, Sigma has a huge lineup of great lenses to choose from.
If you are considering buying a full frame though, I have some bad news for you.
The lenses for full frames are even more expensive compared to the ones for crop sensors than the camera body price differences.
Especially, if you want to buy a fast, low aperture lens like f1.4.
Lenses for full frame cameras are also often bigger and heavier than the lenses for crop sensor cameras.
The good thing about lenses is that they keep their value pretty well. If you keep it in good condition and clean it often enough, you will get a good price for it in a few years if you decide to sell it.
When choosing between zoom and prime lenses, try to think about whether it’s worth it to buy one zoom lens like 28-75mm or two primes like 24mm and 85mm. The primes are sharper and have lower aperture, but the zoom lens has more variety and saves you from the hassle of changing the lens all the time.
Accessories
As a beginner I wouldn’t really look at accessories other than lens protectors and tripods. Other accessories you will learn about later when you already know the basics of photography and are ready to learn more.
I will write a guide on other accessories to get in the future so stay tuned for that!
There isn’t much to lens protectors. Just make sure to select the correct one for your lens. The diameter of the lens protector you need to choose is often written on the lens with crossed O-symbol and the diameter after it. Example below:
When choosing a tripod, you have a lot of options to choose from and it can be pretty overwhelming. Here are the features I like to have when choosing a tripod:
A ball head
This is the most important feature to me. It allows me to rotate the camera howerer I want with just one screw. This makes my life a lot easier.
Quick release system
This feature is also very important because it saves a lot of time. Being able to quickly assemble the tripod saves you from a lot of struggles.
Tiny transportation size
The size when it’s not assembled is also very imporant, especially if you want to carry it on hikes for example. Look for as tiny as possible.
Other things you might want to look for are the weight and the height of the tripod. The weight depends on the material. You could go for carbon fiber instead of aluminium and save a lot of weight, but it’s going to be expensive.
I am using Rollei C5i myself and it’s been very good so far. It has all of the features I want in a tripod and it’s also very cheap compared to its competitors. The build quality is very good and I haven’t had any problems with it so far, even though I have put it through some very though conditions.
Conclusion
Now you should be ready to choose your first set of camera gear.
First take a look at the lenses and look what’s available to you and what is in your price range. Then check what lens mount it has and search for a camera body with the same lens mount.
You can also do it the other way around but this is what I like to do.
Remember also, that you can start with any gear. Just use what’s available to you! At the start the gear doesn’t matter at all. You just need a camera to experiment with and learn the basics. If you like it, you can look for a new one.
Then lastly, choose the correct lens protectors and the right tripod if you need one.
If there’s anything else you would like to learn about, just reply to this email with your suggestions and I’ll see what I can do!
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week with another blog post!
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