I regularly get asked "what camera should I get?" and I don't mind at all, I just thought I'd make a blog post to refer people to. It's like asking someone what kind of car they should buy. There are a LOT of options out there for every budget and experience level so there's no single answer I can give everyone.
Let's start by looking at manufacturers- Nikon, Canon, and Sony are the majors and there are several others like Olympus, Fuji, Leica, Pentax, and Panasonic to name a few. Some people you talk to are as brand-loyal as Chevy and Ford guys (you know those people with stickers of Calvin peeing on the rival's logo). Personally, I'm a Nikon person. I joke about Canon cameras to photographer friends, but Canon makes some great cameras and so does Sony. I just prefer Nikon because that's what I started with and for the most part, I can use lenses from the 90s on even my newest camera. If you're just starting out and don't have to worry about lens compatibility...pick a camera brand and model you like. Go to a store like BestBuy and try things out and see how the camera feels in your hand, how you like the menus, that sort of thing.
Next, there's three categories of cameras that you may be looking at- point and shoot, DSLR, and mirrorless. I'm assuming that nobody reading this post is thinking about medium format cameras and it's highly unlikely that you're considering a film camera so let's talk about the difference between a point and shoot, DSLR and mirrorless cameras.
Point and shoot- pretty much sums it up. This is an all-in-one camera without interchangeable lenses but almost always has a zoom lens and they allow you to just turn it on and shoot some photos. Setting options may be limited to presets like "sports", "portrait", "low light", etc. If you're looking for something to take on vacation, shoot some photos of the kids at holidays and birthdays and need something more than your phone...this option could be for you. Realistically, your phone might be better! Did I just say that?
DSLR- digital single lens reflex camera. These are the cameras that have interchangeable lenses and more user control features. These can be entry level cameras up to professional grade like you see at weddings and major sporting events and are what I have shot with for many years. If you're buying a camera, it's most likely going to come with a "kit lens" which is a basic lens generally in the 17mm to 55mm zoom range. Some may come with two lenses and include a 55-200mm lens as well.
Having the ability to change lenses allows you to have lenses for specific things. I have a wide angle zoom lens that goes from 14mm to 24mm, a mid-range zoom that goes from 24mm to 70mm, a long zoom that goes from 70mm to 200mm, and one that is a 100mm to 500mm zoom. I also have an 85mm and a 105mm macro lens. Each one is used for different things. For example, the 85mm is my main portrait lens, the zooms are used at different parts of weddings, the longer zooms are used for sports or wildlife. The key thing to know is the longer the focal length (in millimeters) the closer your subject will appear in the photo. Generally speaking, anything under 50mm is considered wide and over 50mm is considered zoom. 50mm is considered the focal length that looks closest to what you see with your eyes. I'm not going to get into distortion or compression in this blog but it's something to consider as you get better at photography.
Besides changing lenses, DSLR cameras also allow you more control over the camera itself. They usually have preset modes like the point and shoot cameras, but they also have semi-automatic and fully manual settings. That's another blog post :)
MIRRORLESS- the newest kid on the block! I'll skip the technical stuff, but a mirrorless camera doesn't have a...mirror inside. It uses an electronic viewfinder that you see when looking through the camera like you see on the screen on the back of the camera. A lot of these cameras come with some great new features like eye autofocus where the camera will lock onto your subject's eye. This is something cell phones have done for a while but it's now making it's way into real cameras.
Most mirrorless cameras also allow you to change lenses as well. Bear in mind that not all Canon lenses will work with all Canon bodies and the same is true for most manufacturers. Nikon does have an adapter to allow lenses designed for DSLRs to work on their mirrorless bodies. Canon may have that too, I just have no idea.
SO...what should you get? It all depends on what you want to do and what your budget is! Going back to the car analogy- when buying a car, what do you look for? Do you need a pickup, minivan, hatchback, sportscar, luxury car and how much can you spend?
A camera body can be as little as $300 for a used one or as much as several thousand dollars. I'm planning on buying the latest Nikon mirrorless camera that is $5,500 but most people probably don't need all the features that camera has. Honestly, I don't need all the features but don't tell my wife that ;) I also got a grant to replace our cameras at school and will be ordering a $995 mirrorless body with a kit lens. Entry level DSLRs with a kit lens generally start at about $500 and you can get used cameras and from the big camera stores like B and H to save some money as well.
I pay attention to Nikon cameras and don't really look at the other manufactures. And I don't pay close attention to the entry level cameras either, so I can't say what the best options are, but the good people at B and H do a buying guides each year that I think are pretty thorough- here's the link to them (and I'll try to remember to update this each year but if it's not current, please email me)- https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/buying-guides
WAIT, there's more!!! I didn't even touch on video which most cameras can do. I hardly ever shoot video with my camera, but it's a nice feature to have. There are many different options for video recording and I'm no expert on that so that's all I'll say.
I hope that helps! Once you get a camera, check out my beginner's photography blog (link coming soon).
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