It's time .... £1400 To spend

[JohnBradbury]

It's been at least 3 years since I last owned a camera and I think it's time I jumped back in.

I was once a fairly active member on TP and I literally fell in love with photography. I just couldn't get enough of it. Unfortunately I fell into one of the biggest pit falls of photography, GAS (Gear Aquisition Syndrome). I was never happy with the kit I purchased, jumping from one camera to another and even from system to system. It literally cost me thousands and thousand of pounds.

It got so bad that I eventually decided to sell everything and forced myself to stay away. After a while I started to visit TP again but I made sure that I stayed away from kit.

After taking this break I finally feel ready to pick up a camera again and I'm fairly confident I've learnt my lesson as far as GAS goes. Hell I've spent the last year missing even the most basic camera I had back then.

Anyway I've set an initial budget for kit and have a strict limit on future purchases to ensure things don't get out of hand again. Ultimately I'd love to turn photography into a full time career but for now I'm just happy to be getting back into the game.

I haven't kept up with kit developments so I was hoping you could help me out with some suggestions. I will be shooting mainly portraiture (non studio) and I'm open to second hand kit. Eventually my kit bag will resemble that of your average wedding photographer but that can be built up as I go.

 

[Diving Pete]

Welcome back.

 

[simonblue]

On your budget i would forget trying to get an pro kit at the moment.
Have you thought about DSLR cropped/ Full Frame or going down the ccs route,if you just want to start with portraiture you should be able to pick a start up kit on your budget.

Say an Nikon D700 + 50mm F1.8 & 85mm F1.8, Fuji have some good deals X-1 pro say with the 35mm F1.4 & the 60mm F2.4

 

[pingu666]

depending on what you shoot you could get a sigma dp or all 3
maybe get the dp3 then some other camera that has changeable lenses.

but the dp's are very very sharp, with amazing image quality.

 

[DaveKing]

Canon 6d and 24-105, and you should have enough left over for a 50 1.4 or 35 f2.

 

[Gary Coyle]

Used D700 with 50mm f/1.8, Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, SB-600 flash, should get that lot for around £1200 so £200 for cards, spare batteries, etc, etc.

 

[cambsno]

Used D700 with 50mm f/1.8, Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, SB-600 flash, should get that lot for around £1200 so £200 for cards, spare batteries, etc, etc.

Thats a great shout. The D700 is an amazing camera and great value with £850 being the going rate 2nd hand for nice ones. 50mm should be had for £70 and perfect for portraits (or maybe an 85mm for £200). Tamron is not as good as the Nikon 24-70 but is very close, especially when stopped down a little (around £220). If you can the SB900 is much better (easier to use) over the SB600.

XPro is nice, and if size/weight is important could be an option, but the D700 beats it in pretty much every way.

 

[Tirpitz]

Used D700 with 50mm f/1.8, Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, SB-600 flash, should get that lot for around £1200 so £200 for cards, spare batteries, etc, etc.

definitely good advice.
if you had Pro kit before then anything less & you just wouldn't be happy & you'd end up paying more by buying twice