Beginner Lens...or body upgrade (quality priority?)

Thatchapthere

Thatchapthere

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Attended a photography course yesterday (which was a bday present) and when questioned on gear upgrading, the guy said to me keep the camera body and update your lens only.
Doesn't matter if I upgraded from my wee Nikon D3200 to a D7200, its all about the glass. said he of the quite knowledgeable persuasion

Conversation came about as I recently went from kit lens to prime - what a difference!

Lens over body then (in keeping within the same manufacturer/format)?
 
To an extent he is correct. Better glass will provide more favourable results if used correctly.

Eventually the body will come to be a handicap, bit you really have to be pushing the limits of its capabilities to see.
 
I think that is generally good advice. Obviously the lens can't make up for everything, but once you've purchased a top end lens, there's generally little need to go upgrading it for a long time :)
 
Good lenses are certainly better long-term buys, but it's not as clear cut as it was with film.

Cameras are evolving all the time with better sensors, more and improved features. And then for crop-format users, there's the option of full-frame for a significant jump in image quality.
 
A better camera will not improve your photography. Are you 100% sure you NEED a body upgrade?

You don't what lens you have, I take it your using the kit zoom your D3200 came with. If so the 50mm & 35mm f1.8 primes are allegedly great used buys, I think £150 for the pair. Leave your zoom at home a go and shoot with one of these. You'll be forced to think about your composition. Also think about a tripod, Vanguard do quite a decent one for a reasonable price.
 
Gyles said:
A better camera will not improve your photography. Are you 100% sure you NEED a body upgrade?

You don't what lens you have, I take it your using the kit zoom your D3200 came with. If so the 50mm & 35mm f1.8 primes are allegedly great used buys, I think £150 for the pair. Leave your zoom at home a go and shoot with one of these. You'll be forced to think about your composition. Also think about a tripod, Vanguard do quite a decent one for a reasonable price.
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But I was hoping a better camera would compensate for my ineptness :) ...jokes.

I got a 35mm prime at the weekend and I'm zooming with my feet. Great craic!
 
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Thatchapthere said:
But I was hoping a better camera would compensate for my ineptness :) ...jokes.

I got a 35mm prime at the weekend and I'm zooming with my feet. Great craic!
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Nah, practice. Save your pennies. You'll need them to buy a new belt when you start losing weight through zooming
 
As above - life's not that simple, but generally good lenses will be with you for a long time, and they'll squeeze every last drop of IQ from any camera body.

However...
Thatchapthere said:
I got a 35mm prime at the weekend and I'm zooming with my feet
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There's no such thing :police:. A wide lens shot close will not create the same image as a long lens from further away.

Sorry, it's my pet hate phrase.
 
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There's a benefit to changing the body when you know that the built in limitations are holding back your images. That might be lower quality sensor, poor AF responses or an absolutely essential missing mode.

Good lenses are always beneficial. :) It's easy to lose a sense of how different focal lengths work when you have a zoom lens, because naturally when you want to get close one zooms in, rather than zooming with the feet & leaving the lens set on a wide angle. 35mm on a crop body isn't bad, but if you had an 18mm prime = 28mm on FF then you'd see distortion up close.
 
Phil V said:
As above - life's not that simple, but generally good lenses will be with you for a long time, and they'll squeeze every last drop of IQ from any camera body.

However...

There's no such thing :police:. A wide lens shot close will not create the same image as a long lens from further away.

Sorry, it's my pet hate phrase.
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C,mon now, Phil - you know I meant foot-held sitting on skateboard.
 
Ulfric M Douglas said:
Those two camers are both modern, both good sensors, upgrading the body might not give you anything extra in this case,
but what he didn't say was WHICH LENS to buy next ...
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What do you have, what do you shoot and what do you need?
 
To illustrate the facts about good lenses here are a few pics taken with the Canon 70-300mm L IS USM lens on what most people would consider 2 quite outdated cameras - the Canon 1D MkIIN and the Canon 40D:

Taken on the Canon 1D MKIIN (8MP)


0124 by petersmart on Talk Photography
​

Taken on the Canon 40D (10MP)


IMG_3307_h.jpg

​

A good lens is always a good investment, in fact it's far better to spend a lot on a really good lens even if it's attached to a camera you may think of as outdated - as long as the camera is capable of doing what you need.
.
 
Phil V said:
It's not about smooth movement, as I said, lenses aren't interchangeable with distance, they make different pictures.
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The point Phil makes is important, a 24mm lens will have a certain field of view FOV. A 35mm will have a different FOV as would a 50mm and so on.

If you shot a portrait filling the frame, say with 50% of your subject at differing focal lengths the composition would be different for each.
 
Gyles said:
The point Phil makes is important, a 24mm lens will have a certain field of view FOV. A 35mm will have a different FOV as would a 50mm and so on.

If you shot a portrait filling the frame, say with 50% of your subject at differing focal lengths the composition would be different for each.
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This might help.
 
Primes and zooms are different, and both have unique benefits. It's not just about image quality - both are usually more than capable on that score.

Primes can have very low f/numbers, often down to f/1.4 whereas most of the best zooms are limited to f/2.8 or higher. Primes are unbeatable for shallow depth-of-field effects, or low light working. But zooms give you much more control of perspective, and more creative options for composition.

Ideally, you should look all around the subject - go right and left, look up and down to find the best angle. Then move backwards and forwards to adjust perspective - the size relationship between foreground, middle-ground and background objects will change. Then from the best point, zoom for optimum framing. There's another consideration too, if you have control of the main subject, eg person, and can move them around within the composition, adding a fourth dimensional aspect. Primes are more restricting on composition, unless you have a whole bag full of them and time to change.
 
I went from a d3200 to a d7000 for ease of use last year, having your settings at your fingertips instead of delving into menus is nice.

However, I have also went to a d7200 and a couple of other bodies but that's because I've different uses for same.

Nothing wrong with your d3200 and as you say a 35 or 50 prime is a good choice but again for me I sold mine as not fitting my needs.
 
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