Beginner Looking to get my first camera

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Zono

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Hello,
As the title says, I'm looking to get my first camera and in need of advice.

The camera will be used for both work and social and will mainly take photos of street, architecture, cityscape. basically, Instagram friendly photos to help with the business profile as well.
As a novice what camera would be recommended?

Have narrowed down to:
Sony a5100 with the kit lens - New
a6000 used, not sure what lens to get!
Fujifilm AX3 New

Have a budget of around £400.

Thanks
 
You posted this on Thursday and no one has come along to help yet?

I'll have a go and hopefully others will come along later and give better and more sensible advice :D

A couple of my family members have A5100 type cameras and although the pictures do look very nice I'm not personally a fan of back screen shooting, I much prefer to use a viewfinder so I personally would go for a camera with one like the A6000.

I think that a "kit lens" is probably a good place to start and once you get used to the gear you may then want something with a wider view, a longer zoom or a wider aperture for low light and shallow depth of field.

Personally I'd go for a kit zoom lens and a wider aperture lens (a "full frame" 35mm equivalent lens) but sadly the Sony 24mm f1.8 is rather expensive and for that reason I'd take a look at the Panasonic GX80 with kit zoom and either a Panasonic 15mm f1.8 or Olympus 17mm f1.8 but sadly that little set up is way out of budget. Getting back to the thought of an A6000 and kit lens and a wider aperture prime there are the Sony 20mm f2.8 and Sigma 19mm f2.8 both of which are quite reasonably priced. It's a shame that they're f2.8 rather than f1.8 though but they could still be good reasonably priced options while you learn the kit and which way you want to go :D

I think you may have to work hard and look for bargains on the used market to stay in budget though.

Hope that helps.
 
As a street shooter, I would suggest something like a used Ricoh GRII or Fuji X-70 for the type of thing you want to do. They are both fix lenses, however both are wide and I get great results for street and doing architecture with my GRII.

I would say this a good start if you are not going with a body and kit lens. A great way to be able to get used to shooting with a wide angle, they have quiet shutters, and are easy to use.

Both are APS-C sized sensors and offer great JPEG and RAW files. Both are a great for experienced and beginners, are fun, and small.

-Sly.
 
Many thanks for the replies.
I have done more research and come up with Panasonic GX800 at £350 it seems to tick all the boxes.
But would love to see more reviews using the gx800 with different lenses other than the kit lens12-32mm.
 
GX80 is a slightly better camera and there are often deals and cash back which bring it into that budget.
 
Zono said:
Many thanks for the replies.
I have done more research and come up with Panasonic GX800 at £350 it seems to tick all the boxes.
But would love to see more reviews using the gx800 with different lenses other than the kit lens12-32mm.
Click to expand...

I keep thinking of getting a GX800 as a small, backup camera, they were going for £299 in Currys and Jessops last month but they've gone up by £50 since.... that's some inflation.

In regards to the no view finder, only back screen shooting, since moving to a Fuji X-T20, I've used the back screen more than the view finder, I've actually found that a nice, clear, responsive screen is a pleasure to use, where as on the D7200 I had, I never used anything other than the view finder.
 
I know I'm a bit late to the party here! I'm a newbie myself and recently had a similar dilemma. I settled on the Sony A5100 and am very pleased with it so far. I find that even in the sunshine I can still see what's on the screen. I've found the kit lens versatile enough so far too, though I guess this will be fairly short lived once I learn more.
 
I'm also a newbie and went for a second hand A6000. I've only just got it yesterday, so early days but having played around with it it's quite a nice piece of kit. I found it very easy to use though the number of options within the menus is quite daunting. I'm hoping to also pick up a second hand 55-210mm kit zoom lens to go with the standard kit lens it came with.
 
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