Beginner New to Photography- Camera Help

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Pekchenko

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Alex
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Hi All,

Having recently decided to take the plunge and upgrade from a phone to a proper camera, my head's currently in a bit of a spin around the myriad of options available to a beginner and wanted to seek some more knowledgeable opinions of the way to go.

For the past few years I've got into mountain and countryside hiking in a big way and often felt limited by the landscape photos taken from my phone.Similarly I also feel like I've missed out on several opportunities for for some decent wildlife shots due to a lack of zoom on the phone. I also welcomed my son to the world this year so I'd like to hopefully use the camera for capturing all the family moments over the next few years.

I'm therefore looking for a bit of beginner all-rounder and unsure whether to go mirror less, DSLR, Bridge or Compact. Nikon ds3500 seems to get loads of recommendations as a good starting point but would it be hard work lugging all the gear up mountains? I'd seen the Sony a6000 get good reviews , but again this requires extra lenses for the wildlife side of things so should I really just be going for a compact with a good built in zoom function?

I appreciate what I'm asking may not be feasible for my sub 500 quid budget but any assistance would be greatly appreciated

Cheers
Alex
 
Hi Alex, welcome to TP.

The truth is, almost all cameras are really good. They almost all have the reach you want with their lens lineup, and all will be mostly excellent.

Mirrorless is where the industry is going so if you want any level of future proofing, that's agood bet. However you're at the beginning of your hobby so you don't really know what you need. As soon as you buy something and start taking pictures you'll start to see how you're being limited. In 6 months time you'll likely have a far better idea of what you need than you do now.

So with that in mind, I'd buy a second hand mirrorless camera of some sort so that if you do decide to get into the hobby, you can probably resell without too much loss to buy "that perfect" system. Weight and operability are only going to be discovered once you handle the things, so I'd also recommend finding a second hand camera shop near to you and go hold them and look at the menus. I sold my Panasonic about a month after I'd bought it because I found the menus terrible to navigate.

If you want to photograph all the things, you're going to need lenses that cover all the ranges. There is no 10 - 1000mm f/2 lens for £50 sadly. So with your budget you're going to need to make a decision on what to focus on to begin with. Most cameras come with a "kit" lens that covers wide angle through to short telephoto and will be good for most things apart from long distance nature.

I'm sure people will chime in with specific suggestions, but I'm going to suggest Fuji to begin with. They have a refurb store and a quick look on there shows something like an X-T20 with an (excellent)18-55 lens for £549 or with the cheaper (less excellent) 15-45 lens for £399. Pick up the 50-230 as a Christmas or Birthday present and that's wildlife covered for you without significantly upping your budget. Both out of stock at the moment, but signup for an email alert to get a camera that's pretty much as new with Fuji warranty. https://shop.fujifilm.co.uk/digital-cameras/refurbished-digital-cameras

The Canikon and Sony offerings will all give you similar results to begin with but really there is little to separate them all on quality. As you gain experience you will start to see what the weaknesses are in your system and can shore them up with more lenses, or body upgrades as you go. Or you can just sell your starter system and buy again with much better knowledge than you have right now. The best thing to do is hold them, because some will be too heavy and some will feel bad in your hands, and some will have terrible menus. As all of that is subjective, no forum will give you the perfect answer sadly.

Hope that helps and others will chime in I'm sure with other suggestions. Best of luck with your hobby and welcome to the forums!
 
Thanks for the response. I'd read similar questions on other threads and the general consensus like you say seems to be that you need to have a good play around and get a feel before you take the plunge. It's obviously tricky at the moment with everything shut so probably need to ride it out an wait for the shops to re-open.

I had considered cameras with built in lenses may be a decent starting point but I suppose they are jack's of all trade and masters of none?
 
For those tasks I'd probably try to pick up an Olympus E-M10 twin lens kit. That was going for around £450 before Christmas, and would cover most of your needs.
 
For hiking and a relatively simple system that you will actually use more you want a higher end compact style by the sound of it.
Those of us with bigger cameras and extra lenses soon lose enthusiasm carrying the extra weight and bulk far.
The £500 limit makes things tight for a good compact with decent zoom, I see for example just now a used Sony RX100 mk6 on ebay going under that.
There is some appeal to buying used (apart from lower price!) so you aren't as worried about the odd scratch and bump when carrying it a lot.
 
How about a Panasonic Lumix TZ200.
1" sensor, zooms to the equivalent of about 300mm on Full Frame, compact and comes in on budget (just).
It's never going to blow the socks off an interchangeable lens camera, but if the TZ100 is anything to go by, it'll be pretty good.
 
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Cheers guys.

The more I think about it, the more I see my main hobby is the walking and hiking rather than the photography itself and I won't be going out in specific light conditions etc. In order to take an amazing photo. With that in mind then I'm warming to the idea of one of the compacts you suggest. Would a tz100 not meet my requirements? It seemed to gate rave reviews when it first came out, and can be picked up for around £300 quid these days. I know it's probably not going to produce professional style photos but would there be a noticeable improvement than my phone of Bizzard sitting 50 yards away perched on a tree for example, or if I was stood at the top of a mountain taking a landscape of the valley below?

I suppose with the compacts is the risk that I quickly grow out of it and want to upgrade to a mirrored or DLR system. If I spent the extra on the tz200 is that less likely? I appreciate it's difficult for you guys to comment without knowing me personally but I guess some of you will have faced similar choices in the past so it would be good to know your experiences on what you would recommend on the back of them

Cheers
Alex
 
Pekchenko said:
I suppose with the compacts is the risk that I quickly grow out of it and want to upgrade to a mirrored or DLR system.
Click to expand...

There is that risk, but if you buy second hand you can likely recoup most of your costs. I was sold by the great sensor on the TZ100 but found the menus to be wired completely differently to my brain. I ended up losing about £50 when I sold mine on, which was well worth the experiment if you ask me.
 
You mentioned lack of zoom.
The TZ100 is "F2.8-5.9, 25-250mm equiv. lens", the TZ200 is " F3.3-6.4 24-360mm equiv. zoom lens".
So the TZ200 needs a little more light across the range, but you get about an extra half again in reach.
Only you will know which of those two is more important.

Ian is right that the TZ is very menu driven, but then all systems are, and I guess you get used to them.
If you want an idea of how the TZ100 fairs, @minx on the TP 52 uses a TZ100 for most of her shots.
Her Flickr is here:
www.flickr.com

Alison White

Explore Alison White’s 731 photos on Flickr!
www.flickr.com www.flickr.com
 
Cheers for the input everyone.

I ended up going for the Sony a6000 as it seemed to tick a lot of the boxes described above with room to grow as a hobby.
I liked the idea of the compact but I guess there are limits to what you can do with them.
I ordered from LCE on a finance deal which works out to about a tenner a month. Hopefully should be here in the next couple of days, can't wait to give it a go!
 
Pekchenko said:
Cheers for the input everyone.

I ended up going for the Sony a6000 as it seemed to tick a lot of the boxes described above with room to grow as a hobby.
I liked the idea of the compact but I guess there are limits to what you can do with them.
I ordered from LCE on a finance deal which works out to about a tenner a month. Hopefully should be here in the next couple of days, can't wait to give it a go!
Click to expand...

What lenses have you ordered for it?

My boy has the A6000 with a Samyang 12/2 but it was initially bought for milky way/night skies. He has additionally nabbed my old Samyang 35/2.8, Yashica 50/2 on a helicoid adapter & an old 28-70mm kit zoom.
 
Just the standard E16-50mm lens kit...Most of what I've read seems to suggest that this will be fine for a while whilst I'm just starting out. I'll. have a play around with this for a bit and take it from there...I think 2nd hand lenses will be the way to go in future though looking at the prices!
 
Pekchenko said:
Just the standard E16-50mm lens kit...Most of what I've read seems to suggest that this will be fine for a while whilst I'm just starting out. I'll. have a play around with this for a bit and take it from there...I think 2nd hand lenses will be the way to go in future though looking at the prices!
Click to expand...

Yeah. I've bought plenty of used lenses over the years.
 
OP has gone for the A6000 but just for anyone who wanders in here I wanted to add an opposing view to the one that the TZ100 is menu driven. I've had one for some time I don't find this to be true at all in fact I only enter the menu to either format the card or set the clock. Everything else is just like a DSLR, ie controlled by a button or a dial. I also have a custom menu. Once the camera is customised how you want entering the main menu really should not something that needs to be done very often at all.

I set aperture or manual mode and away I go and I have three custom modes for eye/face detect in aperture, shutter and manual modes. Simples.
 
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