Cameras for beginners: compacts, DSLRs and mirrorless | Articles | Photo, video, optics

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Each pho­tog­ra­ph­er fond­ly remem­bers his first cam­era, which “dragged” him into this dif­fi­cult, but very inter­est­ing busi­ness. But what if you are just think­ing about start­ing pho­tog­ra­phy — what should be the first cam­era today? Giv­en the huge selec­tion, vari­ety of types and class­es of cam­eras, it can be very easy for a begin­ner to get con­fused.

We have pre­pared some tips for those who are about to start their jour­ney as a pho­tog­ra­ph­er or just want to try shoot­ing with some­thing oth­er than a smart­phone (although we will also con­sid­er this option). This mate­r­i­al com­ple­ments the pre­vi­ous­ly pub­lished arti­cle “The best cam­eras that are friend­ly for begin­ners.” In the new mate­r­i­al, we offer more options from dif­fer­ent class­es of cam­eras that will suit dif­fer­ent bud­gets.

Mobile accessories

As we promised, we start with mobile pho­tog­ra­phy. The tech­nolo­gies used in smart­phones are con­stant­ly improv­ing, so the optics and com­pu­ta­tion­al pho­tog­ra­phy capa­bil­i­ties of the new mod­els make them a pret­ty good start if you are not yet sure about buy­ing a full-fledged cam­era. There are some inter­est­ing apps that give you more con­trol over your smart­phone’s cam­era set­tings. In addi­tion, you can attach exter­nal lens­es to your smart­phone to improve the qual­i­ty of shoot­ing, which can enhance macro pho­tog­ra­phy, as well as allow you to use wider-angle or longer focal lengths.

Sirui Uni­ver­sal Lens Kit for Smart­phones

Compact cameras

“What inex­pen­sive cam­era can pro­vide bet­ter image qual­i­ty than my phone?” is a fair­ly pop­u­lar ques­tion among begin­ners who want to take a step for­ward by switch­ing from a smart­phone to a full-fledged cam­era. There are a num­ber of afford­able cam­eras on the mar­ket that meet this require­ment.

The uni­ver­sal advan­tage of mov­ing from a smart­phone to a full-fledged cam­era is the size of the sen­sor. Free from the lim­i­ta­tions of the mobile form fac­tor, com­pacts (small cam­eras with fixed lens­es) allow for bet­ter optics and sen­sor. There are many can­di­dates for the role of uni­ver­sal starter cam­eras, and almost all new mod­els pro­vide decent image qual­i­ty for every­day shoot­ing.

Nikon COOLPIX P1000 com­pact super zoom

The Nikon COOLPIX P1000 is a pop­u­lar super zoom cam­era that can reach almost any sub­ject. And obvi­ous­ly you can’t call it an ordi­nary “soap box”. With a 24–3000mm equiv­a­lent zoom lens, it cap­tures every­thing from archi­tec­ture to birds fly­ing in the sky. For even greater mag­ni­fi­ca­tion, the P1000 pro­vides an option­al dig­i­tal zoom that can go up to 500x. At the same time, the mod­el pro­vides high-qual­i­ty opti­cal sta­bi­liza­tion so that pho­tos tak­en at the longest focal length remain sharp.

Com­pact Sony DSC-RX100 VII

If you want a com­pact cam­era with more con­trol and bet­ter pic­ture qual­i­ty, the Sony RX100 series is worth a look. Mod­els in the series up to the DSC-RX100 VA fea­tured 24–70mm lens­es per­fect for land­scapes, trav­el and por­traits. The new­er DSC-RX100 VI and DSC-RX100 VII use a 24–200mm f/2.8–4.5 lens, adding a lot of zoom capa­bil­i­ty, but sac­ri­fic­ing a lit­tle aper­ture. The sev­enth mod­el fea­tures (so far) the fastest aut­o­fo­cus of any 1‑inch com­pact cam­era, mak­ing it a great start for sports and wildlife pho­tog­ra­phy.

Com­pact with Fuji­film X100V prime lens. Source: bhphotovideo.com

Final­ly, if you want a com­pact that can eas­i­ly com­pete with advanced DSLRs and mir­ror­less cam­eras, check out the Fuji­film X100V. With a design inspired by clas­sic rangefind­er cam­eras, the X100V fea­tures a built-in 35mm equiv. f/2 lens, 26.1‑megapixel APS‑C X‑Trans BSI CMOS sen­sor and X‑Processor 4 proces­sor. All this allows the cam­era to take pic­tures of excel­lent qual­i­ty, for which it is loved not only by begin­ners, but also by many pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­phers.

SLR cameras

DSLRs are a great choice for pho­tog­ra­phers who want com­plete con­trol over their image, includ­ing the abil­i­ty to choose dif­fer­ent lens­es. Of course, mir­ror­less cam­eras (about them below) are con­fi­dent­ly win­ning more and more of the mar­ket, but SLR cam­eras have their own advan­tages. First, an advanced DSLR will cost less than a mir­ror­less cam­era of the same class. Sec­ond­ly, for many new SLR cam­eras, old­er lens­es are suit­able, and in gen­er­al the num­ber of “glass­es” avail­able for them is greater.

Canon EOS 250D entry lev­el DSLR

The Canon EOS 250D is a great entry-lev­el DSLR with a 24.1 megapix­el APS‑C CMOS sen­sor and DIGIC 8 proces­sor for con­sis­tent per­for­mance in a wide range of light­ing con­di­tions. The cam­era allows you to shoot 4K video at 24p, as well as 4K time-laps­es.

Pen­tax K‑70. Source: bhphotovideo.com

The Pen­tax K‑70 is anoth­er great can­di­date to start with. The mod­el is equipped with a 24.24-megapixel APS‑C CMOS sen­sor and PRIME MII proces­sor. Its ISO sen­si­tiv­i­ty expands to 204800, mak­ing it a great choice for shoot­ing in low light. In addi­tion, she received a case pro­tec­tion from adverse weath­er con­di­tions, built-in image sta­bi­liza­tion and a spe­cial high-res­o­lu­tion mode, which is per­fect for land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy. The cam­era comes with 18–55mm f/3.5–5.6 and 18–135mm f/3.5–5.6 kit lens­es.

Mirrorless cameras

Mir­ror­less cam­eras are grad­u­al­ly becom­ing the new indus­try stan­dard. One of the main ben­e­fits of shoot­ing with a mir­ror­less cam­era for begin­ners is that you can see what your pho­tos will look like in real time.

Fuji­film X‑T200 with swiv­el dis­play

Fuji­film has devel­oped a range of mir­ror­less cam­eras that not only take great pho­tos, but also look great in their own right. The X‑T200 is one of the best cam­eras in the line for begin­ner pho­tog­ra­phers. Its 24.2‑megapixel APS‑C CMOS sen­sor and hybrid aut­o­fo­cus deliv­er crisp, sharp images even if you don’t feel com­fort­able with a tra­di­tion­al cam­era just yet. Fuji­film mod­els also allow for film sim­u­la­tion modes that mim­ic the look and feel of film pho­tog­ra­phy. The mod­el is avail­able with a 15–45mm f/3.5–5.6 lens.

Pana­son­ic Lumix GX9 mir­ror­less cam­era

The Pana­son­ic Lumix GX9 is an afford­able entry option for 4:3 cam­eras (frame size small­er than APS‑C but larg­er than 1‑inch cam­eras). The mod­el is equipped with a 20.3‑megapixel Dig­i­tal Live MOS matrix. If you plan to shoot not only pho­tos, but also a lot of video, the GX9 is also suit­able: the cam­era shoots 4K at 30p. This mod­el can also shoot full res­o­lu­tion bursts at up to 9 fps and pro­vide up to 4 stops of sta­bi­liza­tion. The GX9 comes with a 12–60mm (24–120mm equiv.) f/3.5–5.6 lens.

Sony a7C com­pact full-frame mir­ror­less cam­era

If you want to start right away with a full frame cam­era (a few years ago this would have been a rather strange deci­sion, but times are chang­ing and rel­a­tive­ly afford­able full frame cam­eras are on the mar­ket), the friend­liest option is the Sony a7C. This is a very com­pact mir­ror­less cam­era with a 24.2‑megapixel Exmor R BSI sen­sor and a BIONZ X proces­sor. The cam­era pro­vides fif­teen stops of dynam­ic range and 5‑axis built-in sta­bi­liza­tion sys­tem, which is good for both stills and video shoot­ing (up to 4K / 30p) . There’s a huge col­lec­tion of qual­i­ty lens­es avail­able for Sony’s full-frame DSLRs, and the Sony a7C is one of the eas­i­est options to get into that sys­tem.

Source: adorama.com

If you have any ques­tions, our experts will be hap­py to answer them. And if you’ve been into pho­tog­ra­phy for a long time, we’d love to hear about your first cam­era in the com­ments.

* when prepar­ing the arti­cle, mate­ri­als from the resources bhphotovideo.com and onfoto.ru were used.