It’s a funny, but understandable thing, that if you are known among your friends and family as being “the photo guy,” you are likely to be asked advice on what to buy when someone’s first setting out on their first camera purchase. My advice (after I’ve asked the obvious questions: what are you going to use it for, and what’s your budget) is almost invariably the same. Buy the lower or second lowest budget body DSLR , and spend some money on lenses. Interestingly, it’s difficult to buy a low end body without a kit zoom. So my advice normally runs along the lines, “Get the kit zoom, for when you are on holiday, bit get something else for your actual photography.” Very few people are prepared to spend more on glass than thy spend on their first camera body, so I’ve stopped recommending a decent, all purpose 24-70mm 2.8 or something similar. I’ve never had anyone actually pick one up following my recommendation. It’s only got a 3x zoom! Why would you want it?
What I do insist upon, however, is that they get a fast prime. It’s the surest way I know to make your photographs look better. Lose the flash, think about composition, be inconspicuous. It’s a winning formula.
But what brand, I’m always asked. They seem so similar!
Well yes, they are. Which gives a pretty clear indication that it doesn’t matter which brand. If you’re looking to go pro one day, yes it matters. Then there a number of reasons to pick one brand over another. But otherwise? Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, Sony. They’re all good cameras. They’ll all do what you need. They all have deceptively similar spec sheets, perhaps with the exception of video. I’m a Nikon man, so people assume that I’m going to recommend a Nikon. That is more an accident of circumstance however, and in actual fact I’m pretty brand agnostic The low end Nikons don’t autofocus with the faithful 50mm 1.8, for example, so it’s not Nikon all the way. You won’t be a better photographer for having picked a Nikon over a Canon, or any brand over another. You will be better by using it.
I, like all photographers who don’t have the benefit of, or who don’t heed, good advice, learnt this the hard way, by spending a lot of money on useless rubbish. I’m still prone to it, of course, but I’m a little better informed nowadays. And some of it is tax deductable.
So, here’s my advice. I you are interested in getting a DSLR to try your hand at photography a little more seriously, and you genuinely want to improve, do the following.
1) Buy a low end body. The second up in the range is often a good plac to start – still cheapish, but it’ll allow you to grow without restriction.
2) Get the kit zoom. Then take it off, and put it somewhere safe. You’re not going to improve all that quickly with it on.
3) Buy a cheap, fast prime. Nikon and Canon both make decent, cheap 50mm 1.8, and I know that Nikon makes a cheapish 35mm 1.8, which would be perfect. I don’t know about other brands, but hopefully they have similar offerings.
Erm, that’s it. Don’t take that prime off until you are much more confident with te camera. At first it will be limiting, but soon it will be liberating. And don’t be tempted to take it off. Learn to live with it. Trust me on this one, even if you choose not to believe me at the moment.
Now that you’re free of the shackles of choice, enjoy the extra time spent taking photographs!