What is your budget

Stick to your budget

Let's face it, you do not need to buy much to enjoy photography. There is a wide variety of equipment out there grabbing your attention, but you can stay in your budget and have all you need to take great pictures.

Everyone has a different budget

Fact of life, we all live under different circumstances and do not have the same means to buy what we want. Fortunately the technology has provided us wonderful equipment that are ridiculously good, so even very old equipment will be more than good enough for most purposes.

When you read the reviews about some shiny new lens or camera, it is not hard to see why you would think that it would help you make better pictures. If you are an amateur photographer, trust me this is not the case. If you are a professional, you know what you need, and you earn at least part of your living from photography, so you know what you can afford.

I fell into this trap as well, I can tell you that I love using my used Nikon D90 which is more than 10 years old just as much as my new Nikon D850 that cost me 20x more. Yes, ultimately the Nikon D850 is better than the Nikon D90 in every imaginable criteria (except for weight and cost), but it is not letting me do anything (I really need) I could not have done with the cheaper camera, and for those areas that it is better, it is not better by 20x.

Some tips

For most people a recent cellphone will be good enough.
There are tons of used equipment out there. Especially some of the older equipment has been designed very robustly and will serve you many years without problems. You just need to be careful to make sure that what you buy is compatible with each other.
There is nothing wrong with APS-C cameras and lenses. Yes the sensor is two thirds the size of a full frame sensor, but that is not a big deal. Smaller sensor means also smaller lenses and less weight.
You do not have to buy a combination of lenses that cover every focal length. Very wide (<24mm) and very long (>200mm) lenses are quite specialized.
Fast lenses (f/2.8 and faster) are overrated for modern cameras that work over a very wide ISO range.

If you are well off

I can tell you I have not seen a bad (pricey) camera being manufactured in the last 10 years. Pick the latest camera you will be super pleased. You will end up paying more for your lenses than your cameras so pick what you are interested in. You do not need to accumulate an arsenal of lenses, that will just make your life heard trying to choose.

These pages are for Amateur Photographers and not really for seasoned photographers and professionals. I have no affiliation or commercial interest with any brand/make. I write from my own experience. I ended up using mainly Nikon, so I am more familiar with this brand than others. See price for notes on pricing as well as photography related links.