Compact budget camera for stills

[HeathCliff]

Hiya guys,

 

Decided to get into photography since I'll be travelling a lot more for work, so I decided to learn this side of things. For the mean time, I want to learn the basics and get to know my first camera before I head off. From what Google and YouTube have recommended, the Sony a6400 is a good bang for the buck pick.

 

As I'm still pretty clueless of where to look for more in depth comparison, I thought I'd give the forum a go and see what you guys would recommend. Prefer a budget of no more that £700-800 and not fussed if it's used. Hopefully you can give some lens recommendations too.

 

If there's any YouTube creators or sites you'd recommend to learn from, I'd happily give them a look.

[skimmilk5]

I'm partial to Peter McKinnon as far as YT creators go. If you want to read about cameras and lenses, Ken Rockwell publishes very extensive and detailed reviews.

 

I've been working in photography for about a decade, but my experience is much more journalistic, so it might not apply to you. Hopefully you can adapt some of these lessons.

• Nowadays, largely, the camera body itself doesn't really matter. Modern cameras, even at the lower end, have so much technology from their high-end counterparts that they can produce amazing images. Like with everything, the features of the high-end market eventually trickle down to the lower-end: Xeon features trickle down to Core processors, for example.
• Learning the controls of your camera will do you much better than getting a better camera. Knowing instinctively what to change to achieve the image that you want to get without having to think about it will make your images better. You'll be able to fire off the shot far faster than if you're sitting there, fumbling with the settings, by which point the subject will have moved on. Learn the exposure basics, learn what features of your camera affect the quality, learn what the limitations of your camera's body are (dynamic range, sensitivity limitations, low-light limitations), and actively work against them to find its advantages.
• Glass matters. A lot. My one key lens (again, minding that I work in sports journalism) is the 70-200mm f/2.8. That lens, while expensive, has the durability to be handled by pros on a daily basis, getting banged around, dropped, rained/snowed/sleeted/hailed on and so much more. It's also  a well crafted assembly, featuring a metal construction and quality glass. The performance difference between a $300 lens and a $3000 lens is far larger than the performance difference between a $500 camera body and a $5000 camera body.
• For travel, I'd probably go wider. Somewhere in the 14-85mm range is a good place to look for focal length (essentially, the zoom). The pro-level versions would be the 14-24mm f/2.8 and the 24-70 f/2.8. Find something in these ranges (the kit lens with many entry-level cameras is an 18-55mm f/5.6) and learn what its focal length characteristics are and how it handles.
• Your photographic style might be conducive to using prime lenses (lenses that only focus, their focal length is locked). A quality 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm set isn't too expensive, but these lenses are incredibly versatile and produce very, very sharp images.
• Brand doesn't matter (as much). Where possible, I like to stick to first-party lenses (rather than the third-party Sigma, Tamron, or Rokinon lenses). They maintain their value better and don't experience nearly the same number of "weird" issues. However, the debate between Canon/Nikon/Sony/Fujifilm/Panasonic/insert-other-brand-here isn't really as big as some people make it out to be. That being said, many photographers will stick to what they started with, and their entire collection of equipment will be from a single brand. The pieces will all play nice with each other, and the controls and feel of the cameras and lenses will be familiar.
• Front lens caps can sod off. They get in the way and are generally just a nuisance. The only place for a front lens cap is when a lens is going back in the bag. Don't keep lens caps in your pocket or attached to your camera. Just leave them in the bag.
• Rear lens caps and body caps are far more important. Keep the inside of your camera clean, and always cover when not actively switching.
• Lens hoods are a good idea. Not so much for flares, but simply for impacts to the front of the lens and to protect the front element. If you have the camera over your shoulder as you're traveling, you'll bang the front of the lens around naturally. The lens hood will take a lot of those impacts and break before the lens does.

[saintlouisbagels]

18 hours ago, HeathCliff said:

Decided to get into photography since I'll be travelling a lot more for work, so I decided to learn this side of things. For the mean time, I want to learn the basics and get to know my first camera before I head off. From what Google and YouTube have recommended, the Sony a6400 is a good bang for the buck pick.

I owned the a6400 before and agree. You can look into the a6100 if reduced video capabilities and less-weather resistance is worth the price trade off. These two cameras feel like cheating when it comes out how damn good the autofocus is.

 

What I learned when I started is that you shouldn't really view the photos in 100% zoom. You're going to pixel peep and wonder why photos look so underwhelming. You should remember that YOU are the only person that will see these photos in such detail. Zoom out. Most people who look at your photos will only see your work on a 6-inch smart phone or some compressed version shared on Instagram/Teams/Discord, etc.

[Blue4130]

Don't worry about the gear, worry about the shot. Look back in history at some of the greatest pictures made. They were done on gear that if far inferior to today's stuff. Some of my best portraits were taken using a $3 industrial lens with no aperture and lots of aberrations.

[HeathCliff]

Thanks for all the info

 

After digging through a bunch of used cameras on the market, I've nabbed an a6400 with a pretty good lens for a bargain. Will do my best to learn the ins and out of how this thing works.