It's the start of the new year, and pontificators such as myself are spreading advice as if it were road salt on winter roads.
But one question that came up several times during the holiday season that actually is worth getting on a soapbox for is this one: "I'm looking to buy a starter kit for my son/daughter looking to get into photography/video. What do you recommend?" (The other variant of this question comes directly from someone just finishing up college and looking to equip their gear closet for the future.)
I've got three answers to that question, the second of which is the preferred one:
- Budget friendly. Buy a Canon R8 or Nikon Z5 (or Z5II kit, but that starts to push out of "budget"). These are the best two entry models in full frame sensor size and a mount that will absolutely carry forward into the future. They are excellent starting points. They take great photos and create more than adequate video. Alternative choices: Fujifilm X-M5 or X-T30III, Sony A6xxx. But note that you're starting this person in APS-C and perhaps a mount that they won't want to be in later.
- Solid choice. Buy a Canon R6 Mark III, Nikon Z5II or Z6III, or Sony A7 Mark V. All are very recent models that have a ton of features stacked on top of excellent performance. These are cameras that are professional level and put you in a solid system with plenty of options for the future. They're reliable, well built, and have plenty of user customization and control options to mold them to the user's needs. Alternative choices: OMDS OM-1II if absolute portability is a factor in what they want to do, Panasonic S1II if they lean video.
- Only for the wealthy. Those with money to blow are going to consider pretty much any upper end camera: Canon R5 Mark II, Nikon Z8, Sony A1 II or higher from the primary makers. But this is also where Fujifilm GFX, Hasselblad, and Leica all play, too, and perhaps sensor size or luxury brand label will distract them.
Okay, sure, but which brand? That's actually the real loci that needs to be considered, not so much the actual model, as model gets determined by budget most of the time. This is actually the toughest decision one makes in first coming into the camera market, as it determines a lot.
Let's get one thing out of the way, though. Canon, Fujifilm, Hasselblad, Leica, Nikon, OMDS, Panasonic, and Sony all make incredibly competent systems cameras these days. All have proven they'll hang through tough times, so they're not going to go away. Further, I'd challenge someone to look at a photo or video from current cameras of any of these brands and be able to pick out exactly which brand it was. We are in a world where pretty much everything you can buy can create a 20" long axis print that looks amazing, as well as record 4K/60P video that is as good as most screens can display. Chasing small (and even larger) differences in dynamic range, pixel count, frame rates, and more is mostly now just absurdum studium perfectionis. Pros deliver high quality work every day from older <24mp and 4K/30P cameras. Someone starting out should be able to easily match or exceed that with all of the current gear that would fit into my Solid Choice category.
The real question becomes more about photography or video interests. Someone thinking they might pursue macro photography might benefit from a different choice than someone pursuing sports photography, wildlife photography, event photography, or portrait photography, for instance. And that's exactly where the real brand choice decision influencer starts to reveal itself: lenses.
When I get asked the question about starter systems, I ask questions about likely interests and intents, and I then lean my advice towards one brand over another based upon those answers, and a lot of that has to do with lenses. Over time, even that will become a bit of a washout between brands, as the lens lines fill out and third parties add options. But today there are still some important differences in wide angle, zoom, fast, macro, and telephoto options across the various brands that should be considered.
I'm not going to get into all the specifics in this article. If you need help on this, then drop me an email, and be as specific about budget, interests, and intent as possible and we can start a dialog to get you moving the right direction.