I am going to have to disagree with you on that one. The MkII s in the used market are mostly worn out and overpriced for what you get. It would probably would still be a good value if the 6D was not available new with warranty for not much more than a used MkII. The 6D image quality either matches or exceeds 5D MkIII image quality depending on the lighting. Of course for portrait work you can pretty much use any camera and you will not be able to tell the difference in the final print.

The used market seems inflated right now for some reason and I expect prices to come down. If someone is determined to jump into business against the advice of almost everyone on this forum then I say start with new top of the line equipment because it will have the highest resale value when you realize this is not the easy business you thought it was.

You sound like you are serious so I don't see a point in throwing away money on a cheap starter camera. You will just be adding the cost of that camera to the next one you will need to purchase and it is always better to learn on the same tools you will work with. With that in mind, I would strongly recommend a 5D Mk III. It is a good all-around camera that does almost everything well. This way if you change your business plan from portraits to sports you are good to go. Of course you should have a backup body and I find a 6D fills this need quite well while saving quite a bit of money for an assortment of zoom & prime lenses. There is an additional learning curve with 2 different bodies so you may want to go with 2 of the 5Ds to keep things simple. You will need studio lights (try alien bees), a background system, tripods, props, furniture, and a bigger space to work in than what you
mentioned earlier. Get a few speedlights for work outside the studio. If you
plan on going outside you will need a bag or 2 to carry everything in so don't
forget to pick something nice and add it to the list. There are a lot of other
things you will need so just figure about $2000 for "miscellaneous
accessories".
Right about now you are thinking your budget is blown--not so!
You will need a sales tax ID and FEIN (FREE!!) along with any permits or zoning variances required by your local municipality. Your homeowners policy will not cover anyone coming into your business so be sure your agent upgrades you to a commercial policy. Take all of this along with your business plan to your local bank and get a small business loan. Now you don't have to
worry about your budget because you are spending the bank's money and
they have a lot of it!


You are going to love this part: everything you bought is a tax write off! You will need to depriciate the camera equipment but things like your CPS membership can be deducted right off the top every year.

If you have a good business plan and follow it, you should be making a profit
in no time! As soon as you are making more taking pictures than you do at
your regular job it's time to quit the day job and start taking photos full time!

Don't forget as you are learning about photography to learn about marketing too. A great photographer with no marketing skills will fail while an average photographer with great marketing skills wil excell.

Someone may try to make a rude comment and tell you if you want play money, just take the money you were going to spend on photo equipment and go have a blast. Don't listen to them. They are just trying to drag you down
because they are jealous of your ambition


Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!


ps: I know I left some things out but got most of the big items before I ran
out of time. Yes I wrote about Canon equipment but maybe someone else can translate what I wrote to Nikon or some other language for another
perspective.

That is 90% of the secret to success. In my local mall there is wildlife but no tourists. :-) You can only sell the same print so many times with a static population.

Had I not fallen bass akwards into a long term contract for a client that wants monthly photos at different locations I would be talking about the days when I used to get paid for taking photos. I used that as an excuse to expand and do additonal photo work.

If you are lucky to find yourself in an area with tourists and you can sell photos of something they want then you are lucky because not everyone has that. If you don't have that opportunity then you need to figure out what your
market is. I do protraits because I can and is a small part of what I do. I don't
have the market to be a portrait photographer where I live. I could never rely
on that as income.

Would I like to hang out in my studio all day and take pictures of models? Sure! Do I mind that I make the most money with my camera while wearing a hard hat & safety glasses? Not at all. That is my market.

Deciding what type of photography you want to do without completely understanding your local market is a disaster waiting to happen. At best, you figure out you bought the wrong equipment for the work you are doing. At worst, you stare at the front door of your portrait studio waiting for customers who never come.