teresajewell wrote:
I am looking at becoming more proficient in photography. I currently own a Canon T3i. Yes....quite old, I know, I am looking to upgrade and have done a lot of research. I do have a limited budget but have been considering the following. Canon T7i, Nikon 5600, Pentax K1 or KP. What do you all th9ng about these and are there better options that I should be considering?
Thanks,
Teresa
Welcome to the Hog.
Here's my answer to a similar question in another thread.
Here's what I did:
-Budget: no more than $500. (This was the most important criteria I had.)
-Searched for $500 DSLR's on eBay & Amazon in order to understand what I might get.
-Found some favorite models that I compared side by side at cameradecision.com. I refused to have any brand preferences.
-I read plenty of reviews on the cameras I found interesting.
My priorities were; very good professional reviews, the highest pixel count possible, RAW format option, wifi, built in GPS, fair prices & f/values on future lenses.
Nikon D5300 turned out to be my final option. With my personal preferences, and budget, it was by far the best one. Price paid: $449 on eBay, including an 18-55mm lens, plus some other (now useless)-stuff in the bundle.
I've had the camera since January 2017, and I have no regrets on my purchase. On the contrary, I'm very happy with what I got for the money spent.
Later I've bought a 55-200mm(used) and a 35mm(used) lenses. A better speed light/flash, a good tripod, petal lens hoods, third party battery grip, extra batteries, twin charger, better/faster memory card, and some other stuff. All from eBay who time after time confirms to have the best prices.
Your best option is probably not my best, and vice versa. It is not about the camera as much as it is about the photographer. Just as a good stove and pan isn't enough to cook you a good dinner, right?
In order to update my knowledge I started off with reading Nikon D5300 For Dummies as well as Stunning Digital Photography by Tony Northrup. The third book was Secrets To The Nikon Autofocus System by Steve Perry, which is my favorite so far. It was all well invested pennies. At the moment I’m reading Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. As knowledge has no weight it is easy to carry...
http://backcountrygallery.com/secrets-nikon-autofocus-system/Best of luck on your pursuit of your best camera. ...and don't rush it to get one. Take your time, i.e. weeks, to learn about your options and what you favor.
Examples of pictures I've shot are found under my name at 500px.com as well as at Instagram.com.
500px.com/borisekner/galleries
instagram.com/borisekner
A very informative D5300 Review:
https://sleeklens.com/nikon-d5300-review/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly-blog&substat=blogPS
I had the same procedure when I looked for, and bought, my sons camera. (He turned 6 at the end of July) The budget was no more than $80, had to be fully automatic, as well as having manual features to grow with as he gets older and if his photo interest persists. Best option: a used Fujifilm Finepix S8600 (it's a bridge camera), for $76 on eBay.
And there are instructive videos on his camera on YouTube for him to watch later.
PPS
Here’s a different opinion on this issue.
https://petapixel.com/2017/03/24/battle-micro-43-camera-outsold-full-frame-dslr/