GLKTN Loc: TN

At our club meeting last night, the speaker talked about mirrorless cameras. He is a camera store owner, pro photographer and mirrorless camera user. He uses Fuji and said that Fuji and Sony is what he would recommend. He said Sony menues were more difficult to use. Stay away from Cannon and Nikon mirrorless. He said he recommends mirrorless over dslr, it is the future and much less expensive. Be prepared to have extra batteries as the LCD and electronic eyepiece use power. Still very worth it in overall cost savings over dslr equipment. Good luck.

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

It only hurts once when you buy the best...

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

An entry camera is what I would recommend. Nikon will debut a new mirrorless camera late this year or early in 2018.
An entry camera with the kit lens will do for the time being.
Begin to learn basic photography if you will be photographing often.

Haydon

[quote=Notorious T.O.D.][quote=wteffey]Visit a local camera shop? Good luck. Ocala FL has a Best Buy, with a very modest selection. The times I have wandered through the camera section there was no one, Best Buy employee, or potential customer, in sight. I walked over to the computer department and asked that sales person to page someone to the camera shop. I never heard the page and no one ever showed up. The nearest dedicated camera shop I have heard of is in Orlando, about 100 miles from Ocala.[/quote

Hard to find a good brick and mortar shop in most places these days. Even the big box stores mostly have lower end DSLRs and point and shoot cameras. The other thing is that these local shops and employees can have their favorites just like people on this forum. Best to do your own research and learn yourself unless you are in a super hurry to buy something. This is the process I used 40 years ago to buy my first SLR. If you spend $600 for a kit and then learn you need something better or different then don't be afraid to make a change provided you can afford it. If you are going in at $5,000 then it is better to be a little more sure about what you are buying and why.

Best,
Todd Ferguson[/quote]

Mr. Ferguson always has great advice.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

I find it interesting that people so often recommend a kit to start out with in photography.
I guess the kit can be seen as a good package value for the beginner. Yet I think all the different Creative Modes, as Canon calls them, can be confusing and somewhat of a distraction from real learning for the beginner. Maybe it is just in part because I learned photography in the mid 1970s when cameras were simpler. Perhaps I would recommend getting an older pro level body and a nifty 50 lens as a easier way to learn about the exposure triangle and get some decent photos too. Some will say that a kit camera is as good or better than say a 10 year old Pro level camera. But I am not sure I agree with that totally. The newer kit camera may have more megapixels, but the Pro level camera was the best in the world at that time and can sometimes do things that the kit camera is just not capable of doing. I think a Canon 1D Mark III for $500 and a $100 50mm lens can take some fine photos still. Or perhaps a 5D Mark II and a 50mm lens.

Best,
Todd Ferguson

MrGNY Loc: New York

You have a few options. Go to your nearest BestBuy and play with the display models and see how they feel in your hand. If you have a camera shop near by go in and look at what they have and talk to someone and sometimes they will let you even take some photos with it if you have a card with you so you can look at the photo's at home. Another great option is rent a camera from one of the online retailers like lens borrow and use it for a week and see if thats the camera for you.

If your looking for a decent point and shoot anyone of them are good. When you start getting into cameras with more features and such it really needs to be comfortable in your hands, controls easy for you to understand etc. Read reviews, check out youtube and take things with a grain of salt. There is plenty of information out their to make an informed decision.

If you tell us what you are looking for in a camera we all can help a bit better. I personally had looked at mirrorless cameras and didn't like them. Just felt wrong in my hands.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Don't buy a Ferrari if you don't know how to fly. Get a pocket camera with manual capability, study, learn, and practice, practice, practice. As they say, digital film is cheap. Then upgrade when you're ready and you know your camera won't give the kinds of photos you're capable of taking.

thephotoman Loc: Rochester, NY

Nonstick, mostof of your post raises some good points. You opening remark is answered in the op's post. He specifically stated he/she is no experienced at all.

Boris Ekner Loc: From Sweden, living in Guatemala

This is not the kind of question one can answer to your satisfaction in a 140 character tweet... 😉

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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.

Here’s the compressed and abridged version:
Canon - Good for video.
Nikon - Lots of good lenses. Great pictures.
Pentax - Weather sealed. Excellent user interface.
Fujifilm - Mirrorless with great results.
Sony - Mirrorless. Makes the sensors for Nikon.
Olympus - Good cameras.

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 the final option. With my personal preferences, and budget, it was by far the best option. 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 bought a 55-200mm(used) and a 35mm(used) lenses. A better speedlight/iTTL 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.

Here's a very informative D5300 Review:
https://sleeklens.com/nikon-d5300-review/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly-blog&substat=blog

PS
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/

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With courtesy of Jim Stascavage, member of another forum:

"For anyone wondering how big a crop sensor image can go, here is a photo I took with a D7200 a few years ago that makes up a 12'x16' [3.6x4.9 m] wall in our office break room."

-

He shot the picture from another water vessel, while it was moving!

FYI
1. All Nikon's with cropped 24MP sensors has the same sensor as Jim's D7200.
2. A modern TV is ~2MP. A 4K TV is 8+MP.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

It may be, but my spell checkers tell me otherwise. Does it matter that much? Mirrorless, Mirror-less, or mirror less seem to communicate the concept equally effectively.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Less Mirror perhaps...

uofmwoodie Loc: Bonita Springs, Fl

Like you I started new about 3 years ago. I am on my second canon and love their product. I like the availability of all the help you need you can get on Youtube. This is just my preference, I am sure whatever you buy you will be very happy with.

I have a canon 7D markII

Good luck, have fun

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

You might find this helpful from Tony Northrop. He is all over YouTube:

STARTER CAMERAS:
Basic Starter Camera ($280 used at Amazon): Canon T3 http://help.tc/t3
Better Starter Camera ($500 at Amazon): Nikon D5300 http://help.tc/d5300
Better Travel Camera ($500 at Amazon): Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II http://help.tc/em10ii

LANDSCAPE CAMERAS:
Good ($550 at Amazon): Sony a6000 http://help.tc/a6000
Better ($1,400) at Amazon: Nikon D5500 http://help.tc/D5500 & Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 http://help.tc/s35
Best ($3,150) at Amazon: Pentax K-1 http://help.tc/K1 & Pentax 24-70 f/2.8 http://help.tc/p24

PORTRAIT CAMERAS:
Beginner ($950 at Amazon): Canon T6i http://help.tc/t6i & Canon 50mm f/1.8 http://help.tc/c50
Better ($3,000 at Amazon): Nikon D610 http://help.tc/d610 & Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 http://help.tc/t200
Best ($5,300) at Amazon: Nikon D810 http://help.tc/d810 & Nikon 70-200 f/2.8E http://help.tc/n200e

WILDLIFE CAMERAS:
Starter ($1,100 at Amazon): Canon 7D http://help.tc/7D & Canon 400mm f/5.6 http://help.tc/c400
Great ($3,200 at Amazon): Nikon D500 http://help.tc/d500 & Nikon 200-500 f/5.6 http://help.tc/n500

Idaho

There is no best camera. They are are largely comparable in a given price range. What you really need is education in how to use a camera. If there is a camera store in your area, go there. Ideally they will offer lessons. They can also answer your questions in the future. I would start with one lens for now or even better yet get a camera without removable lenses. You can move up to that type later if you want. Whatever you do, find classes somewhere. Otherwise you will be stuck on "auto" forever. You can't have passion for photography if you don't know how the camera works.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

99% of all camera's are better than 98% of all photographers