JoeJoe wrote:
Don't rule out new kit out at the moment, serious enough kit and you get the warranty and peace of mind that new kit brings...
The benefits Mirrorless now brings to the playing field straight out the box is a game changer in terms of image quality....
DSLR has an inherent problem with focus and that previous entry level cameras didn't address.... and why they have a stigma of being of lower quality than their more expensive counterparts...
I started with a D5200 and had a camera body with the dreaded back focus issue (google it)… I didn't know anyone in my circles who was a photographer / general snapper to get that advice from and it cost me ….
To correct this you had to open the shutterbox and use an allen key right next to the sensor to calibrate the sensor distance to the lens …. more expensive cameras call this Fine Tune in the menu and it is a software correction... This is where Mirrorless excels in that there is no need to calibrate even when the weather changes...
IMHO sitting on the fence and telling beginners to go and find the right camera for your photography when they don't even know the basics and putting the onus back on the individual is a cop out…
If you went into a good camera shop and asked the assistant what they would recommend they would isolate a couple of cameras for your needs and budget.. And we as so called experts don't recommend is something I find quite shocking.....
Don't rule out new kit out at the moment, serious... (
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Chances are also good that a camera store clerk gets a "spiff" (incentive commission) for recommending certain gear, and that will be the first thing they push.
A good camera store clerk will follow a consultative sales approach, and ask plenty of questions to determine budget, level of knowledge, interests, intended uses, etc. The answers may be entirely, "I don't know," but more likely will reveal SOMETHING to steer a buyer in the general direction of what's appropriate.
Back in the early 1970s, when I was in high school, a friend of mine introduced me to her father. He was a prominent heart surgeon then, and rather affluent (Corvette for weekend jaunts to their mountain chalet, Mercedes as a daily driver, expensive jewelry for the wife...). He decided to become a photographer. So out came the wallet, and in came a huge leather case with two Nikon F2 bodies and six prime lenses.
While he was perfectly within his rights to buy such a system, it was the classic example of GAS leading to "Ready? FIRE! Aim? Uhh, whuuh — what the frip is aim?"
When he died, his daughter found the bag in the front hall closet, both bodies loaded with film, four rolls of outdated Kodachrome 64 in one side pocket, with six pre-paid processing mailers. In the other were the unopened packets containing camera manuals and lens manuals and warranty cards.
She said he gave up on photography when he got his first two rolls of slides back — one was blank (film leader didn't catch on the take-up spool), and the other was so poorly exposed it was useless. He "didn't have the time to learn another craft as complex as heart surgery," went the family joke.
Quite obviously, that was the wrong camera setup for the good doc to purchase. But the camera store clerk had smelled the GA$$...