You Need A Camera

Well, even if you are a complete beginner, you probably know one thing. You need a camera.

That’s simple enough, go out to your favorite store or head to Amazon and just pick one.

Ok, now that you’ve been slammed with 80,000 options from Amazon, do you feel overwhelmed? You do?! Great. That’s what I felt when I first jumped into trying to be serious about photography. I had no idea what then hell I was doing and what I needed.  I just know I wanted something more than a Sony Cybershot that I had from 12 years ago.  So I bought a Canon T5 Rebel Bundle, not knowing what I was getting into, and what I was actually buying to be honest. I just knew I wanted a DSLR camera, I wanted lenses, and I wanted to have some damn accessories.

Flash Forward to The Future

We’re going to jump to today real quick, and a word of advice, don’t buy a bundle. Of all that I had in that entire kit, I still use: JUST THE CAMERA BODY.  You might see the bundles up these days for the newer version of the camera The T6 Bundle, but it’s all the same stuff that was in the T5 bundleThe cards were slow (we’ll go over that later), the flash was garbage (I mean, who would have thought it would have been good?), the bag is pointless,  the tripod is made of tinfoil, the filters literally had problems fitting the threads of the standard lens, and oh boy, the lenses, hot garbage.

You could save yourself money and just get a T6 body by itself and this lens bundle.  That body and those 2 lenses will literally get you through most of the things you do with a camera on any level.

Now, you might have noticed how I just talked about Canon. Does that mean “Oh I need to go out and buy Canon stuff?” NO. STOP!!! DON’T DO IT BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!

Or do it, join the fold of Canon Shooters who complain how expensive Canon Glass is like me.

You have a choice;

• Canon
• Nikon
• Pentax
• Sony
• Olympus
• Fujifilm
• Leica

Ok you have too many choices.

That is a great start to your journey on getting a DSLR.  This will help you get into the game of professional photography.

I’m going to give you the best advice ever though:

You Don’t Have To Spend A Lot To Get A Great Camera

That’s right! Don’t be crazy, don’t go into this buying a $7,000 Leica Mirrorless Camera Body, you’re broke already. Rather than not eating for the year because you wanted a fancy camera, you’d rather be taking photos with a full belly!

Almost every brand has an entry point.

Canon and Nikon have 500 entry points (exaggeration) into the budget DSLR for people just starting out (and for Professional Amateurs who are afraid to spend money). Locking into them means locking into getting their glass right? No, not at all, we’ll go over that later as well, you’d be surprised of the quality out there in the world.

Let’s just get to what we want to know:

What Cameras Are Actually Affordable And A Good Entry Point?

That is easy, stop going BRAND NEW! Go one or two generations behind. You’d be surprised what you get!  Also, while bundles are enticing, there is a lot of junk you will never need or use. (Click the images to see them on Amazon)

(Click the images to see them on Amazon)

Nikon D3200 for Under 200 bucks used On Amazon:

The T6 Body only for under 300 bucks used on Amazon:

The Pentax K2 is a great Entry Level DSLR for under 250 with a lens:

the Sony A6000 is a DSLR that Pro Professionals use still:

Do you know what is better than Amazon?  You can find the bodies of these for cheap on Ebay!

Once you get your body selected, you’re going to want to sit down, because we are going to go through Lenses.  With every great camera body there is a great lens to do the important things you need to capture the perfect photo.

Lastly,  let me know if you have any other good entry points into the DSLR world and most importantly, what do you shoot with now compared to what you shoot with when you started?