A Guide to Buying Your First DSLR or Mirrorless Camera

The options available to new photographers in 2018 seem limitless. The quality of cameras has never been higher, as there really aren’t any bad cameras currently on the market, but there are things to consider that might help you in choosing the best camera for you.

What are you planning to photograph?

• If you are a sports enthusiast, consider giving favor to cameras that have a higher FPS (or frames per second) rating. You’ll be able to capture fast-paced action much easier (explanation of FPS here).

• If you plan on photographing wildlife, you may do better with cameras that have a high crop factor. These cameras have smaller sensors, which means that your lenses will get more reach on that camera than they would a camera with a larger sensor (explanation of crop factor here).

• If landscapes are your interest, you will want a camera with a very low crop factor, so you can get the most field-of-view out of wide-angle lenses (tips on wide-angle landscapes here).

Where are you planning to use your camera?

• Photographing things outdoors might lead you to want a camera that has decent weather sealing (explanation of weather sealing here).

• If you plan on using your camera primarily on vacations, you might want to consider smaller cameras and favor mirrorless over DSLR for their smaller bodies and lenses.

• For shooting on adventures, where you might have limited access to electricity, battery life will certainly be something you need to consider.

What lenses are you interested in?

• While many mirrorless cameras have affordable lens adapters that allow you to mount almost any lens, do consider that some of these adapter/lens combos will result in you being unable to use features like autofocus (explanation of lens adapters here).

• Consider the lenses that are at the focal lengths you will need, such as telephoto for wildlife or wide angle for landscape, and see what is available for the different camera body mounts.

• Consider that just like camera bodies, some lenses are weather sealed.

• Learn about aperture. Some lenses are very fast, and this will allow for better low-light performance or that nice blurry background (or bokeh) effect (explanation of aperture here).

Will you be shooting video as well?

• Most DSLR’s and mirrorless cameras shoot video.

• Consider features in video that may be important to you such as 4K or high frame rates for getting slow motion footage (explanation of frame rates here).

• Consider the camera’s compatibility with external accessories. Does it have an input for a microphone? Can it output to an external monitor?

What is your budget?

• Modern cameras range in price from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, but high cost may not necessarily mean a camera is best for your needs.

• Keep in mind that lenses are often regarded as far more important than the camera body. Lenses can be very expensive, so definitely consider a more affordable body if it means you’ll be able to get better lenses.

• No matter what camera you are able to afford, you will have to learn how to use it to get the results that you want. Auto mode on a five-thousand-dollar camera is not going to get you significantly different results than auto on a four-hundred-dollar camera (guide to getting out of auto here).

Conclusions

This may not have been the direct guide you were looking for. No one should definitively tell you what camera you need to buy as there are just too many individual factors that come into play. Hopefully in considering the questions posed here, you are off to a better start in your search.