Help in purchasing a new camera?

[Aknight0053]

I currently have a older model DSLR that's only 12 megapixel. I have not invested in any lenses over the years of taking photos. This camera does fairly well but after reviewing photos I still feel that they need some extra quality and color enhancements or filters. I'm sort of an armature but have been doing my homework lately and trying to learn as much as possible. I'd would like to upgrade and sort of confused and undecided on what would be best for myself. I plan to go big into photography such taking family, children, and weddings. I've posted pictures on fb lately and have had so many people ask if I would take pictures for them. Any advice would help I have 1200$ to spent but if it was possible to save I would love it any recommendations?

 

[nerwin]

What make and model are you shooting with now and what lenses do you own currently?

 

[goodguy]

Get a Nikon D5500 with kit lens and add the Nikon 50mm 1.8G
This will be a good starting point.
The kit lens will be good for general stuff and the Nikon 50mm 1.8G is good for portrait and when you need to shoot in low light.

 

[Aknight0053]

What make and model are you shooting with now and what lenses do you own currently?

Using cannon rebel t3 and lens is 18-55

 

[Aknight0053]

Get a Nikon D5500 with kit lens and add the Nikon 50mm 1.8G
This will be a good starting point.
The kit lens will be good for general stuff and the Nikon 50mm 1.8G is good for portrait and when you need to shoot in low light.

Thank you for the advice. I'm familiar with cannon since it is what I currently own. I looked at the Nikon d7200 but its all new and somewhat whelming. But I hate to spend 800$ now and then yr or two down the road wish I had purchased better camera. Idk what to do!

 

[Derrel]

Using cannon rebel t3 and lens is 18-55

Please, do not let that tie you to Canon...the 18-55 lens is nothing to allow yourself to be a slave to Canon...Buy yourself a one-generation back Nikon in your price range. It will have a better sensor than any Canon has, and be a better camera too. You say ypu do not want to "spend 800$ now and then yr or two down the road wish I had purchased better camera." Simple--don't buy another low-performing Canon.

 

[nerwin]

So I'm going to recommend the D5300. It really is a nice camera. It will blow that Canon T3 out of the water.

Nikon D5300 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm and 55-300mm Lenses 13488

It comes with the 18-55 kit lens and the 55-300 VR which are both decent lenses for starting off. Also if you buy it via B&H, you get a free camera bag and memory card.

With the extra money left, I'd recommend you also picking up a 35 1.8G

Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Nikkor Lens 2183 B&H Photo

That adds up to around $1,022.

This is a really great starting point I think. If you want, you can allocate a $100 or so and pay for Adobe CC and get Photoshop & Lightroom.

If you are really serious about getting into photography, this is probably what I'd do.

 

[goodguy]

Get a Nikon D5500 with kit lens and add the Nikon 50mm 1.8G
This will be a good starting point.
The kit lens will be good for general stuff and the Nikon 50mm 1.8G is good for portrait and when you need to shoot in low light.

Thank you for the advice. I'm familiar with cannon since it is what I currently own. I looked at the Nikon d7200 but its all new and somewhat whelming. But I hate to spend 800$ now and then yr or two down the road wish I had purchased better camera. Idk what to do!

In my eyes Nikon D7200 is the best crop sensor general use camera, it does everything very well.
It has the best sensor currently in the market and you get a weather sealed body with lots of features and in body AF motor.
Why did I recommended the D5500 ?
Because it shares same sensor and processor with the D7200 so you pretty much get same low light performance, Dynamic range.....etc
The AF system on the D5500 is also good even though the D7200 leads here.
So if you can afford the D7200 then I totally agree but if you cant the D5500 is very close to the D7200 in many ways.
Also dont forget the D5500 is much smaller and lighter, this might or might not be important for you.
And last there is the swivel/touch screen the D5500 which the D7200 doesn't, again this might or might not be important.

 

[Designer]

I currently have a older model DSLR that's only 12 megapixel. I have not invested in any lenses over the years of taking photos. This camera does fairly well but after reviewing photos I still feel that they need some extra quality and color enhancements or filters. I'm sort of an armature but have been doing my homework lately and trying to learn as much as possible. I'd would like to upgrade and sort of confused and undecided on what would be best for myself. I plan to go big into photography such taking family, children, and weddings. I've posted pictures on fb lately and have had so many people ask if I would take pictures for them. Any advice would help I have 1200$ to spent but if it was possible to save I would love it any recommendations?

Greetings!

Please do not assume that megapixels is everything. Lots of pros use cameras with what you might consider "not enough megapixels", and they make excellent photographs. Yes, the body is part of it, sure, but don't forget about high-performance lenses, as those will make a huge difference.

Wanting to move up to quality without dropping a wad of cash? Get a lightly used or refurbished camera that has been expertly evaluated for proper function and comes with at least some kind of warranty. Shopping at a reputable dealer is your best assurance of getting quality merchandise with somebody's reputation to back it up.

Also, as I wrote above; get at least one high-quality lens with which to move into the "prosumer" realm. I would love to read that you found a very lightly used Nikon D5300 Nikon D5300 24.2 Megapixel Digital SLR Camera Body Only - Black | KEH Camera ($468) with an AF-S Nikkor 85mm 1:1.8 G (used about $400) and an AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8 G (used about $150). That kit will perform far beyond your wildest hopes and give you a taste of what you can do with some quality equipment.

I didn't check everywhere for the lenses, but you can search on your own at either of these fine outlets:

Adorama
B&H
KEH

 

[Aknight0053]

Thank you all so very much! This is greatly appreciated!!! I've spoken with a photographer and she has amazing images but also uses an Nikon d810. So now I'm wondering if my images will be able to compar to hers since she has what I think is the full fram and such an expensive camera but also know she uses vsco a lot. I have noticed eBay has some really good prices and packages. I'm afraid the deals are to good to be true even though they have excleant reviews.

 

[DarkHoody]

I'd recommend you watch the "Pro tog, cheap camera challenge" on youtube.

 

[DarkHoody]

also this :

 

[TCampbell]

Using cannon rebel t3 and lens is 18-55

Please, do not let that tie you to Canon...the 18-55 lens is nothing to allow yourself to be a slave to Canon...Buy yourself a one-generation back Nikon in your price range. It will have a better sensor than any Canon has, and be a better camera too. You say ypu do not want to "spend 800$ now and then yr or two down the road wish I had purchased better camera." Simple--don't buy another low-performing Canon.

So while it's true that the EF-S 18-55mm is nothing fabulous (the whole point of most kit lenses is to be "affordable" and that's true of the Nikon kit lenses as well)... the camera BODY comes in last-place as to what influence the quality of a photo.

#1 -- The photographer's skill (I trust nobody on this forum will attempt to argue this point.)

#2 -- The lighting. While one could argue that the lens selection is #2... I think lighting has a greater influence. It doesn't matter how good the lens is if the lighting is awful. But if the lighting is great, the image can look impressive even if the lens is marginal.

#3 -- The lens... and while I normally don't care what brand camera people have... this is where Nikon falls apart. One of the most popular lenses that any event photographer (including weddings) will have in their bag is a 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom. Most even and wedding photographers own one. Every lens manufacturer makes one... sort of.

Lenses "breathe" as you focus meaning that the true focal length of the lens changes as you focus the lens. Generally you get the advertised focal length when the lens is focused to infinity. But as you focus closer, the focal length is reduced. Lenses round off everything... focal length, f-stops, etc. if you do the math, almost no lens is true to the numbers on the lens barrel. But if they're within 5% then it's considered close enough. One might even argue that 10% is close enough.

The Nikon 70-200... when focused to a subject at close distance (something you'd want to do to create a blurred background) is only about 135mm. That's a rather significant breathing problem. The third party options also have breathing problems -- just not as severe as Nikon. Most of them drop to about 150mm.

The Canon 70-200... drops to about 190mm (it's within 5%) and it's the only 70-200mm on the market that can do this. Also the Canon is quite sharp at the 200mm end whereas the Nikon 70-200 goes soft.

Tony Northrup did a video on this. He used to shoot with Canon... then fell in love with the Nikon D810 body... so he switched to Nikon. Then he started to discover problems with Nikon glass (specifically lenses in the focal lengths that portrait and wedding photographers use the most), so he started trying out the 3rd party (Sigma, Tamron, etc.) glass... and discovered he couldn't use a Nikon camera body and not have lens problems. And since lens has a much stronger influence on the look of your images than the camera body... he switched BACK to Canon again. Nikon has the better "body", but Canon has the better "glass" and... for this category, it turns out the glass wins.

#4 -- The body. This comes in last place. It will have less influence over the quality of your images than anything else.

If I were doing events, I'd want a camera body and lens combination that can deal with low-light. I'd also want good supplemental lighting and light modifiers. Typically full-frame sensors tend to be better in low light then crop-frame sensors (it's not an absolute... but it's easier to keep noise down when the individual photo-sites on the sensor surface are physically larger.)

At an entry-level, a Canon 6D body with the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM II and the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II would be outstanding (but those lenses aren't cheap.) There are a few prime lenses that are also desirable -- mostly because they can offer particularly low focal ratios and generate a very large amount of background blur. But you have to use extreme care when shooting at very low focal ratios because the depth of field is so narrow that it's very easy to miss focus (safer to use low focal ratios when you're doing a session in which you can control the pace and don't have to shoot in a hurry and can take the time to make sure you've nailed the focus.)

In the end... is the choice a really big deal? I don't think so. And I say this because as I look around, I see a lot of great images coming from photographers regardless of what camera brand they shoot. If you nit-pick, you'll find advantages to either depending on what you're trying to do... but noting wins in every category.

 

[Designer]

I have noticed eBay has some really good prices and packages. I'm afraid the deals are to good to be true even though they have excleant reviews.

Be very careful about the deals on e-bay. Notice that I didn't recommend e-bay.

 

[astroNikon]

Get a Nikon D5500 with kit lens and add the Nikon 50mm 1.8G
This will be a good starting point.
The kit lens will be good for general stuff and the Nikon 50mm 1.8G is good for portrait and when you need to shoot in low light.

Thank you for the advice. I'm familiar with cannon since it is what I currently own. I looked at the Nikon d7200 but its all new and somewhat whelming. But I hate to spend 800$ now and then yr or two down the road wish I had purchased better camera. Idk what to do!

As already stated. If you spend $800 now, or $1200, down the road you may upgrade the body and lenses and end up spending $5,000+. As Tim detailed above the 24-70/2.8 & 70-200/2.8 and a FullFrame Sensor (Canon 6D and above, and Nikon d610 and above).

So as you research more you'll find the "upper end" much more upper $$ than you probably thought of. Thus you may want to only spend $800 now to see if you really want to get into photography.

The 3 items mentioned are great in low light that you would find in places such as churches or many indoors places but cost some $$$.

Low light ability is important as you need to keep shutter speed up, have excellent ISO ability and the lenses will help with the f/2.8 fixed aperture. There are options with a crop camera (smaller sensor than Full Frame) such as 17-50/2.8 lenses, etc that allows alternatives with smaller cameras and can save tons of money and have some good capabilities in lower light events.

But it all still comes down to the skill of the photographer no matter what equipment is used.