Suggestions for Camera/Lens

mjda · Jun 3, 2021

In a few months I'm going on vacation to Yellowstone. I'd like to take a decent camera with me to photograph the landscapes, and beauty, I'm sure to encounter. There could be a few wildlife photos to be had too. My camera is very old (Canon EOS Rebel T3) so I'm thinking I might need to upgrade.

Also, what lenses should I be looking at? I'm thinking I'd probably just rent a lens for the week, rather than purchasing one.

I'd like to keep the budget for the camera, and lens rental, all under $1,000, if possible. What do you all suggest?

Strodav · Jun 4, 2021

There are sooo many options, it's hard to give you a specific recommendation. You might want to look at buying used to stay within your budget. Good options are Canon, Nikon, or Sony and there are some great deals out there as photographers are trading in their dslrs for the newer mirrorless technology. A good place to buy from is KEH.com as they have a very fair rating system, a 21 day return policy and 180 day warranty that can be extended for a price. If you are shooting landscapes, a little higher resolution sensor will be able to capture more detail, so stay at 20mp or above. You will also want to buy a more modern camera, say released within the last 5 to 10 years as they have more advaced auto focus systems. I am most familiar with Nikon and a used 24mp D7200 DX body would be a great choice. DX or APS-C bodies can use less expensive lenses compared to Full Frame bodies. A used full frame option would be the Nikon 36mp D800. For general photography, you will want to pick up a 50mm f/1.8 lens, but you might want to look at a good kit lens. For Nikon, a great DX lens is a 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6. They also make a 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6 if you want a bit more reach, but pick up a 50mm prime in any case.

If you want to go new and mirrorless the Nikon 24mp Z5 at $1000 without a lens is one of the best deals out there. With a 24-200mm lens, which is a great walk around lens, it's $1700. If you can find another $700 that would be the way to go.

Renting a more expensive lens to try before you buy is always good idea, but renting one for a week might not give you enough time to become familiar with it before you travel.

mjda · Jun 6, 2021

Thanks for the reply @Strodav. I'll definitely consider those suggestions. I probably will rent the lens for a few weeks because I'll be on vacation for a week and I'll need time afterwards to send it back. I guess I could rent it for a few days before, and after, so I could familiarize myself with it before I leave.

Thanks again!

ntz · Jun 6, 2021

mjda said:
In a few months I'm going on vacation to Yellowstone. I'd like to take a decent camera with me to photograph the landscapes, and beauty, I'm sure to encounter. There could be a few wildlife photos to be had too. My camera is very old (Canon EOS Rebel T3) so I'm thinking I might need to upgrade.

Also, what lenses should I be looking at? I'm thinking I'd probably just rent a lens for the week, rather than purchasing one.

I'd like to keep the budget for the camera, and lens rental, all under $1,000, if possible. What do you all suggest?

Hello,

there are many options indeed .. $1000 is not much but also not few .. depends on what you're planning to do in future, where are you going to expand .. in short, Nikon-F (mount) will bring you the greatest amount of new and used lenses, for a good price too ... Nikon-Z (mount) offers bleeding edge but pretty expensive lenses ..

I would consider something like this .. it's 16-50-250 in one light APS-C package for $1100 and all new .. in my opinion the Z50 in kit with 16-50mm and 50-250mm offers the best performance per $$

if you wanna gamble, you can get some decent used gear but not that much ... for $1000 I doubt you could get a better set than what I've linked above ..

there are certainly some alternatives from other brands too but you can't go wrong with Nikon ..