Since I’ve been doing research on this more than I realized I had, time to share what I’ve learned so far. And as a result of typing in a topic title of “Buying a new camera?”, I see this has come up before. So, here’s what the discussions were years ago:
The landscape of cameras has changed a lot over the last decade. You still have point-and-shoot cameras that come with optical zoom capabilities of anywhere from about 3x to 25x, with the higher-end and more expensive cameras have a larger sensor closer to what you’d get the DSLR and Mirrorless fields. I still have the one I bought years ago, but don’t know which box it is in and it didn’t have that great of zoom or picture quality anyway. I think the lens didn’t do well with anything that had straight edges, like a taking a picture of a sign.
Above that are bridge cameras. Convenience of point-and-shoot coupled with a better sensor, a zoom lens and more adjustment settings. For when you need more than point-and-shoot or your smartphone, but you’re not quite ready to go whole hog, and on some, the zoom doesn’t zoom very much. The one I was looking at was a Canon PowerShot SX540 that has a 50x zoom lens and was priced at $330, but the only places I can find on Amazon that have it are selling renewed/refurbished cameras for a minimum of $50 more.
With some of these, if you’re looking for new instead of used, you’re at or almost at the cost of a DSLR or Mirrorless camera and you should take a serious look at those instead because of the flexibility you get.
DSLR = Digital Single Lens Reflex. A mirror in front of the sensor (or film if you’re using that) bounces what the lens is seeing up to the viewfinder so you can see it. You press the button and the mirror moves out of the way for the picture.
Mirrorless: No mirror to move, so what the lens sees is shown on a mini-monitor in the viewfinder or on a bigger monitor on the back of the camera. Without a mirror having to be moved for every picture, the camera is quieter, making it better for weddings and so forth. These are thinner from front to back than a DSLR, and therefore lighter and less expensive.
Cameras with a viewfinder should be better for outdoor photography because you don’t have sunlight shining on an external monitor. But if the monitor swings out and/or pivots, you could find an angle where you can see what you’re taking a picture of pretty easily even in sunlight. If the camera has a viewfinder and a monitor, it may default to using the monitor until you put your eye on the viewfinder and switch to displaying there.
Cost of both DSLR and Mirrorless goes up because you start off by buying the camera (“camera body”) and then you buy the lenses you want. A kit will usually come with a non-zoom lens, so you get some discount off the cost of the initial lens. Other kits might swap out the non-zoom for a zoom.
As a rough guide, expect to pay a minimum of $1000 for either kind if buying new.
That’s what I’ve been kind of choking on for the past week. A $330 camera + bag + tripod + some accessories was easily doable. I didn’t need sophistication, as evidenced by my “making do with 3 seconds for a flash photo from my smartphone” comment. Finding out it wasn’t available at that store and seeing what I’d have to go through to get it online made me reconsider whether the extra cost was worth it. (Time is also a factor in this decision.)
If, like me, you might be balking at paying double or even higher than what you planned on, what do you get? Flexibility and features that let you take the kinds of pictures @Viking, @Road_Rash and @Ook have been posting in the Post your photos here! topic.
Flexibility comes from being able to put different lenses on the camera, whether it be zoom, wide-angle or even full-sensor lenses on a camera that has a cropped sensor (how much area of the sensor is devoted to getting an image). Add filters for different effects. Put a lens hood on the end to block out some of the light coming in from an angle. As long as you stick with the same lens mounting type, you can move a lens from one camera to another.
Big note here. There are different lens mount types and you can get adapters that will make a lens with mount type A fit on a camera with mount type B. I’ve seen videos on YouTube saying “Don’t buy adapter X. It will ruin your camera.”
Think about it. You’ve got a lot of weight attaching at a specific point on a camera that’s very expensive that gravity is going to want to make bend downward. I wouldn’t risk any using kind of adapter. If you can afford to buy lots of different lenses and some have a different mount type, get another camera that they can be attached to un-adapted.
Back to features as I wrap this up. These cameras have a lot of settings and features, including some cinema-grade settings. Firmware updates can add features and fix bugs and performance issues.
There’s even cameras that come in two flavors: fine-tuned for photography and fine-tuned for vlogging and streaming, but are very close in performance otherwise.
If you find a camera that interests you, you’ll find lots of review and comparison videos on YouTube.
