What do you look for in a camera?
Or what really matters in picking a camera?
When I bought my first digital camera (like most things) I went crazy for a few weeks looking at reviews, specs, comparisons and anything else I could get my hands on. As a gear junkie, I still watch all kinds of reviews, and peruse B&H and now UsedPhotoPro regularly (Thanks a lot Snappiness 😂)
I'm not exactly sure I knew what I was looking for, but I came out with a Panasonic GX85 with which I have taken just over 25,000 shots.
Since discovering the Snappiness channel and this forum, I've tried out older used cameras from Pentax, Fujifilm, and Canon and have discovered that they can all produce great images. It's more about building skills than anything else.
That being said, I'm curious what are the factors you look for in a camera that you may want to buy? (Especially for a primary camera) Equally as important, what are the factors that don't matter?
I've been working on my personal list, and I only have two factors so far:
Good balance of size/weight and usability - I carry my camera all the time in a small messenger bag with my iPad so I don't want something huge. But, I don't want something so small that it sacrifices ergonomics.
Lens selection - Probably wouldn't have thought of this before, but figuring out which lenses are available is a big deal when buying into a system. This isn't something I wouldn't have thought about starting out.
The way you select autofocus points, I can't understand how people use Canon. I bought an open box Canon M50, shot with it for a day and sold it the next. I like to be freely able to use Autofocus much more easily than having to use combo buttons. Plus that camera had very noisy images even at 640 ISO for a modern mirrorless camera. (I loathe the M50 apparently lol)
Menu systems and ease of use is definitely a 2nd for me. Fuji and Pentax are perfect. I played with an A600 before, Sony's menu system left me very annoyed.
Bang for your buck, I shot with a Fujifilm XT20 briefly, holy cow is Fuji glass expensive. That's a big turn away from me. One of the reasons I've delved into Pentax, no matter what generation of lens you're using you can mount them to the camera. Making it a cheap system to use. My SMC-M 50&28 I got at a yard sale for $10 with a K1000 body. For an F2/F2.8 lens on Fuji X Mount probably would be a $1800 investment.
Ergonomics and button layout. I like my camera to have a dedicated button for ISO, AF, AE-L, a good d pad or joystick. Something I adore about my KP. And it just has to feel good to me, I have giant hands.
Video specs don't matter, I'm not a vlogger or videographer. I don't do much more than an occasional handheld shot flying or a time lapse on a tripod.
Megapixel count is irrelevant as to whether or not the sensor has great low light performance, having an exorbitant amount of autofocus points isn't necessary either. Touchscreens as well, not necessary to me are more of a luxury.
my choices are probably formed around my shooting style but here we go:
1-being mirrorless, one of my favourite things is trying out and adapting vintage lenses and having a mirrorless camera really helps.
2- ease of manual focusing so maybe a good quality screen or evf(nothing crazy like in high end cameras just not super dated), also having focus peeking can be very helpful.
3-having a hotshoe, this might seem trivial but in lower budgets can be missing sometimes.
4-kinda decent autofocus with adapted lenses in case I try using it in work scenario (again not super fast af with tracking or anything but something that's reliable and not super slow)
5- the price, probably the most important factor for me especially right now being a student so I have to work with whatever my budget can get and thankfully it's been good enough so far 😀
Good things listed here already. In no particular order, and repeating some things already said:
Ergonomics. Camera must be pleasant to hold and use. Perhaps I'm took picky but I've given up on cameras because of button placement. So many good cameras out there, why use one that doesn't feel good?
Lens selection. Like @SpruceBruce I can't get over Fuji's native lens prices. It's getting a bit better as the system matures and more hit the used market, along with some third party MF variants, but still a lot. So I do think about the lens selection but more specifically now I look at the lenses I would use with that camera. I think that's a great way to choose a system.
Yeah price.
Agreed MP isn't something I really pay attention to anymore. Doesn't mean a lot by itself.
Image stabilization. Not a deal breaker, but I miss it in cameras that don't have it. I like to handhold my 1/30th 50mm+ shots 🙂
Low-light performance. This is only mattering for wildlife/astro right now. If I shoot pictures of my kids indoors 400/800 ISO is all I need with a fast lens. But with wildlife I am starting to find I am constantly shooting 6400+. So newer cameras really soar in this regard and it can make a big difference.
I'll add more if I think of it, but there's my funny list for right now.
Quote from SpruceBruce on June 13, 2021, 4:54 pm
Bang for your buck, I shot with a Fujifilm XT20 briefly, holy cow is Fuji glass expensive. . . . For an F2/F2.8 lens on Fuji X Mount probably would be a $1800 investment.
Yeah.... I'm mostly on a Fuji and it can get really pricey really quickly. There are some ways to cut down costs though. Firstly, shoot an older body. Top of the line X-T4 or X-Pro3 will definitely cost an arm and a dingus, but an X-T20, X-T100, or in my case, the X-E2 can be had pretty cheap, and still put out gorgeous images.
So far as lenses go, used glass can help save costs if you're willing to wait. My favorite lens is the 27mm f/2.8, which I've seen pop up around 200/250$ since the version II came out. On top of that, there are manual lenses, either from makers like 7Artisans, Pergear, Meike etc, or vintage glass galore.
Personally, I really value portability. There are a ton of cameras, such as the Mamiya Press, that I would otherwise want, but I just look at it and I know that I'd never carry it around, and it'd be a shelf queen.
Quote from Justin Tung on June 15, 2021, 1:02 pmQuote from SpruceBruce on June 13, 2021, 4:54 pm
Bang for your buck, I shot with a Fujifilm XT20 briefly, holy cow is Fuji glass expensive. . . . For an F2/F2.8 lens on Fuji X Mount probably would be a $1800 investment.
Yeah.... I'm mostly on a Fuji and it can get really pricey really quickly. There are some ways to cut down costs though. Firstly, shoot an older body. Top of the line X-T4 or X-Pro3 will definitely cost an arm and a dingus, but an X-T20, X-T100, or in my case, the X-E2 can be had pretty cheap, and still put out gorgeous images.
So far as lenses go, used glass can help save costs if you're willing to wait. My favorite lens is the 27mm f/2.8, which I've seen pop up around 200/250$ since the version II came out. On top of that, there are manual lenses, either from makers like 7Artisans, Pergear, Meike etc, or vintage glass galore.
Personally, I really value portability. There are a ton of cameras, such as the Mamiya Press, that I would otherwise want, but I just look at it and I know that I'd never carry it around, and it'd be a shelf queen.
The 7Artisans lenses look like a really affordable way to step in to some small fuji mount glass. I would still like to get some real Fuji glass one day. Good to know about the 27 2.8!
So much to consider here! Thanks everyone for the input.
@justintung the 27mm is certainly on my list to try with my X-T20! I've been unsure of using that 40mm equivalent focal length, but with the recommendation from Snappy and others I'll get to it eventually either with the Panasonic 20mm 1.7 or the Fuji 27mm 2.8.
@sprucebruce I had not thought about ease of changing autofocus points, but I can see that. I borrowed a Panasonic GH5 from a friend for a month one time and that did have a joystick for autofocus points.
@gawad Agreed on ease of manual focus. Good focus peaking is very handy. Also, I've very much enjoyed cameras that have a physical focus mode selector.
@james-warner-b "Yeah price" 😅 An unfortunate but constant factor.
Another thing I think I'm going to add to my list is physical controls. My sister shoots with a Sony a6000 and the limited physical dials were slightly confounding. No front dial and only one thumb dial. The second "dial" is around the d-pad which is uncomfortable to change one handed.
Shooting with the Fuji X-T20 has been a lot of fun having plenty of dials to change settings. The only thing I've noticed is sometimes I would like to use the front dial for aperture instead of the aperture ring on the lens. Maybe I'm missing something and that can be fixed in the menus.
The biggest contributing factor for me and my very limited expereince was lens selection, especially since my budget isn't very big I aimed for a system that had a wide selection of affordable yet highly rated lenses, especially with regards to vintage glass as I wanted to be able to play around with different focal lengths to see what suits me.
Though, I'm sure as I gain more experience I'll grow my list of requirements when I decide to upgrade eventually.
