What's what that doesn't cost £1000's Daughter is mad keen on photography and until now has been using a Sony A5000 w/18-55mm (bought from these hallowed pages) + a macro lens set up with no bother and taking some decent shots with it (in my opinion, and I may be a smidge biased ) Come the autumn she is starting a BTEC Level 3 extended diploma in art & design, and she wants to lean more towards the photographic side of things without doing it as a whole specialty. So upgrade time without maxxing out the bank of mum & dad, what would you choose to run?
Pre-owned Sony A7?, given she already has E-mount lenses, Yes, the A5000 is APSC and the A7 is Full Frame, but it's a solid system, You can keep the current lenses to start with, and over time start moving over to FF lenses, She'll be familiar with the system as well. This photo was taken with the A7ii and 28-70mm lens: Stump by Sam Masters, on Flickr If you want to switch systems entirely, M4/3's Panasonic and Olympus are solid, I've currently got a Olympus OM-D E-M1, with a basic lens, and it's been great. Great thing about M4/3 is they share the same mount, So Olympus and Panasonic will work with each other, So an Olympus lens will work on a Panasonic body, and vice versa This sample was with the Olympus OM-D: Butterfly by Sam Masters, on Flickr And this with a Panasonic GX8: London by Night by Sam Masters, on Flickr Moving away from Mirrorless, Canon and Nikon, I've only picked up a Nikon once, But i've owned 2 Canon's, Rock solid, reliable cameras all around, Here's a Canon 7Dii sample of mine: Formula 1: Ferrari GP by Sam Masters, on Flickr As an edit, all my photo's are straight jpeg's, no editing and full auto settings. So, after all that, My personal recommendation would be to stick with Sony E-Mount, as you've already bought into the ecosystem, With the A6300 being the best bang for buck upgrade (Here) It's APCS, 24MP, 4K recording. Sam
Thanks, having a couple of E-mount lenses isn't here nor there, for sure having them already would save money in the short term and let us spend a few extra quid on a body, but they weren't disastrously expensive so I'd loose sleep over them. Personally I like the look of the A7, but it's not my call to make and her mind may be set on a DLSR, and whilst I'm paying for, researching and will be tech support for the thing, she is a teenager..... I do love your stump shot
Any of the main systems will be good. Conventional Canon/Nikon DSLRs both have well established and large ecosystems. Fuji / Sony / M4/3 mirrorless will be similarly capable, but IMHO (17 years in pro photo retail) handling and how it works for you + decent lenses are as important as anything. Don't stress over sensor size in any of these systems, the low light on M4/3 is fine. Full frame will be a money pit, and the bodies are larger & heavier in the main. Used will always make the £ go further, and you'll get a better camera than for the same money new. [State the bleedin' obvious...] Really important to get hands on if you have a real camera shop left locally. The cheaper Nikon (and Canon too probably) D3xxx and D5xxx DSLRs have mirror prisms and lower magnification viewfinders, which are less engaging and make composition less comfortable. Try them out and see what she likes. I've used Nikon for 35 years, Canon EOS pro pre digital for a few years, and am now thinking that a Fuji XT-1 may work for me - looking at one next week as the viewfinder is reputedly big and engaging life full frame DSLR bodies. HTH
