Priorities in order:
Thanks!
Update: Decided to go with Fujifilm X-S10 + XF 18-55mm F2.8-4.0
as I liked the fuji SOOC jpegs more. Sigma lens would have been sweet but I’m okay with the tradeoff.
Thank you everyone for being so helpful.
Update 2: Finally went with Fujifilm X-T30 II + XF 18-55mm F2.8-4.0
instead for looks, this was a close one as I had to give up Ibis and that grip.
c/photography is a community centered on the practice of amateur and professional photography. You can come here to discuss the gear, the technique and the culture related to the art of photography. You can also share your work, appreciate the others’ and constructively critique each others work.
Please, be sure to read the rules before posting.
THE RULES
This Lemmy Community is open to civil, friendly discussion about our common interest, photography. Excessively rude, mean, unfriendly, or hostile conduct is not permitted.
All discussion threads must be photography related such as latest gear or art news, gear acquisition advices, photography related questions, etc…
This Lemmy Community is about photography and discussion around photography, not religion or politics.
All is in the title. This is a casual discussion community.
One post, one photo in the limit of 3 pictures in a 24 hours timespan. Do not flood the community with your pictures. Be patient, select your best work, and enjoy.
If you want contructive critiques, use [Critique Wanted] in your title.
Flair NSFW posts (nudity, gore, …)
Do not share your portfolio (instagram, flickr, or else…)
The aim of this community is to invite everyone to discuss around your photography. If you drop everything with one link, this become pointless. Portfolio posts will be deleted. You can however share your portfolio link in the comment section if another member wants to see more of your work.
Sure, why not
When picking a camera to learn on one thing to keep in mind is that you’ll be learning on it
The gear is only as good as your knowledge in how to use it
So picking something with room to grow and potentially in the future grow out of without getting something that’s super expensive (to you) is important
Go right ahead and pick up the 6400 and begin your journey into interchangeable lens cameras
Just be warned: it’s really easy to come down with a case of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) when you jump into the world of interchangeable lens cameras. Try to avoid that while learning if you can
I’ll keep that in mind, thanks
I had a 5100 and upgraded to a 6500 and I absolutely fucking LOVE that camera. I say that as a lifetime photographer. I think the Alphas in general are great at photography and pretty darn good for light video work. That 18-50 is a lot better than the kit and should serve you well for a while.
SOOC?
Anyway, I am a big fan of the Lumix cameras, started with my Lumix GX80 back in 2018, and upgraded to an S5 last spring.
I just love the colors of Lumix cameras, they are just so intence.
Though I am thinking about getting a Sony A7 III as it has a much faster autofocus system, and I like to do planespotting.
I just found out what SOOC means, Straight Out Of Camera, which is what I mainly do, I hardly edit at all.
Here is a photo I took with my GX80 a few years ago:
That’s a beautiful shot :)
Thank you, it is straight from the camera!
What are your subjects going to be? Will they be stationary (inanimate), fairly stationary (adults, older kids), or moving around (kids, animals)?
What do you intend to do with the photos? Share on social media, crop them, print them, or a mix?
I think they’ll be mostly stationary to fairly stationary.
I am satisfied with just keeping them to myself, printing sounds fun though.
I’d like to share them but I don’t use instagram, so I don’t know about that.
For fairly stationary things, especially if you don’t have to zoom, a cellphone will get you most of the way there - unless you’re going to be in a very dark environment. I say this as someone whose carried around a dedicated camera for a while, but the best camera in the world is the one you currently have with you. You can absolutely get in the habit of carrying a dedicated camera with you though.
Most camera brands and bodies will give you solid SOOTC JPEGs, but each offers some level of twist. This is where people start taking “color science”. All the RAWs are basically the same, but the algorithms to make pleasing looking JPEGs vary by brand. Nearly all are customizable, so you can tweak one brands twists to be more or less pronounced. Based on my personal experiences I would say:
Fuji (X-H2s) = a bit stylized, but pleasant to look at. Reliable white balance and subject meeting, after changing the default metering mode.
Nikon (D40, D5300, Z6II) = warm and pleasing. The Z6II I owned for a little while would struggle with white balance indoors, especially with warmer interior lights. It also tended to meter the frame, not the subject, but you can customize this some. I have more than a few photos of someone underexposed in front of a sunny window
Sony (A7 III) = probably the most true to life, but true to life can be kind of boring/flat. The most reliable auto white balance and meters for the subject out of the box.
That’s not to say that other cameras don’t do a good job, I just don’t have personal experience with them
Here I would say:
Here’s a rough comparison between all five using the focal length you referenced. I also snuck in Sony’s 50 FE 1.8 on a FF camera to show that each system will tend to have a compact prime or three.
Most cameras should do just fine here IMO. Procedural photography has made strides in smartphones, but it’s hard to beat a dedicated camera
Fast glass will make this way better. If you’re serious about low light, stop thinking about a f2.8 lens and start thinking about really fast primes. If you haven’t read about f-stops yet, the quick primer is f/4 to f/2.8 is one stop, f/2.8 to f/2 is another, f/2 to f/1.4 is yet another.
IMO you should buy a f/2.8 lens for any gain in image quality it offers over its f/4 counterpart - not because it’s faster/lets in more light. If you want to really let in more light, a prime lens is the way to go.
Note that fast glass = shallower depth of field if shot wide open. This is potentially one of the advantages of something like micro four thirds. I took pictures of my kids with Santa this winter and stepped down to f/5.6 to try to get all their faces fairly sharp on my 50mm and A7III (full frame). I had about 0.4 meters of “in focus” plane. On a micro four thirds body, I could have used a 25mm lens, at f/2, and wound up with a very similar looking photo. Although the FF sensor is about a stop lower noise, the micro four third photo would have probably had lower noise due to the two stop faster aperture. Not that this particular photo is noisy, but you hopefully get the point.
Most gear will last quite a while, especially if you keep it dry. If it’s going to get wet, make sure to get weather sealed. That’s going to drive up cost.
Same situation here, lol.
…
So, think about what you want and go from there.
Thanks a lot for such a detailed answer, I feel really grateful.
I’ll consider all the points before deciding.
No worries. Don’t overthink and try not to overbuy! It’s very hard to go wrong, but it’s very easy to get caught up in pixel peeping and specifications wars. If you’re not going to be making big prints or doing heavy crops, most any body from the past 10 years paired with a fast lens will serve you well.
My D5300 is certainly nothing fancy these days, but it holds up just fine on 20"x30" canvas prints.
I haven’t used one, but my impression from being around people with Sony alphas is they’re generally solid cameras with perhaps a few quirks. It seems like Sony has tried to make their ecosystem worth investing in.
Here’s a shot I took on the very similar Sony a6500 in low light two days ago: https://youtube.com/shorts/vq8-1GIdu64?feature=share
If you prefer SOOC, please send me your raws if you shoot raw. I’d love to edit them!
smartphone would work but I don’t want to invest in high end smartphones just for this, and I really wanna explore digital camera photgraphy
Buy a used high end phone. 300 € is more than enough, should get you a <2 year old flagship.
But if you want to explore the “real deal” obviously buy used.