The other day, a colleague asked me, “If l buy a camera, how do I decide which one is the best for me to buy? If it were a washing machine or a refrigerator, it would be easy to understand, but if I was to start a camera, I don’t think I could buy one if I didn’t know anything about it,” he said.
Indeed, it is natural that if you don’t know anything about cameras, you don’t know how to judge and buy one.
But I was at a loss for an answer because I did not start photography because I fell in love with a camera.
If I were a camera enthusiast, I would explain, “This model from this manufacturer can take this kind of picture. It would be great if I had experience with a number of cameras and could give information neutrally, not from a personal point of view, about the differences and attractions, but since camera lovers talk in terms of how great the camera they have is, I don’t think any of those neutral conversations are possible. No, I am not criticizing camera lovers.
I don’t have much experience with them, so I figured I’d better ask rather than answer, so I asked, “First, what do you want to shoot?” I asked him.
He answered, “Birds and animals. So I went a little further and asked, “Wild things? Or a pet, like a dog or a cat?” He answered, “Wild animals.
I also asked him some basic questions. I wanted to know how much he knew about cameras.
I asked, “Did you know that you have to buy the camera and the lens separately?” I asked. He looked surprised and replied, “I didn’t know that.
I told him, “If you are thinking of taking snapshots of your time at a coffee shop or restaurant, or when you take a walk outside, such cameras are very compact and convenient because the lens and body are integrated, but they are not suitable for photographing wild animals. To take pictures of animals in the wild, you need a telephoto lens, and cameras that can use such a lens are designed to be purchased separately from the camera body. By changing lenses, you can take high quality pictures depending on the situation.” He responded.
If you want to take pictures of animals, especially if they are moving, you need a camera with flexible shutter speed settings, flexible ISO sensitivity settings because pictures become darker when shutter speeds are increased, and a camera that can handle noise because noise tends to occur when ISO values are increased. The camera must be able to handle noise. Cameras that meet these requirements will be mid- to high-end models, which will naturally be more expensive. In addition, telephoto lenses are expensive on average, so you should expect to pay at least 300,000 yen ($3000) to 500,000 yen ($5000) for a camera that matches these requirements. He looked as if he could not afford to pay that much.
I added that if he wanted to shoot in the distance, a compact digital camera would suffice. I answered in a demotivating way, but it was true.
Cameras cost money. But if you start somehow, you will get stuck in a lens swamp and camera swamp, and you will be constantly buying new lenses and cameras all year round. People who buy used lenses and cameras at second-hand stores say that it is cheap, but in reality, they have wasted enough money to buy new lenses and cameras. Of course, there are people who enjoy being swamped in this way, so it is not necessarily wrong to be swamped, and since they have much more knowledge and experience than I do, there is something else to gain besides the camera body.
I don’t know what the right answer is, but I think it’s best to start with something you don’t know.
I think it’s best to buy something reasonably priced first, start taking various pictures, and then change as you want more or less of something, and then move on.