You can buy a wide variety of photographic equipment in stores. However, not all of its types are needed to obtain high-quality images. The camera and lens are already enough for full-fledged shooting. When choosing them, novice photographers will find the recommendations below useful.
Full frame camera or crop camera?
Purchasing any photographic equipment requires certain costs. The first thing a beginner needs to do is choose between a full-frame camera and a crop camera. The first option will cost more. If you don’t have enough funds to purchase it, you can borrow money onto your card urgently without refusal. A full-frame camera has a photosensitive element (matrix) measuring 36 × 24 mm. When light hits the matrix, it converts it into a photograph. The main advantages of full-frame cameras are:
- blur the background better;
- provide higher quality shooting in darkness and twilight;
- provide the ability to use ultra-wide lenses.
Crop cameras have a matrix whose dimensions are smaller than the standard. They blur the background worse and are not suitable for low-light shooting. However, such cameras have significant advantages:
- Affordable price. This is very important for a beginner photographer who needs to buy a lot of different accessories at once and be able to stay within the budget.
- Small size and weight.
- A large number of lens models. It is impossible to attach lenses from a crop camera to a full-frame camera, but on the contrary, it is extremely easy.
- Photos appear sharper than full-frame photos. Due to the “cropped” matrix, image quality does not deteriorate at the edges of the photo.
DSLR or mirrorless camera?
The second important step in purchasing photographic equipment for a beginner is choosing a camera device. In the old days, all professional cameras had a mirror system inside them to help take a photo. However, today mirrorless cameras are becoming more common. They have a simpler design compared to mirror ones and are lighter and more compact. At the same time, we must take into account that mirrorless cameras discharge faster and are more expensive. In addition, the range of lenses for them is much smaller. Therefore, if you are on a limited budget, it is better to purchase a DSLR camera.
Lens selection
The main criterion that must be followed when choosing a lens is its suitability for the genre of photography. Based on this criterion, the following types of lenses are distinguished:
- Portraits. They allow you to take pictures that do not distort the proportions of the face. As a rule, such lenses have a focal length from 50 to 200 mm, the optimal range is from 85 to 135 mm. Of course, a professional can produce impressive images with any lens, but these lenses make portrait photography much easier for beginners.
- Reporting. For a beginning photographer, an object with an aperture of f/2.8 to f/4 is quite sufficient. In the absence of financial restrictions, preference should be given to models with the lowest aperture. It is best to buy a zoom lens, and you should avoid very cheap models with a large focal length spread - their image quality leaves much to be desired.
- Wide angle. These optics are intended for interior and architectural photography. Its main advantage is that it captures a large number of objects in the frame, even at close range. When choosing a wide-angle lens, you need to focus on a focal length from 8 to 35 mm.
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