Starting Photography from Scratch: Budget-Friendly Gear for Beginners
Photography can be quite expensive, especially once you're immersed in this deep, pricey ocean of gear. So before wasting money on something that you don’t even know if you’ll like in the long run, let's explore the essentials.
Let’s start with the most frequently asked question when it comes to photography: which camera should I buy? There’s really no right or wrong answer; it’s all up to your budget. However, if you want to learn how to photograph and go beyond clicking with your phone, you need to learn to use dials. Therefore, I would recommend Fujifilm. Maybe an X-Pro1 or an X-T30. Both are not brand new, but a camera that used to be good a few years ago is still a solid workhorse, especially if you're just starting out. You can also pick a Sony A6000 series, but even though I mainly use Sony, I still think that with a Fuji, you have a better understanding of what every dial does and how they affect your final results. And last but not least, having a stylish piece of design in your hand makes you want to flex your camera and bring it with you. The more you have the camera, the more you shoot, and the better you get.
For lenses, you have two choices: zoom and prime. I started with prime, but when you're just starting out, probably a cheap zoom is a more efficient way to understand how focal length affects your shots. At this moment in time, any 18 to 55 kit lens can perfectly fit your needs. If possible, I would still recommend getting at least one prime lens, maybe a 23mm, the full-frame equivalent to the 35mm. As a bonus choice, you can consider a compact camera that already has a lens attached to the body, like the Fuji X100 series.
Alongside the camera, you actually need something to make the camera work. There are some mandatory things to buy before everything else: SD cards and a camera strap. Without having to necessarily go super fancy on these, I like to use a rope leash. This way, I can easily wrap the camera around my wrist instead of having it hang on my neck. I don’t like wrist straps, but it’s up to you. As for SD cards, I would recommend at least 64GB and grab a bunch of them. I use SanDisk and Kingston ones. I hate spending money on this, but you’re going to need a lot of them. In the event that one gets damaged (it's rare, but it can happen), you can switch it and keep on shooting.
Now that you’re set and done with your gear, you only need a couple more things to start your journey: a backpack or a sling and editing software. As I promised, I’m going to be super budget-friendly because I don’t like wasting money either. As for the slings, I do not use specifically designed photography products. I have two of them from Uniqlo, a big one and a smaller one, which I use the most. It’s small, looks good with every outfit, and it is the one I use when I purely enjoy photography without making any sort of video content, just for street photography. One camera, one lens, and spare batteries. I also have a brand new one that I picked up at the Shibuya Pokémon Center, which fits a camera, one more lens, my DJI Pocket, batteries, SD cards, and everything else I need for taking pictures in multiple situations. This is not the best solution you can get, but it gets the job done.
Last but not least, the editing software. There are a bunch of solutions out there, but the easiest one is still the Adobe Photography Bundle, with Lightroom and Photoshop, for multiple reasons. My favorites are having cloud storage and cloud sync across your devices. If you're just starting out, chances are you probably don’t have the latest and fastest computer to manage all this data. Plus, you can start editing on your computer and then switch to your iPhone or iPad flawlessly.
