I’m totally new to photography and want to get my first camera. I’ll mainly be using it for nature photography while hiking and traveling.
My only focus is on photos of the highest possible quality.
My budget is around $600, and I’ll also need essential accessories, but don’t know what I’d need, like a lens?
Not open to refurbished, as I’m buying in Vietnam.
Here’s the thing that stores won’t tell you. It’s not the camera, it’s the cameraman.
Sure, a $100,000 camera is going to have better internals than a $20 disposable camera. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take that disposable camera and get super creative with it.
Take a shitty camera, and just learn. Take 1000 pictures a day. Just take a picture. Study the result. Learn from it. Then ask “Now what could I have done better?”
Study technique. Study framing. Study perspective. Study lighting. Study color balance. A better piece of equipment will make your photo better, but it only goes so far. There’s a platou when it comes to how much equipment performance can compensate for skill.
Once you know what you’re doing, and more importantly WHY you’re doing it, then you can play around in buying equipment for the worlds most expensive hobby. I mean, it’s probably not the MOST expensive hobby, but it’ll damn sure feel like it if you go off buying all these fancy bells and whistles and lenses and filters, but don’t know shit about WHY you would want them.
Play around on the cheap side, hone your craft, and THEN worry about $600 cameras.
Some will say to use your cell phone, and yeah, that’ll do some good. There’s merrit to that for sure. But I suggest buying a basic used body and lense for $50 and not complaining about how much shit its performance is. Adapt to it. Learn from it.
Can you recommend a few specific camera models?
I feel like you aren’t reading anything anyone is saying here. Go with canon, nikon, sony, or panasonic. Best of luck.
I am, and I understand I have to learn with the tools I have: my smartphone. I’ve tried doing that but I’m mostly dissatisfied with how blurry the pictures are. I love being able to zoom in and see the little details - can’t do that with my Redmi phone.