Normally I recommend cameras, not discourage them 😉 At first it sounds a bit disconcerting, I’ll explain this in a moment. If you are an expert in photography you will see how you agree with me, but if on the contrary you are still starting in this field, all the more reason you have to read this article. One of the most common mistakes for the beginning photographer is buying the wrong camera.
Let’s go to the mess.
you the photographer
Before showing you the 3 cameras that you should never buy, under any circumstances, I need us to first agree on a key point: you, the photographer.
To simplify the explanation, we will distinguish between 3 types of photographers:
- Professional photographer.
- Amateur photographer.
- “Trendy” photographer (now we explain it).
The professional photographer He is someone who seeks to earn a living as a photographer, dedicate himself to photography professionally, that people hire him to cover their events, or that they buy photographs previously taken by him. He is someone who is willing to invest money in professional photography equipment since he has a plan in mind to make the purchase profitable and recover that investment in the medium term in the form of income from his profession.
The amateur photographer It is someone who, without pretensions of dedicating himself to photography professionally, and without his main objective being to earn money by taking photos, likes photography, is passionate about it, drives him crazy. He enjoys spending hours and hours taking photos, looking at other people’s photos and trying to progress and improve his technique as a photographer, always from a passionate amateur angle.
The photographer I call “trendy” is also not a professional photographer. Perhaps he would fall into the category of amateur photographer, but unlike him, the “trendy” follows a bit of fashion when it comes to “trendy” and “cool” machines and cameras. Here we are talking about a type of person who can enjoy taking photos more or less, but deep down, deep inside, what really excites him is the material part of the cameras: their body, their texture, their design, their mark maybe. This is someone who finds pleasure in acquiring and using the device itself. Someone who feels an obligation to be up to date when it comes to referral cameras. You have to have the latest in cameras, whether you use it or not.
To make an analogy between one and the other, the amateur photographer, after taking the photo, gets back up, picks up the camera and while looking at it thinks “what a beautiful photo I have taken!”. The trendy photographer, on the other hand, after taking the photo, gets back up, picks up the camera and while looking at it thinks “OMG! Mother of beautiful Love! What a cool camera I have!”.
It is clear that between these 3 main types of photographers there are gray and gradual areas, there are photographers who define themselves somewhere between the serious amateur and the professional, there are others who, although they are passionate about taking photos (and therefore are amateurs), are also They are crazy about the cameras themselves (and therefore would also fall into the third category), but for simplicity let’s stay with these 3 types of photographers. I think this classification will help me explain what comes next: The 3 cameras you should never buy.
Having clarified this concept of “types of photographers”, what 3 cameras do you think I am going to advise you against?
3 cameras that I discourage with all my energies
1) Avoid the professional camera: We often confuse the termprofessional” with “photographic quality«. There are people who say “oh, this photo is very professionalnoticeable«, meaning «oh, this photo is very good qualitynoticeable«.
Professional is not synonymous with quality. It is true that we expect quality photos from a professional photographer, but there will be professional photographers who take good photos and there will be those who take bad ones. In this life I have seen everything 🙂 Similarly, there are breathtaking photos taken by amateur people. Therefore, “professional” and “quality” are two terms that can coincide but do not necessarily mean the same thing.
Applied to the subject at hand, an amateur photographer does not necessarily need a “professional” camera to produce high-quality photographs. Good photographs are taken by good photographers. The camera, whether professional or not, has nothing to do with it. Professional cameras provide professional features and respond to the usage needs of a “professional”, which are often very different from those of an amateur.
Apart from this, another reason why I advise against professional cameras for amateur photographers is because of the enormous weight they physically entail, the disproportionate dimensions, and the technical complexity they entail. The last thing a hobbyist or beginner photographer looking to learn needs is a camera with a menu and a bunch of scary items.
Want more reasons why you should avoid professional cameras as a hobby photographer? Its price is prohibitive. If you rush me, it’s a bad idea even if you’re rich and have money to spare. Why? I think it is a better idea to invest in a “non-professional” SLR camera, made and designed for the amateur photographer, it will cost you much less, and the money you will have left over will allow you to get excellent lenses and accessories that will help you get results Much better photos. Many times we make the mistake of thinking that a 2,000 euro camera will give better results than a 500 euro camera. The reality is that a camera of 500 or 600 euros paired with a good lens (like the King of Lenses for example) can go a thousand times over the result you can get with the 2,000 euro camera.
2) Avoid the trendy, fashion, cool camera, conceived mainly to be adored and loved as if it were a jewel: Be careful, I’m not saying it’s not a good product. Perhaps it is for other purposes, such as decoration, or collecting, but in my humble opinion, the best camera to take good photos is not usually the most beautiful and physically sexy. I think that brands have realized over time that there is a niche market that they could satisfy and make money, a lot of money. Instead of competing with other brands in terms of performance, ease of use, photographic and optical quality, or even price, some brands have seen a breakthrough in producing and marketing cameras that in terms of performance and photographic quality are rather normal, but instead provide the buyer with an “aesthetic satisfaction” that makes them worth a lot of money.
Unless you are that “trendy photographer” that we were talking about at the beginning, friend or friend, I do not recommend you to buy cameras of these that bring a “vintage” or retro aesthetic, with parts perhaps covered in genuine leather or similar synthetic materials, which they instill a certain sense of luxury and delicacy of materials. If you need the camera to display it and adore it well, it might be a good idea to consider these cameras, but if instead of enjoying the camera itself, the object, what you are really passionate about is the final result, the photograph, forget them. Is there anything better.
3) Avoid the latest generation camera: And you will ask yourself, Mario, what kind of mushrooms have you tried this time? What is the problem now with the latest generation cameras? Obviously there is no problem. None. What happens is that there are better options, much better.
Wait… is there anything better than a state-of-the-art camera?
Yes of course. The previous generation 🙂
As you already know, and if you don’t know, I’ll tell you, the brands design a certain model of photo camera, launch it on the market, and from then on every so often they dedicate themselves to “re-launching” almost the same model but with certain improvements here and there. With few exceptions, most of the time these improvements are small and touch areas that do not usually affect the quality of the photo. Maybe they add a GPS receiver so that the camera records the location where it was taken on the photo itself. Or maybe they add a new resolution to record video so that the camera starts to record in 4 different resolutions instead of 3 for example. Sometimes they make the camera a few more megapixels, like 24 megapixels instead of 20.
I know what you’re thinking: Just because these improvements are minimal doesn’t mean we have to avoid those cameras. Although they are not going to improve our photographic quality, what difference does it make? It is understood that the camera does not go back. Gets better. Little, but it improves.
So what’s wrong with getting that latest model?
The problem is mainly its price. For the simple fact of being an improved model, recently launched on the market, traditionally the latest generation always costs a lot, a lot of money, much more than the previous generation that it “improves”.
I could personally understand this if the difference in performance justified it. The problem is that when this difference is minimal, as we have been saying, is it reasonable to pay 300 and sometimes 600 euros of difference just to be able to boast of having the latest generation of cameras?
If you are an amateur photographer and your interest is to find a good SLR camera, from a solid brand in the market, with a good balance between current features, affordable price, maximum compatibility with lenses and accessories, and ease, great ease of use for Beginner photographer, my article with the best SLR cameras for beginners is one of the most viewed and commented on here on the blog. I recommend you take a look at it. I would put my hand in the fire for any of the cameras that I recommend in that article.
See selection of the Best SLR Photo Cameras
I hope that the article has helped you to distinguish the type of camera that you really need as an amateur photographer. Not all cameras are worth. And remember, it’s not all that glitters.
That is all for today. If you have enjoyed this reading, express it with the Facebook, Twitter or Google+ buttons 🙂 – Thanks in advance.