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Ed Green

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Ed Green
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Approximately £2,000 has been left to me and I would like to get serious about my photography. City breaks, a trip to The Gambia are planned for this year and in addition to street and travel my day to day interests are landscape and a bit of macro. Can one system cover all things or should I consider parallel systems?

Advice and suggestions gratefully received.
 
Hi Ed.

As I'm sat with a cup of tea I'll have a go :D

Have you any idea what you want? Full frame? (35mm equivalent,) APS-C? Micro Four Thirds? Interchangeable lens or fixed lens?

Assuming you want to go digital the world is going mirrorless these days (rather than DSLR's) but a new mirrorless full frame (35mm equivalent) camera might blow the budget as a new Sony A7iv is about f2.5k, and that's without a lens. Buying used could increase your buying power though. Are you willing to buy used?

As you don't mention fast moving stuff like sports or birds in flight maybe something with less than state of the art focusing could be an option?

For £2k I think I'd look at Micro Four Thirds, there's a good choice of cameras both new and on the used market and there's a wide choice of lenses with some bargains available used. Plus the kit is relatively small and that could be an advantage for street and travel stuff. Or, I have a first generation Sony A7 which is a full frame mirrorless camera and I often take it out with just one lens and when I'm lucky enough to go on holiday I take the A7 with a 35mm f2.8 and a 1" sensor compact with a 25-250mm zoom. That kit would come in well under budget.
 
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I would look at a Fuji xt3 and a selection of lenses. Great camera
 
5d MK3, Nikon d700 etc or even 1dx can be had for not much of their original cost. Obviously lenses will add up to considerably more but I could clearly pick up some reasonable photo kit depending on jobs from the likes of eBay. £2k won't cover everything but it could cover quite a bit
 
Sony RX10 IV covers everything and leaves money for extra batteries....
 
OK, a different question - how important is weight and bulk? Is big, heavy kit fine or do you need smaller and lighter stuff?

My feeling is £2k isn't much for an outfit covering everything from city to wildlife, and that will shape your choices.
 
I'm going to take a different tack and suggest a s/h Sony A72 and for lenses, well with street photography zone focusing and using the sunny 16 rule works well so you could get away with a manual focus lens like the excellent little 7Artisans 35mm f2 or the TTartisan 35mm or 50mm f1.4 all are great lenses at pocket friendly prices, you'd need to add a Leica M mount adaptor for about 30 quid. Laowa make excellent 2x or more macro lenses for around 400 quid and hopefully you'll have enough left to get something a little wider for landscapes
 
Sorry but when anyone mentions sunny 16 I want to scream as there is IMO just need for it these days as are people really going to do all that mental gymnastics when you can go zone, hyperfocal or Merklinger with auto ISO and even with auto ISO and exposure compensation?

I use manual lenses a lot but sunny 16 is just something that never even begins to even think about crossing my mind as even a remote possibility and imo is something that should be used only when appropriate as a last resort and as a deliberate decision. Otherwise just let the auto ISO do it.
 
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