Buying First Camera - Need Advice

Question

So, I am thinking of buying my first camera. I have searching on the internet and landed on a few models that seem convincing to me. The Fujifilm X-A7 and X-T200 are the one I am interested in buying. Ofcourse, I am confused as to who to pick, so I am asking here. Overall I would like a Camera in which I can shoot photos and videos bo

Answer 1

I think you are looking at this problem from the wrong perspective.

You're thinking about what camera to buy. The camera isn't the device that creates the photograph. It's only the device that converts the light in the photograph into digital information. The lens is the device that creates the photograph. The camera has some specifications:

• What size the image sensor is (both Fujifilm cameras have APC-C sized sensors) and how many megapixels does the image sensors have -- the sensor size affects what field of view lenses give and how much light can be collected
• How well it can direct the lens to achieve perfect focus, and how it can find the focus
• How many images it can take per second -- affects if you do wildlife or sports photography or any photography where you need the camera to take a large burst of photos in quick succession
• How well it can amplify the signal in low light conditions -- but note, nearly all cameras today are so good at this the main limitation is the amount of light. No camera can overcome the fact that light occurs in discrete photons, so you can get only 1 count, 2 counts, 3 counts etc. and never for example 2.5 counts. Note usually cameras made in the same year have the same generation technology, so every 2021 camera will be very similar, and for example far better than every 2001 camera
• Does it have stabilization in the image sensor, although in most systems lenses already have stabilization so the additional stabilization in the camera body is limited and the lenses do the main job, although stabilization in camera can be useful for short unstabilized lenses

But the main specifications of the photograph -- what the field of view / magnification is (or range of field of views if you're using a zoom lens), how close you can focus, how much light you can collect, how large or small depth of field does the image have, are made by the lens.

I'd look at this decision from a different perspective. First, decide what you are going to take photos of. Then, decide on a set of lenses that will satisfy your requirements, for several different camera systems. Then decide on the camera system. Most likely the crucial differentiator between systems is not how good cameras there are for the system, but rather how appropriate the lenses in the system are for your usage.

In some cases, if taking photos in low-light situations (indoors is always low light!) you might want to pick a flash or even multiple off-camera flashes for your equipment too.