p.1 #1 · Asking for advice - budget camera for beginners?
Hi, I'm a beginner trying to get into the hobby. I don't have a huge budget (~$600) so I'm going to buy used and thought the Sony alpha 6xxx series looked pretty good.
I was saving up to buy a a6100, but I heard I should just save up more and get the a6400. I don't mind using the "kit lens"(?) because I'm not a professional and once I get one I don't plan on upgrading or getting anything else. Maybe I'll get an extra lens but that's way in the future. One of my friends suggested I get a "full frame" but that's way out of my budget.
I'm looking for something with:
- small form factor for travel
- view finder
- don't care about video capabilities
- something that works well in low light
I'm also new to this forum. How come nothing comes up when I search "a6100" in Keywords? Does nobody talk about these because they're old??
Any advice/discussions on where I should buy is also welcome.
Thanks in advance
p.1 #2 · Asking for advice - budget camera for beginners?
I'm going to be different here. I assume you own a cell phone? If so, I would heartily suggest saving your money for now and use that camera more, learning how to compose and even edit jpegs from it. If you get into it further, you're going to want something a bit more robust and eventually will want to shoot in Raw. When that happens, you're going to want to edit more creatively and then you really need a separate program like Adobe's photo package -- which by itself runs a couple hundred bucks per year.
If OTOH you have to have a dedicated, ILCE camera, I would suggest a good used Sony 5100 with the 16-50 kit lens, which is probably right at your budget limit.
p.1 #3 · Asking for advice - budget camera for beginners?
Welcome to the forum!!! I was looking at your location and it turns out you are fairly close. Since your close I did a quick scan of FB marketplace. There is a a6000 with kit lens in tolono for $450. I don't know the guy in Tolono, but he is mutual friends with people I do know. There is also a canon 6d for sale with 50/1.4 lens for $300 in urbana, I'm guessing a student.
I used to own a 6d, ultimately sold it because the focus wasn't as accurate as I wanted. But I think for a starter camera it would be a good choice. It looks like the a6000 needs a charger. For low light, the 6d with the fast prime is a no brainer. I'm not a huge fan of kit lenses so that would be another strike against the a6000.
If you get the Canon you might want to add something like an EF 24-105/4 in the future. I'd wait on that till something used at a good price comes up.
The forum archives posts every year or so. I imagine that is one reason you don't find much on a6100. A lot of people on the forum also tend to shoot very high end gear. For the lower end it seems like most people mention a6000 instead of a6100.
The 6D might be bigger than what you want for travel. If I want small for travel I bring a Canon G7xII that can travel on my belt in a small bag. I tend to like to use high end glass, even on aps-c I wouldn't consider it small for travel. So if I want small I grab the point and shoot, if I want high quality images I grab the a7Rv.
