Best Photography Equipment For Beginners

I’m a HUGE advocate that you do not need the best and most expensive camera equipment to get amazing images. As long as you know the fundamentals of photography (good lighting, exposure, etc..) then you can get amazing photographs no matter what equipment you have. Odds are when you are first starting out you don’t have all the money in the world to dump on fancy equipment that you may not even understand how it works.

Here is a free pdf download to take with you of all the equipment recommendations.

I’m going to share with you the best camera equipment for beginners in photography that I recommend to anyone starting out. I will also share some tips on how to save yourself to money.

I will say that I’m biased to Canon as that is all I have ever used and love the brand. That doesn’t mean other brands do not make good products, but I will only ever recommend equipment/products that I have personal used and can testify to.

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Tip #1 Buy Camera Body Only

Save yourself some money and buy the camera body only (meaning no kit lenses). And purchase a lens I’m recommending instead. Most of the time these ‘camera bundles’ they try to upsell you on are not even worth it in my opinion. Now, if you there isn’t much of a difference or the bundle is even cheaper for some reason that is fine. But don’t waste hundreds of dollars on a bundle.

Camera bodies I recommend for beginners in photography are:

Tip #2: Buy Used Equipment

Don’t be afraid to buy used camera equipment. I always bought used when I first started, because I knew once I made some money I could upgrade later. You can save a lot of money that way.

Some things to look out for if buying used equipment is to see if the camera has a low shutter count. Ideally you want to be around 20,000 – 50,000. Anything above 100,000 shutter count should be avoided as the camera was used a lot and will not last you very long. Also of course look at the seller reviews/rating and see if they have any guarantees and what their refund policy is if you get the equipment and was not what you were hoping for.

Camera lenses I recommend for beginner photographers are:

Canon 50mm 1.8: Retails for $100 – $150 (I abosolutely love this lens and used it 90% of the time the first 4 years of my portrait business)

Canon 75 – 300mm zoom lens: Retails for about $125 (I really good beginning zoom lens that won’t break the bank)

Beginner Light Modifiers

• Go to local fabric store and buy a couple yards of sheer white fabric ($10)
• Buy a couple sheets of white poster board ($3)
• 5-in-1 Reflector: Retails for about $25 – $50

Beginner Editing Software

• Lightroom
• Photoshop

Sign up for Creative cloud for only $10/month to get BOTH of these programs – OR – just start with Lightroom

If you didn’t already grab your free checklist, here is a free pdf download to take with you of all the equipment recommendations.

You do not need all of these to get started but I would definitely recommend buying the camera body, 50mm lens, poster board and Lightroom to get started. That could literally be less than $500 to get professional gear that will get you well on your way to starting in photography.

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