Might have as much as $1600, but the more saved the better. Also need a lens.
Sony A7r - $434 (well used condition) Sony A7r II - $949 (like new condition) Sony A7r III - $1299 (excellent condition)
Looking at mpb.com. Are the features and improvements worth it for each iteration?
I enjoy urban/street night photography, urban decay, landscapes, and want to get in to portraiture.
EDIT: I have also, and would still include the Panasonic LUMIX S5, and the Fujifilm X-T5.
Not sure if this is helpful to you or not, but I actually learned a lot about used equipment by searching ebay. Most camera sellers are pretty honest about any flaws in their equipment, so through their close-up shots I learned about spotting fungus and mold inside a lens, checking the mirror for any damage, and that shutter count is important. The things I learned from searching through those listings provided the direction needed for further research and eventually I was spotting things not mentioned by less scrupulous sellers. If you’re just starting out, browsing through hundreds of sales can teach you a bit.
Sorry I can’t help with the particular cameras you are asking about (I actually shoot with Canon equipment), but I’m sure someone else will be along that can help with that.
I’ve been shooting for years, and I also use Canon. I just have never loved it, want to switch to mirrorless, and love the tonal quality of the Sony images.
Ah cool, I’ve only been using a DSLR for a few years now. It’s not my primary hobby, but I’ve put a bit of time into learning various techniques and have a handful of used lenses. So far I haven’t had a reason to go mirrorless, but I imagine some day I’ll probably get there.
I would generally suggest if you’re at all budget limited to consider not going full frame, even used the good lenses tend to be a lot more money. The second thing is from what I can tell, almost all cameras from the last 10 years or so can output the same color science and tones via editing the RAWs. Depending on your OS and RAW editor there are even some third party tools (for like 200 bucks or less) that can bulk emulate just about any other camera defaults for any camera. So again, if you want to save money, bang for buck is going to be getting better at editing and maybe buying specific software tools.
That all said, I also totally get it if you want to minimize editing and find another SooC jpeg engine more pleasing. Plenty of people get Fuji just because of that. However it’s pretty expensive to switch camera systems to change the jpeg output slightly so I would be pretty sure I really liked that output before switching. I would rent the system for a week and make sure it’s doing what I want, and compare the whole process of using the other system and make sure it works for me.
Of the listed Sony cameras, I think the only one I would consider worthwhile would be the A7Riii.
The Panasonic is rather video focused and the Fuji is completely different. For good SooC people do like Fuji, it’ll be lighter and smaller but probably not cheaper necessarily. It would help if I had some idea what you wanted the camera to do as the choices seem literally all over the map to me.
So this may be late to respond but like…I shoot still photography and spent $50 on a used Nikon D60 (2008 era entry level DSLR) as an experiment to see if I could get images as good as my Nikon D5500, cleaned it up, and surprise surprise, it works just fine. Image quality is comparable if you know what you’re doing (I got it at MPB.com, by the way). At 10 megapixels the sensor leaves plenty of room for cropping if you make a slight mistake or whatever. I’ve also picked up a few inexpensive older lenses there- and same thing, no need to spend a fortune on new gear, especially if you’re shooting DSLR. Used gear completely changed the game for me.
I would recommend if you go MPB getting excellent or like new condition on the camera body though regardless of what you do.
Mirrorless I can’t talk about, but I do know it’s way pricier. As a final note I’m ironically using the D60 exclusively for now because it’s simpler and I’m teaching myself all the old film theory and other things I didn’t learn properly about cameras with a simpler camera before I go back to the more advanced and powerful gear I shelled out on years ago. I’ve learned so much doing that so fast it isn’t even funny.