Great video. Equipment is only as good as the person behind it, so that is a great point that you made Julia. I have taken some of my most iconic wildlife and people photos with point and shoot, same with macro in times. Of course it was easier to do the same when I upgraded to much better and more powerful, faster cameras and lenses, but the basics that I learned with very limited cameras still help me today. Great video as usual and great points. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and suggestions.
"Equipment is only as good as the person behind it" generally yes, but when you combine your skills with really good tools it makes the world of difference. I shoot sports mainly and if you go from not having a fast lens or a really good AF system to having all of those tools you'll be capturing stuff you never thought you could.
@@zebr I agree, no argument there. Of course, that is what I also say in the rest of my comment, but I have seen people with 10k of equipment not able to know what to do with it, so it is a bit of both, but the person behind the camera is the key to success, good equipment is of course helpful in situations such as sports, wildlife or anything else. Agreed.
@@zebrbut it comes with a very steep price, that principle Never always applies. Really depends what you shoot, portraits, landscapes and street photos, DSLRs are more than enough
Julia: Another excellent video. Your scripts are always so well written. I wish that more people could write that well. I do have another reason or two to upgrade. As your skill level improves, you may find that the body you are using is holding you back. I learned on a hand me down Canon EOS Rebel with two kit lenses. After I'd shot with it for a year or two, I found that the camera did not have the capabilities required to get the shots that I wanted. That was when I switched to an A7Riii. Also (perhaps this falls under ergonomics), weight and size reductions for both bodies and lenses is a really good reason to upgrade. If you don't have to carry around as much weight, your back will thank you.
OMG! This is what I’ve been looking for! You are so professional and well spoken. Being a young photographer who recently got in the game this is so helpful. Also those sample photos are fire! Thanks so much!
I love your videos, easy to understand and you know your stuff. Thanks for that. Not sure which of the videos above is shooting situations and focal lengths? Very interested in that. Thanks in advance!
Great video Julia, if i personally could give you an award for this video. No doubt i would have done it. Because that's what this video deserves. The way how you explain and clearify a lot of facts is really great. If someone would ask me for advice about this topic, then this video will be defitnately be one of my recommendations. A true must see!
Been an a7iii user since 2018 and gad to buy/upgrade to another camera so decided to go with another a7iii used for £750 and 1000 shutter actuations. Camera bodies and lenses are really good these days and the only thing holding us back is your creativity although is difficult when you've been diagnosed with GAS, 9 lenses and counting...😅
Today you have already begun to attract me as a photographer, I live in Georgia and it is of great interest to me to get to the USA and shoot people and nature from you, to get to know your culture better🤩
last time I had this question I went camera and then lense. THe reason I upgraded was simple, I wanted a lense that with my old camera did not offer AF so that is a requirement for me, I do not like manual focus so I dols my D5600 and went for a D7500 and latter bought the 10-20 lense, that was in 2019 and ever since I have not purchase a better camera and only purchase lenses. Thabks for the video!
Than you, Julia. You summarised that topic really well. I have a question for about travelling in Europe. Post COVID, are more tourist sites, like ancient buildings restricting the size of your carry bag? I am planning a trip to Greece and I want to take 3 x prime lens and 1 x telezoom lens, but my sister thinks I won’t get a Messenger-sized bag into many tourist attractions. Did you experience any problems on your travels? Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately I can't help you out too much there, when I travel and know I will be going to places like that, I usually like to decide on a single lens and just take that with me all day without a camera bag. When I do have a small bag I personally haven't run into issues, but you might want to check if there is any info about it on each website, every place you visit will have different rules!
Really depends on what camera and lense each one have. Personally, the a7iv is the best upgrade if you're using any cameras before a7s3 (e.g. a7iii, a7r4, a7c, etc). The QoL improvements, Eye AF imorovements, colour profiles, tilt and flip screen, are all substantial. Lens on the other hand, is more about investing in faster glass, or filling in focal length gaps in your kit. Any modern lenses can be sharp enough with good lighting, what matters are under bad lighting conditions, where the difference between fast f1.2/f1.4 primes vs f4 zoom is night and day.
Really just comes down to how old the body is. I upgraded to a Z5 from a D3200 and the difference is night and day. Not necessarily in image quality, but in the features that make photography infinitely more enjoyable than if I were fussing around with the ancient D3200 still. And now I'm set for another 5+ years minimum. Anyone with a body less than a few years old, lenses are the easy choice.
From a stills photo perspective, Sensor Image quality from 10 years ago hasn't changed that much. It stagnated, While newer lenses have lepfrogged their older counterparts. Lens, lens, lens,....unless you shoot a lot of fast moving subjects and video to boot, then that's a different story. Mirrorless isn't always the better choice, you can get that same image quality by buying older bodies and good second hand lenses from Sigma ( Art) and Tamron ( SP) AT A SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER PRICE. Know your niche, like, what you shoot 80 percent of the entire time, if it's not necessary, then don't splurge unnecessary amounts of cash in order to get the latest and the greatest. Just to give an example, a used decent full frame plus a used Sigma Art 35 mm 1.4 or 50mm 1.4 would cost you in the ballpark of roughly $800...on a Mirrorless counterpart, it would cost you more than double, with more or less the same image quality. Photography doesn't need to be expensive
It is only 2 times you really need to upgrade your camera when it breaks or no longer suits your needs. You started off as a photographer now you want to do hybrid shooting.
Defintely upgrade the lens first. Camera body in term of image quality dont have much changes for the last 10 years. The only improvement is buffer and auto focus speed. .. if shooting slow or static subject. Camera body is not important.
Obviously you shoot with dslr with no video required but there is all the difference in the last 2 years, not to mention 10 years, lol. From dslr to mirorless it's night and day difference 🤌🏻
Image quality may not have improved by a ton, but usability and an incredible number of features on newer cameras just make the experience of actually taking photos exponentially better. I replaced my D3200 with a Z5 and the difference is unreal. May be able to shoot static subjects similarly, but the newer body opens up an incredible number of options for other types of shots I'd never contemplate trying on a D3200.
And here I am buying another a7iii in 2023 😅 I've bought my first a7iii in 2018 and needed a second body so I bought a sh a7iii for £750 with just 1000 shutter actuations. Wanted a7iv or a7rv but a7iii is still a very good camera at quarter of the price.
It indirectly affects it (kinda). A 50mm lens will have the same DoF no matter the sensor size. This is pure physics. 50m f/1.8 will give you the same DOF across all formats. The difference in bokeh is because one has to move forwards or backwards to obtain a similar Field of View (or use wider/tighter lenses depending on format). This movement changes the relationship of the distance between camera - subject - background and hence affects the bokeh. You have equivalent lenses such as a 12mm on micro four thirds, 16mm on APS-C, and 24mm on FF. Just be sure to multiply the aperture by crop factor to get a rough equivalence for DoF and ISO performance. So these following images will have similar to near identical images/image quality assuming sensors of the same generation. MFT: 12mm f/2, ISO 200 APS-C: 16mm f/2.8 ISO 400 Full frame: 24mm f/4 ISO 800.
well, it depends. for example, if you have an old crappy dlsr like Nikon d3000 series or Canon 500d series, it's always better getting a newer DSLR or ideally a new mirrorless system. no matter how the lens good is, you'll still have to struggle with poor iso performance, less sharpness and most awfully - bad AF. on the other hand, good AF won't slow you down and you'll be able to rely more on things like composition, poses, colours instead of focusing each time when you make a slight movement (especially on wide-aperture lenses), moreover some genres of photography are nearly impossible like sports, documentary etc. due to poor AF and slower frame rates. surely, you can try shootings sports with 3 fps, but it'll feel like hell
@@HiThere-y8m I agree with you however, all things being equal, for me it is lens first! I was planning on selling my Sony 90mm macro and Sigma 100-400mm to upgrade to the Sony A7IV, however with the introduction of the new 70-200 macro, I've change my mind and will be selling the aforementioned lenses to get the new 70-200mm macro. But, that just me!
@@HiThere-y8m Exactly. Body over lens if the body is ancient. Lens over body if you have anything made in the last few years. There is a night and day difference.
Gear matters. If you can't get a better image out of a better camera, then you are the problem, not the camera. However, better cameras for different people are different cameras. And you have explained all the details in this video very nicely. Well done! 😉
Not a single photographer I’ve ever seen, myself included, is being held back by their gear. I’m not talking about expanding scope of work e.g. wanting to expand services to aerial photography but lacking a drone to do that. I’m speaking about raw talent. That being said I’d invest in more diverse quality glass before more expensive and mostly useless megapixels.
If this was really how things work in Photography, then Leica would never be able to sell a single Leica M camera or Leica M lens. But they do and they cost thousands of dollars a piece. A camera and a lens to Julia is "just a tool" like a hammer or rotary drill or a Kenworth Prime Mover truck or a forklift - a tool to get a job done. Its a very very very cold way of looking at things. I think a camera and its user is a relationship and the camera should work as an extension of the person. Lenses too should convey some sort of relationship of a subject within the world. I think that this video is too robotic: "Robot says: if your lens has CA's and you cannot remove CA's, get rid of lens by throwing in garbage, then buy new lens". Instead you can actually use that lens in a way that any unwanted aberrations do not appear - know the limitations of the gear and work within those limitations. "Robot says: if your camera is not good in low light then throw in rubbish bin and buy new camera".......... Such a throw away society. I've bought mirrorless lenses that had issues like monster flaring + bloom, and and another that had zero 3D pop or dimensionality, but aberrations were so well corrected that the lens was dull and bland and clinically boring. "I bought this vintage lens and it sucks because of the aberrations, and I hate it" But 50 years ago people were having the same problem with that lens and losing money on wasted film, until they WORKED OUT how to get the most out of it, because they couldn't throw it away and buy the latest and greatest, as thats all there was. This generation cannot problem solve anything, and expect everything to work they want it to work, and if it doesn't, it goes in the bin.