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Beginner Photography Recommendations

TL;DR

My best baseline recommendation for beginners buying their first camera in Q1 2026 without knowing their specific needs and preferences is:

  • Camera Body: Fujifilm X-T50
  • Camera Lens: Fujinon XC 15-45mm F3.5-5.6 OIS PZ
  • Memory Card: SanDisk V30 64GB SD Card
  • Memory Card Reader: Anything will do.
  • Lens Cleaning:
  • Also set aside a budget of around $800 AUD in case you want to buy a new lens and some accessories. (The lens I recommended above is my best baseline recommendation for beginners because of its price, compact size, and good enough flexibility to allow you to explore how you like to do photography before committing to a more specialized and expensive lens.)

The links above are only for reference. You should shop around for the cheapest price.

For nuance and alternative recommendations and their pros and cons, read on.

Disclaimer

I don’t have ready access to photography equipment other than my own. I’m not a camera reviewer or professional photographer. I own one camera system and a set of gear that I love, so I’m largely going by general sentiment on the internet for anything I’m not familiar with.

Who is this guide for?

This guide is for people who are:

  • completely brand new to photography,
  • don’t own a camera yet (aside from a phone),
  • are specifically interested in modern digital mirrorless/DSLR cameras (not film), and
  • don’t have “unusual needs” (e.g. a macro lens for closeups, or a huge telephoto lens to photograph wildlife from extreme distances).

This guide will be especially useful if you’re interested in use-cases such as:

  • travel,
  • capturing memories of friends and family,
  • street photography, and
  • food (without a macro lens).

Additionally, video is not my primary interest, so I won’t be considering video for any advice below. (However, the gear will often shoot video perfectly fine anyway.)

I’m based in Australia, so links to specific products may be specific to Australia.

If you don’t meet the “criteria” above, this guide might still be useful to you, but you’ll need to do further research for your situation.

Why not phone photography?

TODO

Things to look for when purchasing your first camera

You can’t really go wrong with any modern camera. Just be sure to look up reviews just in case there are any red flags.

Below is a list of things I personally look for.

Size/Weight

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In-Body Image Stabilization (IBIS)

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Interchangeable Lens Cameras vs. Fixed Lens Cameras

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Lenses

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Megapixels/Resolution

More megapixels doesn’t always mean better. It can be better if you know what you’re doing and can maximize the benefits, or it can be worse if you shoot in poor lighting. More megapixels is also usually more expensive. It’s all a tradeoff. Even new recently-released high-end cameras might “only” have 20MP, or much lower to take advantage of the benefits.

To most people, I reckon the main benefit to higher megapixel count is that it provides flexibility to crop while retaining detail. If you want this flexibility, I find that my 33 megapixel Sony α7C II has plenty of megapixels for me.

Generally, I reckon 20MP is a reasonable minimum that I’d aim for. Lower can still be alright, and higher is obviously great too.

Sensor Size

TODO

User Experience

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Specific gear recommendations

This section is up to date as of Q1 2026.

Used gear?

You should first consider whether you’re interested in used gear.

I personally don’t purchase used camera gear so I don’t have advice for it, but I often hear it recommended to all photographers (both new and experienced). I reckon used gear is worth looking into.

The camera I recommend to most people

TODO: Talk about the Fujifilm X-T50 with the 15-45mm kit lens

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TODO: Talk about the Sony α7C II

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TODO: I should find some more cameras, particularly ultra-compact fixed-lens cameras, micro four thirds, and cheaper cameras without IBIS.

You will need to buy these as well

When getting into a new hobby/activity for the first time, it can be easy to misjudge how much you’ll be spending. So before purchasing your first camera, you should be prepared for the additional expenses that may come up and budget accordingly.

The items below are things I highly recommend planning for and/or buying early on in your photography journey.

Memory Cards

My general size recommendation is 64GB per memory card. For many, it should be plenty. It should be able to store over 1000 raw photos from a Sony α7C II from my experience.

My general speed recommendation is V30 (see this article for more information about memory card speed classes). It might not be fast enough for maximum quality video, and your stills burst speed may be limited, but I feel like V30 strikes the right balance between cost and performance. I personally use V30 memory cards for everyday use (and I use faster memory cards only when I need them). And even then, V30 can still be overkill for a lot of people.

You should at least purchase a memory card from a reputable brand like SanDisk and purchase from a reputable store. It’s worth spending a bit more to avoid fake/counterfeit products with significant reliability issues or fake capacity.

Counterfeits are known to make it to genuine product listings on Amazon. Use Amazon at your own risk.

REMINDER: Before purchasing the memory card, ensure that it’s compatible with the camera body. (For example: an SD card won’t fit a camera that only accepts microSD cards.)

On memory card lifespan…

It’s very well-known that memory cards (and SSDs) have a limited lifespan based on how often you write to the card.

I use and abuse my SD cards, taking at least 500 photos every time I leave the house. This is the main reason I use V30 memory cards for daily use. It strikes the right balance of cost and performance, where cost also considers that these SD cards are expendable and will probably have to be replaced. Faster SD cards can be really expensive.

Memory card lifespan may also influence the card size you purchase, though I’m not familiar with the technology on preventing memory card failure. In engineering, there is this recurring concept called wear leveling where you prevent problems/failure by spreading out the wear and tear. If memory cards don’t do wear levelling and you buy a 1TB SD card while only ever using 30GB of it, the circuitry that holds just that first 30GB will wear down so fast and cause the entire SD card to fail, meaning that you’d have been better off just getting a 32GB SD card (or a 64GB SD card to give yourself a bit of headroom). However, I don’t know if memory cards these days implement wear leveling.

Memory Card Reader

Buy one if you don’t already have one.

Lens Cleaning Supplies

These are all the cleaning items that I use regularly:

In my opinion, you should also purchase items like these. Specific products/brands are only provided for reference. You don’t need to purchase the exact same brands that I linked above (and some of these are expensive, like the Fjällräven Gear Bag), but I recommend finding products of equal or better quality/reputation.

You can probably also find some (or all?) of these items in a kit.

I don’t recommend using the same microfibre cloth that you use for eyeglasses or other items. Your lens cloth should be dedicated to lenses only.

WARNING: If you buy a cleaning kit with sensor swabs, you must ensure that the swabs are the appropriate size for your camera sensor. For example, this one has sensor swabs for APS-C cameras. These swabs are too small for a full-frame camera, and too big for a micro 4/3 camera. (Note that you probably don’t need the sensor swabs unless you own more than one lens.)

Camera bags?

When you’re starting out, any bag will do, within reason. You do NOT need a special camera bag. In fact, getting a bag that looks like a camera bag will probably attract thieves. If you need to buy a new bag that can hold your camera, look for something normal-looking. You should get a bag that you’d still use whether or not it contains a camera.

My Uniqlo Round Mini Shoulder Bag is my camera bag, though it only holds the camera if I put a small lens on it. If I have a larger lens attached, I just put the whole camera in a standard backpack, making sure there aren’t any loose items that can damage it (e.g. a heavy metal flashlight), and making sure I don’t accidentally slam my bag down or knock it on anything.

Your needs will vary, but this should give you an idea of how you might approach planning out your camera carry. For example, if you travel or need the extra protection anyway (e.g. if you’re a bit rough with your backpack), you might need a padded packing cube to put your camera into.

Basically, just make sure you have something reasonable to carry your camera, and budget/purchase accordingly.

Additional hard drives or SSDs?

Set aside a budget to buy additional hard drives and SSDs according to your needs. I don’t really have any specific recommendations. It really depends on your usage and/or how much you care about keeping files around.

100 GB should be able to store around 2000 raw photos from a Sony α7C II.

Anything else?

Once you’ve sorted out the above, you got all the basics! There isn’t much else that’s absolutely necessary.

You should budget for these in case you need them

Before purchasing your camera, you should budget for the items below.

You might not need these items just yet (or at all), but they’re things that you’re likely to buy or consider quite early. Planning for them now will help avoid making photography more expensive than you expected.

Camera Straps

Camera bodies often already come with a simple and perfectly functional strap, but lack the convenience of a good detachable strap.

I recommend first trying the strap the camera body comes with, but setting aside a budget of at least the price of a Peak Design Leash and/or a Peak Design Cuff for later (depending on how you see yourself using your camera) in case the strap the camera came with doesn’t work well for you.

Software

I recommend budgeting for a possible Adobe Lightroom recurring subscription in a 1-year locked-in contract. You don’t necessarily need Lightroom right at the start of your photography journey, or you might never want it at all, but you should at least prepare yourself for the cost. It’s expensive, but it’s convenient, it’s industry standard, and I personally pay for and use it.

To begin your photography journey, you can start with no editing at all, just using the photo editing utilities your phone already comes with, or using some other free software. You should easily be able to find some free software on the internet (such as this 2025 article by Micro Four Nerds).

And when you come around to seeking paid software, you should consider alternatives to Lightroom. There is no shortage of hate for Adobe on the internet, the software is incredibly expensive, and the subscription terms are predatory on the user’s finances. In particular, Lightroom is an annual contract, and early cancellation after 14 days will incur a fee of 50% of the total cost of the remaining months (as of writing in Q1 2026). And in my experience, cancellation is a massive headache. Adobe intentionally obscures and maximizes the friction of cancelling a subscription.

Extra Batteries

I personally find it enough to carry only one spare battery. This seems to be enough to last a full day out of the house.

Do NOT buy unbranded batteries. They degrade much faster and carry a higher risk of burning your house down. (I personally take the extra step to only buy first-party batteries, but they’re expensive and I’m sure third-party batteries from reputable brands are probably fine too.)

Additional Lenses

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Sensor Cleaning Supplies

If you own more than one lens and you swap lenses regularly, you will need sensor cleaning supplies. But if you only own one lens or you don’t swap lenses often, you can probably just wait until the dust on your sensor is causing you problems. Even if you only own one lens and never take the lens off, dust might still migrate into the camera body and stick to the sensor over time, but it hopefully happens slow enough that you don’t need to worry for a long time.

(In my opinion, even if you notice dust when you look at the sensor directly with your eyes, you should avoid cleaning the sensor unless the dust is actually showing up in your images. Dust becomes more noticeable at higher f-stops and when shooting smooth featureless things like a clear blue sky or a blank sheet of paper, so when you determine whether you need to clean your sensor, you should take into account the type of photography that you do.)

To clean your sensor, you will need:

  • sensor cleaning swabs, and
  • sensor cleaning fluid.

A kit like this VSGO APS-C sensor cleaning kit will do the job.

IMPORTANT: You must ensure that the swabs are the appropriate size for your camera sensor.

Replacement Lens Cleaning Supplies

Just be aware that as you use your lens cleaning supplies, you may need to eventually replace some of these items.

Things you might want to get in the future

Beyond the basic items above, you should also get an idea of how expensive additional items might be as you get deeper into photography.

A Grey Card

TODO

Tripods

TODO

Lights and Flashes

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Lens Filters

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Stuff you probably don’t need

TODO