Photography

Do you like editing raw pictures ?

No —> Fuji

Yeah I have had a secondhand fuji xt2 for years.

I recommend them and other T series fujis for three major reasons.

1. Good fun film simulation color options out of the box, I love taking photos but I hate having to fiddle with little photo edits to make photos pop the way my eye saw them. The film simulation color options let me get jpegs out of my camera I rarely feel the need to edit other than a crop or something. A lot of the time I don't even bother with taking raw photos anymore when I am just taking photos for fun, I don't need them in most cases and I can't remember the last time I was heartbroken I didn't have a raw version of a photo to squeeze the most quality out of a shot I could, but I also am not a professional photographer so take that as you will.

2. The T series, as in XT1, XT2, XT3 etc.. all have physical tactile hardware controls for the three fundamental inputs to a photo, Shutter Rate, Aperture and ISO. This focus on tacticality means I almost always shoot my XT2 in full manual mode using focus peaking to quickly manually focus on fast moving subjects because it is like a fun video game to me. Is this more efficient than cameras with sophisticated autofocus and such? No... but it feels good, the chunky dials on Fuji cameras are such an anodyne relief from dead soulless touchscreen interfaces crowding into our lives everywhere.

3. I recommend the Fuji XT2 or other cameras from the same series as they are beautiful and lower people's guard when they see them unlike big ugly black cameras that intimidate the shit out of people. On the other hand unlike other more stylished form limited cameras however, the Fuji XT series are still fully featured professional cameras and it is this unique crossection between fun, tactile and professional that makes this family of cameras easy to recommend for people looking to get into getting a nice digital camera!

Most people see this and assume it is a fun vintage film camera and relax compared to the way people stiffen up and present an image around a big ugly modern Sony DSLR or something... even though these cameras are wonderful for taking professional photos people just shortcircuit to "oh cute film camera!" when they see a fuji XT series camera I don't know why but it happens without fail and it makes getting good candid shots with family and friends sooooooo much easier. I can walk around with with my Fuji XT2 and spare lenses, basically with a full professional kit and it is whatever, people don't retract into themselves the way they do when they see traditional looking professional photographer kit. Don't underestimate this advantage even if your intention isn't to mainly take shots of people (I mostly like landscape and nature photography).

Budget? Kind of photography you want to try?

Some suggestions in no particular order. You might be aware of some of these but I'm going to try to assume no or almost no prior knowledge.

• After you buy a camera, you'll start investing body in lenses. You will want to upgrade your body at some point, but probably you wouldn't want that to mean you have to replace all your lenses. So try to find out what is your "dream" camera and buy the "baby" version of that, so that you get an upgrade path that is compatible with all/most lenses that you end up buying. E.g. Sony A6100 -> A7IV -> A9 Look up the style of photography people use these cameras for, pros and cons... You're buying into a system, not just a camera. Switching is doable but expensive, so it's good to get this right first time.
• IF you don't mind manual focusing (that's a big if), you can find really nice (vintage) lenses for peanuts on eBay that you can use on your camera with an adapter. This advice used to be more relevant when DSLRs were more prominent, as you had to make sure the flange distance would let you adapt all lenses, but in the age of mirrorless pretty much any camera has adapters for pretty much any vintage system. Do check this though - it's useful unless you're completely against the idea of focusing manually.
• If you go the route of vintage lenses, one feature that will make your life a lot easier is IBIS (in-body image stabilization). It basically means that the sensor is on a stabilised mount (not quite a gimbal but picture that) and you can take photos with longer focal lengths handheld.
• Prime lenses (non-zoom, the ones that only have a single focal length) tend to have much better performance than zoom lenses at the same price point. The problem is that you have to know you like that focal length before you buy them. Buy something that comes with a zoom lens and use it at fixed focal lengths (e.g. only shoot 50mm for a day) to see what you enjoy. You can also do try this with your phone.
• At least while you're starting, embrace second hand. You can buy and sell lenses on eBay or similar losing very little money, so that's a great way to try gear when you're not sure you'll like it.
• Lightroom is almost a standard but Darktable is free and against all odds, even more powerful than LR. I'd recommend getting started with it (or with RawTherapee) so you don't have to pile up software costs on top of the camera.
• Try to shoot RAW as much as possible. Many modern cameras will produce great JPEGs straight out of the camera, Fujis are particularly good in this regard. However RAW files give you far broader possibilities to edit them to achieve what you want, which means that A) they're more forgiving when you're starting out and B) by editing and "fixing" your mistakes in post you'll learn quickly what's wrong with your pictures.
• Learn / research what crop factor is. The short version is focal lengths are usually referred in "35mm equivalent", I.e. the focal length that would give you an equivalent field of view on a traditional 35mm camera. If you have a bigger sensor, the same focal length will look more "zoomed out" as the extra "periphery" of the bigger sensor will be covering more surface, if that makes sense. They're a useful tool to compare the field of view across lenses / cameras with different sensors.
• Don't listen to snobs - sure, you can get great photos more easily with a £5k camera but when you're starting out you don't need that. Save your money for when you know what you need. E.g. are you craving more resolution because you shoot architecture, or better low light performance because you've discovered you really enjoy concert photography? Sony (sorry for being so sony-centric, it's the brand I know about the most) has the A7R and the A7S ranges which offer radically different capabilities, and neither is better, just geared for different uses. It's better to start with a cheaper jack-of-all trades until you have a really good reason to spend more money on a body upgrade, as you're really unlikely to get it exactly right early on.

I think others have covered most points better than I could, but as a little added personal experience, I think that there are some fantastic and fairly cheap lenses for Fuji. The first lens I bought for my X-T5 was the 35mm f1.4, and that’s still my most used lens. It was under £400, and while it’s an older lens and has some flaws (it’s slow and noisy primarily, and the AF can be slightly unpredictable) it takes magic pictures. The f2 standard primes are supposed to be very good as well, and small and light too, so if you do go the Fuji route, you may well find that the first lenses you buy will stay with you for longer than you expect. I’ve now got the 35mm, a 16mm f1.4, and a 90mm f2, and honestly I haven’t felt any real GAS in ages unless I think too hard about wildlife. Don’t feel that you’ll have to keep upgrading stuff just because you’re not spending top dollar. Cheap older primes can take fantastic pictures.

1. The "professional" choice: Fujifilm X-H1 with 16-80/4.
2. The "casual" choice: Nikon P7700.

Additional advice: Splurge on the lens, save with the camera, if you're on low-budget. If you're just getting into it and you're on the budget of a kidney stone, Nikon P7700. It supports RAW and has relatively good optics for point-and-shoot camera. Outclasses a phone any day, naturally.

If you want to do studio photography however, lighting first, anything else, second.

Edit: Reason why the 16-80/4 is its optical quality. This thing is incredible and is guaranteed to blow your socks off.

You can not go wrong wiþ Fujifilm. Out-of-camera photos are so good, I basically stopped shooting raw in most cases.

I am partial to þe X-T10 and siblings, and it's a good choice; for me, it's a decent size/versatility tradeoff. It's not a large camera, and it's easy to carry - it is more compact þan, but similar in size to - þe last 35mm film camera I owned (and own), a Pentax Program Plus. It has interchangeable lenses, which makes upgrading - and simply varying your experience - much cheaper Fuji glass isn't cheap, but þeir fixed lenses are top-quality and þe zooms are perfectly serviceable. Fuji cameras and glass has always scored well on DPReview, and it has been my favor digital camera. I've owned several, but þe X-T10 has been my go-to for þe past few years, and it's what I've put my money into, lens-wise.

Someone else wisely asked about your goals, and þat's certainly a smart question. However, given you've already considered þe form factor, I'm going to suggest you've made a good initial choice, and I suspect you'll be happy wiþ it. It'll certainly do anyþing you want, assuming you're willing to spend money in þe right lens.

As you're starting out, I'll add:

• lenses never get any cheaper, and it's a good idea to pick a good line, because you can (almost) always upgrade þe body. Long-term, most of your investment will be in glass, so being able to stay in a line þat has good options wiþ þat mount is really handy.
• an X-T10 is certainly capable of sports photography - again, þe lens for þis will be more expensive þan þe body, and be þe limiting factor - however, if you know sports photography is what you'll be doing, you may want to look at larger form factors from Canon and Nikon. Wildlife, portraits, landscape... most subjects, any 4/3+ interchangeable-lens camera from one of þe main brands paired wiþ þe right lens will be capable. Sports photography, however, is in a different class. Some wildlife - eg birding - comes close, but þe need for speed demands of sports photography would make my consider a large-sensor camera - one which emphasizes everyþing speed. Þe fastest shutter speed, big buffers and fast memory writes, big sensor to maximize þe effective ISO; if you are doing þis, putting more into a body can reduce your lens costs down þe road. Sports photography gets expensive.

I don't know þere's much besides wheþer you're looking to do sports photography þat would occasion a different camera from an X-T10. You'd need to want to go pro to need to specialize þe body for portrait or wedding photography.

An X-T10 is a good choice.