The Idea
For the artistically inclined, financially driven, practical-minded cog-in-the-wheelers, photography can be a wonderful hobby. There is a meditative effect to going on an early morning hike and seeing the sun rise over the horizon. Capturing candid moments of your kids and family brings a unique fulfillment no professional portrait session could match.
Think of those crispy mornings over a dam, shooting eagles preying on alewives. Those late evening street scenes around your city or foggy mornings on curvy mountain roads. These are moments to be captured, cherished, and revisited— you will be amazed at how much value they add to your memories. These experiences are more than just about capturing the moment—they are acts of creation.
Even if photography isn’t everyone’s passion, it holds universal truths about creativity and the human experience. Every act of creation—no matter how big or small—enriches our lives and shapes the way we perceive the world around us. In the metaphorical tree of creative activities, photography hangs low and ripe, ready for takers to enjoy.
Nevertheless, photography is not for everyone; it needs time, patience, and puts a dent in your savings. For the folks who wish to see tangible outcomes in real time, photography as a hobby may not be the best fit. And that’s okay; the world has so many meaningful things to do!
The Gear
If you are leaning towards taking up this hobby, simply Google ‘gear acquisition syndrome’ before you invest any money on gear. Great photographs can come from the simplest of gears. That said, I firmly believe that there is a strong correlation between the money you spend on gears and your output up to a point. After that, it almost always goes down (think bell curve).
My focus for this article will be digital cameras with interchangeable lenses. This is a deliberate choice over cellphone cameras and is driven by two reasons: a hobby should slow you down, let you connect to the art. While cameras in your phone are powerful, they are too straightforward; the act of creating ends too before your mind could engage and appreciate. Secondly, there is a case to be made for image quality (IQ)— in 2025, full-frame and medium format cameras provide better results than mobile sensors.
That said, I still prefer my iPhone to capture videos of my kids— it’s convenient. But think of a different scenario: say you hiked a few miles to a summit to capture that tranquil sunrise. I would invariably choose a tool with better IQ.
Given all these caveats, let’s talk camera gear: the choice of gear depends so much on your style of photography. But the irony is that most hobbyists don’t really know if they like a specific genre of photography until they try it themselves. I admit it’s a bit like the chicken and egg question. I’ll try my best to help you navigate this peril.
The Lens
Lens and Focal Lengths
When it comes to styles or genres, there is street, landscape, birding, portraits (of humans, animals, and things) photography. My recommendations will revolve around these commonly known genres. Apart from these, there is sports, documentary, journalism, product/cataloging, and special occasions photography. These niche groups are relegated to the professional realm, so I won’t discuss them in this article. Without going so much into the reasoning, I am going to assign a few focal length ranges for each of these photographic genres. Also, all focal length suggestions are based on full-frame sensor specs (will discuss sensor formats later).
Street photography
Street photography can be street scenes— people and stories or urban streetscape, primarily buildings, sunlight, and shadows. Street scenes benefit from a prime lens with a focus length range of 28mm–50mm. While 70mm, 85mm, and 135mm lenses are generally considered unconventional, they work well for urban cityscapes.
Portraits
Portraits are more nuanced when it comes to lens range recommendation. For headshots or close-ups, 70mm-105mm is a good range with a specific shout-out to 85mm (considered the king of portrait focal lengths). For full-length portraits, 100mm-135mm will do well. If you choose to include surrounding objects and scenery in your portraits or take group portraits, you should go wide and choose 35mm or 50mm. I am told that one can almost go as wide as 24mm without distorting the final image. Keep in mind that a close-up shot of an individual taken with a 24mm will almost always look distorted and unappealing.
Landscape
Focal length suggestions for landscape are more subjective than portrait or street! You can go as wide as 14mm or use a 400mm or 600mm lens to shoot an iceberg from a cruise ship. Your choice will be dictated by your use case and the aesthetics you prefer.
More on aesthetics: wide lenses exaggerate the foreground and reduce the size of background objects, giving a sense of curviness to the image. This distinctive look is an unmistakable trait of wide-angle lenses. In real life, though, for your naked eyes, the scene never looks like how the wide-angle lens captured it. Among wide-angle lenses, 20mm could be a sweet spot for landscape pics for beginners who want the signature distorted look.
You could use a 50mm, 70mm, or 85mm lens if you choose to stitch your images to create a more realistic look (more on this technique in future posts or refer to this). If you are into capturing abstract shapes like close up patters of a distant sand dune or a foggy snow peak or the iceberg discussed earlier, you may want to choose a super-telephoto range, between 180mm-800mm (shoot to 100-400mm zoom lens).
If you are interested in astronomy photography or astro, you should consider buying a 14mm or 17mm or a 20mm lens with the widest possible aperture (f0.95 to f1.8). There are more authoritative voices on astro photography out there.
Birding and Wildlife
Birding and wildlife genres almost always use super-telephoto lenses due to the inherent dangers of going close to your subjects! Super-telephoto lenses (in the 400-1200mm range) give the ability to shoot from a safe distance.
Things to Consider
This is a good time to establish a few more facts about the focal length and use case: the wider the lens, the closer one needs to get to their subject in order to capture them in good detail. For example, with a 20mm lens, you may have to get really close (uncomfortably close) to a subject in order to capture them prominently at the center of the image.
Whereas with a telephoto lens like 85mm or 135mm, you could maintain two or three car distances from their subjects. Imagine shooting a human subject with a 1200mm lens; you almost will have to be a block away and have to use a phone to give posing instructions. This also is creepy (so don’t do it) and one of the biggest reasons why street photographers prefer to use small and discrete kits.
Recommendation
If you know the genre you like to capture, you now know the best range of focal length to choose your lens! Otherwise, you are better off buying two lenses: a prime and a zoom. This is getting subjective, but it’s worked for me in the past. The prime lens can be a 50mm lens with f1.8 or f2 aperture (also called fast aperture or fast glass). The zoom lens should cover 70-200mm or preferably 70-300mm or a 100-400mm if money is not a factor in your decision. Also consider that this zoom lens should be small and light to fit the varied use cases I am going to recommend.
Here are all the use cases for the prime and zoom lens combination in your arsenal: 50mm covers portraits, general street, low-light photography needs, and landscape shoots (stitching multiple images— exclusively stationary objects). It’s an incredibly versatile focal length. The zoom lens (70-300mm for example) will cover outdoor portraits (with creamy bokeh above the 100mm range!), limited birding and wildlife scenarios, landscape shots— use 70mm if stitching or 200 and above for abstract shapes and close up patters discussed above.
This two-lens set-up will cover many scenarios, giving you the opportunity to try out different genres of photography except for astro shots. If astronomy is your thing, choose a 14 or 17 or 20mm with a wide enough aperture.
I am deliberately skipping any deep-dive on lens terms like focal length or aperture. There are so many online resources dedicated to these topics that you may refer.
The Camera
Unlike lenses, we cannot ignore the technical aspects of modern digital cameras for that might lead you to regrettable choices. Let’s review a few of them in chronological order.
Rangefinder Cameras
This type of camera was the first portable handheld device, an evolution from the big black box of the 1800s. It had two holes: the main one held the interchangeable lens, when exposed fed light to the film, and the auxiliary opening fed light into the eyepiece. The early rangefinder cameras were complicated systems, and that caused inaccuracies in focusing (see parallax error in rangefinder cameras). This led to a new innovation called SLRs.
DSLRs and SLRs
Single-lens reflex cameras have been used for taking photos for over a century. The “lens” in the name does not refer to the interchangeable lens. These cameras use two mirrors or prisms set up to expose light to film and a viewfinder. This setup effectively eliminates parallax error by reflecting the same image that gets fed to the film to the viewfinder, unlike traditional rangefinders. In the late 90s (1990s), film photography was replaced by digital sensors and processors, leading to a new type of camera known as the DSLR or Digital Single-lens reflex cameras. With the advent of digital sensors came many varieties of camera types: full-frame, APSC, Micro 4/3s, point-and-shoot, etc. We can discuss these sensor types in a bit.
Mirrorless
While SLRs and DSLRs dominated the camera market in the 1900s, they had their own shortcomings (see shutter shock or silent photography). They also were big and bulky. This and a few more shortcomings led to the latest evolution in digital cameras: a mirrorless digital camera.
Mirrorless cameras have a meaningful shift from DSLRs, mainly in the internal operations, with no more two mirror set up, eliminating shutter shock. The sensor is constantly exposed to light from the lens. There is a digital eyepiece (also called a viewfinder) that reads from the same data as the sensor, showing the effect of your settings in real-time. Any changes you make to your exposure can be seen in the eyepiece immediately, eliminating any guessing game. This is a drastic shift from DSLRs.
Mirrorless cameras also have higher frame rates or frames per second (FPS) and advanced auto-focus capabilities in lower-tier models, eliminating the need for buying professional-level kits for wildlife or astro. So it’s no surprise that I recommend buying a mirrorless camera over DSLRs unless you have your father’s D850 and its lens.
Sensor Formats
Sensor formats are the main differentiating factor between a full-frame, APSC, and many other types of cameras. A full-frame mirrorless camera uses a sensor size of 35mm X 24mm, corresponding to a 35mm film strip. Cameras with an APSC crop sensor use a slightly smaller sensor size of 23.5mm X 15.6mm relative to full-frame sensors (1.4 or 1.5 crop ratio based on the manufacturer). Cameras with micro four-thirds sensors have a sensor size of 17.3mm x 13mm and an aspect ratio of 4:3, even smaller than APSC. Remember those nifty point-and-shoot cameras of the early 2000s? They had 1-inch sensors (approximately 2.7x crop factor relative to full-frame sensors). The cameras we all carry in our phones typically measure about one by three of an inch (7x crop factor relative to full-frame sensors). Medium and large format cameras have larger sensors than full-frame cameras.
Medium Format Sensor
Choosing sensor formats comes down to use case. Medium format is good if you want very large prints of your image (like billboards). I would relegate them for professionals doing documentation of artifacts in a library or a portrait shoot for an ad campaign. Some landscape photographers also use medium formats and rave about the results they see. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t recommend medium format for a beginner even if money is no constraint. They are big, slow, and very pricey.
APSC Sensor
Mirrorless cameras with APSC sensors are a viable entry point for beginners. They are usually smaller in size than their full-frame counterparts. Both the lens and camera bodies are less pricey too. Many street and landscape photographers prefer APSC cameras due to their size. If you are a beginner with a limited budget or that you need a lightweight/pocketable set up, APSC is a good option to consider.
Some downsides to choosing APSC are reduced IQ, as more manufacturers are going full-frame (Fuji Film is an exception), therefore less lens options to choose from. Another major downside is that full-frame mirrorless cameras with better IQ, smaller size, and cheaper entry points are becoming common.
Full-Frame Sensor
Full-frame sensors on a mirrorless camera are my recommendation if you are serious about this hobby. While full-frame in DSLR times were relegated to professionals, mirrorless full-frame cameras are more approachable for enthusiasts. They perform well in low light, have a larger field of view than an APSC sensor when using the same lens, and provide shallower depth of field (remember creamy bokeh!).
Every lens released by big manufacturers refers its focal length relative to a full-frame sensor. This means that using an APSC camera to achieve a 75mm effective focal length, I need to use a 50mm lens. This causes confusion for many beginners.
Camera Brands
For a relatively new technology, mirrorless cameras have evolved so well that most big brands have well-rounded cameras targeting beginners. Given this, I would value a brand’s commitment to customer service and reliability of their offerings over everything. Unlike professionals, hobbyists tend to hold onto their camera gear much longer. Do your research on brands, talk to friends or coworkers who have cameras made by these brands. More importantly, hold the camera and lens in your hands before buying them. Don’t rely entirely on YouTube reviews while choosing a camera system. I would entirely avoid YouTube if possible. Use trusted online reviewers like nytimes’s wirecutter.com, dpreview.com, photographylife.com and Chris & Jordan’s Reviews on PetaPixel.com. I would read more, watch less!
Camera Resolution
I am not covering camera resolution for a blog targeting beginners. Any 24-megapixel full-frame sensor will do. Why not 33, 45, or 61? Simple, they cost more, and for someone who wants to dabble in photography as a hobby, 24 MP is plenty enough. For that case, many experienced photographers would argue that 24MP is a sweet spot for many types of photography, even landscape as long as you are shooting stationary objects. Get used to the mindset of letting go of your gear when you grow out of it. Some years into this hobby, you may very well know your style, and that’s when I could consider higher resolution.
The Pictures
The final part of this blog is the tangible output of your hobby— the pictures. You can print them, make albums to keep or sell, enter into competitions, or create a blog site to share them with your friends and family or just post on Instagram. I am not covering any of these. I shall cover the best practices of storing and post-processing your pictures.
JPEG vs RAW
It’s a myth that digital camera images are pure and unprocessed. When your camera shoots an image, just like your phone, it does a bit of corrections and processing. This final output can be seen on your camera screen after shooting. You can download the same image as a JPEG if you choose to. JPEGs are typically considered final, and we don’t have much room to do further processing. This is one limitation. But on the upside, since it doesn’t require much post-processing, you save on time and on spending money on expensive subscriptions to post-processing software. In a way, it rewards patience and skill.
An alternative to JPEG is saving your shots as RAW images in-camera and post-processing them after the fact. Keep in mind, those beautiful colors and exposure you saw on your camera screen, they will look flat and terrible when you load them into your computer as a RAW image. I wouldn’t panic, as RAW stores more information about the scene than a JPEG. So by using post-processing software, you could make your RAW look like the JPEG your camera shot or even better. So yes, RAW has many advantages, and the notable one is the flexibility it brings to you.
My recommendation is to shoot in RAW+JPEG setting (yes, your camera will allow that!). Review your JPEGs and only edit the RAW files when you are not happy with the JPEG output.
Post-Processing
Should you invest in post-processing software? I would say no. Every big camera manufacturer now has its proprietary software that is free for download and use. This should cover your basic editing needs. Take advantage of it.
Storage
If your camera supports dual card slots, take advantage of this feature. Choose the second card as a back-up and not for the purpose of overflow. For permanent storage, use cloud backups. A typical workflow should be two folders: Folder-1 should contain all the pictures you took during a session, named with a date stamp for example“Zf_20241225_42” here “Zf_” is the camera identifier (helpful if you have multiple), “20241215_” is the date of import and “42” is a unique serial number for that import. Folder-2 should be a subset of folder-1, fully edited and containing only good candidates.
Workflow
A typical workflow would involve a few steps.
Step-1: Downloading a session’s images in folder-1 (discussed above, good if this is in a cloud folder).
Step-2: Post-process your images in editing software or if you choose to shoot JPEG, simply review and keep or delete JPEGs as you see fit. Post-processing should NOT use the images directly from folder-1. Always edit a copy of your original image. This is something to be aware of. Most post-processing software makes a copy before editing them. Be sure to double check.
Step-3: Save a copy of your final images (and edit settings if possible) in folder-2 (discussed above, good if this is in a cloud folder).
Final Thoughts
If you endured this long, you sure have the time for a hobby! Few parting words: No one will see your pictures, let alone appreciate them. Hobbies are therapeutic in nature, and in them, creative arts like painting and photography are even more special. If you have the privilege of picking up a camera, make it count! Let them transform you and fill your time with joy and curiosity. That is all that matters. Cheers :)
P.S: A 3000 word blog on photography without a single picture. Wow. Give me the chance to rectify this mistake. Check out my online gallery at 3sand.gallery. All of them (blogs dated Nov 2024 or earlier) shot using the same beginner recommendations made in this blog!