Lessons
Class Introduction
07:10 2Upgrading Pros & Cons
07:04 3Top 10 Camera Purchasing Mistakes
13:44 4What Are Your Camera Needs?
09:33 5Camera Types
15:21 6Sensor Size
17:50 7Pixels
06:02 8The Lens
18:54Lesson Info
Class Introduction
Welcome everybody to the Camera buyer's guide my name is John Greengo in this guide this is for anyone who wants to buy an interchangeable lens camera If you are a beginner, I can understand that this world is a bit complicated cause we have a lot of different styles, cameras we have a lot of different brands, a lot of different specialty categories, and in this guide we're going to be going through all of the models and all the brands and all the important features and things that you should know. For those of you with more experience and you're looking at upgrading cameras we're going to be talking about everything from the bottom to the top of the line and one of the big themes for this years class or this years kide is mirrorless and so I know a lot of people out there are shooting SLR's ,I got a lot of people shooting mirrorless and there's some people thinking about making changes so we're going to be talking a lot about that change over and some of those new features in mirrorle...
ss cameras and so, that's kind of what we'll be doing in here Now before we get really too far into the class I do want to mention that I am not sponsored I am not an ambassador for any of the companies I don't work for any of the camera stores or brands I'm not getting sponsored, I'm not getting paid I'm not getting kickbacks, I don't make anything of this it doesn't matter to me whether you buy one of these cameras or not. I am a fan of all the cameras out there and if your wondering why am I doing this for free Well, the fact of the matter is I do teach a lot of classes here at Creative Live and some of the classes that I teach are on particular cameras. I have over 60 different cameras, That I have done in depth classes on and so I have gotten to know all the major products out there very very closely Thus, people have been asking me, for buying recommendations and they'll email me and they'll pose me their dilemma of what they're looking for in a camera and I will, of course, respond to them, but sometimes I can't go into the depth that I would like to in an email and I've been looking for a resource to point people towards to where , if you're looking to buy a camera Here's a place that has a lot good knowledgeable information that is independent and not really biased in one direction or another. And so I decided "let's just do this ourselves, and put it out there for free" and that's why we're doing this. So that you can have free quality information that's up to date, that is independent and unbiased in every possible way. That's why we're doing this here I do want to thank the local dealers and reps and manufacturers because we have got a fantastic collection of cameras, if you'll take a look at what we've got here. We've got all the major brands represented we've got all the best models, all the hot models out there and it's a really great thing when you can support your local stores, so I do encourage you when it's time to buy, going into the store putting your hands on the camera . Looking at the camera bags It's great to have a good local store that when you just need something right away you can go right down there, they can help you out they can fix a problem and they have the gear that you want So I encourage you to support your local stores I know I do with mine, I teach local classes down there and that's where I buy my camera as well alright, as we get into this, I thought you know, for somebody who's getting into photography for the very first time, You might be having this very simple question, that a lot of us might snicker at a little bit but for a photographer how important is the camera or the specific camera that you chose and there's a lot different answers for this The first answer is one that gets passed around on the internet a lot. That I think has a lot of truth to it and that is that gear does not matter until it does For the most part, a lot of photographers would be able to get away with pretty much any camera but on the extremes of photography, there are a few specialties, whether it's resolution or focusing or something else that there are a few cameras that are particularly better than other cameras But I was thinking about this on the way in here this morning, I would bet for the full time professional photographers out there If you just replace their camera with a random camera from our shelf over here. Just a modern camera Could be a 500 dollar camera, could be a 5000 dollar camera Just replace this for a professional photographer and I would be that 99.5 percent of them would see no impact in their business They could figure out a way to make it work for what they're doing. And so, in that sense, it's not the most important thing in the world But it is important, and I kind of the camera on an equivalent scale of a photography assistant Now I've assisted other photographers, I've had other people assist me and it's really nice to have a good assistant and it would be great to have the world's best assistant but you know what's better than the world's best assistant is somebody that you like to work with. And so, rather than trying to find the best camera that everyone thinks is the best it's just finding a camera that you're happy with that does what you need,that you enjoy using on a day in and day out basis That's really what I want to concentrate on in this guide is not so much which camera is best but which one fits your needs that you would like to work with so here is the basic topics that we're going to be talking about First, I want to address what your needs might be in photography, depending on what type of photography you want to engage in. We're going to take a look at the options available on the cameras and how they address your needs and then, finally, I'm going to get to my recommendations and I'm not just going to recommend, this is what I think is the best camera in the world. I'm going to get to some very specific recommendations In fact, let's bring those up right now Different types of categories and different types of uses that you might have for the camera and so, I've had to break this up into different segments because there's a lot of different people with different needs and so, we're going to be looking at the best cameras for all of these types of scenarios, and we'll do that at the end of the class but I know a lot of you are anxious to find out what these answers are. So I wanted to reveal a little bit ahead of time and this is what I call all around great cameras So these are some cameras that fit into generally I think they are high in quality. They have a lot of features and options ,things that you can do with them and it's part of a large system. Which is a very important topic in photography. There's a Large ecosystem of lenses and accessories repair and service and sales and all of that so here are, what I think, five great cameras Now, the funny thing is, that some of these cameras do not win any of the categories that we are later talking about. These are the decathletes of cameras These are the ones that do a lot of different things and at very different price levels as well, I'm not saying that these are equal cameras but Something like the Rebel T7I ,that's gonna be well under 1000 dollars, the Canon 5D mark 4 with a lens is gonna be probably closer to 3000 dollars and so these are cameras that I think are just jack of all trades, very good at a number of different features.
Class Materials
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Ratings and Reviews
Denise Watson
Another outstanding class by John Greengo, my favorite Creative Live instructor. John's delivery is entertaining and his info clear and very easy to understand. If you need more explanation, well, don't worry - he's got a slide or PDF for that! I'm a working photographer and I learn something new with each of John's classes. Don't hesitate to buy any of his classes - you won't regret it.
Sherry Throughmyeyes Prater
There a thousands of reviews/guides/ floating around the internet, but this one is by far the best by far. I usually watch a portion and then move on because I simply lose interest, but I watched every single lesson. John gives a very unbiased explanation of cameras, functions for every type of shooter. Not only would I recommend it, but I am going to recommend. I am a member of multiple photography groups on FB and one of the most asked questions is camera buying advice. This is excellent!
David Reichel
Yes - there is such a thing as a free lunch - this class is it! I enjoy landscape, seascape, architecture, portrait and travel photography. I've been a Canon user for decades (film and then digital full frame with the 5D Mark II then 5D Mark IV). Recently I got a Fujifilm mirrorless medium format GFX 50R and discovered some Fujifilm features (e.g., film simulation, menu system) that resonate with me. I now have over-kill on full frame format and because I like the Fujifilm so much, I've been thinking about moving from my Canon 5D Mark IV to a Fujifilm X-T3 as my walk-around camera. This class helped me better understand the trade-offs and alleviated my concerns about a crop format sensor in the X-T3. On top of that, this is a great refresher course on camera fundamentals.
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Fundamentals