Back in the pre-digital era I was a very keen photographer, complete with darkroom. When digital came along I was actually quite relieved that I could dispense with all that equipment and became happy enough taking half decent snaps with my phone or compact Canon Powershot, especially when travelling.
But Switzerland being such a photogenic country, I've never been happy with snapping landscapes with a phone or compact. I'm hankering after the ability to capture distant snowy landscapes, instead of seeing them blur into a messy grey background behind whatever's in the foreground. I need some depth of field!
Can someone please suggest a reasonable entry-level DSLR? I want to avoid getting drawn back into the endless gear-acquisition mindset. Perhaps a body + wide angle + longish lens? Something capable of creating a depth-of-field effect for portraits and close-ups too?
Cost is obviously a key factor. In an ideal world I'd like to avoid going above 1,000 CHF for the basics but I would if something was really worth it.
Any suggestions, anyone? And any tips on where to buy would be good too. Am happy to buy online from the UK or Germany. US may be more tricky. Thanks in advance.
I bought an EOS77D about a year ago. I'm very happy with it. If I were to buy it again though I'd buy just the body - I never use the supplied lens. Most of the time I use a Sigma zoom with 17-70.
Any Canon DSLR, even the most entry-level, would fit the landscape bill as this is the place where you're not pressed by time or light and the only thing that really matters is raw megapixels.
Lenses is where things start to matter. You have some very good value options in the 55-250mm for "longish" lens and the 10-18mm for the ultra-wide/wide. For the normal range Sigma or Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 are the conscious budget choices.
But you might struggle to fit a camera and all these lenses in that budget
Do yourself a favor and move to Sony A7R from now and never regret. You can get the last year body quite cheap, get the 50mm and the 24mm and you're set for a while. This is coming from a ex-canon, current Fuji shooter who is soon moving to Sony simply because it's the most versatile system right now and if you start from scratch that's the most logical place to go
I agree with the second hand suggestion, especially for lenses as these don't really age in the same way that sensors do.
Depth of field and portraits are good differentiating factors that help set good lenses apart from average ones. But if you're doing landscapes you probably don't care about depth of field so maybe its worth considering whether a simpler lens will do. Maybe zoom factor is more important if you want to zoom in on particular details. And if you are using long zooms, a tripod might be handy to mitigate the mirror bounce. If you're going to be lugging this equipment with you on long hikes, weight is also a factor to look out for. So it's trade offs all the way.
I'm planning on purchasing a 2nd hand camera. I saw a Canon PowerShot SX 100 is (from CHF 100 the price dropped to CHF 25) and started reading reviews. I want to start slowly, mainly because for now I won't be shooting daily.
The listed camera comes with no SD card and possibly no USB cable (the description mentioned: charger, case and 2 batteries). What card type and size do you recommend? If no USB cable, would I find one and if so, where?
I don't use a USB cable with my Canon. I have a SD card reader and plug it straight into my PC.
If you want to know what spec. SD card and USB cable to get, go to the camera on the Digitec site and scroll down to matching accessories.
The spec. of the SD card is important if you want to shoot high quality video.
I tend to get 32GB cards rather than larger ones so that when one is full on a long trip, I can put it somewhere safe so if my camera is stolen, I don't lose every photo I have taken on that trip. Of course, access to internet, a laptop and/or cloud storage removes this risk.
Directed at Rianna and other beginners and not the OP:
Additionally, the bad results because of the inevitable technical and artistic ineptitude of a beginner will override any improvement in results due to a much better camera.
Rather than spend an extra 1000 CHF on a camera, a beginner would do better to to save that money and instead spend 30 CHF on a good photography book explaining the theory of photography and of composition.