Mirrorless is the default, lenses outlive bodies, and the used market is your friend. The buying logic that holds everywhere, plus the regional guides that localise it.
⟳ Updated August 2026Camera buying advice is usually a shop counter in disguise. This guide is not: it lays out the decisions that actually matter, system before body, glass before megapixels, used before new, and points to regional sister guides that apply the logic to local markets in the UK, Ireland and Asia.
My Camera UK applies this guide's logic to Britain: the deepest used market in Europe, honest dealer grading and gear choices tested by real weather. The regional guide for UK readers.
My Camera Asia covers the region where most cameras are made: travel buying, country-by-country warranties and the humidity care that keeps lenses alive. Essential for residents and travellers alike.
Camera Ireland is the network's Irish guide, built around Atlantic light, fast-changing weather and the practical questions of buying gear for and in Ireland.
B&H Photo is the New York photo and video superstore known worldwide for the depth of its range. For decades it has been a reference point for what exists and what it costs.
Fujifilm builds mirrorless cameras with a distinct photographic character drawn from its film heritage. Its APS-C system is a popular choice among enthusiasts and travel photographers.
Canon is one of the largest camera makers in the world, with mirrorless systems, an enormous lens catalogue and service networks in most countries. A default consideration for any new buyer.
Yes. The major makers have moved development to mirrorless, and DSLRs survive mainly as used bargains. New buyers should choose a mirrorless system unless a specific used DSLR deal serves a specific need.
The lens, by a wide margin. Glass shapes sharpness, background rendering and low-light ability, and a good lens outlasts several bodies. Buy the best lens the budget allows and a body good enough to carry it.
Not beyond a point most cameras passed years ago. Sensor size, lens quality and handling affect real pictures far more. Very high resolution mainly serves large prints and heavy cropping.
Full frame gives the edge in low light and shallow depth of field; APS-C gives smaller, lighter, cheaper kits with more reach for the money. Most people are better served by APS-C than the marketing suggests.
Your first interchangeable-lens camera commits you to that brand's lens mount. Lenses accumulate and outlast bodies, so judge the system's lens range and pricing before judging any individual camera.
A small, affordable prime around a standard focal length. It teaches composition through a fixed view, opens up low light and background blur, and costs less than almost any zoom upgrade.
When the body blocks the picture you tried to take: focus that cannot keep up, low light beyond the sensor, a missing feature you keep needing. Upgrading because a newer model exists is how budgets vanish.
Reserve a real slice for a spare genuine battery, fast memory cards, a cleaning kit and a bag. An unprotected camera with no spare power fails on exactly the day it matters.
Yes, because they hold the pictures. Buy known brands from proper dealers, match the speed class to your camera's video needs, and carry two cards so a failure costs a card rather than a shoot.
Even better. Lenses have no shutter to wear and age slowly, so a clean used copy performs like new for far less. Check glass against light for haze, fungus and scratches before paying.
Only if you will genuinely shoot video. Stills-first buyers pay real money for video specs they never use. Hybrid shooters should weigh stabilisation, microphone input and recording limits alongside stills handling.
The network's regional guides come first because they inform rather than sell, followed by an industry-reference retailer and the major makers a new buyer should shortlist.
Almost every camera regret traces back to decision order. Buyers pick a body from a launch video, then discover the lenses they want cost more than the car, then learn a rival system did everything they needed for half the money.
Reverse the order and the regrets disappear. Four decisions, taken in sequence.
An interchangeable-lens camera is a subscription to a lens mount. Bodies come and go, but the mount decides which lenses exist, what they cost and what your kit is worth in ten years. So compare systems first: the lens ranges, the used availability, the size and weight philosophy, the service network where you live. Only when a system fits your shooting and your budget does it make sense to look at which of its bodies to start with, and by then the choice is usually easy.
Lenses do the optical work and hold their value; bodies are electronics on a depreciation curve. The practical rule is to buy the best lens you can afford and the cheapest body that does not frustrate you, which is usually one or two models below the flagship. A modest body behind excellent glass produces better files than the reverse, costs less, and leaves a kit that resells well because the value sits in the lenses. Reviewers rarely say this, because bodies are what launches are about.
Cameras depreciate fastest in their first years while changing least in real capability, which makes the used market the biggest discount in photography. Previous-generation bodies from graded dealers cost a fraction of launch price, and used lenses perform like new if the glass is clean. Buy used where condition can be verified, sell your own outgrown gear back into the same market, and the hobby starts funding its own upgrades. Over a decade the difference between a used-first buyer and a launch-day buyer is roughly an extra lens or two for the same total spend.
The final discipline is patience. Shoot the kit lens until you know whether you reach for wide, long or fast, because that answer, not a review score, chooses your next purchase. Photographers who buy for their actual subjects build small, hard-working bags; photographers who buy for imagined ones build cupboards. Every entry ranked above serves the first kind of buyer, and the regional guides localise the details wherever you live. Give the kit lens three months of honest use before spending again, and the next purchase will choose itself.
System, glass, body, used, patience. Five words that outperform every launch-day queue, in any country.