Novice seeking advice from the pros here

[ssmed]

Why not just use your iPhone?

This is a serious question. There might be good reasons. But write them down. Perhaps you are a scuba diver or you want to shoot pictures of birds in flight or you are shooting sports and the iPhone will not react fast enough to te controls. I'm sure you have reasons. Make a list.

Then when selecting a camera make sure it addresses your list

I bet some things you wrote in your post will not show up on your list. For example "interchange legacy DSLR lenses" is unimportant if you do not already own serval SLR lenses

You don't need many "features". Just control the focus, focal length, ISO , aperture and shutter speed. And image stabilization is very nice to have.

The most important thing is your location and the time when you trip the shutter.

So many beginners think photography is all about the equipment. They say "If only I had a better camera..." I'm sorry but t is like a painter saying "if only I could afford a better brush." The iPhone allows you to select the composition and you can choose to lighting and it allows you to be at the right place at the right time. It has a lot going for it.

Try this. Take two dozen shots EVERY day. Give yourself different assignments like
1) You are a tourist from far away visiting your home town and you want tot shot those back home what this place is like
2) Find and shoot contrasting colors
3) Shoot street portraits (ask before you shoot and get their cooperation)
4) find and shoot repeating patterns.
5) any other photo 101 class assignments you can think up.

After you have two weeks of work find the best dozen photos.

Now ask how better equipment would have made your new portfolio of a dozen shots better. maybe there are real good answers like
1) I could be not missed some split-second timing
2) I could have framed the subject better
3) I could have reduced camera motion blur.

Another assignment: Go to the library ad look at books of images by well-known photographers and figure out which person's work and style you like. Now spend a week or so shooting images attempting to emulate that stype. Perhaps even copying some images. Make notes on how your current equipment prevents you from doing this

I still shoot a 15-year-old Nikon D300s I only use a few lenses, some very old. No one has ever told me "These images would look so much better if you bought a more up-to-date camera." I never hear that. You can buy a used D300s for $150.

If you want VALUE, look at the used market. Buy something for $200, shoot 4,000 frames and then sell the camera for the same price you paid. After 4,000 frames you will know for sure what you want.

For years, no decades photography students were told to buy a simple SLR and a single 50mm lens. All of their assignments were to be done with this setup. The idea was that they needed to learn about photography, not about gear collecting. But now I say "Start with your cell phone camera and only buy more equipment if you can say exactly what problem you are having and how the new gear will address that problem.

Horses for courses! A good post.

I despair of our staff taking clinical pictures on their work phones. They are just not up to the job indoors. They have a variety of cameras from D300 up all with macro lenses and external flash, but it is a faff and it is easier to use their phone.

Outside running/walking in the hills I use the iPhone all the time and it is perfect, unless I am photographing a race or on a bit of a landscape project. Photographing insects on the bench the iPhone is great!

What the OP has not stated is what, where and when and this makes it difficult to be precise with an answer. However if the purchase is not a whim a new mirror camera, even a cheaper kit one is likely future proof and will allow the OP to learn most of the technical tricks. A D300 is not compatible with quite a few lenses now and if going 2nd hand I would say based on a huge market go for something more modern.

Composition is both personal and the downfall of many, relying on Photoshop to crop and correct etc. Cameras are only a tool and some of my best pictures from a birding trip were taken with a D2H - the light was amazing and I had time and the tiny sensor was an irrelevance.

 

[Apple fanboy]

If camera phones were the only camera I’d give up photography in a heartbeat. Can’t stand using them.

I find a proper viewfinder and controls with physical dials and buttons work for me.

 

[Big Bad D]

The site dpreview.com is still alive, despite amazon's announcement that it would be shut down back in April. A good place to find camera reviews, discussions, etc.

The continuation of dpreview is excellent news. And certainly a very useful source of quality camera information.

 

[r.harris1]

Interestingly, brushes can be very important to painters and many I know spend what many might consider an amazing amount of money on not just brushes but everything else too. Equipment we use is important, but not for the reasons people might think. It's important to us as individuals and probably no one else. Every piece of gear has limitations, quirks, constraints, even if small, that we have to work with or around. It will inform how, where and when we take our images. I may be able to work backwards and say that I can shoot such-and-such an image on my iPhone or my Nikon that someone shot on their Sony or Canon but I may not have taken it because I'm fiddling with something that the Sony or Canon gets around better. Or whatever. While the old saying that "a great photographer can take a nice image with any camera" can be true, the truth is they don't use "any camera". They have specific goals, needs and desires. They use specific cameras.

No one is going to be able to tell that any of us shot an image using Brand X on Lens Y and processed the raw image in Software Z. They're not going to be able to tell the fancy AF settings we used or that I can cram zillions of pictures in my buffer or that I can record 2 hours of video at 8k (or whatever). Only we know that. It's important to us as users. How do I want to tell whatever particular story I wish to convey?

Now, that said, it's certainly true that we get lost in the glitz and FOMO sometimes when choosing and as our styles evolve, we may want more camera or less camera or we may just want to use our phones or a dedicated ILC or all of the above. I'm a big believer in learning fundamentals - all the AI glitz aside - and to me, it's easier to do that on a body that I'm not also answering phone calls or texts on. That however is only my preference and I have the discipline to carry around a camera. Others can and do see it differently. Most people probably use 1% of the available functionality on their cameras so choosing something simpler and less costly is a great way to start out. One can always get a more expensive body but those come and go.

 

[Big Bad D]

iPhone cameras have their convenience and image quality can be excellent. But if reasonably serious about photography then a DSLR camera is a great investment.

As others have already suggested, a full frame mirrorless camera is a good starting point. I happen to have always used Nikon, but not based on any negatives about other manufacturers, and the Nikon Z series is great. With newer models arriving, older models like the Z6 still have great features and many years of life, but should be able to be found at discounted prices including 2nd hand trade-ins. Buying equipment is an investment and should evolve as and when needs (and budget) progress - including even changing brands/models if you later identify specific different needs. There’s really no bad starting point.

I find it useful to have some training to learn some basics and later refine some different skills. personal or on-line lessons are good, but there are some great books. I can recommend Bryan Peterson’s books, especially Understanding Exposure for a good basic knowledge.

 

[JamesMay82]

I was exactly in your position. I kinda went a bit overboard and as my first camera i got a Sony A7III which was and still is fantasic.

Lot of people complained about complicated menus but if your learning from scratch your not set in your ways so it wasnt to bad.

I had a couple of lessons to be get me going and then just watched loads of you tube videos To figure it out.

 

[bunnspecial]

Lot of people complained about complicated menus but if your learning from scratch your not set in your ways so it wasnt to bad.

I think that this is probably key to a lot of these discussions.

I KNOW Nikon menus, even though I realize they have their shortcomings and problems. I'm not saying Nikon does it right(and in fact they do things that frustrate me, like only giving me 4 options for the FN3 button on my D5, none of which are things I use or care about), but I feel like I've used them enough to know their general logic/flow and be mostly comfortable with them. Even though all models are different, I generally know where to look for what I want.

The past month and a half, I've been getting pretty deep into Fujifilm with an X-T5. I guess I'm really dedicated to it as I've expanded out to a 3 lens kit, although it's not replacing my Nikon DSLRs any time soon. From my perspective, the Fuji menus are a mess. There are things I can and do appreciate about them. The buttons are endlessly customizable-nearly every button on the camera can be assigned to any available function(10 pages of menus typically!). At the same time, if Fuji doesn't think you should do something a certain way, heaven help you trying to do it. BBAF only sort of works, manual focus is wonky even in manual focus mode(since all lenses are focus by wire, you can only focus if AF is active) and it still baffles me that there's no way to activate the meter any way other than by a half press of the shutter(unlike Nikons where it comes on with BBAF) and if there's a way to decouple AE Lock from the shutter half press, I have yet to find it. Oh, and then there's the fact that getting it to operate my "dumb" studio strobes from the PC port took a message board post for me to figure out since I wasn't aware of any camera allowing you to turn off flash sync!

Still, though, I imagine that if I'd only used Fujis, or used them a lot longer, I'd not find them so clunky.