A not-so-final guide for cheap photographers[1]
brought to you from my super secret lab behind the closet!
Ok ok, we all know that photography can be crazy expensive. Even excluding outliers like Leica, most of the new products are just too expensive to justify them unless we are doing it professionally. And for most people around the world it is not even a choice they have. It may take even years to save enough money and buy an entry level camera, let alone a minimal set of lenses.
For that, sadly, I do not have a solution. The second-hand market tends to be more viable in developed countries, leading to the paradoxical situation that you can get plenty of decent lenses for cheap in Japan, europe and north america, but not where they would be most needed and desired.
Hopefully, international shipping can mitigate this problem, as long as you accommodate for the import duties in your Country and border checks are performed by people which are not going to steal your parcel.
An other option, albeit more expensive, are the many Chinese lenses emerged in the past few years[2]. Their quality is variable and you usually get what you paid for. Still, this is usually plenty enough for most people, me included. I will surely write about them in the future as I got quite a bit to say 😄.
This is meant to be a collection of all my personal suggestions and experiences, hoping they can be somewhat helpful to you as well. All these posts will be all aggregated with the tag #cheap-photographer if you are in need for more.
I do not know yet how to properly balance their content, as I have no experience on this platform. I hope you will forgive my early attempts. Your feedback will be important, so please let me know if you have any suggestion on how to improve!
And keep in mind, I am no professional photographer, there is plenty of better ones out there. I am just a lazy person having fun with a toy!
As a teaser for what has yet to come…
A nice family of Pentax K lenses. Each of them was less than £20. Some even ten times less than that 😅 . They can be adapted to virtually any system, not just mirrorless, and they cover a full-frame sensor if you are so inclined.
Thank you for your time! See ya!