Oh The Quarrels Of Buying A New Camera

So, I’m not placing any bets on becoming the next Steven Spielberg anytime soon, although needless to say I quite fancy my chances at dabbling in a bit of vlogging in the near future. In addition to perhaps snapping a few odd pictures of  little wilting dandelions, or, if I time it right, the mugshot of a randomer stuffing their face full of food. My point being, I wanted a camera that would be above average at both photography and videography with a below average price tag, for I’ve no shame in admitting that I’m ballin’ on a tight tight budget!

I began my quest many moons ago and only now have I ordered my new country walk companion. One of the earliest obstacles I had to hurdle over was the decision to join either team Nikon or team Canon. It was like choosing which arm I wanted to chop off, right or left. How about none! So, you guessed it, no choice was made for a good few weeks until I came to the sudden realisation that if I don’t pick this damn camera soon then I’ll never pick it! After careful research I went with Canon, not to say I won’t ever get a Nikon but in my experience I just found more reviews on Canon products online and therefore I could learn more about Canon models than Nikon. And boy did I learn! I think I could draw the diagram of the internal workings of  a DSLR camera in my sleep now, and it ain’t a pretty picture ( that’s a digital single-lens reflex camera for all you novices out there. Come on, get reading)! All those complicated cogs and lenses led to some (incredibly dry) interesting reads on my weekday evenings I can tell you that much.

So I gave myself a budget and a level of competency to aim for, around £350/ $396 and beginner level/hobbyist. My dreams were crushed. Only the bulky EOS 1300D sat in that price range on my findings. A good beginner camera sure, but without an articulating screen I’m f*cked. I’ll be taking selfies of my scalp at that rate. So, carrying on I delved into the world of the Rebels (T5/EOS 1200D, T6i/EOS750D, T6s/EOS 760D, T7/EOS 2000D, T7i/ EOS 800D). Reading these numbers should give you a taster into the kind of research that needed doing, Needless to say I went for none of the models above in the end!

And instead I got the Canon Rebel SL2 / EOS 200D! Hence I’m now eating toast and beans for a month and still trying to decipher the big words on the first page of the instruction manual.  So take from that what you will!

But it’s worth it, I want to make best quality of documentaries and blogs that I can, what’s the point of having a good story idea if your visuals let you down? Spielberg eat your heart out son!

**In future I’ll do a more condensed post on why I actually chose the SL2 camera in particular and how it functions and not just a mini rant! Because I relied alot on other people reviews when choosing this one.