Which camera should you choose, and how do you choose it?

While writing our comprehensive guide to the cameras I recommend buying this year, I realized, a little sheepishly, that after four years of blogging, I still hadn’t taken the time to write a detailed article explaining which camera to choose and what criteria to consider. As strange as it sounds, it was a major gap in my articles and on the blog in general. I still wonder how I managed to miss it.

Anyway, the goal of this article is to fix that and give you, as simply and clearly as possible, everything you need to know to choose a camera. I won’t go too deep into the technical basics of photography; otherwise, I might end up writing a very long article!

But let’s get back to the topic. For anyone getting started in photography, or even buying a second camera to move up to a better model, choosing a camera is never easy. There are so many options, the different ranges are not always easy for beginners to understand, and prices go from very affordable to extremely expensive.

If you’re interested, I also invite you to read our full guide on choosing a camera for children!

Let’s start by looking at the main types of cameras available today, especially the advantages and disadvantages of each. Then I’ll go through the technical criteria to consider before buying a camera. At the end, I’ll talk about your own requirements and a small detail for most of us (haha): the budget!

Let’s begin with the smallest budgets and, above all, the least advanced cameras. Broadly speaking, there are two types of compact cameras: entry-level compacts and so-called expert compacts, which have become very popular in recent years. In fact, there are three, because I’ll also add a few words about “adventure” compacts, as I like to call them.

Let’s be clear from the start: I no longer think buying an entry-level compact camera is especially worthwhile. With the progress smartphones have made in recent years, the advantage of this type of camera is very limited in my opinion.

That said, even though I no longer recommend them, they are still very cheap (between €80 and €250), very light, small, and easy to slip into a pants pocket. For someone with a very tight budget who cannot afford a smartphone with decent photo quality, it can still be an option. Another idea is to save a few hundred euros more and move up to the first expert compacts, around €500 (or to a rugged compact like my Olympus TG6).

I’ll simply mention a few drawbacks of this type of camera (entry-level compacts): very small sensor, very limited creative possibilities (no real way to get a shallow depth of field), poor low-light performance, no viewfinder, no interchangeable lens, a fairly slow overall feel, etc.

I won’t go into detail here, but I did want to mention this subcategory of compact cameras. I personally own two of them: the Olympus TG6 and the Nikon Coolpix W300, which I cover in detail in our article on the best all-weather cameras!

Simply put, these are compact cameras with the same advantages and disadvantages mentioned above. They don’t necessarily offer more, but if you travel a lot or often find yourself in difficult conditions (snow, sand, humidity), I would choose this type of compact camera rather than a basic entry-level compact.

These cameras are usually waterproof, often down to 15 m, and shock-resistant. I take this camera with me on everyday trips to the lagoon, for example, or on canyoning outings deep in the forest, where bringing my mirrorless camera is often simply impossible. My Olympus turned out to be perfect for that: I didn’t have to worry about falls, jumps into pools, humidity, rain, mud, and so on. For me, they still make a lot of sense for that kind of use.

By the way, I wrote an article a while back to help you choose a travel camera. It may be useful for backpackers.

For several years now, a new range of expert compacts has emerged. These cameras are much more advanced than their entry-level ancestors, which are more or less destined to disappear anyway (and that has already largely happened). Today, we are seeing more sophisticated cameras that offer far more possibilities when taking photos. Of course, the budget is higher, and you will usually need at least €500 for a “basic” expert compact. Prices can climb very high, sometimes above high-end mirrorless cameras at more than €2,000 or €3,000. In my opinion, this range is well worth considering if you want to go further and have “something more than your smartphone” without spending a fortune or having to change lenses.

The biggest improvement is that these cameras now use larger sensors, which makes it easier to blur backgrounds and make your subjects stand out. Most use 1″ sensors, but some go further, with Micro 4/3 sensors like the Panasonic LX100, APS-C sensors like the Fujifilm X100F or Canon G1X III, and even full-frame sensors in certain expert compacts such as the Sony RX1 or Leica Q2 series.

In short, they still have the advantage of being compact and lightweight, while models with larger sensors (Micro 4/3 and above) can deliver very good image quality and still remain within an acceptable price range. On the downside, you still cannot change lenses, and some models do not have an EVF (electronic viewfinder).

It’s hard for me to talk about bridge cameras without being slightly biased from the start. I’ve never been especially drawn to this type of camera, which sits somewhere between a compact and a DSLR (for a while, they were even called hybrids). In simple terms, they are usually better built and feel more serious than a compact camera, but you obviously lose some compactness. They also offer a very wide focal range (from wide angle to super telephoto), creative shooting modes (PASM), and very often a viewfinder.

In my opinion, entry-level bridge cameras are even less interesting than compacts, but in recent years, a new range of expert bridge cameras has also appeared. Unfortunately, their sensors are too small to be really compelling for me (1″), but that is what allows them to stay relatively light and compact while offering such a wide zoom range. That said, some professional photographers do use expert bridge cameras such as the Sony RX10 IV or the Panasonic FZ2000 (which remains more affordable).

For me, their main appeal is simple: they give you a very long zoom for much less than the equivalent focal length would cost on a mirrorless camera or DSLR. The trade-off is that your options are limited, because you still cannot change lenses on this type of camera.

I’m not going to dive into the whole “should you still buy a DSLR when mirrorless cameras are everywhere and brands are focusing on them?” debate. I have already written a complete article on the differences between DSLR and mirrorless cameras, to help you make up your mind!

Simply put, a DSLR is a camera with interchangeable lenses. In other words, whatever the camera body, you can change lenses depending on what you want to shoot and the type of photography you enjoy. You therefore have a body and a lens that work together as a system. For a first purchase, you will often be advised to start with a kit that includes the body and a lens. The lens is often fairly basic, but more than enough to get started.

Compared with bridge or compact cameras, DSLRs have several clear advantages. In order of importance, I would mention the larger sensor (at least APS-C), much greater creative possibilities, interchangeable lenses, better dynamic range (better handling of high-contrast scenes), and better low-light performance. However, DSLRs are still fairly bulky (even if entry-level models can be quite small), and you will often need to buy several lenses to cover different situations.

Should we still recommend buying a DSLR today? I’m not so sure, especially compared with mirrorless cameras, which have improved enormously in recent years and now offer the same—or sometimes better—features in some areas (autofocus, shooting options, and, to some extent, size). That said, DSLRs still have the advantage of being reliable, and there are many lenses available for them on the second-hand market. You can find more and more excellent used cameras at very reasonable prices, which remains a little harder with mirrorless cameras for now. Canon and Nikon, in particular, have clearly shifted their development focus toward mirrorless systems such as Canon RF and Nikon Z, rather than their older DSLR systems.

The second-hand market is especially interesting here. The latest new DSLRs and lenses (especially high-end ones) are likely to lose value quickly because, when you want to upgrade in a few years, you will probably be pushed toward mirrorless. You may need to sell your DSLR gear, and you will have good reasons to switch to mirrorless lenses too (no need for an adapter ring, better performance and newer features, and possibly lower weight or smaller size). But you won’t be the only one in that position. Your DSLR bodies and lenses will be competing with lots of similar gear on the second-hand market, with fewer buyers interested in them. So you may have to lower the price a lot to sell them. In that case, it makes sense either to buy entry-level gear (depreciation is less painful if it costs €500 new and you sell it for €200 than if it costs €2,500 and you sell it for €1,000) or to buy good used gear, since you will already have paid less from the start.

Also called mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras (MILC) or digital single-lens mirrorless cameras (DSLM), the name is a bit imperfect because, technically, any camera without a DSLR-style mirror is mirrorless: smartphones, compact cameras, and even old rangefinder cameras. Still, this is the last category of camera I’m covering in this article (and, in practice, almost the only one left, haha!). Mirrorless cameras have been growing for many years now, and let’s be honest: as I mentioned above, even the historic DSLR brands like Canon and Nikon are now focusing heavily on them. At this point, I would find it hard to recommend a DSLR over a mirrorless camera, except in certain specific cases.

As with the DSLRs mentioned above, these are camera bodies that let you change lenses and adapt to different situations. The mirrorless lens lineup is still more limited than DSLR lineups in some systems (which is normal given their later arrival on the market, even if adapters let you use older-mount lenses), but some brands, especially Sony with help from third-party manufacturers like Tamron and Sigma, already offer a very wide choice.

So what should you know about these famous mirrorless cameras? Overall, they offer the same main advantages as a DSLR, but often in a more compact body/lens setup (in terms of size and weight). There are generally four sensor formats in mirrorless cameras: Micro 4/3 (MFT), APS-C, full frame, and medium format. The last three also exist in DSLRs. With these fairly large sensors, you have more than enough to really enjoy photography, as these cameras offer a complete set of settings to help you progress and go further (RAW, PASM mode, etc.).

Prices range from around €400/€500 for entry-level models with a kit lens to several thousand euros for full-frame and medium-format mirrorless cameras. Some of those are almost as large and bulky as DSLR cameras (although usually still a little more compact), especially at the very high end and with monoblock-style bodies.

We also have an article dedicated to the best current mirrorless cameras, which covers several models from each brand.

For those on a budget, we’ve also written an article on the best mirrorless cameras currently available for under $500! And if you have a bigger budget, here’s a look at mirrorless cameras under $1,000 and mirrorless cameras for under $2,000.

Here is a quick summary of the cameras mentioned above, with a price comparison between B&H and Amazon.

That’s all well and good, but everything depends on each camera’s technical criteria. They are not all equal (that would be too easy, haha), and you will obviously need to make choices based on your requirements and needs. I’ll come back to more personal aspects at the end of the article, such as budget and expectations.

The first thing I think you should consider is sensor size. I’ve already written an article about sensor sizes, so I won’t go over everything again here, but keep the following points in mind. A larger sensor will:

• offer you more creative possibilities. You will be able to create more background blur thanks to a shallower depth of field. Of course, nothing forces you to blur the background in every photo, but beyond a 1″ sensor, it becomes much easier. If this interests you, DSLR or mirrorless cameras are the way to go. As mentioned above, you will also find expert compacts with large sensors.
• improve the dynamic range of your images. To put it simply, dynamic range is the difference between the highlights and the dark areas of your image. This matters a lot in high-contrast scenes, like those I often encounter here in the tropics, with a very bright sky and a dark foreground. Larger sensors generally handle dynamic range better and can therefore produce an image with more “realistic” tones, closer to what the human eye perceives.
• improve low-light and high-ISO performance. Basically, the larger the sensor, the larger the photosites, and the better they capture light. They also tend to handle signal amplification (raising ISO) better and produce cleaner results at high ISO. I’m talking about low-light situations because that is when you often raise the ISO, but this also applies to many other scenes where a higher ISO is sometimes necessary and you cannot use a tripod. Examples include indoor action scenes or any situation where you need a fast shutter speed to freeze movement (wildlife, sports, etc.).

Generally speaking, there is an equivalence between sensor formats. If an image at ISO 6400 looks acceptable on a full-frame camera, its quality is roughly equivalent to an image at ISO 3200 on an APS-C sensor (about 1.5 times smaller) and ISO 1600 on Micro 4/3. So don’t be surprised if 1″ sensors—or the sensor in your smartphone, which is more than six times smaller than a full-frame sensor—handle high ISO much less effectively.

Finally, a few words about camera resolution, the famous megapixels. You can refer to my article on the subject, but today, all cameras (from compacts to medium format) have plenty of MP for everyday, non-professional use. More MP lets you print larger and crop more, but 8 MP is already enough to view an image on a 4K screen or print it at A4 in good quality. In my opinion—and to summarize—unless you want to print A0 posters of your images or crop your photos heavily, your camera choice should not really be dictated by the number of megapixels.

It may seem like a silly question, but it really isn’t. Some people simply don’t want to change lenses, and that is a perfectly valid choice. In that case, remember that if you buy a DSLR or a mirrorless camera, you are choosing a system built around interchangeable lenses. Of course, you can always keep the kit lens and never buy anything else, but in my opinion, the benefit is fairly limited. If you don’t want to change lenses, I would recommend an expert compact or a bridge camera instead.

Here too, there are a few points to keep in mind. We are talking about focal length (the zoom range/your field of view) and aperture (the amount of light that reaches the sensor), and this relates to the lenses on the cameras mentioned above. Although focal length is often expressed as a full-frame equivalent, the field of view of a given focal length (in mm) obviously depends on the sensor it is used with. The Panasonic FZ2000 (1″ sensor), for example, offers the equivalent of “24–480mm f/2.8–4.5.” In general, remember that smaller sensors make it easier to “zoom in” more (as with the Panasonic above, which offers an equivalent focal length of almost 500mm). On the other hand, with DSLR and mirrorless cameras, you can choose lenses with wide apertures and long focal lengths.

With DSLRs, even though I tend to think these cameras are gradually fading with the rise of mirrorless, you can still find many long lenses at very reasonable prices. This is even more true if you look at second-hand lenses, as many users (like me in 2021) are switching to mirrorless cameras and selling all their DSLR gear.

Camera performance also matters, especially things like responsiveness, autofocus sensitivity, burst rate, and buffer depth. In general, the higher-end the camera, the better its performance, but that is not always the case. Even though entry-level cameras have lower specifications, this isn’t 2001 anymore: most of them are already quite capable.

Because mirrorless cameras consume a lot of power, battery life (which I discuss later in this article), startup time, and other features can vary depending on the brand and range. A more sensitive autofocus system can also be useful if you often shoot in dark conditions, because even the best lens with the best motor cannot focus if the camera’s AF system cannot detect the target (this is one reason for differences in some camera and lens tests).

Keep in mind that the highest-end cameras usually have the best AF systems and burst rates because they are often designed for action photography (sports and wildlife, for example). But for “everyday” use, they are often far more powerful than necessary. If you want to know more about this subject, don’t hesitate to check out our article explaining how to choose your gear for sports photography.

A quick aside here: some of you probably want a camera that can shoot video as well. Few of us can afford a dedicated video powerhouse with specialized lenses. If video matters to you, I really recommend looking carefully at each camera’s video performance.

I’m thinking in particular about video resolution (UHD, 4K, 8K), frame rates, and connectivity.

Here, I’m simply talking about the well-known PASM modes now commonly found on mirrorless cameras and DSLRs. These are Program (P), Aperture Priority (A), Shutter Priority (S), and Manual (M). They are creative modes that let you control one, several, or all of the settings used to create your image.

Today, most cameras include these modes, but be careful with inexpensive compact cameras. I also find it much more convenient to have a mode dial on top of the camera. On some cameras, you have to go into the menu to change modes.

Here is another point worth considering carefully. There is no right or wrong choice here: it all depends on you and what you consider too big, too heavy, or too bulky. In short, point-and-shoot/expert compact cameras are obviously the most compact. Mirrorless cameras come next, and DSLRs are still the bulkiest. But be careful: this is not an exact science, because high-end mirrorless cameras can be almost as heavy and large as a professional DSLR. Generally speaking, remember that the larger the sensor, the larger and heavier the camera body tends to be. It’s a matter of preference; the choice is yours.

Even though this point comes quite late in the article, I think it is crucial if you are considering a camera with interchangeable lenses (unlike expert compacts, for example). If you are looking at a DSLR or mirrorless camera, you should absolutely look at the lens lineup offered by the brand you are interested in.

For DSLRs, Canon and Nikon still offer by far the widest choice.
For mirrorless, Sony remains one of the strongest systems. Fujifilm also offers an excellent APS-C lens range (if not the best), while other brands often prefer to develop lenses designed for full frame. Why is that, haha?

The partnership between Panasonic and Olympus/OM System is also interesting for MFT cameras because the lenses are interchangeable between brands.

I’ve gathered the other criteria that seem important to consider when choosing a camera.

• Battery life: In my opinion, this matters. It is one of the reasons I chose an A7 III rather than an A7 II. If you only use your camera in everyday life, it is probably not a key point. But if you travel with it, go on long hikes, and so on, it is worth comparing the differences between two cameras.
• The viewfinder: If you have never bought a camera before, you will mainly choose between an optical viewfinder (on DSLRs) and an electronic viewfinder (on mirrorless cameras). Each has its advantages and disadvantages. For electronic viewfinders, you can also compare criteria such as
  • Viewfinder resolution (millions of dots): this helps you judge the quality of the displayed image.
  • Viewfinder size (inches): a larger viewfinder helps you see scene details more clearly and can make manual focusing easier
  • Refresh rate: a higher refresh rate helps reduce blur when following moving subjects.
  • Viewfinder coverage: electronic viewfinders generally offer 100% coverage, meaning what you see on screen corresponds to the image you are taking. On more entry-level or mid-range DSLRs, coverage may be around 95%, for example.
• Screen type and touch: this can also be an important factor depending on what you want to do. Some screens swivel, tilt, respond to touch, and so on.
• Memory card type and number of slots: this may seem like a detail, but you should still check the type of memory cards your camera accepts and how many card slots it has. I have written an article on memory cards.
• In-camera stabilization: since the rise of mirrorless cameras, more and more cameras now include built-in stabilization. A stabilized camera can help in low light or when using long focal lengths, for example. In any case, in-body stabilization lets you shoot at slower shutter speeds. It becomes even more useful if your lens is not stabilized.
• All-weather construction: here, everything depends on you and how you use your camera. If you shoot in normal everyday conditions, this is not really a major consideration. On the other hand, if you shoot in more challenging conditions, weather sealing can be a real plus. Of course, a weather-sealed camera only makes full sense if your lens is weather-sealed too.
• Formats (JPEG/RAW): most cameras now offer this, but make sure you can shoot in several formats. If you want to edit your photos in post-processing, being able to shoot in RAW is especially useful.
• Connectivity (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC): if this is an important factor for you, make sure you check the types of connectivity offered by the camera.

That’s it for the technical criteria. Now let’s take a quick look at what I call the personal criteria.

I wanted to add a few lines at the end of this article because, even after considering all the technical criteria above, your final choice may also depend on more personal factors.

Your requirements will inevitably influence your camera choice. You need to know where you stand. Are you willing to miss a few shots from time to time because your camera does not have an efficient tracking system? Because it cannot properly follow the movement of a moving subject? In the end, you really need to ask yourself what you want to do with your camera. If you only use it once or twice a year on vacation and do not print your photos, your requirements may be lower, especially if photography is not truly your passion.

In fact, it all comes down to choice (and budget too). It is the same with lenses. I bought a Samyang FE 35mm f/1.8, which suits me perfectly for its low price (€350). Is it the best 35mm lens for a Sony body? Not really. But for my use and how often I use it, I felt it was the smart choice: affordable, while still offering good image quality. The same logic applies to your own requirements.

Finally, the last point: money. There are several ways to look at it. If you have a small budget, your options will naturally be limited, so the choice may actually be simpler depending on what you can afford. With a budget under €1,000, for example, you already know that full-frame mirrorless cameras are probably out of reach. If you have a more comfortable budget, the possibilities open up, and you can look more closely at the technical criteria to see what might suit you.

Where things become more complicated is when your budget allows you to buy most cameras, except for the very high-end models that all exceed €5,000. In that case, I’ll let you refer back to the technical criteria and try to evaluate what could be suitable for you.

I’m coming to the end of this article. If you want to discover the best current cameras, including expert compacts, mirrorless cameras, and DSLRs, don’t hesitate to have a look at our page on the best cameras!

See you soon,

Written by Sylvain PONS

I've been passionate about photography since 2010, learning as I went along. Today, I dedicate myself to guiding others in their choice of camera gear and sharing a variety of tips to improve their photography skills.

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