I'm thinking of buying a DSLR camera and I'm pretty lost

When I take pics of my DDs with my phone camera they turn out mediocre and sometimes distorted (the zoom's pretty bad so I can't fix that by taking the picture from further away), so I was considering buying a DSLR camera, mainly for photographing my dolls but also nature and landscapes sometimes. 

At my local second hand store they have a Nikon D3500 with its 18-55mm lens and a Canon EOS 60D body without a lens for less than half the price of the previous. Do you guys have any feedback/opinion about these two?

Considering I'm mostly going to take doll pictures inside, would the 18-55mm lens still be suitable or would I need a 50mm f1.4 one (which I understand is the best for portraits with the lovely bokeh but wouldn't serve for much else)?

Thank you for your time~

I can't really tell you anything about the D3500, but I've happily used my EOS 60D for about nine years. (Almost all of my photos posted here before 2023 were shot with it.). About two years ago, I upgraded to an EOS R7 primarily for extra in-body image stabilization and dual-pixel autofocus. (These things make it a lot easier to capture photos especially in low light.) The 60D should still work well in most less extreme situations and produce lovely images with the right lenses.

The 18-55mm kit lenses (be they Nikon or Canon) are serviceable all-rounders. If you get one, just make sure they have an in-lens image stabilizer (some older ones may not - they're annoying to use). While they're not a catastrophe for outdoor doll portraits (the smaller max aperture is countered a bit by the dolls themselves being smaller), they'll struggle indoors to give you any nice bokeh (background blur).

37 minutes ago, Rheynna said:

or would I need a 50mm f1.4 one (which I understand is the best for portraits with the lovely bokeh

Both cameras you're looking at have APS-C sized sensors. 50mm will already be a fairly tight field of view. - Nice for head shots, but if you want to take some full-body pictures you'll have to stand back a fair bit. Make sure you have the space for that. For Canon, you should be able to get an EF 50mm F1.8 STM for not too much money, if you want to go that route.

I personally like 30mm (28mm is just as good) on APS-C a lot. It behaves quite similar to a 50mm on full-frame. That should allow you to take full body portraits without standing back too much. I love my Sigma 30mm F1.4 Art, but on the 60D it tends to back focus a fair bit with the default autofocus (can be circumvented by using the live view focus, but that's fairly slow on the 60D - not that your dolls are going anywhere, though). On cameras with a better autofocus system, that shouldn't be an issue anymore. In case you want to go with this lens, it should be available with a Nikon mount too.

58 minutes ago, Rheynna said:

but wouldn't serve for much else)?

I found 28mm or 30mm to be quite versatile and you can just happily keep one on the camera all day on a trip.

 

Basically, unless you want to take super dreamy human portraits (which is the only real weakness of APS-C anyway), for dolls you don't have to splurge for an F1.4 lens if the bank doesn't allow it. Most F1.8 or even F2.8 offerings should be sufficient to start out.

 

6 minutes ago, Tierparkzone said:

I can't really tell you anything about the D3500, but I've happily used my EOS 60D for about nine years. (Almost all of my photos posted here before 2023 were shot with it.). About two years ago, I upgraded to an EOS R7 primarily for extra in-body image stabilization and dual-pixel autofocus. (These things make it a lot easier to capture photos especially in low light.) The 60D should still work well in most less extreme situations and produce lovely images with the right lenses.

The 18-55mm kit lenses (be they Nikon or Canon) are serviceable all-rounders. If you get one, just make sure they have an in-lens image stabilizer (some older ones may not - they're annoying to use). While they're not a catastrophe for outdoor doll portraits (the smaller max aperture is countered a bit by the dolls themselves being smaller), they'll struggle indoors to give you any nice bokeh (background blur).

Both cameras you're looking at have APS-C sized sensors. 50mm will already be a fairly tight field of view. - Nice for head shots, but if you want to take some full-body pictures you'll have to stand back a fair bit. Make sure you have the space for that. For Canon, you should be able to get an EF 50mm F1.8 STM for not too much money, if you want to go that route.

I personally like 30mm (28mm is just as good) on APS-C a lot. It behaves quite similar to a 50mm on full-frame. That should allow you to take full body portraits without standing back too much. I love my Sigma 30mm F1.4 Art, but on the 60D it tends to back focus a fair bit with the default autofocus (can be circumvented by using the live view focus, but that's fairly slow on the 60D - not that your dolls are going anywhere, though). On cameras with a better autofocus system, that shouldn't be an issue anymore. In case you want to go with this lens, it should be available with a Nikon mount too.

I found 28mm or 30mm to be quite versatile and you can just happily keep one on the camera all day on a trip.

 

Basically, unless you want to take super dreamy human portraits (which is the only real weakness of APS-C anyway), for dolls you don't have to splurge for an F1.4 lens if the bank doesn't allow it. Most F1.8 or even F2.8 offerings should be sufficient to start out.

 

Wow! Thank you so much, that was super insightful, I'll look into the 30mm's ☺️

On 11/14/2024 at 2:09 PM, Rheynna said:

When I take pics of my DDs with my phone camera they turn out mediocre and sometimes distorted

One thing that can have a big impact is holding the cell parallel to the subject. When you tilt the camera, the top of  the film plane or sensor is farther from the subject that the bottom, and that creates a perspective effect  

This graphic illustrates the effect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt–shift_photography#/media/File:Pc-lens-demo-tiltedcamera.svg

Camera phones amplify this effect, but any camera will experience this shift in perspective. There are lenses that correct this, but they're expensive, and imo, it only makes sense to rent one of those on the occasions that you need one. They cost about $1800, can't autofocus, and aren't really good as a general use lens. They really shine when it comes to architectural photography, but unless you are doing that regularly, the $1800 you spend is going to sit in your camera bag until it's needed. 
 

I would suggest going to a camera store and holding different cameras in your hand. Nikon, Fuji, Canon, and Sony all make good cameras, and features will be comparable between them. Pick them up and hold them, because comfortability in your hands, and ease of access to the controls, is more important than brand where the big four are concerned. Technically there are some other good brands too, like Pentax and Olympus, and there is the super expensive Leica option.

You probably want to consider mirrorless as well. DSLRs are kind of in their end days, so lens development for them is waning. 

I know this isn’t exactly what you asked, but I’ve played around with Canon, Nikon, and Sony brands. One negative (or positive; depends on your aesthetic ig) is that Nikon has no grid function whatsoever. I found Nikon sharper than Canon, but the lack of grid function was a major turn-off: so I found my new favorite brand, Sony. I have a Sony Mirrorless model, and I love it to pieces. Like everyone else, I have a 50mm, and it’s really all you need for doll photography. If you’re considering other types of photography as well, there’s a lot of great resources online!

On 11/15/2024 at 8:18 AM, Rheynna said:

I found 28mm or 30mm to be quite versatile and you can just happily keep one on the camera all day on a trip.

I had a 90mm once, and unfortunately it didn’t work out for me because of the extremely limited space I had to take photos. Be careful, the bigger, the further back you have to go to get a full frame photo. It is great for doll photos without using a macro though, I’ll tell you that!

PS: I will, however, admit a secret no photographer likes to admit. No photograph looks perfect straight out of the camera, you will have to get an image editing program to clean it up a bit for viewing. This is called “post-production.”

Well, those are my two yen cents, I hope they’re worth something.

Edited Saturday at 10:23 PM by null