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Best Starter Camera Deal?
An iPhone has a good camera, and maybe that is enough for some. But it cannot do many jobs that a “real camera” can do. And while the quick-snap appeal is awesome, the ergonomics are terrible (starting with the corner position of the lens).
Most digital cameras lenses all have discounts from attractive to as much as half off. See also Lens and Flash promotion: Canon, Fujifilm, LensBaby, Olympus, more.
View camera deals: DSLR, Mirrorless, Point and Shoot
View lens deals: DSLR, Mirrorless
Its easy to be a camera snob what with the Canon 5DS R and Nikon D810 and Sony A7R II and Leica M gear in my closet.
A reader asks what might be the best quality starter camera for a gift, for a teenager or similar?
The $397 Nikon D3300 with 18-55mm lens looks like a great buy. B&H is offering it with 16GB SD card, shoulder bag, extra battery and wireless mobile adapter. With those goodies and $250/38% off and a price point that is manageable, it’s a solid deal. Available in black, gray and red and see also $497 Nikon D3300 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm and 55-200mm Lenses and the $397 Nikon D3200 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm and 55-200mm VR Lenses Kit.
Up from the D3300 is the Nikon D5500, with its 14-bit image pipeline—first class.
The $449 Canon Rebel T5 with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses and extras is also attractive. It’s 18 megapixels vs the 24 megapixels for the D3300 however.
The Sony Alpha A6000 with 16-50mm lens is also attractive, but more expensive at $548.
My daughter really enjoyed shooting the image-stabilized Olympus OMD E-M1 on our snowstorm trip; she mostly used the super Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 her dad (me) loaned her. But for a solid fun-shooting camera, the Olympus OM-D E-M5 with 14-42mm Lens is hard to beat (though the high-res mode of the Olympus E-M5 Mark II is my preferred Olympus, it is about twice the price).
Moving upscale a bit, the Canon EOS 7D Mark II DSLR Camera with PIXMA PRO-100 Printer Kit is about 50% off after instant savings and rebates.
Don’t forget backup
My teenagers don’t even think about backing up their photos. Here are some excellent and portable products for backup, at least two backups recommended:
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini, hard drive or SSD up to 3TB in a bus powered compact case.
- OWC Envoy Pro Mini SSD thumb drive (fast, compact, portable, up to 240GB and soon, 480GB)
- OWC Envoy Pro Mini USB3 portable SSD (fast and high performance, up to 1TB)
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro (full size drive, up to 6TB).
