I started this idea with a plan to just repost some previous posts explaining how to shop for a camera. I realized that was a terrible idea because those posts were crazy long and wordy because I have the conundrum of being a budget conscience person and photographer. The result is I am not a gear head. I buy things after months of research and agonizing over if it’s the right choice. So getting a text of “What camera should I buy?” sends me to spiral.

So here my recommended list. Based solely on what I own, use, and love. Nothing else.

Click the images for the links. If you purchase thru one of these links, I get a small kickback. Every thing on here, I purchased and own with no intention of replacing.

Nikon D600

I have had this camera… for a long time, somewhere in the range of 7-9 years. I like that file size isn’t too big which takes up more space on your hard drives faster and the ergonomics have always been intuitive for me. Here is the link to the current version.

Lens- Sigma Art 50mm

Lens can also be very expensive. If had to truly pick one, it’d be this one. It’s a good one.

Rechargeable Battery

These are painfully expensive for what they are. I’ve tried to go the route of buying off brand and it wasn’t worth it, they lasted barely an hour. Depending on your goal in owning a camera I would buy at least two but I have five because a camera dying at a wedding was my nightmare. When it comes to the chargers I have not personally found brand to be a big deal, I have two nikon ones and an off brand and use them the same. So just make sure it’s compatible.

SD Cards

My camera holds two cards so I pretty much always have two in there. There are different thoughts on big (space wise) of card you should keep. I like 32 but the most important thing especially if you are purchasing a nicer camera then you had before is WRITE SPEED. Cards are usually advertised by their read speed and that is tricky on the part of the advertising. This one is 90 MB/s write speed.

Fuji Instax Mini 90 Neo Classic

At the end of last year Texan and I were going thru photos are our phones. I realized he had SO many more photos then I did. I just am not great at taking the time to capture a moment. I started looking for cameras that would motivate me to take more pictures and I have had so much fun with this! I chose it because it has double exposure capabilities, timer, a rechargeable battery and mostly because the brown version matches my Chacos 🙂

Instax Film

I usually hear people complain about the price of the film with things like these. I get that, it can be a small investment but is still way cheaper than the expensive camera route and you don’t have to have Adobe CC to get your photos. They also have Frozen 2, Star Wars , and pretty pastels.

Mini Photo Album

Using this camera can get addictive and I don’t recommend having tons of little photos laying around, it might drive you mad. These albums are not too expensive, come in tons of colors, and so far have been durable.

Camera/Phone Tripod

Okay, this is not a necessity if you have Neo Classic but I do really like it. It’s small enough to go in my backpack side pocket so I can use the timer mode and we also use the phone attachment to FaceTime family. It’s the not the highest quality tripod ever but I have had waaaaay worse.

Now if you are someone who wants to do more research and is interested my wordy post of yesteryear, I’ll link them here 🙂 Cameras, Lens Part One, Lens Part Two.