Great video. Equipment is only as good as the person behind it, so that is a great point that you made Julia. I have taken some of my most iconic wildlife and people photos with point and shoot, same with macro in times. Of course it was easier to do the same when I upgraded to much better and more powerful, faster cameras and lenses, but the basics that I learned with very limited cameras still help me today. Great video as usual and great points. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and suggestions.
"Equipment is only as good as the person behind it" generally yes, but when you combine your skills with really good tools it makes the world of difference. I shoot sports mainly and if you go from not having a fast lens or a really good AF system to having all of those tools you'll be capturing stuff you never thought you could.
@@zebr I agree, no argument there. Of course, that is what I also say in the rest of my comment, but I have seen people with 10k of equipment not able to know what to do with it, so it is a bit of both, but the person behind the camera is the key to success, good equipment is of course helpful in situations such as sports, wildlife or anything else. Agreed.
@@zebrbut it comes with a very steep price, that principle Never always applies. Really depends what you shoot, portraits, landscapes and street photos, DSLRs are more than enough
Julia: Another excellent video. Your scripts are always so well written. I wish that more people could write that well. I do have another reason or two to upgrade. As your skill level improves, you may find that the body you are using is holding you back. I learned on a hand me down Canon EOS Rebel with two kit lenses. After I'd shot with it for a year or two, I found that the camera did not have the capabilities required to get the shots that I wanted. That was when I switched to an A7Riii. Also (perhaps this falls under ergonomics), weight and size reductions for both bodies and lenses is a really good reason to upgrade. If you don't have to carry around as much weight, your back will thank you.
OMG! This is what I’ve been looking for! You are so professional and well spoken. Being a young photographer who recently got in the game this is so helpful. Also those sample photos are fire! Thanks so much!
Great video Julia, if i personally could give you an award for this video. No doubt i would have done it. Because that's what this video deserves. The way how you explain and clearify a lot of facts is really great. If someone would ask me for advice about this topic, then this video will be defitnately be one of my recommendations. A true must see!
Today you have already begun to attract me as a photographer, I live in Georgia and it is of great interest to me to get to the USA and shoot people and nature from you, to get to know your culture better🤩
last time I had this question I went camera and then lense. THe reason I upgraded was simple, I wanted a lense that with my old camera did not offer AF so that is a requirement for me, I do not like manual focus so I dols my D5600 and went for a D7500 and latter bought the 10-20 lense, that was in 2019 and ever since I have not purchase a better camera and only purchase lenses. Thabks for the video!
I still have the Sony A7 III. Decided to put my money in better lenses. I have upgrade to the 35 GM and 85GM II. Could not have done a better choice. I might upgrade for the A7 V when it comes out, but no rush at the moment
Really just comes down to how old the body is. I upgraded to a Z5 from a D3200 and the difference is night and day. Not necessarily in image quality, but in the features that make photography infinitely more enjoyable than if I were fussing around with the ancient D3200 still. And now I'm set for another 5+ years minimum. Anyone with a body less than a few years old, lenses are the easy choice.
I love your videos, easy to understand and you know your stuff. Thanks for that. Not sure which of the videos above is shooting situations and focal lengths? Very interested in that. Thanks in advance!
Than you, Julia. You summarised that topic really well. I have a question for about travelling in Europe. Post COVID, are more tourist sites, like ancient buildings restricting the size of your carry bag? I am planning a trip to Greece and I want to take 3 x prime lens and 1 x telezoom lens, but my sister thinks I won’t get a Messenger-sized bag into many tourist attractions. Did you experience any problems on your travels? Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately I can't help you out too much there, when I travel and know I will be going to places like that, I usually like to decide on a single lens and just take that with me all day without a camera bag. When I do have a small bag I personally haven't run into issues, but you might want to check if there is any info about it on each website, every place you visit will have different rules!
From a stills photo perspective, Sensor Image quality from 10 years ago hasn't changed that much. It stagnated, While newer lenses have lepfrogged their older counterparts. Lens, lens, lens,....unless you shoot a lot of fast moving subjects and video to boot, then that's a different story. Mirrorless isn't always the better choice, you can get that same image quality by buying older bodies and good second hand lenses from Sigma ( Art) and Tamron ( SP) AT A SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER PRICE. Know your niche, like, what you shoot 80 percent of the entire time, if it's not necessary, then don't splurge unnecessary amounts of cash in order to get the latest and the greatest. Just to give an example, a used decent full frame plus a used Sigma Art 35 mm 1.4 or 50mm 1.4 would cost you in the ballpark of roughly $800...on a Mirrorless counterpart, it would cost you more than double, with more or less the same image quality. Photography doesn't need to be expensive
Really depends on what camera and lense each one have. Personally, the a7iv is the best upgrade if you're using any cameras before a7s3 (e.g. a7iii, a7r4, a7c, etc). The QoL improvements, Eye AF imorovements, colour profiles, tilt and flip screen, are all substantial. Lens on the other hand, is more about investing in faster glass, or filling in focal length gaps in your kit. Any modern lenses can be sharp enough with good lighting, what matters are under bad lighting conditions, where the difference between fast f1.2/f1.4 primes vs f4 zoom is night and day.
Been an a7iii user since 2018 and gad to buy/upgrade to another camera so decided to go with another a7iii used for £750 and 1000 shutter actuations. Camera bodies and lenses are really good these days and the only thing holding us back is your creativity although is difficult when you've been diagnosed with GAS, 9 lenses and counting...😅
It indirectly affects it (kinda). A 50mm lens will have the same DoF no matter the sensor size. This is pure physics. 50m f/1.8 will give you the same DOF across all formats. The difference in bokeh is because one has to move forwards or backwards to obtain a similar Field of View (or use wider/tighter lenses depending on format). This movement changes the relationship of the distance between camera - subject - background and hence affects the bokeh. You have equivalent lenses such as a 12mm on micro four thirds, 16mm on APS-C, and 24mm on FF. Just be sure to multiply the aperture by crop factor to get a rough equivalence for DoF and ISO performance. So these following images will have similar to near identical images/image quality assuming sensors of the same generation. MFT: 12mm f/2, ISO 200 APS-C: 16mm f/2.8 ISO 400 Full frame: 24mm f/4 ISO 800.
It is only 2 times you really need to upgrade your camera when it breaks or no longer suits your needs. You started off as a photographer now you want to do hybrid shooting.
Defintely upgrade the lens first. Camera body in term of image quality dont have much changes for the last 10 years. The only improvement is buffer and auto focus speed. .. if shooting slow or static subject. Camera body is not important.
Obviously you shoot with dslr with no video required but there is all the difference in the last 2 years, not to mention 10 years, lol. From dslr to mirorless it's night and day difference 🤌🏻
Image quality may not have improved by a ton, but usability and an incredible number of features on newer cameras just make the experience of actually taking photos exponentially better. I replaced my D3200 with a Z5 and the difference is unreal. May be able to shoot static subjects similarly, but the newer body opens up an incredible number of options for other types of shots I'd never contemplate trying on a D3200.
well, it depends. for example, if you have an old crappy dlsr like Nikon d3000 series or Canon 500d series, it's always better getting a newer DSLR or ideally a new mirrorless system. no matter how the lens good is, you'll still have to struggle with poor iso performance, less sharpness and most awfully - bad AF. on the other hand, good AF won't slow you down and you'll be able to rely more on things like composition, poses, colours instead of focusing each time when you make a slight movement (especially on wide-aperture lenses), moreover some genres of photography are nearly impossible like sports, documentary etc. due to poor AF and slower frame rates. surely, you can try shootings sports with 3 fps, but it'll feel like hell
@@HiThere-y8m I agree with you however, all things being equal, for me it is lens first! I was planning on selling my Sony 90mm macro and Sigma 100-400mm to upgrade to the Sony A7IV, however with the introduction of the new 70-200 macro, I've change my mind and will be selling the aforementioned lenses to get the new 70-200mm macro. But, that just me!
@@HiThere-y8m Exactly. Body over lens if the body is ancient. Lens over body if you have anything made in the last few years. There is a night and day difference.
And here I am buying another a7iii in 2023 😅 I've bought my first a7iii in 2018 and needed a second body so I bought a sh a7iii for £750 with just 1000 shutter actuations. Wanted a7iv or a7rv but a7iii is still a very good camera at quarter of the price.
Gear matters. If you can't get a better image out of a better camera, then you are the problem, not the camera. However, better cameras for different people are different cameras. And you have explained all the details in this video very nicely. Well done! 😉
Not a single photographer I’ve ever seen, myself included, is being held back by their gear. I’m not talking about expanding scope of work e.g. wanting to expand services to aerial photography but lacking a drone to do that. I’m speaking about raw talent. That being said I’d invest in more diverse quality glass before more expensive and mostly useless megapixels.
If this was really how things work in Photography, then Leica would never be able to sell a single Leica M camera or Leica M lens. But they do and they cost thousands of dollars a piece. A camera and a lens to Julia is "just a tool" like a hammer or rotary drill or a Kenworth Prime Mover truck or a forklift - a tool to get a job done. Its a very very very cold way of looking at things. I think a camera and its user is a relationship and the camera should work as an extension of the person. Lenses too should convey some sort of relationship of a subject within the world. I think that this video is too robotic: "Robot says: if your lens has CA's and you cannot remove CA's, get rid of lens by throwing in garbage, then buy new lens". Instead you can actually use that lens in a way that any unwanted aberrations do not appear - know the limitations of the gear and work within those limitations. "Robot says: if your camera is not good in low light then throw in rubbish bin and buy new camera".......... Such a throw away society. I've bought mirrorless lenses that had issues like monster flaring + bloom, and and another that had zero 3D pop or dimensionality, but aberrations were so well corrected that the lens was dull and bland and clinically boring. "I bought this vintage lens and it sucks because of the aberrations, and I hate it" But 50 years ago people were having the same problem with that lens and losing money on wasted film, until they WORKED OUT how to get the most out of it, because they couldn't throw it away and buy the latest and greatest, as thats all there was. This generation cannot problem solve anything, and expect everything to work they want it to work, and if it doesn't, it goes in the bin.
All photos edited with my Lightroom Presets! You can check them out here: www.digitalfilmactions.com/lightroom-presets
Great video. Equipment is only as good as the person behind it, so that is a great point that you made Julia. I have taken some of my most iconic wildlife and people photos with point and shoot, same with macro in times. Of course it was easier to do the same when I upgraded to much better and more powerful, faster cameras and lenses, but the basics that I learned with very limited cameras still help me today. Great video as usual and great points. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and suggestions.
"Equipment is only as good as the person behind it" generally yes, but when you combine your skills with really good tools it makes the world of difference. I shoot sports mainly and if you go from not having a fast lens or a really good AF system to having all of those tools you'll be capturing stuff you never thought you could.
@@zebr I agree, no argument there. Of course, that is what I also say in the rest of my comment, but I have seen people with 10k of equipment not able to know what to do with it, so it is a bit of both, but the person behind the camera is the key to success, good equipment is of course helpful in situations such as sports, wildlife or anything else. Agreed.
@@zebrbut it comes with a very steep price, that principle Never always applies. Really depends what you shoot, portraits, landscapes and street photos, DSLRs are more than enough
@@zebrvery true. Just buy the damn equipment and be happy. It’s just money.
Julia: Another excellent video. Your scripts are always so well written. I wish that more people could write that well.
I do have another reason or two to upgrade. As your skill level improves, you may find that the body you are using is holding you back. I learned on a hand me down Canon EOS Rebel with two kit lenses. After I'd shot with it for a year or two, I found that the camera did not have the capabilities required to get the shots that I wanted. That was when I switched to an A7Riii. Also (perhaps this falls under ergonomics), weight and size reductions for both bodies and lenses is a really good reason to upgrade. If you don't have to carry around as much weight, your back will thank you.
This video is absolutely fantastic. Literally gold worth of information. Thank you!
OMG! This is what I’ve been looking for! You are so professional and well spoken. Being a young photographer who recently got in the game this is so helpful. Also those sample photos are fire! Thanks so much!
Great video Julia, if i personally could give you an award for this video. No doubt i would have done it. Because that's what this video deserves. The way how you explain and clearify a lot of facts is really great. If someone would ask me for advice about this topic, then this video will be defitnately be one of my recommendations. A true must see!
I have a sony a5100, recently got the 35mm 1.8 Sony lens. Made a huge difference! Will update the body later as the results have been pretty good
I have a sony 6400 camera with tamron 17-70mm and sony 85mm I feel like thats all i need but a 2nd camera with be nice to have
Great video. Thanks heaps from Auckland. I do this as a serious hobby so am gonna keep my A7R4A for 10 years and will invest more in glass.
Today you have already begun to attract me as a photographer, I live in Georgia and it is of great interest to me to get to the USA and shoot people and nature from you, to get to know your culture better🤩
This video couldn't come at a perfect time! Thank you Julia!
Good refresher course. I will consider an upgrade if needed it. Thanks for the tips.
A new high end prime Lens will always do excellent !
last time I had this question I went camera and then lense. THe reason I upgraded was simple, I wanted a lense that with my old camera did not offer AF so that is a requirement for me, I do not like manual focus so I dols my D5600 and went for a D7500 and latter bought the 10-20 lense, that was in 2019 and ever since I have not purchase a better camera and only purchase lenses.
Thabks for the video!
I still have the Sony A7 III. Decided to put my money in better lenses. I have upgrade to the 35 GM and 85GM II. Could not have done a better choice. I might upgrade for the A7 V when it comes out, but no rush at the moment
Really just comes down to how old the body is. I upgraded to a Z5 from a D3200 and the difference is night and day. Not necessarily in image quality, but in the features that make photography infinitely more enjoyable than if I were fussing around with the ancient D3200 still. And now I'm set for another 5+ years minimum. Anyone with a body less than a few years old, lenses are the easy choice.
Yeah But d3200 is actually pretty goated picture quality. Under $100 body and just slap AFS 50mm / 35mm and
I love your videos, easy to understand and you know your stuff. Thanks for that. Not sure which of the videos above is shooting situations and focal lengths? Very interested in that. Thanks in advance!
I just got a 85mm to go with my old Canon t4i.
Than you, Julia. You summarised that topic really well. I have a question for about travelling in Europe. Post COVID, are more tourist sites, like ancient buildings restricting the size of your carry bag? I am planning a trip to Greece and I want to take 3 x prime lens and 1 x telezoom lens, but my sister thinks I won’t get a Messenger-sized bag into many tourist attractions. Did you experience any problems on your travels? Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately I can't help you out too much there, when I travel and know I will be going to places like that, I usually like to decide on a single lens and just take that with me all day without a camera bag. When I do have a small bag I personally haven't run into issues, but you might want to check if there is any info about it on each website, every place you visit will have different rules!
@@juliatrotti thank you, Julia. I will send you a photo when we get back from Greece.
From a stills photo perspective, Sensor Image quality from 10 years ago hasn't changed that much. It stagnated, While newer lenses have lepfrogged their older counterparts. Lens, lens, lens,....unless you shoot a lot of fast moving subjects and video to boot, then that's a different story. Mirrorless isn't always the better choice, you can get that same image quality by buying older bodies and good second hand lenses from Sigma ( Art) and Tamron ( SP) AT A SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER PRICE.
Know your niche, like, what you shoot 80 percent of the entire time, if it's not necessary, then don't splurge unnecessary amounts of cash in order to get the latest and the greatest. Just to give an example, a used decent full frame plus a used Sigma Art 35 mm 1.4 or 50mm 1.4 would cost you in the ballpark of roughly $800...on a Mirrorless counterpart, it would cost you more than double, with more or less the same image quality. Photography doesn't need to be expensive
Really depends on what camera and lense each one have.
Personally, the a7iv is the best upgrade if you're using any cameras before a7s3 (e.g. a7iii, a7r4, a7c, etc). The QoL improvements, Eye AF imorovements, colour profiles, tilt and flip screen, are all substantial.
Lens on the other hand, is more about investing in faster glass, or filling in focal length gaps in your kit. Any modern lenses can be sharp enough with good lighting, what matters are under bad lighting conditions, where the difference between fast f1.2/f1.4 primes vs f4 zoom is night and day.
Been an a7iii user since 2018 and gad to buy/upgrade to another camera so decided to go with another a7iii used for £750 and 1000 shutter actuations. Camera bodies and lenses are really good these days and the only thing holding us back is your creativity although is difficult when you've been diagnosed with GAS, 9 lenses and counting...😅
Wow that's a really good price for such low shutter count, did you find it on photo websites or ebay/marketplace?
Do you ever change the camera profile in LR? Also, do you think changing profile in LR is important at all?
nice video. like all of your clips. can you do a photoshoot with the Sony 20 1.8 g?
great video as always! think we can get an updated Lightroom tutorial?
Thank you! I am working on an editing video which will include Lightroom, I will upload it the week after next :D
We need to upgrade our skill and experience first
Hii julia, doesn‘t your sensor size also affect your bokeh? 7:03
❤ your content
It indirectly affects it (kinda). A 50mm lens will have the same DoF no matter the sensor size. This is pure physics. 50m f/1.8 will give you the same DOF across all formats. The difference in bokeh is because one has to move forwards or backwards to obtain a similar Field of View (or use wider/tighter lenses depending on format). This movement changes the relationship of the distance between camera - subject - background and hence affects the bokeh. You have equivalent lenses such as a 12mm on micro four thirds, 16mm on APS-C, and 24mm on FF. Just be sure to multiply the aperture by crop factor to get a rough equivalence for DoF and ISO performance.
So these following images will have similar to near identical images/image quality assuming sensors of the same generation.
MFT: 12mm f/2, ISO 200
APS-C: 16mm f/2.8 ISO 400
Full frame: 24mm f/4 ISO 800.
It is only 2 times you really need to upgrade your camera when it breaks or no longer suits your needs. You started off as a photographer now you want to do hybrid shooting.
Defintely upgrade the lens first. Camera body in term of image quality dont have much changes for the last 10 years. The only improvement is buffer and auto focus speed. .. if shooting slow or static subject. Camera body is not important.
A lens won’t get you features like different video capabilities so this advice isn’t always true. The video went over this in the first half.
Obviously you shoot with dslr with no video required but there is all the difference in the last 2 years, not to mention 10 years, lol. From dslr to mirorless it's night and day difference 🤌🏻
Image quality may not have improved by a ton, but usability and an incredible number of features on newer cameras just make the experience of actually taking photos exponentially better. I replaced my D3200 with a Z5 and the difference is unreal. May be able to shoot static subjects similarly, but the newer body opens up an incredible number of options for other types of shots I'd never contemplate trying on a D3200.
Your video’s are Amazing Thanks.
Many thanks for sharing Julia; a great guide for those of us who are still learning! (which includes my good self!)
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
What system is your videographer using,.....I ask because i want to know if the photos are from the camera your using....Is it the same ???
Dan films the majority of our behind the scenes with the Sony A7sIII
Ok Solid !!!@@juliatrotti
dear julia trotti make zv e1 review you haven’t made it yet 🤷🏻♂️
Love it!!!
With so little change in sensor tec. it may be smarter to go with lens. Newer lenses are sharper than their yesterday's counterpart!
It’s always lens first. The hold value for so much longer it’s the better investment.
well, it depends. for example, if you have an old crappy dlsr like Nikon d3000 series or Canon 500d series, it's always better getting a newer DSLR or ideally a new mirrorless system. no matter how the lens good is, you'll still have to struggle with poor iso performance, less sharpness and most awfully - bad AF. on the other hand, good AF won't slow you down and you'll be able to rely more on things like composition, poses, colours instead of focusing each time when you make a slight movement (especially on wide-aperture lenses), moreover some genres of photography are nearly impossible like sports, documentary etc. due to poor AF and slower frame rates. surely, you can try shootings sports with 3 fps, but it'll feel like hell
@@HiThere-y8m I agree with you however, all things being equal, for me it is lens first! I was planning on selling my Sony 90mm macro and Sigma 100-400mm to upgrade to the Sony A7IV, however with the introduction of the new 70-200 macro, I've change my mind and will be selling the aforementioned lenses to get the new 70-200mm macro. But, that just me!
@@HiThere-y8m Exactly. Body over lens if the body is ancient. Lens over body if you have anything made in the last few years. There is a night and day difference.
Bought my A7IV december 2021. Won't upgrade until A7V. And that is probably at least 2 more years 😂 More glass is the way to go
And here I am buying another a7iii in 2023 😅
I've bought my first a7iii in 2018 and needed a second body so I bought a sh a7iii for £750 with just 1000 shutter actuations. Wanted a7iv or a7rv but a7iii is still a very good camera at quarter of the price.
@@Super01041994 That's a great deal and a great camera! If it meets your needs, having two is probably better than having the latest and greatest 😁
park lenses and one camera for life)
The camera body does immensely change the bokeh. The bigger the sensor the more bokeh you get.
4:52 I'm pretty sure IBIS is in-body not in-built but great video nonetheless! Lens over body in most cases for me.
It is! It just slipped out like that and I didn't realise until I was editing lol
All people shy Kuttamperoor mannar photography Alappuzha Kerala India ❤
We should upgrade our bank balance first!
I had an old Sony A7r3 and it was rubbish
Gear matters. If you can't get a better image out of a better camera, then you are the problem, not the camera. However, better cameras for different people are different cameras. And you have explained all the details in this video very nicely. Well done! 😉
Not a single photographer I’ve ever seen, myself included, is being held back by their gear. I’m not talking about expanding scope of work e.g. wanting to expand services to aerial photography but lacking a drone to do that. I’m speaking about raw talent. That being said I’d invest in more diverse quality glass before more expensive and mostly useless megapixels.
If this was really how things work in Photography, then Leica would never be able to sell a single Leica M camera or Leica M lens. But they do and they cost thousands of dollars a piece. A camera and a lens to Julia is "just a tool" like a hammer or rotary drill or a Kenworth Prime Mover truck or a forklift - a tool to get a job done. Its a very very very cold way of looking at things. I think a camera and its user is a relationship and the camera should work as an extension of the person. Lenses too should convey some sort of relationship of a subject within the world.
I think that this video is too robotic: "Robot says: if your lens has CA's and you cannot remove CA's, get rid of lens by throwing in garbage, then buy new lens". Instead you can actually use that lens in a way that any unwanted aberrations do not appear - know the limitations of the gear and work within those limitations. "Robot says: if your camera is not good in low light then throw in rubbish bin and buy new camera"..........
Such a throw away society.
I've bought mirrorless lenses that had issues like monster flaring + bloom, and and another that had zero 3D pop or dimensionality, but aberrations were so well corrected that the lens was dull and bland and clinically boring.
"I bought this vintage lens and it sucks because of the aberrations, and I hate it" But 50 years ago people were having the same problem with that lens and losing money on wasted film, until they WORKED OUT how to get the most out of it, because they couldn't throw it away and buy the latest and greatest, as thats all there was. This generation cannot problem solve anything, and expect everything to work they want it to work, and if it doesn't, it goes in the bin.
It seems like you are already very knowledgable in gear and know what you want, so perhaps this video just isn't for you :)
Please review Viltrox 75mm F1.2 for Sony, coz I love the way you describe all the pros and cons. Thank you 😊
Jaya kumar photographer
Neither..... next question
It’s not the arrow, it’s the Indian
Lens lol
eres hermosa
Your short hair not good .
I like your long hair 😊😊😊😊
Wow you have a lot of vifeos