Very generally, if you don't know what you want, and you're just thinking of trying to do a bit of photography, you probably already have a pretty good camera in your phone. Most [[Camera Phone]]s are pretty decent these days, and you can learn a lot from using them. This especially applies if your budget is limited. Good cameras are expensive, and if you're going to try to get something for £100 or £200, you're most likely going to end up with something worse than your phone. Also - watch out for 'scameras'. There are a lot of these around now, and they're basically a webcam sensor and lens, but stuffed into a body that looks a bit like a real camera. They're generally an unknown brand, and for some reason, seem to be obsessed with putting "4K" all over the camera and the box. No real camera has that as a main selling point, but most people know '4K' on a TV means 'good', so maybe it means that on a camera too. You'll usually get a lot more for your money buying used. That's a lot safer if you stick to used stuff from somewhere like Wex, where everything is tested and has a warranty. Stick with known brands, especially if you're looking for something with interchangeable lenses - Sony, Fujifilm, Olympus, Nikon, Canon, Panasonic/Lumix. ## Terminology Photography is a whole world of jargon. Learning a lot of it is part of the process of learning photography. But a few bits that might help you when looking to buy, as simply and briefly as possible: - Megapixels - usually fairly unimportant, tbh. Most modern cameras are 24 megapixels or more, and that's a lot. If it's much under that, it's probably an older camera, but even old 6 megapixel cameras can still take decent enough photos. - DSLR or D-SLR - some non-photography people use it to mean 'a good camera'. It's actually 'Digital Single Lens Reflex' - a type of camera that's going out of date pretty rapidly now. Well, pretty much gone, really. Most decent modern cameras are 'mirrorless' cameras. A DSLR will be big and heavy, and probably not what you want. There are still a few people who prefer them, but they're a dying breed now. - Interchangeable Lens - can the lens be taken off and changed? If the camera has a fixed lens built in, you can't swap it out for something more suited to your photography later, which is limiting. But the camera may also be smaller and lighter. - If you're buying an interchangeable lens camera, make sure you're also getting a lens. I've seen Reddit posts from people who have bought an expensive camera, and didn't realise they also needed a lens, which can often cost as much as the camera. - Zoom Range - how far can the camera zoom? Usually given in mm, but it gets annoyingly complicated. - To know what that actually means, you also need to know how big the sensor is. Usually that bit is done for you with fixed lens cameras, and they'll say something like "24-100mm equivalent". It's that 'equivalent' bit you need. And with that, 24mm is about the usual for a phone camera, quite a wide angle. 35mm up to around 50mm is fairly 'normal' for modern cameras, and 90mm or so is what you'd probably think of as 'telephoto', or 'zoomed in'. For most day to day photography, something between 24mm and 40mm is good. Landscape photography often needs a fairly wide angle. Birds and sports need longer 'focal lengths', like 200mm or more. - Some cameras and lenses have one focal length, so they're just 35mm, or 40mm. Some have zoom lenses, which can vary it between limits, which is more flexible.