LocalNavy433 Photography

Hello and how the hell are you?  If this is your first time here thanks for stopping by.  In this blog we are going to talk about professional photography on a budget.  The budget set for this scenario is 2600 USD this is going to be the base for the whole blog.  The fact is how are you going to get a pro level setup for that little is the first question that one would ask.  I know because I asked myself that same question.  The key to remember is that the camera is not the most important thing for this experiment.  The most important thing here is going to be the lenses.  You need good glass in order to get good images.  

The level of glass that you choose is going to determine how sharp your images are going to be.  The colors that are produced with the lenses is something that is going to make or break the way your photos look in the end.  The overall quality of the lenses is what is going to help you stay with the brand that you choose.  For this experiment we are going to be looking at the Canon eco system due to the fact that is what brand I shoot.  The lenses that you choose for your setup my vary but for me this is what I decided was going to give me that look that I love to my images.  

To start with we are going to be looking at all used gear because a brand new setup is not what the average person is going to be able to afford for a starting pro level kit.  The point of this is to show that you can produce pro level images with used and semi pro level gear.  I started looking for the body that was going to give me all the features that I wanted for the way that I shoot.  I am a landscape photographer by nature but I also have a passion for shooting all different genres of photography.  This means that the body had to hit all the marks for being an all around shooter.  The frames per second (FPS) had to be high enough for me to get some decent wildlife images.  This means that I needed no less than 7FPS to feel that I could get a good photo.  

The AF had to be fast enough and good enough for me to shoot in live view for the times that I want to be low to the ground shooting street photography.  I also had to have the battery life of a DSLR so that means that any mirrorless body is out the question.  I also wanted to keep the price as low as I could for this so I could spend the rest of the money on lenses.  I also wanted a crop body (APSC) due to keeping the cost down.  This was important due to the fact that I came to the conclusion that a full frame (FF) even used was not going to give me all the features that I was after.  So I decided that with all the criteria of features that I wanted the only camera that ticked all the boxes was the Canon 80d.  

This set me back 700 USD so that was a good part of the 2600 USD gone just on the body alone, but that left me with 1900 USD for getting some good lenses.  Now I was on the hunt for getting some good pro level lenses that are sharp on both APSC and FF because one day I am going to get me another FF body but as of right now the need is not there.  The choices for that means that I need at least three lenses to give me the best focal range that I could want.  I jumped right into seeing what focal lengths I shot most of my images at and well they vary so much.  When I was shooting on the Sony a6400 the range was between 11-300mm so that was the range that I wanted to keep this at.  

I managed to find two lenses that gave me the most of reach and portability for shooting on a APSC system.  I love the focal range of 18-105 as that is the best range for getting the really wide shots to the telephoto images.  Now at 105mm you are actually seeing an image of 168mm which is great for all the long focal range that you could want for most images.  So I got the older lenses from Canon which are L series lenses so they will stand the test of time.  I got the 17-40 F4 L at 350 USD and this gives me a range of 27-64mm field of view.  Now I had my standard zoom covered and I just needed to make sure that the other lenses are going to work with the setup that I am building.  

The next lens was the Canon 24-105 F4 IS USM L, which is a kit lens for the FF bodies that Canon sells.  I have shot with this lens before and the versatility of it was something that I could not pass up on.  I managed to get that lens for 350 USD now that means that the rest of the budget is down to 1200 USD and we have three items already set for the finished setup.  You see this can be done with a little research and time to find the products that you want.  

The last three lenses are going to be for special types of photos that I want to get.  The three areas that I was looking at were on the extreme ends of the spectrum for my way of shooting.  I ended up getting the Tonkina 11-16mm f2.8 ATX PRO v1 for my Milky Way images.  This gives me a field of view of 17-25mm for those super wide shots.  Now I was set from 11-105mm this means that for all general types of photography I was good to go.  That lens was 250 USD so that means out budget was down to 950 USD so you would think that you only need one more lens right. 

Hold on you are forgetting that I also like to shoot portraits and that means that I need a portrait lens for getting those sweet images that are sharp and showcase the models face and features.  I decided to go with the Niffy fifty f1.8 for that type of shot.  I wanted something that was going to give me that good blur in the background like all the portrait photogs get.  I managed to get this one for 100 USD so that brings the budget down to 850 USD.  Now with that being said I really only needed one last lens to get me finished off.  

The is was going to be the long lens and I was about to pull the trigger on getting the Canon 70-200 f4 but the price was way over the last of the money that I had left.  It also meant that I was going to be giving up 100mm on the long end which meant that I was going to be missing the mark for the types of images I was wanted out of the lens.  I went with getting the Canon 70-300 f4.5-5.6 IS USM v1 (field of view of 112-480mm) which is the older lens but man oh man is it sharp.  I got the lens for 300 USD so that means that I am down to 550 USD left out of my starting budget of 2600 USD.  

I was loving the fact that I managed to get all the gear that I was after and they are all pro level.  With the money that was left over I used to take a short trip to the Tetons to test all the gear out and that meant that I was going to see what I bought work in action.  I was so happy that I sold all my Sony and older Canon gear to pay for this so at the end of the day no actual money was spent in buying this setup.  I managed to finally have a FF and APSC setup and in the future I don’t need to buy anything expect for a new to me FF body. This setup took about three months of research to make sure that I was getting the most out of my gear.  

I hope that this helps you when you are going to try and deiced to buy a pro level setup for cheap.  When I say cheap I mean in the camera industry standards for pro level equipment for photography.  The whole reason for this blog was to show that you can totally get really good equipment for photography and not break the bank.  The reasons that we all buy camera equipment is different for every person.  I am the type that doesn’t need the latest and greatest gear for getting the shots.  I am not going to have to buy a new to me body for at least the next five years and when I do look for a new to me body it will be either another 80d or a 90d.  I hope this helps all you out there looking for good gear for your photographic needs.  Enjoy y’all from St Johons AZ y’all