Which Camera Should You Buy? Video, Portraits, Sports & Wildlife!

Table of contents & gear links below!
Which camera should you buy in 2023 and 2024? Professional photographer and camera review Tony Northrup has tested all the latest gear. He gives simple answers to help you pick the right camera and lens for your budget and needs.

FASHIONABLE, FUN & FIXED-LENS CAMERAS

FASHIONABLE, FUN & INTERCHANGEABLE LENS CAMERAS

BEST GENERAL PURPOSE STILL & VIDEO CAMERAS
Use 5% coupon NORTHRUP-1

BEST SOCIAL MEDIA, VLOGGING & VIDEO CAMERAS

BEST LANDSCAPE CAMERA

BEST SPORTS CAMERA

BEST PORTRAITS CAMERA

BEST WILDLIFE CAMERA

0:00 Introduction
2:39 Best Fashionable & Fun Cameras
4:22 General Purpose Stills & Video Cameras
8:14 Video Cameras & Social Media Vlogging
11:27 Best Sports Cameras
12:56 Best Portraits Cameras
16:30 Best Wildlife Cameras
18:59 Summary

[michaelthomas]

Tony where is Chelsea, is she still recovering from that olive? You two are such fun to watch.

[DrifterAtHeart-Woocash]

Recommending old DSLRs and new budget but crippled to the oblivion cameras from the 3 big companies without a mention of Panasonic LUMIX? As an enthusiast, last year I've shot Canon FF DSLR and Sony APS-C and it was a dreadful experience comparing to LUMIX. Trying an old Lumix with tiny micro4/3 sensor brought back fun and pleasure of photography. This year I've had 5 different Panasonic cameras and while Canon APS-C, Sony RX100, GoPro11(and others) are on the shelf I pick a (500euro 2nd hand) Lumix S5 when I want amazing results with actual fun of using a camera. Amazing IBIS, colours, dynamic range, photo and video features, hybrid capabilities, NO OVERHEATING when recording for longer than 15min are just some of the factors. I like and respect you guys but seeing lack of Panasonic in your videos(while others recognise and highlight capabilities and growing position in the camera market) makes me wonder why...

[captureitphotography]

Thanks for a great in depth video. A couple things I'd add (IMHO): 1) I think for hobbyists, enthusiasts, or those looking for a general travel/general purpose camera, the XT-30 is the best bang for buck camera you can get. I recommend it to a lot of people, and I think it still holds up today. 2) Bridging the gap in the portrait category between the D750 and the A7IV, I highly recommend the Nikon z7ii (or z6ii). As a working portrait photographer, it's my daily driver, and it's a fantastic camera, producing fantastic results. Nikon also has some absolutely beautiful portrait lenses, and the files SOC are amazing. I know you're not a huge fan of the autofocus, and yes, it lags behind its competitors, but for portrait use, it's more than sufficient. My hit rate is over 99% on an average shoot, so while I can see the limitations for tracking fast moving subjects, I've shot everything from headshots to outdoor portraits to concerts, and have had amazing results.
There's my $0.02 - thanks for reading.

[jameshenry]

LUMIX Tony have you heard of them? S5IIX should definitely been mentioned in the video section. Your recommendations are also just Sony, Canon, Nikon (and a random DJI). Quite limiting. You speak of wildlife but never mention m4/3...Olympus is a great shout for wildlife.

[dalejones]

Surprised the Sony A7CII or A7CR didn't make this list anywhere. Maybe you needed a travel category?

[avarmadillo]

Tony, there is a camera company that deserves your attention for video. You apparently have never heard of it. It's LUMIX camera models, and they're wonderful for video---better than any camera you named in this video. Their micro four thirds camera can get fantastic wildlife results, save you a ton of money (and a ton of weight) as well. The colors, dynamic range, and video features are a dream for people who love video and hate having to do ridiculous things to get something as simple as a manual white balance (Canon I'm looking at you).
IMO it's a shame that you totally neglected this company in any of your categories.
a Shame!

[bmwohl]

Great overview, Tony. I especially liked your encouraging people to shop used and to invest in education.

[cynvs]

Overall, I agree with most of the recommendations, but I don't know about the Canon 600mm f/11 for Wildlife beginners. I feel like a lot of people will be very disappointed by that setup, just because of how limiting it is at a fixed focal length and f/11. I'd probably also steer someone on a very tight budget to the R10 but pair it with the 100-400mm. More flexibility, and 400mm f/8 on APS-C is enough, in my opinion. I assume that lens would also be better for the occasional "semi-macro" of insects or flowers.

[geraldcapodieci]

The best all-around Camera adheres to the principle of KISS . The EOS R8 as a minimum of buttons and knobs, but all of are re-programmable, so they can be set up to meet your specific needs and changed when the needs change . For me, it seems to be the best for all categories, including movies.

[JacobG-M]

Surprised you didn’t mention the NIKKOR Z 180-600 which is (arguably) more versatile than the 600TC for general-purpose wildlife capture (excluding birding).

[f.iph]

If you have limited budget for wildlife and sports, buy a used fuji xt3 or a new xt-30 ii. It has 20fps electronic shutter and the electronic shutter is great in fuji cameras because of fast readout. It also has 30fps cropped stills and 240fps slowmotion video and the body is around 1000 usd!

[davemart]

Still getting great results from my Nikon d7200 with tamron 24-70(v1) and Nikkor 200-500. Mainly landscapes and wildlife. I’m probably the limiting factor as far as quality shots goes.

[nevakee]

Notice that in wildlife nikon is the only one to have mid quality glass so if you want to have better quality than 180-600 you can have 800f6.3, 500f5.6, 600f6.3 .... you dont need to jump directly in the 400f2.8 or 600f4 which cost 15k

[markking]

Hey Tony nice video but what about the Lumix S5ii?? For under $2k it can't be beat.

[DennisKapatos]

When you first get a real camera the first thing you'll be disappointed by is the image quality. With a kit zoom, it's just not going to be much better than your phone especially indoors. I would recommend primes for new photographers. Start with a 50, learn how to use the camera, then decide if you want something longer or shorter and go from there. Also, you need to learn how to use the camera and all about the exposure triangle. Tony and Chelsea is the right place to start.

[andreas_rr]

For wildlife i'll just low-key suggest the R6II/R8 + RF 200-800mm for medium budget. The lens covers basically everything one could need and the R6II/R8 have great autofocus and are just amazing at dealing with low-light and the "slow" F/9 lens (using quotation marks since i'll dare everyone who complains about the F/9 to go out *right now* and buy a 800mm F/5.6 lens for 20k bucks).
Alternatively, a neat step up to the suggested R10 + 600mm F/11 would be R8 + 800mm F/11, the combo is giving you very similar reach, while dealing much better with less light availaible at dawn/dusk. It's a bit heavier, but still extremely light for a full-frame wildlife setup.

[OldDeadeye.]

Hello! May I ask what your thoughts were on the Fuji XH-2 with the Fuji X 18-55mm kit lens?

[HappyHubris]

For budget sports or wildlife you could also throw in the bridge cameras like the RX10IV or P1000.

[ascchannel]

I slightly missed 2 cameras being mentioned:

Panasonic S5 II X
Nikon D850

In my opinion both great bang for the buck!

Best wishes

[garreswe]

No mention of Panasonic 😑 It's like as if only 3 brands exist 😕