What Camera Should You Buy for Photography In Focus? (2026 Guide)

If you've signed up for Photography In Focus — or you're still circling the decision — there's a good chance the next thing on your mind is what camera to actually bring. It's the question students email us about most, usually with a slightly nervous photo of whatever's been living in the closet and a "will this even work?"

Most of the time, the answer is yes. But if you're buying something new for the course, or you've decided it's finally time to upgrade, here's exactly what I'd steer you toward in 2026 — at a few different budgets, plus one honest detour into the used market that'll save you a genuinely surprising amount of money.

What the course actually asks of your camera

Photography In Focus is built around teaching you to drive your camera instead of letting it drive you. So there's really only one hard requirement: it needs a manual mode, along with aperture priority and shutter priority. On the dial, those are the M, the A (or Av), and the S (or Tv).

If you want the long version of why that matters, we wrote a whole walkthrough on how to use manual mode. The short version: those settings are where every creative decision in photography actually happens, and a camera that won't let you reach them will fight you for ten weeks straight.

The other thing I'd push for is interchangeable lenses. Not a bagful — the single kit lens your camera comes with is plenty to start — but a system you can grow into beats a sealed-up camera you'll outgrow by week six.

Best new cameras on a smaller budget

If you want something brand new without emptying your account, the entry-level mirrorless cameras have quietly become excellent in a way they simply weren't ten years ago. The ones I watch students get along with, cohort after cohort:

• Canon's entry mirrorless line (the R50, or the cheaper R100) — light, approachable menus, and Canon colours that look lovely straight out of the camera.
• Nikon's Z50 II and the smaller Z30 — comfortable to hold, with a kit lens that punches well above its price.
• Sony's ZV-E10 II — the pick if you suspect you'll shoot video as well as stills, with autofocus that almost feels like cheating.
• Fujifilm's X-M5 — small, good-looking, and covered in real dials, which makes learning exposure feel hands-on rather than buried three menus deep.

Bought as a kit with the lens included, any of these will carry you through the course and years past it. Honestly, I wouldn't agonise over which one — pick whichever feels best in your hands when you hold it.

The smartest money move: a good used DSLR

Here's the tip that makes camera shops wince. You do not need a new camera to learn photography. Some of the most striking work I've seen out of a student came off a ten-year-old DSLR they'd picked up second-hand for less than a nice dinner out.

A used Canon Rebel (a T6i, T7i, or an 80D/90D) or a Nikon D3500 or D5600 gives you everything this course needs: full manual control, interchangeable lenses, and image quality that still holds up beautifully. The parts that matter for learning haven't changed — a 2016 sensor teaches aperture every bit as well as a 2026 one does.

A few rules if you go this way. Buy from somewhere reputable — MPB and KEH are the names I'd trust online, or a local camera shop with a return policy — rather than a random marketplace listing. Ask for the shutter count if the seller can give it. And make sure a lens is included. Then take the money you saved and put it toward a second lens, or toward the course itself, which is where the real upgrade lives anyway.

Best new cameras if you've got a bit more to spend

If photography already has its hooks in you and you'd rather buy something you won't think about replacing for a long while, this is the fun part:

• Canon EOS R10 or R7 — the R7 especially is a terrific all-rounder, with the kind of speed and autofocus that makes action and wildlife genuinely doable.
• Nikon Z f or Z6 III — the Z f is a gorgeous retro-styled body with thoroughly modern insides; the Z6 III is the workhorse if professional work is somewhere on your horizon.
• Sony a6700 — small, capable, and a travel favourite because it packs so much into so little.
• Fujifilm X-T5 or X-S20 — the X-T5 in particular is a camera plenty of working pros happily carry, and it'll never be the thing holding you back.

One honest caution, though: a pricier camera will not make you a better photographer. It buys you headroom — cleaner low light, faster focus, more resolution to crop into — but it still takes exactly the photo you tell it to. I've watched beginners on shiny new bodies get quietly outshot by classmates on used Rebels in the same cohort. Buy the nicer camera because you want it, not because you're hoping it'll do the learning for you.

A quick word on lenses

Whatever you land on, start with the kit lens. People love to skip it for something fancier, but the standard kit zoom is a sneakily good teaching tool — it covers the focal lengths you'll reach for most while you work out what you actually like pointing a camera at.

Once you know that — portraits, landscapes, the kids, the street — we'll talk about the one lens worth adding. For most people that's an inexpensive 50mm f/1.8, the so-called "nifty fifty," which costs very little and makes those soft, blurred backgrounds everyone falls for. But there's no hurry at all. The kit lens has more to teach you than you'd expect.

What you can safely ignore for now

Tripods, filters, reflectors, a camera bag the size of carry-on luggage — all useful eventually, none of it needed to begin. We cover what's genuinely worth buying as the course goes along, so please don't let a long gear list talk you out of starting. If you'd like the fuller picture, our guide to the camera gear you actually need to get started lays it out without the upsell, and our wider favourite beginner cameras roundup goes a little broader than this course-specific list.

Bring what you've got — we'll teach you the rest

After thousands of students, the honest truth is that the camera matters far less than what you learn to do with it. Photography In Focus is ten weeks of exactly that: live weekly check-ins, real feedback on your own photos, and a cohort going through it right alongside you. A new intake starts every Saturday.

Not quite ready to commit? Start with our free 5-Day Photo Challenge — it works on any camera, including the one you're still deciding whether to replace. And when you're ready for the full thing, you can enrol in Photography In Focus here.

Either way: go dig that camera out of the closet. It's almost certainly better than you think it is.