Choosing your first camera

Resolution is the most-discussed thing when choosing a first camera, and it is in fact the least important. 4K is in every camera today. What determines image quality is not the pixel count but how the sensor gathers light, how much information the file carries, and what glass you can put in front of it.

The lens ecosystem comes before the camera

A camera body is dated in three years; a good lens is used for twenty. So decide first which mount you are investing in. The real difference between Sony E, Canon RF, Nikon Z, L-mount and MFT is the glass you can find in that system and what it costs used.

Mirrorless systems with a short flange distance will accept almost any old lens through an adapter. On a tight budget that is a large advantage: old manual lenses are cheap and most of them are still very good.

Sensor size is a choice, not a ranking

Full frame gives less noise and shallow depth of field more easily. Super 35 / APS-C is the size cinema has used for decades; its lenses are smaller, cheaper and usually faster. MFT is the lightest and most economical system and makes documentary and travelling work easier.

A bigger sensor does not mean a better image. It only requires a different lens and a different working distance for the same frame.

Where to actually look: codec and colour depth

8-bit recording holds around 16 million colour tones, 10-bit more than a billion. If the footage is going into a grade this difference decides everything: in 8-bit the sky bands and skin tones break up quickly.

Second, look at chroma subsampling. 4:2:0 throws away most of the colour information; 4:2:2 is far more flexible. Third, bitrate and codec: long-GOP compression makes the file smaller but strains the computer in the edit and leaves less room in the grade.

The details that get overlooked and ruin the job

Is there a recording time limit? Does it overheat and stop? Does stabilisation work in video mode? Is there a headphone output — shooting without being able to hear your sound means finding the mistake in the edit rather than on set.

Finally, do not spend your whole budget on the body. A good tripod, a fast memory card, spare batteries and a decent microphone make more difference than moving one model up.