Which Camera should I buy?
Colleagues often reach out to ask if I have any advice regarding buying a camera. First of all, congratulations you’re taking a big step to greatly improving your practice. Here’s some advice when buying a clinical camera.
Buying a camera is never easy. There’s so much to know and often little information. Especially which components/brands are compatible with others. Considering my photography background, I fell into this trap myself, buying an incompatible lens for my camera. This guide should improve your understanding of what to buy for different budgets.
Brand Doesn’t Matter
Over the course of my career I’ve used Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, Leica. This guide comprises mainly Canon set ups. This is not because Canon is better, I actually now shoot on Sony, however most of my professional career was shot on Canon cameras.Where do I buy from?
I always buy second hand equipment. Given that the camera is mainly going to be used for work in a clinical environment, it’s going to get well used anyway. There are plenty of second hand camera sites to buy camera equipment from, although I would stay away from eBay, Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace. Sites such as www.mpb.com or www.wexphotovideo.com/used are the place to go as all second hand equipment is vetted and given a score before buying. You will know the exact condition prior to taking the step.What do I need to buy?
In creating a camera set up you will need to buy a body, a lens and flash. This post will solely talk about different camera set ups for both body and lenses today.Can I mix and match?
It depends. All of the camera set ups below have been checked by me so are compatible. My advice would be if you can try to buy equipment of the same brand even if this is slightly more expensive. As the camera, lens and flash all communicate with eachother, whenever you switch to a third party often there is a compromise in image quality.What is the difference between crop frame, full frame and mirrorless?
Documented below. If you’re looking for a first camera go for a crop frame. If you’re looking for the best go mirrorless.
What is Crop Factor?
There is a lot to crop factor, so I’m going to try to simplify it into 2 points today.
The sensor of the camera is “cropped” therefore the images are less resolution. Does this matter for dentistry. Not really. Many colleagues producing amazing dental photography shoot on a crop frame.
The crop factor changes the zoom on your lens. This means if you buy a 100mm lens and put it on a crop factor camera it’s really 160mm. Therefore my advice is if you're shooting on a crop frame then buy a 60mm macro lens instead.
“Buying your camera is only the first step. Learning how to use it is just as important. Check out the Capture Photography course for a really cost effective 1 day solution to jump start your photography journey.”
Set Up One | Cheapest £728-978
I appreciate this is probably the mid range of in other set ups however often I find if you go cheaper than this you’ll often replace your set up prematurely or be disappointed with your results.
Canon 750d (Crop Frame Canon DSLR) £214-309 as of MPB.com 01/10/23. This is a good cheap DSLR camera that will get the job done, especially at the £200 point. It’s small and light, super easy to hold in one hand. Link Here
Canon EF-S 60mm f2.8 Macro USM. £264-419. For a crop frame camera I don’t think you can compete with this. At the cropped magnifications it’s approximately 90mm. It’s small and light making your occlusal images a breeze. Furthermore due to being short in length you can get your flash super close to the subject allowing you to flood the area with light. This means lighter brighter photos. Link Here
Nissin MF18 Macro Ring Flash - Canon Dedicated. Approximately £250. Although going above my advice above, this ring flash is brilliant. I used this with my set up for my foundation year and had no issues at all. Flashes are more difficult to source second hand however if you persevere they do often become available if you keep looking. You’ll often save £100 too so well worth the wait. Link Here
I’ll discuss dual flash in another post. If you’re looking for a beginner set up I suspect you’ll be buying a ring flash however my post on dual flash will be well worth a read as you can greatly improve the quality of your images by taking the plunge.
Set Up Two | Mid Range £828-1278
You will notice with this set up that it is very similar to the one above. You’re right. Both the lens and the flash is the same. Honestly you don’t need to improve these. If you want to spend more to improve first why not upgrade to a dual flash! You’ll notice a big change here first. If you’ve already done this and are looking to upgrade see the different body below.
Canon 80d (Crop Frame Canon DSLR) £399-474. This is the bigger brother of the above set up. It’s still a crop frame so is lighter however is slightly more advanced with higher resolution. Link Here
Canon EF-S 60mm f2.8 Macro USM. As above.
Nissin MF18 Macro Ring Flash - Canon Dedicated. As above
Consider Dual flash before upgrading your body.
Harry’s Set Up
I often get asked what my set up is. Honestly it’s slightly silly on the costing front however remember most of this kit I had prior to being a dentist- this was my back up camera for pro jobs. It does take a lovely photograph however. It’s a Sony mirrorless set up with dual flash. I truly believe mirrorless is the future of photography however as it is quite new the second hand market is sparse. If you’re interested it’s worth looking into, especially if you plan to use your camera for life outside of dentistry.
I hope this helps and happy buying.