Question about purchasing a camera.

[Craiga 01453]

I want to purchase a camera that is better than my Cell phone, the S9+. How much would I have to spend to do this? Can I do it for less than $400?

I'm sorry if this is the wrong spot for this, but I couldn't really figure out where this would go. I just see a lot of you guys taking good photos, and it seems like my phone is just not up to par.

Thanks

Great question. I've been contemplating buying a "decent" camera and stepping up my photography game. I'm definitely gonna be on a budget when the time comes, so thanks for asking on here.

Generally for a standard “professional” level camera, the body is $500 alone and with ONE lens it can reach $1000 easily. Cameras are really expensive and that’s why everyone doesn’t walk around with a camera. Instead of buying a new camera since the S9 has a pretty decent camera, try teaching yourself good photo composition and play with lighting. Just my two cents

*edit, you could also buy an old or used camera and depending on the model, it’ll be better than your phone. If you thinking of really buying one, I recommend the Canon EOS T3i Rebel, it’s older but takes really nice photos and it pretty easy to use. I also recommend getting a 35 mm lens (or something a LITTLE longer) because I don’t think you’ll need distance shots lmao

Also in the off topic cafe, there’s an art sub forum and if you look in there, there’s another sub forum for photography

But I really recommend learning composition instead of buying a new expensive camera, it’s a lot of money. Phone cameras work best in natural light so use that to your advantage

I couldn’t add this into my other post cause I edited it too many times

Thanks for the helpful reply. I've been looking online a little here and there for a used camera. I'm thinking if I spend a few hundred bucks on a camera it will at LEAST be much better than my camera phone.
I recently got a new phone and I don't like the camera at all. I've been playing with it a bit and like you mentioned, natural light photos are the only ones that come out decent. In natural light I'm still lucky if 1/5 of the pics are even worth saving. With the flash on I'm lucky if 1/10 are worth saving.
It makes me glad I'm not using a roll of film and dropping it off to be delivered. I'd have 2-3 decent pics and the rest would be crappy, blurred messes.

Now I've never had any photography training, but I think I'm a pretty good amateur photog...so I'm thinking I would really enjoy working with a decent camera. Taking nature photos could be a fun hobby for me.