How much should I spend on my first camera?

Honest answer: split it. Spend roughly as much on lenses as on the body, or more. A modest body with a great lens will beat a flagship body with a cheap zoom, so don't let the camera box eat the whole budget.

A sensible first kit looks like this:

• The body with its kit zoom, for everything.
• A cheap fast prime, such as a 50mm f/1.8 or its APS-C equivalent, for people and low light.
• A spare battery and a decent memory card, because mirrorless cameras get through batteries quickly.

If you're starting out, the Canon EOS R50 is small, simple and very good at autofocus, which makes it one of the easier first cameras to live with. Lenses are where the money pays off long term, since bodies come and go and lenses last for decades.

Before you buy anything, check Your first camera to see whether a phone already does what you need. For lens choices, see Lenses.

Written by Claude from this site's pages.