Harris Tsam Personal Website

First thing before you learn photography is to learn how to choose right  equipment. Before that, make sure you know what is your target and your needs, then you will know what equipments you really need and what you don't.

During my teenage, I spend my first part-time job income to buy the cheapest SLR Camera available in the market at one old department store in Central district, the Seagull full manual SLR camera with standard 50mm lens. You need to have proper technique and experience to operate this camera to get the right exposure. It is very difficult at the beginning of the learning state with this camera, but it really help me to improve my understanding of photography as it force you to understand every elements before you take any photos. Four months later, finally I decided to buy another SLR camera, 2nd hand Minolta X700 purchased at the most famous 2nd camera shop at Tsim Sha Tsui, then go to Mong Kok to buy very cheap Tokina 35-70mm MF lens, Tokina 70-210mm MF lens with UV filters for sure, also the Hoya Linear PL filter.  This combination accompany me for more than 4 years, which is very important state for my photography learning life.

You don't need to buy full manual or cheap camera like me if you want to develope your foundation of photography, I felt those equipment meet my need and my budget at that time so I bought them, if money is not my concern, surely I will bought better equipments. But it doesn't mean you must buy the most expensive camera or equipments to learn photography, if you buy most expensive camera, you probably want to spend more time to study their funtionality instead of really learn how to take better photos.

Following is some equipment buying tips. I use Sony equipments for your reference as I used Minolta, Konica Minolta, and now Sony:

Family Photography:

Camera - Sony α A350 or Sony α A700

Lens - Sony SAL1870 (18-70mm F3.5-5.6) or Sony α Carlzeiss SAL1680Z/AE (16-80mm F3.5-4.5)

Portrait:

Camera - Sony α A350 or Sony α A700

Lens - Sony α Carlzeiss SAL1680Z/AE (16-80mm F3.5-4.5) + Sony SAL70200G (70-200mm F2.8)

Landscape:

Camera - Sony α A350 or Sony α A700

Flower, Insect, Miniature:

Camera - Sony α A350 or Sony α A700

Lens - Sony SAL100M28 (100mm F2.8 Micro)

Building / Architecture:

Camera - Sony α A350 or Sony α A700

Lens - Sony SAL1118 (11-18mm F4.5-5.6)

Original brand lens will be more expensive, sometimes 3 times more expensive than 3rd party lens, but they have better compatibility and focusing speed. If you really want to buy 3rd party lens like Sigma, Tokina, I recommend you to choose the high end model from them, e.g. Sigma's EX lens.