3 Questions to Ask Before Switching Camera Brands

It’s been an active few weeks in the world of new camera announcements. Between Nikon, Canon, and Fuji, there’s a slew of state-of-the-art camera choices available to entice photographers to switch brands. As I dug into the details associated with such an important decision, I set out to determine the most responsible way of identifying if making a brand change made sense for me.

#1. What’s The Out of Pocket Expense?

Sounds like common sense, but going through the process of identifying how much I could sell my current camera and lenses helped me to quantify a financial starting point. In order to do this, I went to B&H’s website and entered my equipment to determine how much I could expect to receive if I decided to sell my kit to them. This enabled me to figure out what additional out of pocket expense would be required in order to make a switch to one of the three recent camera announcements.

#2. What’s The Increase in Quality Worth?

The main reason to switch camera brands is usually to increase photo and video quality, but does the perceived increase in quality justify the additional expense? Regardless if your out of pocket costs are $1,500, $2,500 or $3,500, does this additional cost substantiate your expected increase in quality?

In my video above, I decided to test myself – I downloaded an image from each of the three recently released cameras (the Nikon Z7, Canon EOS R, and Fuji X-T3) to determine which image I liked best and to see if I could tell which brand produced which photo — I was rather surprised by the results!

#3. What’s Your Problem?

Ask yourself this, “What problem am I having with my current camera that the new one will solve?” This is a powerful question and will help you determine if you’re wanting to switch brands just for the sake of switching or if there’s a real case for change. It’s common to want to shift over to a new brand just because you’re bored with your current setup, but this can be an expensive transition if you’re not solving a current problem, outside of just wanting to change things up a bit.

Whatever the case may be, if you can identify problems that can be solved by switching camera brands and the additional out of pocket expense doesn’t outweigh the expected increase in quality, then it might be time to think about switching brands. Photographers spend a small fortune on camera equipment and making the choice to switch to an entirely new brand might be the single most impactful gear related decision we will ever make.

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About the author: Mark Denney is a landscape photographer based in North Carolina. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of his work on his website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.