You may see this headline as click bait and you may be right, but if so it is click bait for a reason. I’d like people to read this who do not ordinarily get enticed by my headlines, subject matter or writing. I want to connect with the ‘gearheads’ that obsess about cameras. Those that get excited by the latest launches. The specifications and software updates.

The reason is that I am not that person, but I am a photographer and a teacher of photography. Therefore I am often asked to give advice on cameras. When this happens I am drawn into the world of the ‘gearhead’ online. I find the same thing happening when I buy a car, Hi-fi, a microphone, a leaf blower or in fact anything I need to buy and use that I know little about. The difference is that I am expected by others to be an expert on cameras and I am not! I own cameras, they do the job and that’s it and I haven’t bought a new camera since 2006. Those I have bought have all been second-hand.

However, many others seem to see cameras in a different light to me. They see cameras as being central to their photography and owning the latest model as being essential evidence of their level of commitment to the medium. That’s fine, each to their own. I am not interested in trying to persuade them or you otherwise, but let me tell you a story…

Towards the end of November a family member asked me to help them buy a new camera. They were looking to upgrade from their smartphone and take photography more seriously. Of course I couldn’t say no to helping, but I knew that the request would take me into the heart of the ‘gearhead’ beast. I suggested that second-hand made more sense, but a new one it had to be.

I knew that a small compact would be a good starting place and that a budget of a few hundred pounds was acceptable so I hit Google with this criteria. Not surprisingly I was met with a host of ‘best of 2025’ lists. It was the right time of year for round-ups to be compiled all with associate links from which to buy. Immediately my algorithms online were filled with cameras to buy and these are the cameras they and the lists recommended.

The Fujifilm X100VI, Ricoh GR IV, Panasonic LUMIX FZ82D, Leica Q3, Sony RX1R III, Kodak PixPro C1, Fujfilm GFX100RF, Nikon Coolpix P1100, Panasonic Lumix TZ99 and the Sony ZV-1 II all featured but it was these results that prompted the title of this article. The one fact I think you need to know about any of these cameras before we discuss anything else is the price, so let’s start there. The Kodak is on sale at £79.00 and provided no improvement on a smartphone to my eyes so I am going to instantly dismiss that one. Then we move up to the Panasonic’s which both sit around £400 which could be considered but were a little expensive for my search and it is the word expensive which is the problem. The Ricoh is £1,999.00, the Leica is £5,389.00, the Sony RX is £3,699.00, the Fuji GFX is £4,499.00, the Nikon is £999.00 and finally the Sony is £799.00 and that was the one recomended for YouTubers!

These are not small amounts of money and are considerable investments for anyone starting out in photography. A camera that is the same price as a small second-hand car takes some thought before making a payment. Let’s also not forget that these are all compacts! Not DSLRs! I know the price of everything has gone up dramatically over the past few years, but I was forced to question if these camera manufacturers are just pricing themselves out of the marketplace. We all know that camera sales have been decreasing over the past ten years and that some of the manufacturers have suffered financial issues due to this but these prices surely cannot be helping. However, such high prices also point to the ‘gearhead’ obsession with the camera as an aspirational purchase rather than as a work tool. Or as Leica have described their cameras as “lifestyle accessories”. Neither of which have anything to do with photography or being a photographer.

Relaying these prices to my family member left only one conclusion. My original advice to buy second-hand was the best solution and no new camera would be purchased. I went onto Facebook Marketplace and immediately found a local complete Panasonic Lumix GF1 kit including a lens, two batteries and a charger for £150. A camera that was launched in 2009 to much acclaim and which saw Panasonic send me, as the editor of Professional Photographer magazine, to Stockholm, Sweden for three days for its launch. It was a great camera then and it still is. It won’t get anyone excited on social media, in a forum or at a camera club. It won’t win at camera spec. at Top Trumps. It may at best provoke a feeling of nostalgia, but none of that matters. It takes good images if you understand a few basics of photography and it allows you to experiment and have fun. It is cheap enough not to worry about throwing in a bag, getting muddy, sandy or wet. It is small enough to carry around with you.

The GF1 is not the only camera that fulfils these criteria and I am sure that you will suggest more, but that is not my point. Hopefully, you can see my point. Cameras today are too expensive but that maybe an inevitable fact of life, however you do not have to play that game. You do not have to get carried away by YouTube camera reveiwers selling you the latest shiny thing. You do not have to be seduced by cameras in glass cases in your local camera shop. You could get a good or maybe even great camera from the recent past, save some money and spend that money on some photo books, or even life in general. Not a bad idea I would suggest, elevating your photography without debt or remorse!

Further Reading
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2025/10/03/the-first-is-still-good-enough-or-buy-the-canon-5d/
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2023/11/19/one-camera-and-two-lenses-is-all-you-need/
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2023/09/03/how-and-why-you-should-buy-secondhand-cameras/

Dr.Grant Scott
After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby’s, art directed foto8magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019), What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing 2024). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018.

© Grant Scott 2026