Independent buying guides
For photographers choosing between a new camera, a lens or neither. Each guide answers one question, quotes published manufacturer specifications with the date they were checked, and shows the formula inside the cost-per-shoot calculator.
Each guide answers one buying question and shows the figures behind the answer.
How to choose
A camera body and a lens do not last the same number of years. Work out cost per year for each before deciding which half of the kit to replace.
Photo: Aneil Lutchman · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Budget and prices
The body price is about two thirds of year one. Here is the arithmetic for shipping, duty, sales tax, batteries and cards, with every step shown.
Photo: Amitabha Gupta · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Setting up
Batteries, cards, mount hygiene and a backup routine, worked out in numbers, so a new body is ready before anything important is in front of it.
Photo: Islander61 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The decisions that actually change what you end up with.
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Photo: AlbertGy · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Like-for-like comparisons on the specifications that matter.
0
Photo: Nulcheck · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What the total comes to once everything is counted.
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Photo: Amitabha Gupta · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Getting it working properly the first time.
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Photo: nbela67 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What the numbers mean in day-to-day use.
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Photo: Dmitry Makeev · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The expensive errors that are easy to avoid.
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Photo: Dmitry Makeev · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Each calculator shows its formula, units and assumptions. Nothing is estimated for you in secret.
What a cross-border order really costs once shipping, duty and tax are added.
landed cost = (item price + shipping) + duty + tax, where duty = item price x duty rate, and tax = (item price + shipping + duty) x tax rate
Spreads purchase price, consumables and repairs over the years you expect to keep it.
cost per year = (purchase price - expected resale value + consumables per year x years + expected repairs) / years
Annual electricity cost from rated power, hours of use and your own tariff.
annual cost = power (W) / 1000 x hours per day x days per year x price per kWh, plus standby power (W) / 1000 x standby hours x days x price per kWh
Every figure in a guide is taken from a named source, with the date it was checked. Where a number is an assumption or an example, it says so in the same sentence.
We do not run paid product tests, we do not publish reader reviews, and we do not claim to have handled every product mentioned. Where a claim needs a lab or a long-term test we do not have, the guide says that plainly.
Photographs are free-licence images from Wikimedia Commons or Openverse, credited to the photographer with the licence named. Charts are drawn from the figures printed in the same guide.
This site earns money from advertising and, where disclosed, from affiliate links. That does not change the order of a comparison or the conclusion of a guide.
Some links on this site can earn us a commission. That does not change which product a guide recommends, and it adds nothing to your price. Advertising is not enabled on this site yet. When it is, ads will be labelled and kept visually separate from the guides.
