With everyone’s thoughts turning to Christmas, we reveal some of our camera best buys, and explore why you should consider getting them insured!
Sponsored: in partnership with The Insurance Emporium
This time of year is really good for saving money on a wide choice of excellent cameras. As well as the many money-saving deals during the Black Friday sales, makers and retailers often run some great deals in the run-up to Christmas.
A bigger problem is often deciding what’s the best camera for you, however – there is such a vast choice of high-quality equipment out there. So we’ve made life easier by sharing some of our best-buy camera recommendations for a range of genres.
Once you’ve decided on your ideal camera, don’t forget to think about insurance too. Getting insurance could save a lot of grief and expense should something go wrong, and The Insurance Emporium has camera insurance policies designed to suit your needs.
The Insurance Emporium* provides two levels of cover: ‘Amateur and Semi-Professional’ and ‘Professional.’ Camera Insurance policies can be personalised by adding optional benefits, such as New for Old for Life, Extended Public Liability and more. Full details can be found here.
You can also get a 25% introductory discount on your insurance policy** – good things happen in The Insurance Emporium.
Landscape and outdoor photography
We particularly recommend the Sony Alpha A7R V. For making big, beautiful prints of your landscape images, the Sony A7R V is the king of the hill – indeed, we named it the AP Product of the Year in our 2023 annual awards, as well as the best professional camera.
With a 61MP sensor that produces stunning images, the A7R V is set up to help you nail lovely outdoor scenes every time. This translates to excellent colour rendition and very accurate autoexposure. The most advanced mode is a 16-shot function that outputs enormous 240MP images. Considering landscape photographers are going to be using a tripod most of the time anyway, this is a feature tailor-made for the genre.
It’s not a particularly cheap camera, so another good option is the older model, the Sony A7R IV. If you also like to shoot landscapes abroad, the Insurance Emporium’s standard cover includes ‘Worldwide Cover’ and there is an optional benefit for ‘Extended Worldwide Cover.’
Wildlife
The Canon EOS R5 Mark II is not only a superb camera for bird and animal shots, we named it the best high-end mirrorless camera. As well as the high-resolution full frame sensor, the EOS R5 Mark II gets the Eye Control focus system from the sports-focused EOS R3. It’s just as it sounds, an autofocus system that is controlled by the movements of your eye in the viewfinder – and it’s superb for capturing fast-moving wildlife.
This is backed up by superbly capable subject detection autofocus, which automatically recognises wildlife. The full-frame sensor and wide ISO range also makes the camera great for low-light shooting, and you can use a wide range of older (and cheaper) EF DSLR lenses.
Travel and street
The X-T5 combines a traditional film-camera ‘feel’ with the latest technology. It’s also compact and discreet, making it ideal for travel and street photography, when you don’t want to pointing a big camera and lens in people’s faces, or attract undue attention. As well as a high-resolution 40MP sensor, the X-T5 has sophisticated subject-detection autofocus, capable of picking out and locking onto people’s faces and other subjects.
Its three-way tilting screen and high-quality viewfinder provide plenty of image composition options, and image quality is terrific both in raw and JPEG formats. Fuji’s excellent Film Simulation modes also enable you to imbue images with the specific character of classic photographic film like Velvia and Astia.
Again, for travel photographers, The Insurance Emporium’s standard cover includes ‘Worldwide Cover’ and there is an optional benefit for ‘Extended Worldwide Cover.’
Sports and action
It is hard to think of a more demanding genre than sports and action, where high-speed performance is absolutely essential. With this in mind, we recommend the Nikon Z8, which also stands in its own right as a great all-rounder.
The 45.7MP sensor delivers excellent resolution and you can shoot raw files continually at 20 frames per second – and then there is its 8K video recording, or 4K at up to 120fps. For sports photographers, there is an optional benefit to add cover for helmets, sports action cameras and waterproof photographic equipment.
Get in touch with The Insurance Emporium today
- Telephone number: 03300 243 100
- Website link here
Important information
*The Insurance Emporium offers a variety of cover levels, so please check the policy cover suits your needs before purchasing. Excesses may apply. For your protection, please ensure you read the Insurance Product Information Document (IPID) and policy wording, for information on policy exclusions and limitations.
Lifestyle Policy Limited is an appointed representative of The Equine and Livestock Insurance Company Limited. The Insurance Emporium ® is a trading name of The Equine and Livestock Insurance Company Limited (registered in England and Wales no: 294940) which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority no: 202748.
**The 25% Introductory Discount is available from the start of the policy until its first review/renewal date.
