Professional Photography Equipment List for Beginners
Below I’m going to share a professional photography equipment list for beginners that will help you start or grow a successful photography business. I’m also going to break down the general costs of different items to help you set a budget for your photography gear. If your plan is to start a profitable business, you need to keep your gear expenses to a minimum and allow them to grow as your business does.
Finding the right photography equipment for your business comes down to a variety of factors. We’ll start with deciding the gear you need followed by figuring out what you can afford. Using that information you can set a budget for your photography gear and then make a gear list that covers your needs while fitting into your budget.
To help you as we walk through all of this, download our free money and gear guide. It includes our basic equipment list for professional photographers as well as business budgeting tips and sample gear kits to hit a variety of budgets. We want to help you have a successful and sustainable photography business
Deciding What Photography Equipment You Need
Ok, first, in order to set a budget for photography gear we have to determine what photography equipment you need. And let’s be clear, there is a difference between needs and wants. If you’re a professional photographer or aspire to be, your gear is a tool that makes you money.
For starters that means you get a camera body and some lenses. You don’t necessarily need the latest and greatest camera body, just one that hits some requirements for a reasonable price. Similarly, you don’t need every lens available, just the lenses needed to capture great photos.
Basic Gear and Professional Photography Equipment List
My personal requirements are as follows:
One reliable and durable camera body with dual card slots
One to three lenses depending on your photography genre. It might look something like this: one telephoto zoom lens, one wide-angle zoom lens, and one mid-range fast prime. That would cover all the focal lengths you need. Alternatively, you might get two fast primes that compliment each other like a 35mm and an 85mm.
One backup camera body compatible with your other gear
Memory Cards
A durable camera backpack to transport and keep your gear safe
A camera strap or holster
Basic cleaning kit to get rid of sensor dust
And then depending on your photography genre, you might need
Polarizing filters
Flash and flash trigger depending on the photography genre
Lightweight light stand
Tripod
You will also need the following gear:
A computer
External hard drives or backup storage
Editing software
If you’re just getting started you’ll want to keep it simple. Once you have some work booked you’ll probably end up adding client management software or client gallery delivery tools and possibly something like a drone or more lenses or light modifiers depending on your photography genre
The point is this. Don’t buy a bunch of gear that’s going to sit in your office costing you money but not earning you money. Start small and only add if you can justify the cost.
So many photographers buy so much extra gear that doesn’t make them money.
In our Free gear guide you’ll get this sample gear list as well as sample kits to give you an idea of specific cameras complete with numbers.
Setting a Budget for Your Photography Equipment
Ok, the next step is to figure out how to set a budget. There are two main factors:
The reality of how much things cost.
How much you can afford.
How Much Things Cost
For just the basics: camera, lenses, memory cards, we’re looking at a range of $3000 to $4000. The range will depend on brand and quality. But that’s a starter budget for a beginner photography gear list. Professionals might spend in the $10,000 to $20,000 range depending on photography specialty but they’re earning more money by then.
Be sure to get a sample kit and clear breakdown in our FREE money and gear guide.
I’ll break this down further in a future section of this post where we talk about choosing gear. Just because gear costs a lot of money doesn’t mean you can use that gear to make enough money to justify it.
Renting Camera Gear
If you don’t want overhead expenses, you can always rent for a particular job. So let’s say you have a 35 and and 85 but you’re shooting a Church wedding where you know you’ll need a longer lens because they won’t let you get close to the alter, you could rent a 70-200 for that wedding. Or say you normally shoot shorter wedding days and don’t need fast lenses for low light but now you booked something where you’ll need better low light performance.
You can always rent that lens for that event and instead of overhead, you have a one-time cost covered by a paid event. One-time costs add up and eventually, you’ll want to build up enough cash flow to purchase your gear.
What can you afford?
So now, let’s talk about what you can afford. Your business needs to at least support itself, meaning your income exceeds your expenses. And then the next goal is to actually be able to pay yourself an income.
If photography is currently a side hustle and you have another income source, perhaps you don’t need to pay yourself yet. Then, you just need to make enough money to pay your expenses until you build your client list.
To set a gear budget, you’re going to need to create a budget for your entire business.
That means you list everything you need to run your business.
Discovering Your Business Expenses
This includes equipment, equipment maintenance, and computers, but also things like advertising costs, accounting and legal, insurance, licenses permits and fees, office supplies and software, phone and internet, websites, travel costs, and taxes. It also includes the cost of sales like printing. But those costs as well as taxes only go up as you book more work. If you are going to pay yourself, you’ll add health insurance, wages, retirement contributions… oh and more taxes!
Once you list out all of your fixed costs you can get an idea of your total expenses and how much you need to make in order to break even.
Be sure to get a sample budget in our FREE money and gear guide.
Calculating Your Business Income
One strategy is to keep your expenses as low as possible so that you don’t HAVE to make that much. This is a great plan if you’re trying to build a portfolio and don’t feel like you can charge a lot yet.
Other photographers will set their dream budget and then build their pricing to make sure they can meet it.
For example, you might be really good at running ads on google so you spend a lot of money there but you know you’ll ROI on that money spent and book more than enough work to cover it.
Now What About Photography Gear
Camera gear doesn’t always work the same, you can’t say that you’re going to be able to charge more if you add a lens… unless you actually raise your prices. One example might be adding a drone and then charging extra for drone photography.
Now that you have your costs, you need to see what it takes to afford your gear.
With the gear number put into your overall business budget, you can determine your cost of doing business and then divide that by the number of jobs you can book. Or what we do, is we set an income budget and we list all of our income sources and how much money we’ll make from each.
As long as the income numbers exceed the expenses, we’re good.
Cameras for Professional Photography
Now let’s talk about your options for a beginner camera to the cameras a professional photographer would use.
Beginner cameras:
A great beginner camera would be something like the following. Notice both a Canon and a Sony kit. I also included a less expensive compatible back-up camera.
Main Camera Canon 5D Mark III $600
Backup Camera Canon 5D Mark II $300
Main Camera Sony A7II $800
Backup Camera Sony A7 $450
Mid-range cameras:
Mid-range cameras might look more like the following.
Main Camera Canon R6 $1500
Backup Camera Canon R8 $1150
Main Camera Sony A7III $1300
Backup Camera Sony A7II 800
High-end cameras:
And finally, higher-end cameras might include the following. Notice that in the pro kit, your back-up camera might not be a less expensive camera. You might need to make sure your backup camera is the same quality since you might have big clients with big expectations.
Main Camera Canon R5 $2700
Backup Camera Canon R5 $2700
Main Camera Sony A7IV $2000
Backup Camera Sony A7IV $2000
Be sure to get the complete sample kits in our FREE money and gear guide.
Lenses for Professional Photography
One of the main differences between professional photography equipment and snapshots taken on your phone are the quality and capabilities of your camera lenses. From choosing the perfect focal length to achieving superior image quality, lenses can really set your photography apart.
Just like with the cameras in the section above, there are different lens recommendations depending on your budget, camera system, and other factors. Focal length will come into play as well.
Be sure to get the complete sample kits in our FREE money and gear guide.
Photography Lighting Equipment
Many photographers love shooting natural light but that doesn’t mean we don’t need an external flash for low light conditions. Lighting equipment includes things like flashes, flash triggers, light stands, and light modifiers.
Again, I list specific options based on different price points in our complete sample kits in our FREE money and gear guide.
Photography Accessories
There are some photo accessories you’ll need to factor into your budget as well. Below I’ll list short thoughts on some of the main accessories that should make your photography equipment list.
Cleaning Kit
The goal of a cleaning kit is to keep your camera clean. Here’s a simple sample $40 cleaning kit on amazon.
This is a necessity but not a big-budget item.
Camera Strap
I really like detachable camera straps from Peak Design but you’ll want to look for something that works for how your shoot.
Tripod
A tripod is another accessory that might be based on how much you need it or plan to use it. Some tripods are super affordable while others can be quite expensive. The cheap ones can be slower to use but I got away with an affordable one for years while I focused my budget on more important things.
Camera Bag
A camera bag is a must have in order to keep your keep protected, dry, safe, and organized. However, the quality of the camera bag or how perfect it is might now matter at first when you’re keeping expenses low. Eventually, when you have the budget you’ll want a camera bag that makes getting gear in and out easy so that it makes you more effective at your job.
You can shop for a used camera bag if you’re on a budget or start small and then sell your old bag when you’re ready for an upgrade.
Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and blog for when we share more. We’re testing a bunch of bads right now.
Memory Cards
When it comes to memory cards, don’t cheap out, go with a reputable brand.
Neutral Density Filter
When it comes to filters, again don’t cheap out, they last a while if you take care of them.
Office Equipment for Photographers
I’m sorry if I’m the first one to break this to you, but photographers often spend more time on their computers than they do behind the camera. While you’re dreaming of being outside shooting landscapes all day, there’s a reality to how much time you’ll spend on post production. And you’ll need gear for that too.
Computer
You need a computer with sufficient processing power to process your photographs.
External Hard Drives or Back-up Solution
You’ll need a plan for backing up your client images.
Photography Software
Now that you have your computer, you’ll need software on which to process your images. This might mean culling and editing software. Eventually it might also mean client management software or client image galleries.
Editing Software: Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Lightroom is one of the most widely used edited software for photographers. However, there are free editing software as well as monthly subscriptions to AI editing software programs. You’ll need to evaluate which tools make sense for where you are in your business.
What does photography equipment cost? Needs vs Wants
Essential Gear
Let’s remember the essential gear, the photography equipment on the needs list. Then, we’ll discuss other photography equipment that might be on your wants list.
One reliable and durable camera body with dual card slots
One to three lenses depending on your photography genre.
One backup camera body compatible with your other gear
Memory Cards
A durable camera backpack to transport and keep your gear safe
A camera strap or holster
Basic cleaning kit
And then depending on your photography genre, you might need
Polarizing filters
Flash and flash trigger depending on the photography genre
Lightweight light stand
Tripod
You might also need the following gear:
A computer
External hard drives or backup storage
Editing software
Additional Gear That’s Nice to Have
There is some additional photography equipment that’s nice to have. It makes the whole day do smoother and your photos turn out stronger.
Extra Gear to Get as You Grow
As you grow and you can afford more gear, you might get some fun accessories or level up your professional photography equipment with better versions. Just remember that more expensive doesn’t always mean better. Pay attention to value and whether or not you’ll earn a return on your investment.
Some examples or more gear might be better lenses, more focal lengths, more light modifiers, or audio equipment so you can dabble in video. A drone is a definite game changer that’s work putting on your list along with learning to be a licensed drone pilot.
What are your thoughts on the dream gear that doesn’t fit the beginner budget but that you want to have?
Summary of Professional Photography Equipment for Beginners
Thanks for stopping by to check out the photography equipment list and tips. Hopefully this article helped you plan out the professional photography equipment that you’ll need for your photography business. If you’re a beginner photographer, I’ll remind you one more time to avoid just buying all the gear. Keep it simple.
Start with what you can afford and what you actually know how to use. Gear that sits in your office wasting space is also wasting money you could have invested elsewhere. I hope your professional photography equipment list is now full of items that are a great investment for you.
This is our thought process for how we have run our own business since 2011. Taking pictures professionally is something to be super grateful for but it’s hard work to make a business out of it. The equipment of photography is a slippery slope where many photographers fall prey to spending money they don’t have on gear they can’t afford that doesn’t make them any money because they don’t know how to use it.
Don’t forget the free guide with even more detail and sample kits.
More Photography Equipment Tips on the Blog
Next, check out more tips on the blog. Everything about photography equipment and if you don’t see something that interests you please let us know and we’ll try to cover it.
- 85mm Lenses
- Best Sony Cameras
- Mirrorless vs DSLR
- Drone Photography and Drone Accessories
- Sony 70-200 Review and Shooting Guide
- ND Filter Guide
- Travel Photography Gear List
- 35mm vs 50mm Lens Comparison
We are Marc and Brenda Bergreen, a husband and wife team of adventurous Colorado wedding, elopement, and adventure photographers. Above all our philosophy, love. adventurously. is the guidepost for everything we do. Links to Amazon are affiliate links.
Based in Evergreen, CO we travel throughout Colorado and beyond to capture adventurous love. Be sure to reach out and tell us your story.
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