Should You Buy a Digital SLR Kit or Body Only?

You're ready to buy your digital SLR!

One last decision: should you get a digital SLR kit or a camera body only?

Up to this point we have focused on the cameras and haven't talked about lenses very much. But lenses are a critical element to any digital SLR.

You can't take a photo without them.

Digital SLR Kits

When a camera retailer sells a digital SLR kit, this means that they are selling a lens with the camera.

This is great for you if you don't have a lot of lenses sitting around the house. You can attach the lens to your new digital SLR and start snapping away.

Before you just go ahead and get that digital SLR kit, consider this: you may not be getting the best lens for your style of photography.

Photography Styles and Lenses

Remember back in Step 1 how you identified your photography style?

Well, we're back to that again - only this time you need to take the lens into account.

I'm not going to go into great detail about lenses here. If you really want to know more, you can read all about them in our section on digital SLR lenses.

Here's the quick overview: if you enjoy indoor, action and portrait photography, you're going to need what is called a "fast" lens.

This type of lens lets in a lot of light, so even if you are indoors you can still take photos without a flash.

It also helps with action photos when you want to freeze motion. In this case, the lens lets in a lot of light so you can use those really fast shutter speeds.

Digital SLR Kit Lenses

Digital SLR kits are like any package deal. The lens included with the camera is not exactly top-of-the-line.

Don't get me wrong.

I'm not saying that you need top-of-the-line. What I am saying is that sometimes, for a few more bucks, you can get a really nice lens rather than the so-so one that comes with the camera.

Here's an example.

The price of the Canon 20D kit with a 18-55mm lens is $1,450.
The price of the Canon 20D camera body without a lens is $1,300.
The price of a really nice Tamron lens is $360.
See where this is going? The price of the Canon with the Tamron lens is $1,660, just $210 more than the Canon 20D digital SLR kit.

Once you're spending over a grand on a camera, it might be worthwhile to spend the extra $210 on the lens.

Which One Should You Get?

Here's the best advice that I can provide:

If you really want to make sure that you can take the photos you love, only purchase the camera body and then find the best lens.
If money is no constraint, then you should definitely just buy the camera body and get a really nice (expensive) lens to go with it. A more expensive lens will take better photos.
If you just can't stand the thought of trying to understand lenses (now that you've found the perfect camera) then just get a digital SLR kit.

The good news is that even if you get the digital SLR kit, you can always buy a better second lens later on down the road.

That's the flexibility of a digital SLR: you're not stuck with the lens that came with the camera.