Looking for a camera with a roughly $600 budget

As my title suggests, I have about a $600 budget right now and want the best camera I can get for that money. I'm just an enthusiast, not a professional so one that can do a bit of everything out of the box is better for me than one that I can buy a lot of accessories to do later.

Right now I'm looking at the mirrorless Sony A5100 and the Fujifilm X-A3, would either of these be a great choice? Or is there an even better one I'm missing here? Mirrorless is my preferred because of the size factor, but I'm not 100% against DSLRs. Just trying to get the best image quality for my buck, and size is one of my considerations.

if you are looking at a small lens selection than mirrorless is really good on a budget.

Kgbofficer said:

As my title suggests, I have about a $600 budget right now and want the best camera I can get for that money. I'm just an enthusiast, not a professional so one that can do a bit of everything out of the box is better for me than one that I can buy a lot of accessories to do later.

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Have you considered Panasonic FZ1000? (16x zoom, 1' sensor).

Kgbofficer said:

As my title suggests, I have about a $600 budget right now and want the best camera I can get for that money. I'm just an enthusiast, not a professional so one that can do a bit of everything out of the box is better for me than one that I can buy a lot of accessories to do later.
Right now I'm looking at the mirrorless Sony A5100 and the Fujifilm X-A3, would either of these be a great choice? Or is there an even better one I'm missing here? Mirrorless is my preferred because of the size factor, but I'm not 100% against DSLRs. Just trying to get the best image quality for my buck, and size is one of my considerations.

Click to expand...

to get a camera that can do a bit of everything out of the box with a $600 budget, you might do better with a camera like the FZ1000 because the kit lenses that come with mirrorless cameras and DSLRs can't do everything. they're short zooms with average apertures that can't focus close up for macros. while the FZ1000 did pretty darn good in low light, the sony did better.

my a6000 and kit lens did better in low light than i'd have expected, and i actually like the camera and the lens. if you don't want to shoot anything very far away, the a5100 could be a good way to go. if you want to shoot animals at the zoo, birds in trees, surfers in the surf, you're going to need more zoom than 50mm or 55mm. i ended up picking up the 55-210 zoom and the wonderful 50mm 1.8 OSS.

i'd say your decision is between image quality and versatility, but there are good choices on both sides if you comparison shop a bit.

Personally, I wouldn't pick any camera that doesn't have a viewfinder, and relies on the rear LCD for composition. I'd look at the Sony a6000, Fuji X-T10, Olympus OM-D E-M10 (and Mark II), Panasonic GX7, etc. Search the used market as well.