PLEASE READ: A portable hard drive to store and edit your images from is crucial for the photography course. Most of the students use a 1TB Weston Digital Portable Hard drive. The Hard drive should be formatted to work on both PC's and Mac's (FAT 32).

A portable hard drive  allows student to save and edit their work in photography. The student will also back up their work via the Onedrive (cloud storage) which is free for the students to use on the course.

While studying photography at Sir John Deane’s you’ll be using a Digital Single Lens Reflex camera (DSLR) or a Mirroless Camera (Sony A7/Fuji etc) for your photography projects. The main criteria is you must be able to use the camera easily on manual (M)as we don't use program or automatic exposure functions. 

SD CARDS

Sandisk SD 64 GB Cards x 2 Please buy from somewhere that is a reputable supplier, Amazon, etc as there are lots of fakes floating around on ebay.

 At the time of writing Febuary 2024, 64 GB Sandisk cards are £10 each.

A small permanent marker pen is a must, to write your name on the SD cards.

CAMERAS 

DO NOT buy Canon DSLR 4000D or 2000D, 250DSL3 or any camera without a hot shoe central pin, it will be no use for working with flash or studio lighting.See link here....https://petapixel.com/2019/05/03/canon-made-its-new-entry-level-dslrs-incompatible-with-3rd-party-flashes/

It’s best to buy a camera secondhand from a supplier such as https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/

The Nikon 3400 with an 18-55mm lens is a good option…

https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/product/nikon-d3400

The lens…

https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/used-equipment/used-photo-and-video/used-lenses/used-nikon-fit-lenses/nikon-af-s-18-55mm-f-3-5-5-6g-dx-vr/

We have no relationship with any camera supplier, but there are plenty of entry level second hand/nearly new DSLRS’s on the market from camera exchanges and private sellers, we use Nikon DSLRS at the college, D3300, D3400and D35000 and have a range of Nikon lenses the students can take out on loan.

Update: 6 February 2024. As camera technology moves on many students are interested in moving from still photography to the moving image after they finish at SJD, quite a few students have started to use and explore the use of Mirrorless cameras. A small minority of the students have bought and use the Sony A7 with the kit lens, some have adaptors to use with the Sony body so they are able to use other lenses from college, often cheaper prime manual focus lenses, 28mm, 35mm and 50mm. There are also lots of cheaper lenses available from other manufacturers too . 
There is also the Nikon Z5, which has a superior build quality as it is fully weather sealed this can also, like the Sony be used with an adaptor with college lenses. 

However please note that this type of camera is much more expensive, if you look at the images on the website virtually all the images are taken on Nikon body and lens (see links above) that are less than £200 in value.

IF YOUR UNSURE WAIT UNTIL YOU START COLLEGE AND THEN ASK WHAT’S SUITABLE

The advantage of a student having their own camera is they get to know the controls more quickly, when the controls and settings are second nature they can start to work more intuitively.

I feel it is often better to purchase a 2nd hand camera as most of the money will be recouped if you decide to sell the camera and lens at a later date.

Please don’t buy a camera on the recommendation of a salesperson, if you are unsure what to purchase please email: murray_j@sjd.ac.uk