If you want to get affordable full-frame cameras, then you’ve come to the right place. Cameras for portraits can be had much cheaper for sure, but if you want great tech in a full-frame body, you’ll need to reach for these. We went into our Reviews Index and found a bunch of great current cameras for portraits on the market. Dive in with us!
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How We Chose the Best Full Frame Cameras for Portraits Under $3,000
Here’s some insight into how we chose the best full-frame cameras for portraits under $3,000
- Our Editorial Policies don’t allow us to talk about products that we haven’t handled. Thankfully, we’ve reviewed every full-frame camera on the market. And we can say with certainty that these are the best mirrorless full-frame cameras for portraits. What’s more, if you’re on a budget of under $3,000 you can get any of these to do great work.
- The Sony a7 IV is one of the best full-frame cameras for portraits because of how good the eye-detection autofocus is.
- The Canon EOS R is one of the company’s first RF series cameras. But it’s also the perfect balance for portraits and details. Make no mistake, it’s one of the best full-frame cameras for portraits, even more so than the Canon EOS R6. More importantly though, Canon’s lens line up is amongst our favorite on the staff. Even today, the Canon EOS R is one of the best cameras for portraits because of how the colors render.
- The Nikon z7 II has the highest megapixel count of all the cameras on this list. And if you want pure details, this is the best camera for portraits under $,3000.
- Please click into our reviews for more insights. Our staff shot all the product images and sample images in this round up.
Sony a7 IV
Pros
- Face detection and tracking
- Animal face detection and tracking
- Bird face and eye detection
- Metering
- Updated OLED screen and menu
- Comfortable grip
- Suitable for a variety of applications
- Weather-sealed and sensor dust issue is improved
- Fast autofocus
- Impressive Dynamic Range
- Sharp – almost too sharp for some womens’ portraits
- In-camera skin softening to combat incredibly sharp skin pores
Cons
- High ISO performance could be better
- Color noise in out-of-focus areas at lower ISOs
- Shutter freezes and the camera becomes unresponsive at times when shooting bracketed
- High burst mode currently only works if shooting compressed RAW
Our Reviewers’ Thoughts
In our review, we said:
“The long-anticipated Sony a7 IV is finally here and aims to bridge the gap for still photographers and videographers. It’s received a bit of a facelift with a beautiful, new OLED screen and a more comfortable grip. The updated face and animal detection with tracking is impressive and fun. It now comes with in-camera skin smoothing to significantly reduce post-processing time. Plus, its price is pretty great for an all-in-one option.”
Buy Now: Amazon
Canon EOS R
Pros
- Build quality
- Weather sealed like crazy
- Autofocus is good
- Protects the sensor when off
- Canon’s menu system is still simple
- Ergonomics feel nice
- With a lightweight lens, it feels just as nice as a Sony camera
- These are some of Canon’s best RAW files in years
- Good battery life
- Fast Wifi transfers, though not as simple as Sony’s
Cons
- Needs Dual SD cards
- Needs a joystick
- The magic touch bar is odd and could use refinement
- Optimizing the way the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed dials work, such as the automatic remetering for ISO, not cool
- Canon needs to improve or change their face and eye detection
- Bigger than Sony, but the L lenses are about on par with their G Master glass
Our Reviewers’ Thoughts
In our review, we said:
“In most situations the Canon EOS R is fast and accurate. In fact, in my entire time using the camera, it probably only missed focus a few time in low lit situations where I was using face detection and one time when I was using the wide horizontal autofocus area and trying to track a moving dancer at f1.2 or stopped down a bit. But even so, that’s difficult to do. However, I have to admit that the Canon EOS R was still able to deliver enough usable images in every situation.”
Buy Now: Amazon
Nikon z7 II
Pros
- A much-improved autofocus system
- Durable magnesium alloy build with weather-sealing
- Image quality is great, especially with native Z lenses
- In-body image stabilization
- Dual card slots with XQD/CF Express and SD
Cons
- While improved, the autofocus isn’t as good as Canon’s R series
- Eyepiece rubber sometimes blocks the eye sensor
- Viewfinder blacks out
Our Reviewers’ Thoughts
In our review, we said:
“The Z7 II has colors that are similar to those from my D850. With the right lens, the colors are vibrant and punchy without being too overbearing. But, occasionally, colors skew a little green, particularly skin tones. Through firmware version 1.30, Nikon has added a Portrait Impression Balance function. This allows you to adjust the brightness as well as the green/magenta hues of skin tones in JPEG images. You can save three different settings this way. I do prefer the images adjusted slightly towards the magenta. But, it took some trial and error to find a setting that I liked. It’s not self-explanatory. I think the photographers that are going to look at the chart and know how to use it are the ones that are going to be shooting in RAW anyways. Unfortunately, it’s a non-feature for RAW photographers. But, it does offer some of the color adjustments that I would apply to RAW portraits to JPEGs in-camera.”
Buy Now: Amazon
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