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Whether you make a living out of taking professional portraits, or are the weekend warrior who knows their way around flashes and reflectors, you’ll want a camera with high resolution, exceptional autofocus and a good selection of portrait prime lenses.
We’ve selected a group of cameras that meet those requirements and will produce pro-looking portraits that will satisfy your clients.
Best for pros: Sony a7R IV
It’s hard not to recommend Sony’s a7R IV as a portraitist’s main camera. It gives you a ton of resolution that’s backed up by an autofocus system that excels on focusing perfectly on your subjects’ eyes. You also get excellent battery life, a high-res viewfinder and refined ergonomics that make this the best-handling a7-series camera yet. Helpfully, there’s an extensive lens catalog of solid portrait options, including both zooms and primes, as well as a solid set of Sony flashes (though they wont help you out with an AF assist grid in low light).
Our main qualms are that the autofocus accuracy can dip during burst shooting with unpredictable subjects such as fast-moving children and that the user interface is both a little laggy and not as user-friendly as it could be. But the results speak for themselves: this is an absolutely excellent option for photographing people.
Best for amateurs: Sony a6600
The Sony a6600 incorporates some of our favorite aspects of the a7R IV into a smaller, more affordable body: including superb autofocus tracking, great image quality and industry-leading battery life. There are also some good prime lens options for the a6600 that won’t break the bank, including Sigma’s 56mm F1.4 and Sony’s 85mm F1.8.
Our concerns from the a7R IV remain, however, including more pronounced user-interface lag. Additionally, the ergonomics on the a6600 could do with some updating to bring them in line with the camera’s overall capability: this series of cameras has not benefited from the refinements bestowed upon the company’s full-frame models.
Overall, though, the a6600 will assist you in capturing accurately focused, properly exposed images of people time and time again.
While the Sony a7R IV and a6600 were our winners, there are several other cameras well-suited for portrait photography that are also worth consideration. We’ve listed them all out below with detailed breakdowns of their features and performance:
- Our pick: Sony a7R IV
- Our pick: Sony a6600
Also available:
- Canon EOS M6 II
- Fujifilm GFX 50S
- Nikon D850
- Nikon Z7
- Panasonic Lumix DC-S1R
- Sony a7 III
- Sony a6600
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)