The Best Camera Kit for the Pro Who Wants to Have Fun

Let’s face it, sometimes a professional photographer just wants to have fun. We yearn to bring a camera around for those random moments where we know that our phone isn’t good enough, but where we’re also not planning on making money with our images. In our day and age, there aren’t many good modern point and shoot cameras around. So instead, the closest thing that many brands present to a compact camera still has interchangeable lenses. With this is mind, we’re declaring this to be the best camera kit for the pro who wants to have fun.

This blog post is presented in partnership with LUMIX.

Why You Should Trust Us

The Phoblographer has been doing real-world photography gear tests longer than any other photography publication currently run. We also have the largest database of real-world lens reviews, amongst other things like straps, camera bags, lights, accessories, and more. Here’s why that matters:

• AI Can’t Do This Job: These days, other publications do roundups, sometimes using generative AI. That’s the same as a person researching products and then making a decision without actually trying it. All of our reviews and guides are written not just by humans but by working photographers — not AI. Computers don’t use cameras, so why would you trust AI to recommend cameras for you?
• Research and Practical Experience: Here at the Phoblographer, humans consult on what roundups to do with guidance from an editor. Then, a human goes through our database of reviews and selects the best products based on our own internal research. The human creating the roundup has practical experience with photography gear and will apply their knowledge of what’s best to the already human-based experience provided in our reviews.
• We Block AI Bots: The Phoblographer blocks indexing bots from reading our site, so what’s here can only be read here.

How We Test and Choose the Best Camera Kit for The Pro Who Wants to Have Fun

• The Phoblographer’s various product round-up features are done in-house. Our philosophy is simple: you wouldn’t get a Wagyu beef steak review from a lifelong vegetarian. And you wouldn’t get photography advice from someone who doesn’t touch the product. We only recommend gear we’ve fully reviewed in these roundups.
• If you’re wondering why your favorite product didn’t make the cut, there’s a chance it’s on another list. If we haven’t reviewed it, we won’t recommend it. This method keeps our lists packed with industry-leading knowledge. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
• When we test lenses, we’ve got various things in mind. First off, we consider who might want to buy the lens and what they might do with it. With that in mind, we try to tackle at least three genres of photography with that lens in a variety of situations. If the lens has weather resistance, then we’ll test it accordingly with a weather-resistant camera. We also test the autofocus of the lens in continuous mode, single mode, with exposure preview effects, without those effects, and then with all the major image quality parameters. These days, no one really makes a bad lens — but some are far better than others.
• In this specific roundup, we’re basing our findings on the reviews that we’ve done. We’re choosing a favorite, but we’re also giving photographers a bunch of others that they might like, depending on how they shoot.

Our Choice for the Best Camera for Street Photography: LUMIX S9

The closest thing that LUMIX has to a full-frame camera offering a compact size is the S9. And it really is one of our favorite options. Here it is pictured next to some famous film cameras. This proves to us how small and portable this camera really is. And if you’re a professional who just wants to have fun, then this is a great option. Boasting an electronic shutter, stylish looks, and a full-frame sensor, it’s really hard to beat it.

• Same great performance as the Lumix S5 II, which has massively improved with firmware updates.
• The new LUT button needs some tweaking and work
• Feels so good in the hand
• Street photography with this camera at wider than 50mm is god-tier because of the autofocus performance.
• The menu is just as simple as ever to go through. In fact, because of the removal of the flash functions, it’s much easier than before.
• The addition of colors makes this camera so very cool
• High ISO output is still great, but at this point, that doesn’t matter all that much anymore.

In our review, we said:

The LUMIX S9 is the first camera I’ve wanted to bring with me everywhere, all the time…It starts with the stylish camera body and then extends into the solid performance. When autofocusing, street photography will be much better when you’re using focal lengths wider than 50mm just because of how things happen. In the hand, the camera will be much more comfortable than you think once you hold it correctly and use it with foresight. And most importantly, for some, it’s going to give you great photos when you combine it with the right LUTs.

For Fun, Professional Photographers Will Want to Seek Out These Lenses

The L Mount alliance, which LUMIX is part of, has a multitude of lenses. So with that said, here are the LUMIX lenses that we think are part of the best camera kit for the pro looking to have fun. Because of the size and weight of the LUMIX S9 though, we strongly believe that you could use whatever lens you feel suits your creative vision the most.

LUMIX S 28-200mm

In our review, we state:

Luckily, this lens isn’t complicated to use. If you’re a fan of just shooting in aperture priority all day and letting the camera do what it wants, then you’re in luck. Even though the lens has a variable aperture, the optical stabilization and then the camera body’s together made it nearly impossible for me to get photos with camera shake. 

LUMIX S 35mm f1.8

In our review, we state:

While this lens is plastic, LUMIX says it is dust and splash-resistant, as well as being rated for shooting 10 degrees below zero. I took this lens hiking in the snow to photograph ice caves and frozen waterfalls. The snow was falling hard enough to build up between the dials on the S5 body. But, I didn’t experience any issues with the lens shooting in the snowfall. I didn’t find any internal fogging or moisture. There was some slight dust on the camera sensor, which could possibly be attributed to swapping lenses.

LUMIX S 50mm f1.8

In our review we state:

It can offer nice bokeh, beautiful color, and sharpness. It doesn’t have character per se, but it also doesn’t exhibit anything that folks these days would consider to be flaws.

LUMIX S 24mm f1.8

In our review, we state:

Its versatile 24mm focal length is great for landscapes, cityscapes, street photography, and architecture. The lens produces beautiful neutral tones with plenty of sharpness and bokeh when you want it.

LUMIX 26mm f8

In our review, we state

This is a manual focus lens. People might be intimidated by that, but if you know how to zone focus, you shouldn’t be.

Using This Guide to Best Lenses for the Pro Photographer Looking to Have Fun

If you’re considering purchasing anything from this list of the best camera kit for pro photographers looking to have fun:

• All the product images and sample photos in these roundups are shot by our staff. In fact, we don’t talk about products at length in roundups like this unless we’ve done full reviews of them. But you can surely know that we’ve done all the research ourselves.
• This list of the best camera kit for pro photographers looking to have fun includes a lot of options for a variety of photographers. We didn’t necessarily feel the need for a longer portrait focal length because a few of the lenses are more than good enough for most needs when it comes to shooting that subject matter. But otherwise, we were focusing on small, lightweight, rugged, and high-performance.
• If you shoot further away, consider the 50mm or 35mm.
• If you shoot closer, try out the 35mm or the 26mm
• Truly, you could create a whole kit for your LUMIX full-frame camera by buying all these lenses and therefore being all set.
• All of the best lenses for street photography are weather-resistant. In fact, LUMIX has built that feature into all their Lumix S lenses except for the 26mm 8. It means that they’ll last that much longer because they’re so much more durable while being lightweight.
• All of these lenses work well with any L-mount camera.

Picking the Right One For You

If you’re still a bit confused as to the right lens for you, here are some questions to ask yourself

• What’s your budget?
• How will you use the product?
• What lighting situations are you in, and how will that affect what you’re doing? Our reviews hyperlinked in this article can help with that.
• Are you traveling a lot with it?
• Will you be using it in a situation that’s a bit rougher?
• Who else uses this product? How are they using it?
• What’s so appealing about this product that I can’t get from what I have already or something else?
• When will I really have time to use this product?
• Where will I bring this product?
• How will this product help bring me joy and joy in my photography?

These are just a few of the questions that we ask ourselves, but we think that you should ask yourself these for sure.