I have been a professional photographer for more than a decade, by pulling everything, stories of editorial photos to the photography of products and in the landscape, travel and street photography in my personal work. Meanwhile, I learned that there are three main types of cameras that all photographers must have. And I’m not talking about brands, such as a Sony or a Canon, or even types of sensors, such as a complete frame or APS C. I mean a Deeper Level of selection of cameras – The types of cameras that offer fundamentally different ways to take photos and allow you to create your best job, whatever the genre you like to immerse yourself.
And although these types can be three physically different cameras, they could also be represented in two cameras, or even just that. I’m going to explain, so dive with the number one camera type.
The Battle Horse
It’s the camera that does things. It is probably filled with modern camera technology. It is quick to use, draws at high speed, has a quick automatic focus, possibly image stabilization and almost certainly uses interchangeable lenses. It may well be a complete framework. This is the camera that the pros in the world use for all kinds of photo sessions – just like me – from weddings to cars to products through pets … whatever. It’s a jack-of-trades camera that you can trust everything you need for each time you need it to do it.
I used my Canon R5 on many professional shoots for photos and videos. It is a high performance versatile.
For me right now, it’s the Canon R5. Fast and high resolution. Tons of features. An unpleasant screen. And he shoots an impressive video. Objective options and endless accessories. This is the camera I trust most of my professional work because I know it can deliver and I know I can deliver when I use it. Previously, it was Canon 5div and before that, it was the 6D cannon. For you, it could be the Sony A7RV, the Nikon Z8 or the Panasonic Lumix S5ii.
It may not be the last model around, but that it was launched in 2025 or 2005, it will check all the boxes you need for a busy day of photography, whether you are a professional or enthusiastic amateur. The battle horse is a camera that will do everything and it will do so. But it is probably also quite large and probably quite expensive. Although it is great that there are so many goals to choose, maybe sometimes you don’t want the burden of choice. That’s when you need …
A fixed objective compact camera like the Fujifilm X100VI is great to have with you, always ready to shoot.
Daily portage
It is a digital little. A compact point and a shot, ideally. Almost certainly a fixed lens. Fuji X100VI or Ricoh Griii. Even the relatively old Sony RX1R or the Leica Q3. The Q3 is not really small, but I really like my Q3 43 as a daily port. It will be the type of camera that you can quickly enter when you run hastily without thinking of lenses. When you do not want a backpack full of equipment during the campsite, but want a lot of fun photos of you and your friends around the campfire. This is the camera you can always wear. This is the social camera that you don’t mind getting among the chaos of life. It could even be your phone camera.
Learn more: Best phone camera in 2025
It is probably the lightest camera you have that allows you to wear it comfortably around your neck while you walk in the streets of an Italian old town. It may even be small enough to slip into your pocket when you enter a bar and easily get back when the light arrives beautifully through the pub window and want to catch a quick blow.
Having my Leica Q3 43 with me allows me to break scenes every time I see them.
It is a camera for a quick filming and for social shooting – maybe even hip or spray grubby and pray. This is probably the camera on which you have captured the most memories, but it is probably not the camera you used to take your favorite fine arts photos. Oh no, it will be this.
Art
He might not technically Be your best camera. He may not have the most features. It may not be the smallest, the fastest or the easiest to use. But it is the camera that inspires you the most. He’s the one that makes you feel creative just looking at him. This is the one you choose to take when you drive for hours in a place in the slim hope that you could have a good light that evening.
It is the camera that makes you slow down and think of the art of your images rather than making a thousand mediocre shots. It is the camera that is responsible for the work you are most proud of.
The Hasselblad 907x – an incredible and original camera.
This camera could be a lot. It could be a cinema camera, whether an average format of 35 mm or 120. It would slow you alone and make you adopt a more methodical approach unless you are not happy to spend a fortune on the film. Or maybe it’s something like a modern digital medium format like a Fuji GFX or my favorite, the 907x 100c of Hasselblad – this strange little box gave me such a buzz when I used it was really difficult to separate when I had to send it back.
I found the Panorama X-Pan mode of Hasselblad incredibly inspiring. This image was even preselected for a Grand Prix de photography in the United Kingdom.
It is a camera that you may not even have even and maybe you may not even know you want. I did not know that I was interested in cinematographic photography until everyone, but the other day, I gave a man a handful of money in a parking lot to buy his average format Mamiya 645 Pro, which I am very excited to use. Life throws things in your way sometimes. So maybe this camera is the one you need to be a little open-minded. But it is also the one you might be the most happy that you have obtained in the years to come.
Three types, a camera
Between the workhorse, everyday transport and daily life, you yourself have covered in all aspects of photography, whatever the genre you like to immerse yourself.
I took my Canon R5 to Sicily where he played all the roles of the battle horse, daily transport and the admirably inspiring camera. You don’t necessarily need three separate cameras.
Of course, some cameras can be two things. Hell, some cameras could be all three. And it’s absolutely good – as long as this camera ticks each of these three boxes for you. It’s really up to you to interpret if your camera is small enough to be your daily carrier or inspiring to be your tip. But this rule certainly does not mean that you have to go out and buy two additional cameras.
My Canon R5 with a first compact can certainly be all three. It was a big everyday postponement on a trip to Sicily and it inspired me to take artistic photos that I later authorized to enter a luxury travel book, which means it was Also My workhorse. So, on this single trip, he checked the three boxes. But it’s not always all these things for me.
My Leica Q3 43 was a superb everyday transport camera during my recent trips to the Swedish Arctic and Barcelona. It was the camera that I took on several ferry trips to various distant Scottish islands and it was the camera I took when I went to hang out with my brother for her 40th birthday. And yes, it is also a camera that excites me, which inspires me and invites me to be more creative with my shooting. Because it’s a fucking Leica and which photographer does not feel excited to take photos when they hold a Leica?
My Leica Q3 43 was an incredible workplace and professional workhorse on my mission in Sweden. Did that also inspire me in a creative way? You bet.
But it was my recent incursions in the film that taught me still on the slowdown and the development of an image and the culmination of that led me to obtain this Mamiya 645 as my clever camera, which completes my personal holy Trinity.
And of course, as my work and my style develop and other cameras come and go, this trio of cameras will probably change over the years, but the basic elements of the battle horse, daily transport and art will always have to be encountered by the cameras I have.
