If I Was Starting My Career Over Again In 2025, This Is Probably the Camera I Would Choose

Today, I’d like to take you along on a little thought experiment. If I were to get into a magical de-aging machine and be placed in a position to restart my career all over again in 2025, which camera might I choose to take me into battle?

Now, let’s start with a couple of caveats. As far as I know, de-aging machines don’t actually exist. Except for the one Paul Rudd hides in his basement. Also, while I’ll be discussing a specific camera, this article is not meant to be an argument for that camera being the best camera ever made, or even the best camera currently on the market, for that matter. Instead, I’ll be discussing the type of tool I think will be most needed in the coming years based on current market trends and the camera I’ve selected just so happens to be the best version of that tool, in my humble opinion, at the current moment. The answer would be different if I asked the same question a year ago. Ask it again a year from now — who knows?

So, without any more prologue, let’s get to the selection. The Nikon Z6 III. Why the Z6 III? Well, read on to understand the selection.

Changing Marketplace

I began my career a couple of decades ago in a very different market for photographers. Social media was barely an afterthought. There was a hard delineation between photographers and filmmakers. The term “content creator” had yet to be invented.

I worked hard, very hard, over the years to build up a career in advertising photography. I get hired to create a handful of key images that will be used to drive entire marketing campaigns for launching new products or strengthening the brands of others. It wasn’t about the quantity of content. It was about providing clients with specific images that would be usable anywhere, from billboards in Time Square to in-store displays. Two or three memorable images to capture the customer's attention and translate the brand’s message.

Entirely separately, I had a career as a screenwriter and director/DP for motion pictures. Again, this is in the days before TikTok and Instagram. When Blockbuster was still king and the new kid on the block, Netflix, was mostly associated with those little red envelopes you got in the mail.

My career directing commercials was an offset of the previous two career tracks. I was already shooting still campaigns for major brands. It was only natural that I’d bring my filmmaking side into the advertising world and create motion assets for them as well.

Fast forward a few decades, and I still make my living through a combination of all three of those elements. I continue to shoot still campaigns for major brands. I still write and direct motion pictures. And I still direct/DP commercials. But, the world in which I operate is dramatically different.

We now live in a world where being a YouTuber is a legitimate career option (no shade intended). We live in a world where, despite my vehement protestations, vertical video still exists, and TikTok is a major force. Even major clients, who would previously focus their marketing dollars on massive global campaigns, are redirecting a large portion of their budget to driving social media engagement through influencer marketing. There’s less focus on delivering one pristinely produced marketing asset and more of an acceptance of aesthetically poor but numerically abundant posts to engage with customers as often as possible.

Side note: that last sentence might make it seem as though I’m equating social media influencer marketing with poor artistry. I’m not. It’s entirely possible to be both a great artist and a great influencer. It's just that, in today’s market, it's increasingly more important to get quantity over quality when it comes to marketing efforts on social media. But, quality and quantity aren’t always mutually exclusive.

So what does all that have to do with camera choice? Easy. Things that are legitimately important to established artists already working within traditional advertising media, like myself, such as resolution, megapixels, etc., are less important if the final output of your art is only ever going to be on cellphone or tablet screens. A well-positioned post on social media these days can easily get 100 times the views of even the biggest billboard in Times Square. So, as clients shift their attention towards digital platforms, the need to have assets that reproduce at massive printable resolutions diminishes. Therefore, while I might prefer to shoot images with sensors between 45-100MP, in the new media marketplace, 24MP cameras will be a great choice for even major ad campaigns that may be destined only for digital release.

Does this mean that I’m trading in my Z9s for Z6 IIIs? No. But, today we are discussing an artist just starting their career in 2025. Is it more likely that there will be a return to more analog forms of advertising as the key ways to reach customers? Or, is it more likely that social media will only continue to grow and the share of ad campaigns released only digitally will only continue to grow with it?

Again, you may very well grow to a 50MP, 100MP, 200MP sensor in the future. But, just starting out, I think your money might be better spent on building your portfolio than investing in megapixels. At least based on where you are in your career. With 24MP, you can shoot digital-only campaigns on a large scale, small-scale headshots, photojournalism, weddings, and pretty much anything in between.

I don’t know that I would opt for any less than 24MP. And given how many affordable options there are now on the market, I would go full frame instead of a crop sensor if it is within your budget range. But, with several full frame 24MP options available between $2000-$2500 brand new, this is the area I would focus my efforts on if I were just starting out today. Not at the bottom level, so you can still grow into the camera as your skills and business develop. It is not too top-level to waste your money before you have the work required to invest in a flagship-level camera.

Video, Video, Video

I am fortunate in that my filmmaking journey began long before my still photography career. So, the market’s shift towards video in recent years hasn’t really required me to start from scratch. I’ve merely had to apply those skills to my advertising work in addition to my narrative work. I’ve definitely felt a massive shift in where my potential jobs come from and what assets I’m being asked to deliver. But, fundamentally, I haven’t had to change who I am as an artist.

Based on the comments in my articles any time I mention video, I know that this is not the case for everyone. Many photographers have built their careers on stills. They have no interest in video. And any mention of a camera’s video capabilities is distracting to the point of annoyance. But, facts are facts, and in 2025 and beyond it’s only going to get increasingly more difficult to sustain a career without providing at least some level of video production. You don’t need to go full filmmaker. But, offering video assets that match the level of your still assets is simply going to become the baseline, not just a value-add.  

To that end, if I were starting out today, even if photography was still my primary interest, the video capabilities of the camera I chose would be a significant factor in my decision. Again, this doesn’t mean that you have to shift from photographer to videographer. But, you will want the tool you select to be applicable to the most jobs possible.

In the current marketplace, I feel as though the Z6 III offers the best video capabilities in that $2000-$2500 price range for photographers looking to offer video with the same camera body. I know there will be some Sony and Canon shooters who would disagree. And for filmmaking first artists, there are a number of Blackmagic options that could also be considered. But, again, if I’m just now starting out in 2025, I want the most all-around tool I can get. The Blackmagic cameras aren’t designed for stills. And, with Nikon offering 6K 60fps RAW video in a body highly capable as a still camera, all for less than $2500, it's hard to say that there is a better hybrid body in that price range currently on the market.

There are some brands with marginally better autofocus. However, that gap is not significant enough to use as a basis for purchase decisions in 2025. There are brands that are more associated with high-end motion picture production. For instance, if you start with Sony on the low end, you can end with something like the Sony Venice on the high end. But, again, in our scenario, you are just starting your career and buying a Sony Venice is decidedly not a consideration you’ll need to worry yourself with for a while.

Instead, looking for a body in that $2000-$2500 price range that’s going to offer you excellent 24MP stills and ample resolution for video is the way to go. Add on top of that the fact that the Z6 III comes with a fully articulating screen, and you have a tool that will not only serve you well behind the camera but will also be suitable for those who need to get in front of the camera to film themselves. This may seem like a small thing. I, for one, didn’t get into film and photography to be in front of the camera. I am much more comfortable hiding behind it. But, if we are looking at market trends and how future artists are going to be forced to separate their brands from the marketplace, being personally visible is increasingly becoming a must.

Size

With the growth in content creation versus traditional forms of production, size matters. I say this speaking as someone who owns a pair of Nikon Z9s. I love my cameras. The best I’ve ever owned. When heading into battle, there is no other sword I’d rather have by my side. That camera can straight up go toe-to-toe with any shooting scenario and handle it without breaking a sweat.

That camera is also large. Very large. I don’t mind it so much when I’m on set and in the groove. But, it’s not exactly the kind of run-and-gun camera that I’m going to use for stealth shooting or I’m going to want to keep on my person 24/7 to capture “content.” 

This isn’t the end of the world for me. Again, I’m already established in a certain part of the market and most of my jobs aren’t really about running and gunning and capturing content. I have assistants on set to hand the camera to between takes. Even my rapidly aging muscles can still handle the strain of shooting with the Z9's hefty body day in and day out.

But, if I’m projecting into the future towards the production needs of clients and artists going forward, I think there will only be a shift to more and more one-man-band production. Crews will continue to shrink and more work will need to be generated out of a backpack versus a grip truck. I’m not saying high-end production will go away. I’m simply saying that there will be a growing market for low-end content creation.

With that in mind, having a tool that is physically lighter and easier to manage in less formal shooting scenarios could be a plus. The Z6III is perfectly capable of shooting pretty much any job without requiring a higher megapixel count. The 6K video is more than sufficient for a market that still largely lives on 1080p final deliverables. So, why carry any heavier camera than you absolutely need to?

Conclusion

For all the reasons listed above, I feel as though the Nikon Z6III is currently the tool that best addresses the needs of an artist just now starting out. It’s not too little. It’s not too big. It has all the necessary specs for the type of jobs that you’re likely to get just starting out. And, if the growing digitization of the marketplace continues, which I don’t see why it wouldn’t, it's unlikely you will need additional specs beyond what this camera offers for some time to come.

There are absolutely different photographers with different needs. And no two artists are the same. But, for those just starting their photography/filmmaking journey who have an eye towards making this into a career, the Z6 III offers a nice, well-rounded tool to allow you to build your skills while delivering quality assets that will fit well into the current marketplace.