The hour of MrsC's birthday approacheth and although next year is a big one that I'm hoping will feature a trip to Monaco, this year she has tasked me with finding a decent camera as above, preferably with a choice of lenses and definitely with WiFi. She's happy with second hand for the right deal, but I'm a camera numpty, so would greatly appreciate some help. Budget somewhere around £500.…

Any reason it has to be mirrorless?

There are plenty of crop-body DSLRs that can do everything a mirrorless can, with the added benefit of more lenses to choose from (and at a cheaper price too). £500 will get you a good secondhand Nikon D7100 with a lens or two, or even a D7200 if you hunt around a bit

I'm sure there are equivalent Canon cameras, but I'm a Nikon man, so I tend not to look at what's available "on the dark side"....

Given MrsC is an experienced photographer, who has owned some pretty high end DSLR kit from both Canon and Nikon, I'm happy to take her word that mirrorless is the way she wants to go. My ignorance means I can't give a full explanation, but I believe weight and connectivity are factors.

OK - that makes sense. If she's already used DSLRs, then I can see that mirrorless is a natural progression (at least in terms of ease of handling). I just wondered if she was asking for mirrorless because she'd read somewhere on t'internet that they were the best thing since sliced bread - clearly not the case with MrsC.

FWIW, all the various forums I read cite Sony as the go-to kit for mirrorless, but I suspect you may struggle with your budget (top-end Sony mirrorless are comfortably north of £3k - even the low-end stuff is over £500 for the body only)

Secondhand is your only option within budget - Wex Photo has quite a few pre-owned Sony bodies available -

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/used-..._Manufacturer=Sony&esp_category_pg=2

As does Park Cameras

https://www.parkcameras.com/c/2503/used?p=1&q=2503&v=0&me=_ca&f=br:47|ca:2554&x=br:1|ca

No idea why the second link won't show as a hyperlink - copy & paste required into browser address bar

Probably worth reading a few reviews first though...

I'm very pleased to say that I recently replaced my ancient (and mirrored) Olympus E400 with an ebay E410 body for under forty quid... all I want really is a digital back for my 4x5 stuff that doesn't require a mortgage

The E410 is only a year less ancient than the E400, but I agree that £40 is a bargain.

For comparison, the last physical print I did from my (now mortgage-free) Nikon full-frame was 6x3 (feet.....)

This might help you focus (sorry) on the aspects or mirrorless that are most meaningful

https://kenrockwell.com/tech/comparisons/nikon-vs-canon-vs-sony-full-frame.htm

Thanks Nigel, looks interesting, if a little over my poor point-and-shoot-and-cut-off-people's-heads head!

Current favourite is this:

Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II

There is now a Mk iii, but apparently the improvements are debatable for a significant price increase...

Late reply.... but the Canon 250D seems very popular since release

Hi Whatmore - and thanks for the advice. In the end I went for the Olympus above (the E-M10 mk2). I got it new, bundled with a zoom lens for around £450 from Jesspos. So far, it has been everything MrsC wanted, so job done!