The cheapest way to get into photography.

Photography has a cruel on-ramp. The hobby itself is free — light is everywhere — but the shopping funnel is a cliff: bodies, lenses, a bag, cards, a tripod, and a forum full of people certain you need all of it before your first photo.

You don't. The cheapest way into photography is to learn on gear that already exists, and only buy new once you actually know what you'd buy new for.

The gear a beginner needs is the gear everyone's upgraded past

Camera kit ages in one direction: people buy in, get better (or get bored), and the old body-and-kit-lens goes in a drawer. That drawered setup is almost perfectly designed for a beginner — cheap to the owner, forgiving to learn on, and more camera than you'll outgrow for a good while.

• A body and one lens is a complete starting kit. You do not need three lenses to learn composition.
• "Entry-level" is the point. Nobody learns exposure on the expensive stuff; they learn it on exactly the kind of camera that's sitting unused right now. (The drawer, from the other side.)
• The rest can wait. Tripods and bags are easy to add later, or to ask for once you know you need them.

So the real cost of trying photography is one outgrown kit — ideally one that's handed to you by someone who remembers learning on it.

Ask for the starter kit — don't shop for the dream one

The cheapest honest way in is to get an outgrown beginner setup into your hands and go shoot a hundred bad photos. If you love it, you'll know precisely what to upgrade to. If you don't, you've lost almost nothing and can pass it straight on.

That's what Adopt A Hobby is for — and we'll be honest that we're new: you may be the first person asking for a camera here. That's fine, because you don't browse for it, you ask — and we match you when one is cleared out.

• Starting out? Post a wanted for "a beginner camera body and a kit lens to learn on." You don't need to own anything to ask.
• Got old kit yourself? Post a wanted for your next curiosity and offer the camera as your side of the swap.

The whole thing is a minute: Ask → Get offers → Swap.