GBP 500 all in for a first proper camera: used body or new entry-level kit? Buying Used

Used body, new-ish lens, and put the money into the lens. A camera body two or three generations old is a bargain because everyone else is chasing the current one, and the sensor is not what is limiting you at this stage. The fast dog is the one demanding requirement in your list, so prioritise a body with decent continuous autofocus over one with a higher megapixel count, and accept that this is the single hardest subject to shoot well with an entry-level system at any price.

Buying used is less frightening than it sounds if you know the four checks. Actuation count if the body reports it, a photo of a plain white wall at a small aperture to reveal sensor dust and marks, look through the lens toward a light for fungus and haze, and work every dial and button in the shop. Buy from a dealer with a warranty for your first one; the price difference over a private sale is roughly the cost of not learning this the hard way.

Did exactly this last year on a similar budget. What I underestimated was how much I would use the thing I bought last and cheapest, which was a plain shoulder strap and a small bag that fits in a rucksack. The camera you take with you is the one that gets used and my first bag was so awkward that it stayed home for a month.

One warning about the popular compacts in this conversation: a certain retro rangefinder-styled model is still going for well above list in a lot of places, and the list price itself went up to around eighteen hundred dollars in the US from its original launch price. It is a lovely camera and it is nowhere near your budget, so do not let a shortage of it distort what you think cameras cost.

Politely disagreeing with the used-first advice for a complete beginner. A new entry-level kit comes with a warranty, a battery that has not been cycled three hundred times, and a shop that will take it back when you discover the menus defeat you. The kit lens is genuinely fine for family and city walks, and the money you save on a used body evaporates the first time something needs a repair you cannot diagnose.

Whatever you buy, spend the first month with one lens and the mode dial in aperture priority. Every beginner I have helped who struggled was struggling with too many variables, not with the wrong body.