Are DSLR Camera Bundles on Amazon Worth It?

A Canon T6 bundle as of January, 2018

Answer

No. But kind of yes.

Explain

I got an accessory bundle with my first DSLR camera, and the accessories are mostly garbage. Fun garbage - and it has been somewhat useful to learn how cheap crap tacked onto a camera makes my images worse. Still, the extra trinkets are mostly very low quality toys that don't really help 99% of the time.

It surely seems like a giant bundle is the only way to go.

The only useful items in these kits are:

• the camera body itself
• the main kit lens (18-55 mm, f/3.5); sometimes they come with a kit telephoto lens too (75-300 mm f/4, or similar)
• the carrying bag
• SD cards - although SanDisk and Transcend are usually the only brands on my "trusted" list. Look up the quality of other brands which, worst case, may leave you with lost vacation photos
• Sometimes these come with a rocket blower or an USB-SD card adapter

That's really about it.

Garbage breakdown

• Don't put your camera on that tripod! My tilt arm stripped the first time I used it and it came crashing down onto my hand. Thankfully the lens just pinched my hand and didn't crack into the tripod itself or tip over altogether; but that much weight banging against the lens is bad news. Any kind of fall could have damaged the lens or worse.
  
  That super flimsy tripod is really designed for small point and shoot cameras at most. You may be okay with the smaller 18-55 kit lens for a couple sessions, but anything bigger - especially any telephoto lens or heavier, higher quality lenses - will be way too much for this $10 tripod to handle and it will fail.
  
  Your safest, cheapest bet is to use something at least in the $20-30 range. Big box stores are just fine. Pick up and move the pieces around a bit. If it feels super flimsy, then consider upgrading.

• All Canon/Nikon/etc. cameras come with the battey, charger, USB cables, strap, and sometimes a basic shutter release cable. Don't be fooled into thinking this kit is hooking you up with that stuff. It comes standard.

Tulip / petal style lens hood

• The tulip petal hood doesn't work on this lens because the focus ring rotates as it focuses so the edges rotate into your frame. The circular hood might be more helpful for these intro kit lenses

• The two screw-on lenses aren't great (see below). The wide angle adapter is actually kind of fun, but the sharpness is definitely reduced and there's a strong vignette when zoomed out all the way (which is the only place this attachment is actually useful).
  
  The magnifier/macro attachment definitely degrades the quality of the image! It doesn't really help much for macro shots and if you need extra reach beyond 55 mm, just upgrade your setup soon to include the kit telephoto lens if you don't already have it.
  
  Technically folks suggest not to attach anything heavier than a filter to the end of your lens so you don't wear out the focusing motor. I didn't have any trouble when I used the wide angle attachment, but it's definitely a beefy piece of glass hanging on the end of some delicate, precision hardware.

Filters and attachment lenses

• The filters aren't particularly helpful either (see above). They're super cheap and they end up degrading your image quality more than anything; although I usually use the UV filters to protect the main lens elements from scratches. I'm sure there's some image quality loss and reflections that are added so I should really try shooting without them to see if there's any improvement.
  
  The ND-style "darkening" filter isn't really dark enough to make a huge difference for longer exposure daytime shooting, and the rose-colored filter is something I'd expect to see in underwater photography, so I'm not really sure what to do with it here. I found that one weird more than anything: maybe it's supposed to make everything monochromatic? I don't know, it just made my white balance insane.

• The flash isn't any more powerful than your on-camera popup flash; you can't change its direction to bounce off of walls or ceilings, so it's just as harsh lighting as your camera's popup flash; and you can't adjust its power, so it's pretty limited in usefulness.

Basic flash

However this super intro flash IS fun to mount on that flimsy tripod if it comes with a ¼"-20 coldshoe adapter arm like mine did (see below). This may allow you to start playing with off-camera flash effects.

Coldshoe adapter that can help mount your flash to a tripod

Analysis

All in all, it's not really worth it because they're all bottom of the line quality accessories - usually even down to the SD cards. However it's only $50 bucks more for a bunch of toys that will help keep you stoked about photography right from the start; which is definitely important. Technically you'll pay that much for a couple higher quality SD cards and a rocket blower anyway, so sure, it's kinda worth it in my opinion.

Recommended DIY Kit

• Start with a camera model that just comes with a kit 18-55 mm lens

• Add a kit telephoto lens. Folks are really hard on the 75-300 mm f/4 telephoto and instead prefer the 55-200, but for under $100 ($75 for the certified refurbished version), I prefer the added reach out to 300 mm

• Grab a camera bag to safely carry and organize your lenses and camera gear. My kit came with a cheaper version of this Amazon Basics bag, but this looks even better

• Get a rocket blower. This is the cheapest kit currently on Amazon and it also comes with a lens brush and some lens cloths
  
  NOTE: Never use any brush on the camera's sensor. A gentle squeeze of the rocket blower to an upside down body with the mirror locked up is all you need. Also, default to the blower for 99% of your lens cleaning. Unless you physically touch your lens glass, avoid touching the glass to get the most life out of your equipment.

• Spend at the very minimum $20-30 on a tripod. Anything cheaper is dangerously weak and not designed for heavy DSLR or even mirrorless cameras - as I outlined earlier. Save up for a nice tripod in the $100-150 range. It seems like a lot but the added strength will provide steadier shots, and you'll have a better time with easier setup and more control over precise placement and smoother adjustments.
  
  A nice tripod won't have stablizing arms that connect to the shaft. The main legs should be able to move independently, and can angle out and lock into several wider positions.
  
  I leave my quick release plate attached to my camera at all times, and there's a solid metal loop that I can clip a should strap to for easier carrying than the normal camera neck strap.

• A simple intervalometer like this can be used as a remote shutter release, and to easily shoot time lapse images

• Finally, a basic adjustable speedlight. A $25-40 model that can tilt and rotate allows you to bounce light off walls and ceilings, and basic power adjustments allow you to dial in or slack back on the amount of light being blasted out. There are more advanced $100+ Canon clones by Yongnuo that can communicate with your camera for faster, automatic metering and adjustments, but that can definitely wait. Stick with the Amazon Basics version of the flash above

That's about it. If you're playing with flashes, you can grab some handy remote triggers, color gels, or even an intro lighting kit with an umbrella or a softbox; but the gear listed here is what I use very regularly.

To be as thrifty as possible, start with the body, kit lens, and a camera bag to keep the camera safe. The upgrades listed in this section are as cheap as possible with at least some useful quality to them; and are easy additions down the road. Get out and learn how to shoot.