Spec me in to the world of dSLR

Spacedeck

Spacedeck

Spacedeck

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West Yorkshire, England
Hello, I'm going to take Phate's advice now :) thanks.

So I'm interested in taking a deeper dive into photography. I'm needing help gearing up / speccing for a dSLR camera. We have a family camera but I personally aren't impressed (just some little rubbish one), so going to venture for my own personnel use.

Since I'm only beginning, main uses will be photos of family, landscapes, iconic buildings, wildlife (small animals to insects, flowers to whole areas), and events/museums.

Providing I can get good prints, I would possibly have some printed also (size wise, I don't know)

Now as a beginner, it wouldn't be wise to jump straight into the deep end (which takes time and money), and I should eventually have enough money together, so I can spend around £400-600 to get me started. What can be had / what is a good choice for me in this price range?

I understand this might not be the most amount of money one could spend, but surely this should be enough to begin with?

Thanks for reading and your help is much appreciated.

:)
 
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That is enough money for a basic setup but you wont be able to photograph everything without investing more money in dedicated lenses in the future. And that is soemthign you really have to think about now, the main advantage in a DSLR is the ability to change lenses to soemthign that is more appropriate for your subject: wide angle for landscape, telephoto for wildlife, macro for insect, fast prime for people. if you don't want to build up a system then you might be better served looking at the high end compacts with fixed lenses.



you will get a lot more camera for your money going second hand, is that something you would consider?


A basic setup would be a Nikon D3300 with 18-55mm and 55-200mm VR for £429 form a high street electrical shop, adding the Nikon 35mm f/1.8FX for £132.

You can photograph most of the basics with that kit. Over time you could then upgrade the 18-55 to something like a 17-55mm F/2.8 , add a wider angle for landscapes if taht takes your fancy, or replace the 55-200mm with something longer for wildlife if you get more interested.
 
Thanks D.P.

D.P. said:
That is enough money for a basic setup but you wont be able to photograph everything without investing more money in dedicated lenses in the future. And that is soemthign you really have to think about now, the main advantage in a DSLR is the ability to change lenses to soemthign that is more appropriate for your subject: wide angle for landscape, telephoto for wildlife, macro for insect, fast prime for people. if you don't want to build up a system then you might be better served looking at the high end compacts with fixed lenses.
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I realise this and the investment is something I'm willing to do over time. The idea I had for stating a beginner set, is to learn what lenses do what and work out which settings are best for each individual photo. You know, just learning everything about what it can do.

D.P. said:
you will get a lot more camera for your money going second hand, is that something you would consider?
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It didn't cross my mind, but I guess providing the camera has been well looked after, there shouldn't be anything to worry about? What did you have in mind?

D.P. said:
A basic setup would be a Nikon D3300 with 18-55mm and 55-200mm VR for £429 form a high street electrical shop, adding the Nikon 35mm f/1.8FX for £132.

You can photograph most of the basics with that kit. Over time you could then upgrade the 18-55 to something like a 17-55mm F/2.8 , add a wider angle for landscapes if taht takes your fancy, or replace the 55-200mm with something longer for wildlife if you get more interested.
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I'll have a look into this setup. Would you always recommend buying the camera from the high street over online at a well known retailer?
 
I would buy form the highstreet if you have a good highstreet store with reasonable prices. these aren't always easy to find, but you should be able to get good prices form places like John Lewis.

But online form a reputable UK retailer is just fine, have a look at prices here
http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/

Amazon and the like will be fine.



Going second hand I would only buy if you can try before hand. Again the best places are good high-street camera shop with a selection of second hand gear and who offers a warranty with the shop. Prices will be between fleabay and new online prices.

Something like a Nikon D7000 second hand should come in budget and gives you much more camera than the lower end models.
 
We used to have a Jessops in town, but they seemed to have moved.

Their website have Nikon D3300 Digital SLR in Black + 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II Lens for £319 (well it's £349.99 with £30 cashback). Seems much cheaper than your suggested £420? Is something not quite right?

The closest shop is now in Leeds, so only a short train journey. Although I'm sure Leeds / Manchester contain many of these camera shops though.
 
Spacedeck said:
We used to have a Jessops in town, but they seemed to have moved.

Their website have Nikon D3300 Digital SLR in Black + 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II Lens for £319 (well it's £349.99 with £30 cashback). Seems much cheaper than your suggested £420? Is something not quite right?

The closest shop is now in Leeds, so only a short train journey. Although I'm sure Leeds / Manchester contain many of these camera shops though.
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The model I suggested included the 55-200mm VR lens, which is £180 as a stand alone lens thus making a good saving.
You don;t necessarily need that lens but it would facilitate wildlife and some more interesting landscape options.

You might want somehtign longer for wildlife though:
http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/Nikon/Nikon-DX-Lenses/Nikon-AF-S-55-300mm-f4.5-5.6G-ED-VR-DX-Lens
 
I was reccomending a 3rd lens, the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 DX.

Apart form some SD cards not much is required.
Likely you will want a bag of some kind, there are loads of choices from should bags, backpack styles and simple bags just for the camera. Saying that, more often than not my DSLR is just shoved in a regular hiking backpack so you can save money here.

The only thing that I think you really need beyond SD cards is software to edit the RAW files. Light room is the most common choice.

In time you will want to add some of the following:
  1. Circular polarizer for landscape work and removing reflection form glass/water increasing vibrancy and saturation
  2. decent tripod and head
  3. remote release
  4. cleaning kits
  5. Flash
  6. spare batteries
  7. better strap/shoulder strap
 
I have the D3300,lovely camera to learn on,the kit lens is a lot better than I thought it would be.
worth having look at the Tamron 70-300 vcusd,very good lens,I had the 55-200 but I like this more.the 35mm 1.8 G is a nice sharp lens good for general shooting,i also have the 50mm 1.8g which is nice for portraits.for around £38 you could get the Ranox 250 to have ago at macro.I have found it a great addition to give variety to my shooting.I also had the 85mm 1.8 g but sold it for now as it wasn't getting so much use but its razor sharp.
hope this helps.
 
@D.P. - Sorry mate, I misread the first time :)

@THC_SsSsSnake - Thanks for your input, it helps reassure that this kit D.P. mentioned is worth the price. I'm going to get onto pressuring my mate for this money tomorrow.

The 50-200 lens should be good enough until I get to grips with things, the money saved here can go towards SD cards.

I've been trying to figure out what I like between a 35mm and a 50mm, as you both suggested them.


So even after watching this, deciding is still a little harder :D would the 50mm be better suited for portraits? From watching that, the 50mm will cause some kind of blur on the background to bring the subject closer to the eyes attention? But 35mm just didn't seem to look as good or have the same effect, but it was better at doing more overall

What are your guys thoughts on 35mm vs 50mm?
 
well DP is far more experienced and knowledgeable so i will just say from my limited experience using them on the d3300,the 35mm was great for general walkabout shots,lovely colours and sharp images and very good focusing.

The 50 is considered more a portraitist lens versus the 35mm(these on the crop size sensor i.e.)the bokeh on the 50mm is quite acceptable,you can also use it for general stuff but obviously can feel a little more cramped in some situations.
if i had to choose one of the 2 for myself it would be the 35mm because i feel it can be used in more areas and the portrait side of its use is good as long as you aren't too close so its less of a close head shoulders lens.
help me out here DP :)

oh and the vid above is based on a FF body so they are true 35mm and 50mm FL as opposed to on a crop which gives approx 52mm and 75mm
 
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you might be interested in this taken from Thom Hogan's review of the D3300.
Full review here
http://www.dslrbodies.com/cameras/current-nikon-dslr-reviews/nikon-d3300-review.html

For example, dynamic range. I'd peg this camera as being right up with the D7100. You'll note I haven't stated a number of stops. There's a reason for that. While at base ISO I think you'll easily get more than 10 stops of very usable dynamic range, trying to narrow down exactly how much you truly have is complicated a bit by the compressed NEF dropping data at the high end. I do see some minor differences at the top end between a D7100 and the D3300 when I do extreme post processing, which makes a single-number value not very useful. Suffice it to say that I doubt you'll be disappointed. The only way you're going to get truly better dynamic range than the D3300 offers is to go to FX, and even that might not be quite the boost you think it should be (basically a stop).

Against the "equivalent" current Canon Rebel, the D3300 has better dynamic range and deep shadow performance, despite having more pixels (24mp versus 18mp). So the short answer is always the same: Nikon is using great 24mp DX sensors these days, essentially state of the art for the sensor size.

Along with all that goodness is Nikon's usual brew: the EXPEED Picture Controls are still producing pretty much the same color and options that the other Nikon DSLRs do. It's actually kind of impressive that I can fairly closely match color/saturation/contrast results in JPEGs between a high end Coolpix, the Nikon V3, the D3300, and my D800
 
@THC_SsSsSnake - Thanks for the posts, after reading, I believe I'd be more suited for a 35mm lens after all.

What are these retailers like at getting stock back in for said bundles? I've been keeping an eye on the product with hopes of buying next week and now it appears to be out of stock :( just my luck.
 
Spacedeck said:
@THC_SsSsSnake - Thanks for the posts, after reading, I believe I'd be more suited for a 35mm lens after all.
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I'd also echo 35mm being a good choice, I always found the 50mm awkward to use indoors, you couldn't step back enough (talking about the lens on a crop) but the 35mm was much better.

*Get the pitchforks* You could buy an import D5500 with 18-55 for 438.44
 
Guys, I've been thinking and I could pretty much do this two ways.

I could buy the D3300 with 18-55 lens, that sets me back around £349. I could then get the 35mm which can be bought for around £132.

Making this investment £481 (with the £30 cashback, comes out at £451).

The other option I'm considering, is the D3300 with 18-55mm lens for £349. Get the 55-300mm lens which is £262.

This comes out at £611 (£30 + £25 cashback then makes this £556).

I would then wait a month before purchasing either the 55-300mm or the 35mm. I just can't decide which route to take.

On one hand, I can shoot family pictures straight away but sacrificing the £25 cashback, or I could purchase the the more expensive lens, taking the £55 total in cashback and purchase the 35mm lens on my next payday.

Thought?

EDIT: On second thoughts, I very well may be able to just purchase everything outright after payday for the £743 it would cost (£688 after cashback)

EDIT 2: These would all be bought from the well known highstreet retailer, but the 50-300mm lens they don't have marked down for £25 cashback like they do the otheres, so this confuses me a little. If they do get more stock of the camera, hopefully it's soon.

Radec said:
Just get yourself a disposable.
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Sure if you would like the easiest solution, be my guest ;)
 
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THC_SsSsSnake said:
I would consider D3300 with 18-55mm
Then look for a sec hand 55-300 after youve got used to the camera
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Understandably cheaper, however I wouldn't be able to test these out before buying. This might be the most expensive route I could take, but I wouldn't choose this if money was an absolute issue (in comparison, after paying all rent / bills / camera gear next month, I would still have enough to buy the same camera gear again, with change spare. I've just been trying to keep my account over a specific amount. That is just me being fussy though).

I also tend to have a thing for new things....:rolleyes:

fowler002 said:
Canon all the way :p
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Thanks for that brilliantly helpful reply :p maybe back this up with suggestions?;)
 
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