Recommendations for First Time DSLR Buyer

[3568378]

Yes, the A6300 is a great camera for video.

And it's true. There are a lot of great budget e-mount lenses from Rokinon and Sigma that are absolutely perfect for the dollar. I have the Rokinon 12mm f2 manual that is my go-to lens for street photography. Super tiny and fun to shoot with.

Definitely saving up slowly for a full-frame Sony in the next few years.

So I use the Rok for street photography as well but I'm still looking for something to cover the gap between the 12 and the 50mm (SEL50F18) I have. I do have the 18-105 G but it's big - I'd prefer either a prime or a SMALLER zoom with constant aperture throughout--I've seen the 10-18 but it's BIG. Thinking about the 21mm Rok f/1.4 which I see GREAT reviews on but my one hangup is that it's manual. That's fine for the 12mm because you can set the focus to infinity and being so wide pretty much everything is sharp. That won't be a similar luxury with a smaller FOV. You have a suggestion or anyone else out there have one for Sony E-Mount? Can't afford Zeiss so keep it to $400 or less suggestions if possible!

 

[TSE]

So I use the Rok for street photography as well but I'm still looking for something to cover the gap between the 12 and the 50mm (SEL50F18) I have. I do have the 18-105 G but it's big - I'd prefer either a prime or a SMALLER zoom with constant aperture throughout--I've seen the 10-18 but it's BIG. Thinking about the 21mm Rok f/1.4 which I see GREAT reviews on but my one hangup is that it's manual. That's fine for the 12mm because you can set the focus to infinity and being so wide pretty much everything is sharp. That won't be a similar luxury with a smaller FOV. You have a suggestion or anyone else out there have one for Sony E-Mount? Can't afford Zeiss so keep it to $400 or less suggestions if possible!

I have the Sony FE 28mm f2 and it is an absolute steal of a lens for that price and it's very small. It is also capable of full frame just in case you upgrade down the road as well.

 

[Hughmac]

So I use the Rok for street photography as well but I'm still looking for something to cover the gap between the 12 and the 50mm (SEL50F18) I have. I do have the 18-105 G but it's big - I'd prefer either a prime or a SMALLER zoom with constant aperture throughout--I've seen the 10-18 but it's BIG. Thinking about the 21mm Rok f/1.4 which I see GREAT reviews on but my one hangup is that it's manual. That's fine for the 12mm because you can set the focus to infinity and being so wide pretty much everything is sharp. That won't be a similar luxury with a smaller FOV. You have a suggestion or anyone else out there have one for Sony E-Mount? Can't afford Zeiss so keep it to $400 or less suggestions if possible!

Here's the DX0 comparison between the FE 28mm, E 35mm and Sigma 30mm if it helps.

https://www.dxomark.com/Reviews/Son...s-Sony-E-35mm-f-1.8-vs-Sigma-30mm-f-2.8-EX-DN

I have the Sigma and I've been very pleased with it.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[determined09]

When do the new models come out ? Is it March or May? Thank you

 

[Mark0]

For my photography class at school I bought in some Canon 1200D's a while back for the pupils to use. I found they were an ideal starter DSLR and I'm also sure the Nikon / Sony equivalents are just as good. I chose Canon because it's what I had worked with for years and felt better about passing on knowledge to my pupils without faffing about learning a new system.

 

[VanNess]

Yeah, another one of these threads…

So, I've always enjoyed photography over the years, taking photos with my old point and shoot digital cameras and, in more recent times, my iPhone. However, in recent times, I've taken an almost obsessive interest in photography, and would love to finally step up to a DSLR.

My main uses are for portraits, some landscapes, a bit of sports related stuff, and family related stuff. So I can't say that I have the highest of professional uses for it. Having said that, whichever DSLR I do buy, I would like to have for the long haul. In other words, while an entry-level DSLR (i.e., Nikon D3400) would probably more than suit my needs in the short-term, I fear that within 1-2 years, I would want more control, and thus outgrow it and wish to purchase something better. So I don't mind spending a bit more on something that will give me the opportunity to grow into it over the course of time.

I'm the atypical hobbyist and Nikon shooter. Mostly street photography, a lot of candids and spur of the moment shots. As such there is no time to fiddle with camera settings beforehand and rely heavily on the camera to get it right. For this kind of shooting you are giving a camera's abilities a pretty good stress test.

Several years ago I've tried several high end point and shoots and Sony's a55 before eventually settling on the Nikon D5100. The point and shoots simply weren't fast enough and I hated Sony's jpeg colors (and the lens selection at the time wasn't that great for an affordable lens). After making a few one time, set and forget tweaks (picture control and white balance setting) on the Nikon, I found myself getting the colors, saturation, and skin tones I wanted on just about every shot no matter what conditions I was shooting in. Even the D5100 focusing system was (and still is) very good. Out of the box it's jpegs are not that great so you do have to tweak, but again the tweaks are one time only and once done everything (especially skin tones) looks great. I still use this camera today.

I did upgrade to the D5200 and 5300 respectively and ended up returning them. Neither seem to produce the same results (sharpness and color) I was getting from the 5100. I got the D5500 and although I kept it and use it, I am not recommending it. Get the D5100 instead (and save yourself some money).

Why? First and foremost although the D5500 is capable of producing some excellent shots, it has an occasional problem with overexposure/blown highlights (depending on shooting conditions) that the D5100 just doesn't have at all. Noted on DP's review: "Something that is easy to get around but worth mentioning (on the D5500 and many other Nikon DSLRs) is its tendency to slightly overexpose." Their solution was to "reduce the exposure by 1/3-stop and then bracket" but all things being equal you shouldn't need to do that in the first place and it's a hassle when reviewing. Ken Rockwell in his review of the 5500 noted the same issue "it errs on the side of overexposure with subjects against dark backgrounds. No big deal, if an image is too light, hold the +/- button and set it to -0.7 or -1.0 and it's perfect". Fine I suppose if you have time to do that but for a spur of the moment shot you don't. Basically it's a non-issue with the 5100 in my experience and apparently with DP's review of the 5100 as well "it is also worth noting that of the thousands of frames that we've shot with the D5100, we haven't seen the same overexposure problem that bothered us with the D7000 in some conditions." Frankly even the iPhone camera doesn't have this issue so it's amazing that a storied marquee camera brand such as Nikon apparently hasn't figured it out.

Second, transferring my settings from the D5100 (picture control, white balance and so on) do not produce the same results on the D5500 so it's more experimentation to get results I like. I eventually figured out some fairly good settings to use, but I was never able to exactly duplicate what I get on the 5100.

Third, although the 5500 supposedly has a more sophisticated auto focus system, my hit/miss ratio is roughly the same as on the 5100, so no big benefit there.

What I do like about the 5500 is the redesigned grip, weight, touch screen, significantly better high ISO noise performance - and it is capable of occasionally producing stunning shots. Just not consistently as noted above. But the overexposure issue with the 5500 is non-trivial, I run into it frequently which is why I can't recommend it to any new DSLR user. All of the above is shooting jpegs by the way. I don't shoot raw. I take too many pics and life is to short. Any modern DSLR has more than enough horsepower to produce great jpegs with minor tweaks to the settings

By the way the 5600 is an absolute joke. Nothing more than a rebadged 5500

 

[Apple fanboy]

I'm the atypical hobbyist and Nikon shooter. Mostly street photography, a lot of candids and spur of the moment shots. As such there is no time to fiddle with camera settings beforehand and rely heavily on the camera to get it right. For this kind of shooting you are giving a camera's abilities a pretty good stress test.

Several years ago I've tried several high end point and shoots and Sony's a55 before eventually settling on the Nikon D5100. The point and shoots simply weren't fast enough and I hated Sony's jpeg colors (and the lens selection at the time wasn't that great for an affordable lens). After making a few one time, set and forget tweaks (picture control and white balance setting) on the Nikon, I found myself getting the colors, saturation, and skin tones I wanted on just about every shot no matter what conditions I was shooting in. Even the D5100 focusing system was (and still is) very good. Out of the box it's jpegs are not that great so you do have to tweak, but again the tweaks are one time only and once done everything (especially skin tones) looks great. I still use this camera today.

I did upgrade to the D5200 and 5300 respectively and ended up returning them. Neither seem to produce the same results (sharpness and color) I was getting from the 5100. I got the D5500 and although I kept it and use it, I am not recommending it. Get the D5100 instead (and save yourself some money).

Why? First and foremost although the D5500 is capable of producing some excellent shots, it has an occasional problem with overexposure/blown highlights (depending on shooting conditions) that the D5100 just doesn't have at all. Noted on DP's review: "Something that is easy to get around but worth mentioning (on the D5500 and many other Nikon DSLRs) is its tendency to slightly overexpose." Their solution was to "reduce the exposure by 1/3-stop and then bracket" but all things being equal you shouldn't need to do that in the first place and it's a hassle when reviewing. Ken Rockwell in his review of the 5500 noted the same issue "it errs on the side of overexposure with subjects against dark backgrounds. No big deal, if an image is too light, hold the +/- button and set it to -0.7 or -1.0 and it's perfect". Fine I suppose if you have time to do that but for a spur of the moment shot you don't. Basically it's a non-issue with the 5100 in my experience and apparently with DP's review of the 5100 as well "it is also worth noting that of the thousands of frames that we've shot with the D5100, we haven't seen the same overexposure problem that bothered us with the D7000 in some conditions." Frankly even the iPhone camera doesn't have this issue so it's amazing that a storied marquee camera brand such as Nikon apparently hasn't figured it out.

Second, transferring my settings from the D5100 (picture control, white balance and so on) do not produce the same results on the D5500 so it's more experimentation to get results I like. I eventually figured out some fairly good settings to use, but I was never able to exactly duplicate what I get on the 5100.

Third, although the 5500 supposedly has a more sophisticated auto focus system, my hit/miss ratio is roughly the same as on the 5100, so no big benefit there.

What I do like about the 5500 is the redesigned grip, weight, touch screen, significantly better high ISO noise performance - and it is capable of occasionally producing stunning shots. Just not consistently as noted above. But the overexposure issue with the 5500 is non-trivial, I run into it frequently which is why I can't recommend it to any new DSLR user. All of the above is shooting jpegs by the way. I don't shoot raw. I take too many pics and life is to short. Any modern DSLR has more than enough horsepower to produce great jpegs with minor tweaks to the settings

By the way the 5600 is an absolute joke. Nothing more than a rebadged 5500

I have to say learning to shoot manual exposure would solve those issues on any camera you use. Worth considering. It doesn't take long and gives you options that Aperture priority or Shutter priority doesn't.

 

[mofunk]

I have to say learning to shoot manual exposure would solve those issues on any camera you use. Worth considering. It doesn't take long and gives you options that Aperture priority or Shutter priority doesn't.

I was messing around in Aperture mode on my camera. It was the first time using it since moving to D750. For some reason I don't remember Aperture mode giving me crazy Shutter speeds. I had it set around f/4 and the camera set the shutter at are 60 sec or lower. Think I gonna play with it more just to see what it will give me. I remember using that first with my D90 especially in low light. Maybe I'm just like using Manual better

 

[Apple fanboy]

I was messing around in Aperture mode on my camera. It was the first time using it since moving to D750. For some reason I don't remember Aperture mode giving me crazy Shutter speeds. I had it set around f/4 and the camera set the shutter at are 60 sec or lower. Think I gonna play with it more just to see what it will give me. I remember using that first with my D90 especially in low light. Maybe I'm just like using Manual better

Move that ISO up and you'll be fine.
I'm sure you get a much better high ISO range that is usable than on your D90.

 

[mofunk]

I'll try that next time I mess around with Aperture settings. I've bumped my ISO in Manual. I've gotten some great results using the Auto ISO especially shooting video. This month I shot a kid's birthday party where they had a strobe light and bubbles. The Auto ISO was very useful because the light kept changing.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I'll try that next time I mess around with Aperture settings. I've bumped my ISO in Manual. I've gotten some great results using the Auto ISO especially shooting video. This month I shot a kid's birthday party where they had a strobe light and bubbles. The Auto ISO was very useful because the light kept changing.

In the auto ISO you can set a maximum ISO so your shots don't go to grainy. But I tend to set it myself.

 

[mofunk]

In the auto ISO you can set a maximum ISO so your shots don't go to grainy. But I tend to set it myself.

Yeah I have the max set. I only use when I'm shooting an event where I'm walking in several rooms with different lighting.

 

[determined09]

My father purchased the Nikon D5500 and he went to Bestbuy for help with it. And the Nikon rep couldn't get it to take a good photo. But the Canon rep was the one that was able to figure that out. I read somewhere that Nikons are more complicated than Canon cameras. Im not sure how true this is. I'm not sure why he purchased that particular camera.

 

[Apple fanboy]

My father purchased the Nikon D5500 and he went to Bestbuy for help with it. And the Nikon rep couldn't get it to take a good photo. But the Canon rep was the one that was able to figure that out. I read somewhere that Nikons are more complicated than Canon cameras. Im not sure how true this is. I'm not sure why he purchased that particular camera.

I think they are both pretty much the same.
Just depends what your used to.

 

[determined09]

I think they are both pretty much the same.
Just depends what your used to.

He's just taking pictures of people at his family reunions.

 

[mofunk]

The difference that I see with Nikon and Canon is that Canon seems to have a brighter image.

I've never gotten a decent photo in Best Buy with the store cameras. Those things have been worked over and who know what else. What I usually test in Best Buy is the feel of the camera in my hand and how well I can navigate around the camera without having to open the manual. The lights in the store aren't ideal. I've gotten better test shots at a camera shop.

You could put the camera in Manual, set the aperture around f/8 or f/11 and then the shutter around 125 or 250. Or just shoot a few shots in Auto. Either camera will work. I like the D7000/D7100/D7200 or midrange camera because you have more room to grow and the kit lens is little bit better.

Check this one out

used
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/used/1005009/nikon_13302_d7100_dslr_camera_with.html

new

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1005009-REG/nikon_13302_d7100_dslr_camera_with.html

 

[determined09]

The difference that I see with Nikon and Canon is that Canon seems to have a brighter image.

I've never gotten a decent photo in Best Buy with the store cameras. Those things have been worked over and who know what else. What I usually test in Best Buy is the feel of the camera in my hand and how well I can navigate around the camera without having to open the manual. The lights in the store aren't ideal. I've gotten better test shots at a camera shop.

You could put the camera in Manual, set the aperture around f/8 or f/11 and then the shutter around 125 or 250. Or just shoot a few shots in Auto. Either camera will work. I like the D7000/D7100/D7200 or midrange camera because you have more room to grow and the kit lens is little bit better.

Check this one out

used
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/used/1005009/nikon_13302_d7100_dslr_camera_with.html

new

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1005009-REG/nikon_13302_d7100_dslr_camera_with.html

Thank you for the link. I'll check them out.

 

[mofunk]

Good luck!

I'm not sure where to look in the D5500, but with most Nikons you can increase the image quality in camera. Even though I shoot RAW I've increased some of the setting in Image Quality. (of the top of my head) Increased the sharpening to about +2 so that my jpeg will look nice. Also, when shooting learn how to hold the camera steady and use the Auto Focus lock. Making adjust in camera will help.


Check out Jared's video to set up your D5500

 

[determined09]

Good luck!

I'm not sure where to look in the D5500, but with most Nikons you can increase the image quality in camera. Even though I shoot RAW I've increased some of the setting in Image Quality. (of the top of my head) Increased the sharpening to about +2 so that my jpeg will look nice. Also, when shooting learn how to hold the camera steady and use the Auto Focus lock. Making adjust in camera will help.


Check out Jared's video to set up your D5500

Will do.Thank you Mofunk!