Upgrade advice please!

[Mikeyb90]

I've been using a Nikon D-40x for a few years now. The shutter is starting to stick in continuous mode. (Had been replaced before I bought it). But I'm starting to do small shoots for friends' kids and what not so I think it's time to upgrade.. I wanna stay with Nikon so I can keep using my portrait lens (Nikon 50mm). Was looking at a D5500. Good choice? Anything better for the price? Any help is appreciated!

 

[waday]

What's your budget?

 

[Mikeyb90]

What's your budget?

Not a lot.. 5-6 hundred bucks. I'm ok with something used/refurbished.

 

[Designer]

The D5500 is a good choice, but if you want to make that next leap forward:

Here's something a step above for just a bit over your budget:

Nikon D7100 Digital Camera Body | KEH Camera

Which doesn't save you any for another lens. Why the 50mm for portraits, if I may ask?

 

[Mikeyb90]

The D5500 is a good choice, but if you want to make that next leap forward:

Here's something a step above for just a bit over your budget:

Nikon D7100 Digital Camera Body | KEH Camera

Which doesn't save you any for another lens. Why the 50mm for portraits, if I may ask?

I bought the 50mm for the wide aperture.. I was told it was my best choice for a good cheap portrait lens. So far I like it. It takes really crisp pictures compared to the stock lenses. What lens would you recommend?

 

[Derrel]

Speaking of 50mm and D5500, here's a very favorable user experience report from one of the web's biggest gear snob shooters.

Review: The Nikon D5500 (or, a solution to the compact 50-e problem)

And yeah, the 50mm 1.8 AF-S G offers good performance in a compact, light, and fast-aperture fixed focal length lens. The beauty of a prime like the 50 on an APS-C camera is that the field of view of the lens is ALWAYS the same, so one quickly becomes capable of mentally "seeing the picture" which that lens will make, even before bringing the camera up to the eye. The longer one uses any prime lens, the more intuitive it becomes as far as knowing **exactly** where the camera needs to be positioned to achieve a desired result. How far away to stand, how high up to position the camera, what the background will look like--all those things become easy to predict with a 50mm lens, without the camera even being brought to shooting position.

 

[Mikeyb90]

Speaking of 50mm and D5500, here's a very favorable user experience report from one of the web's biggest gear snob shooters.

Review: The Nikon D5500 (or, a solution to the compact 50-e problem)

And yeah, the 50mm 1.8 AF-S G offers good performance in a compact, light, and fast-aperture fixed focal length lens. The beauty of a prime like the 50 on an APS-C camera is that the field of view of the lens is ALWAYS the same, so one quickly becomes capable of mentally "seeing the picture" which that lens will make, even before bringing the camera up to the eye. The longer one uses any prime lens, the more intuitive it becomes as far as knowing **exactly** where the camera needs to be positioned to achieve a desired result. How far away to stand, how high up to position the camera, what the background will look like--all those things become easy to predict with a 50mm lens, without the camera even being brought to shooting position.

Exactly that. My only issue is having to stand so far from my subject it some instances that it's hard to focus.

 

[Designer]

The D5500 is a good choice, but if you want to make that next leap forward:

Here's something a step above for just a bit over your budget:

Nikon D7100 Digital Camera Body | KEH Camera

Which doesn't save you any for another lens. Why the 50mm for portraits, if I may ask?

I bought the 50mm for the wide aperture.. I was told it was my best choice for a good cheap portrait lens. So far I like it. It takes really crisp pictures compared to the stock lenses. What lens would you recommend?

If you can scrape together another $432 plus tax and shipping get this:

Nikon Nikkor 85 mm f/1.8 Medium Telephoto Lens for Nikon F-bayonet | KEH Camera

This lens on an APS-C sensor D5500 is dynamite! (in a good way)

 

[Designer]

Speaking of 50mm and D5500, here's a very favorable user experience report from one of the web's biggest gear snob shooters.

Review: The Nikon D5500 (or, a solution to the compact 50-e problem)

And yeah, the 50mm 1.8 AF-S G offers good performance in a compact, light, and fast-aperture fixed focal length lens. The beauty of a prime like the 50 on an APS-C camera is that the field of view of the lens is ALWAYS the same, so one quickly becomes capable of mentally "seeing the picture" which that lens will make, even before bringing the camera up to the eye. The longer one uses any prime lens, the more intuitive it becomes as far as knowing **exactly** where the camera needs to be positioned to achieve a desired result. How far away to stand, how high up to position the camera, what the background will look like--all those things become easy to predict with a 50mm lens, without the camera even being brought to shooting position.

Exactly that. My only issue is having to stand so far from my subject it some instances that it's hard to focus.

I just let the lens focus. All you have to do is position the active focus point (area) on your subject's eye and press.

 

[Derrel]

The D40 and D40x have focus systems that do not have as many AF squares as the D5500...I think you'll find that a D5500 has like, a decade newer AF system and a decade-newer level of focus capability!

 

[Mikeyb90]

The D40 and D40x have focus systems that do not have as many AF squares as the D5500...I think you'll find that a D5500 has like, a decade newer AF system and a decade-newer level of focus capability!

Right.. So it's hard when my subject is on the left or right side and it only wants to focus in the center.. I've messed with the AF options but it tends to do what it wants

 

[Derrel]

The D40 and D40x have focus systems that do not have as many AF squares as the D5500...I think you'll find that a D5500 has like, a decade newer AF system and a decade-newer level of focus capability!

Right.. So it's hard when my subject is on the left or right side and it only wants to focus in the center.. I've messed with the AF options but it tends to do what it wants

I shot a few thousand shots on my then-wife's D40...I know exactly what you mean, but in the more than a decade time span between the D40 series and the D5500, NIkon's autofocusing systems have become much,much better on the entry-level cameras. It's hard to fathom until you actually compare old against new: the D40 series had THREE AF squares...left,center,right, and each one was fairly big too!

The D5500 has 39 AF squares, and 9 are cross-type. The D5500 has touch screen, and tap-to-focus capability as well.

Nikon D5500 Review

 

[Mikeyb90]

The D40 and D40x have focus systems that do not have as many AF squares as the D5500...I think you'll find that a D5500 has like, a decade newer AF system and a decade-newer level of focus capability!

Right.. So it's hard when my subject is on the left or right side and it only wants to focus in the center.. I've messed with the AF options but it tends to do what it wants

I shot a few thousand shots on my then-wife's D40...I know exactly what you mean, but in the more than a decade time span between the D40 series and the D5500, NIkon's autofocusing systems have become much,much better on the entry-level cameras. It's hard to fathom until you actually compare old against new: the D40 series had THREE AF squares...left,center,right, and each one was fairly big too!

The D5500 has 39 AF squares, and 9 are cross-type. The D5500 has touch screen, and tap-to-focus capability as well.

Nikon D5500 Review

Well dang... I didn't realize how old mine was lol.
I'll do some comparing between the 5500 and 7100. Also, where is a good place to buy/shop?

 

[goodguy]

Nikon D5500 is an excellent camera, is very small and light weight but with lots of nice features and to top it all up it has one of the best (if not THE best) APS-C sensor in the market today.
Excellent low light performance and tons of dynamic range.

AF system is really good only second to the D7200 51 AF system.
Highly recommended!

 

[Mikeyb90]

Cool deal. Thanks guys! After the camera I need to get a lighting setup. So I'll be back soon with questions