About to do an upgrade to Nikon D3300

Hi all,

Just registered as the first step in my journey to becoming a better photographer. For a few years I've been shooting vacation photographs with my Olympus SZ-10. While I love its portability, I got hooked on photography and am now looking for something that's an upgrade in quality and allows far greater customizability. I am by no means an expert in photography or the theory behind it but have the enthusiasm to learn more.

I am considering going for the Nikon D3300 because from reviews, I gather it's a pretty solid buy for the price tag. I don't mind having a more bulky camera if it improves my photography. However, this would be my first DSLR and I have no clue what to get in terms of lenses. The kit lens is a AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II, and I could just buy the kit or go for the body and buy a seperate lens. However, before I decide I have several questions I need answers to, and I hope this is the right place to look for them .

- First of all, the zoom. The Olympus SZ-10 did x18 zoom (x14 mechanical, x18 digital zoom). After some googling I'm still not sure how to calculate what sort of zoom the Nikkor lens would allow. I do understand (if correct) that the 55mm setting would be approximately a 3.05 zoom compared to the 18mm setting. So am I correct in saying that the Nikkor is far less capable of zooming than the Olympus is?

- Second, I'm not sure if I should get a single lens or multiple ones. I mostly do photography of landscapes (so, wide views), wildlife and the occasional bird (sometimes the x18 zoom I get with the Olympus is hardly enough).

I'm sure many more questions will pop up in the days to come, but I think these are the most important ones for now. Thanks in advance for any and all responses

 

The D3300 is a excellent camera though it may be entry level to the DSLR world, it packs a big performance from it's sensor,feels solid,focuses easily in low light,tracks birds very well even though it does not have nikons most sophisticated Auto focus system.The Kit lens 18-55VRII is surprisingly sharp,real sharp but don't expect good build quality and I'm speaking from experience as a previous owner of the D3300 with the kit lens. As far as birds your going to need long reach a good starting point would be 300mm so I didn't think you would benefit much from the 55-200 for wildlife unless your shooting something like gulls, but it can come in handy for a lot of other things where you just need that extra reach where your feet cant go.

Side note, stay away from the kits that come with uv filters,tripod etc etc it's cheep garbage stuff that will only hurt the IQ or possible loss of your gear to a flimsy toy tripod. If you want sample images from the D3300 I have some I can upload if you like.Good luck and welcome aboard.

 

Yes, the D3300 is a excellent camera, but if you want better flexibility I'd recommend the D5200, D5300 or D5500. They have better low light performance and a flip screen. And the same 24 megapixel sensor size. If these are not attractive, the D3300 is your right choice.

Good luck and welcome.

 

D5300 and D5500 are great camera but I disagree, the low light performance of the D3300 and D5300/D5500 are about the same, if the D5xx have advantage it will be negligible at best.
D5300/D5500 does have a better AF system but these cameras will cost you more, if you can get either of them then it is better.
The D3300 is a fantastic camera and in my book amazing value for money.
I found its low light performance to be very impressive for a crop sensor camera, AF is very good even if its a bit basic.
As for lenses, well lenses are the more important and more expensive part of hardware, since it looks like you are stretched with your ability to spend I would say get the basic kit lens 18-55mm, as mentioned its a very good lens, add to it if you can either the Nikon 55-300mm VR or Nikon 70-300mm VR
This will give you a good reach for wildlife, there are other lenses with more reach but I doubt its for your pocket.

 

The big plus for me with the D5x00 family, in low light, is the ability to change ISO in 1/3 increments, and not only in full stops, like in the D3x00 family (not sure if Nikon corrected that with the D3400). That's what I meant, not the actual noise at high ISO. My bad.

 

I own the D3300 and its an excellent entry camera. The kit lens is pretty good. I ended up selling it and went with a Sigma 17-55mm 2.8 OS HSM. It is sharper and better in low light but more money than a kit. Great for landscape and all around use.

The only things I don't like about the D3300 are the viewfinder and apeture dial (you have to press +- button while turning dial.... The viewfinder took me a year to figure out I wasn't getting precise results in my framing and I have to spend time cropping. It's a Pentamirror and not 100% view. It would be great if it had cross hairs in the thirds area to help me compensate for the smaller view. It may seem trivial but I try to get it right in camera and minimize post time. So it irratates me. The apeture dial thing is just as annoying to me as I shoot mainly in manual.

My next camera body will be either the D7200 or D500. I am trying to pay my house off so I see a refurbished D7200 in my future.

 

Spend a wee bit more, get the d3400

 

Actually the D3400 has same sensor, same processor, same AF, the differences are so small that I think it will be a better investment and frankly more logical to get the D3300 and spend extra money on lenses.
Nikon really played same trick on it buyers as Canon did with the T4i and T5i
Same camera with almost no change, just makes people upgrade to basically same camera, not a nice trick if you ask me.

 

Look around. I received an email this morning of the d3300 (maybe d3400) and the 18-55 and 55-200 kit lenses for a great price of around $350ish. I cant' recall if it was from cameta, adorama or B&H.

found it ..

 

That's a great price and a great start. Nice find.

 

I just realized reading that ad that the camera/lens is refurbished. Which could mean a multitude of things. For instance it could have been a display or a return (and retail places are not allowed to sell displays or returns, thus they end up being a refurb unit). or a fixed camera sold as refurb. many ppl get refurbs that have very little usage on them.