Nikon or Canon, something else or nothing?

keen.observer · Jul 25, 2018

I have a Nikon D3300, and have moved up to a Nikon D7200. Either of these, or your D3200, would be fine for Macro, as would most other cameras made by most other manufacturers. The trick to macro is to have the right lens. A true macro lens has a 1:1 (one to one) reproduction ratio / magnification ratio. Many lenses claim to be "macro" when they are not. They have a 1:2, 1:2.9, or other ratio. They are close up lenses, but not close up enough for true macro. They can get slightly closer portraits of people, but won't give the kind of close up images of coins, stamps, bugs, etc, which many macro shooters want. Nikon makes several true macro lenses, which they call "micro" lenses. The shorter ones-40mm, and 60mm-would not be your best bets, as you need to get so close to your subject that you will likely scare away the bugs, and your lens / camera body will block out the light from the sun, or your flash....so it won't hit your subject, and your image will be dark. If you are going to shoot macros you should either have a ring flash on your lens, or use a longer macro lens...such as the Tamron SP 90mm F/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 VC USD lens, or the Nikon AFS VR 105mm Micro F/2.8 G ED IF 1:1 macro lens. Such will let you focus from far enough away to get some light on the subject. Put your camera on a tripod for macro work. Wildlife, too, is a matter more of lens than of camera. A long telephoto lens...300mm, 400mm, or more, will be best in most cases. Again, a tripod will be best, too, as the long lens will magnify camera shake as well as image. As long as your camera can give you 4 frames, or more, per second in burst mode / continuous shooting-and your Entry Level D3200 can-you will get by well enough for most hobby wildlife shooting. When you move up, to a more Enthusiast, or even Professional, Level camera, get something with a higher burst rate / faster Continuous Shooting speed. The D7200 can do 6 frames per second, and 7 frames per second in the 1.3X crop mode. The Nikon D850 will give 7 fps, or 9fps with the battery grip. The recently discontinued Nikon 1 V2 is a small (CX sensored) 14 MP camera which can give 15 fps in Continuous Shooting. Buy one, and an FT-1 adapter, and you will be able to put Nikon F mount (DX and FX) lenses on the camera. Doing so gets you a 2.7X crop factor. So, a cheap 70-300mm lens, on the Ft-1 adaptered Nikon 1 V1 camera, will have the field of view of a 189-810mm lens on an full frame FX camera. That, with the 15 fps burst rate should get you some great wildlife images from a distance where you will not be scaring away the animals with your presence, or camera noise.

ac12 · Jul 25, 2018

KO
Next time, would you please break your thoughts into separate paragraphs, which would be easier to follow, rather than a single LONG paragraph

BTW, the Nikon 1 V2 (2012) was replaced by the V3 in 2014.
5 years ago is a bit longer than "recently discontinued."
The V3 on the other hand was recently discontinued.

greybeard · Jul 28, 2018

DeWalt or Milwaukee, S&W or Ruger, Gibson or Fender. It depends on the tool, weapon, or instrument you are comparing. I use Nikon because that is what my local dealer sold and Nikon is what I am pretty heavily invested in but, I would probably be just as happy if I had started and stayed with Canon. Either Nikon or Canon make the most complete systems and Nikon at least is backwards compatible with most all their lenses to a certain extent. I have a few lenses I used with my film nikon that work just fine with my D750. You can't say that about most other manufactures.

EJA64 · Sep 6, 2018

Canon, Pentax, etc, are pretty much comparable to Nikon in most ways. Any would be as useful as another. Since you are already into Nikon, you may as well stay with it, and keep your current lenses, etc. A Nikon D7200 would be a good upgrade from a D3200....extra card slot, bigger buffer, etc, and can be had for around U$700.00 for the body alone now. A Nikon D750 would be even better, and can be had for an amount within your budget. The D7200 is a crop frame camera, and the D750 is a Full Frame model. Nikon has some good macro lenses, which they call "micro". The 105mm afs f/2.8G IF-ED lens is worth considering. On the D750 it is a 105mm lens. On the D7200 it has a field of view of a 157.5mm lens.

greybeard · Sep 7, 2018

Pretty much a Ford or Chevy question. I know Nikon and for what you are wanting to do the 7100…7200…7500 will do nicely. You can probably get a refurbished d7100 in that price range.

Nikon and Canon have the most complete systems and I'm sure Canon has cameras that will do you just fine too.