Thinking of buying a Nikon D3100

C

Crazy Amos

New member
Joined
Oct 20, 2010
Messages
1,060
Reaction score
0
I know this isn't really the place for this but I feel I know some of you and actually respect what you guys have to say and also feel I will get correct info from you.

Like the title says I am thinking of buying a Nikon D3100 which will be my first DSLR. As of right now I am in the beginning stages of learning the terminology and what each of the entry level cameras have to offer. My knowledge is very limited and would like to know what to look for and what is needed to capture the images I want. I will be using it to take pics of the vehicles I detail and my wife will take pictures of our daughter.

I know I need a wide angle lens to capture a full car in my garage but don't know what else I would need.

I use a point and shoot now and while the pics look good on the LCD display after I take them, they actually look like crap when blown up on screen and I usuay don't use them. I would like to take the nice pictures some of you do in your posts. Right now I will be buying a starter kit to get me going unless I am convinced otherwise.

Any help or suggestions for different models and lenses are greatly appreciated.
 
Once Bill (Legacy GT) sees this and responds you will be all set ;)
 
I own a Nikon D40..which was Nikon's entry level DSLR before the 3000, which now is the 3100. Nikon is a fantastic company and I do not think you will be disappointed. Although there are a million options on my D40, the nicest thing is that just a simple "point and click" produces professional looking photos. The biggest thing with all the Nikon entry level DSLR's to remember is they do not have an internal auto focus motor, so you will want to make sure your lens does. This has not affected me, as both my normal nikon lens and my sigma telephoto zoom lens has an internal motor.

Not sure what you are willing to spend...but I would honestly call around some local photog stores and see if you can buy a D40, D40X, or even D90. II only suggest these because you will be able to buy them for cheaper, and unless you are a pro, you won't notice any difference between these and the "newer" models. I was able to get my D40 with an additional Sigma telephoto zoom lens, and bag, and HD SD card, and sun filter, for under $500. The sigma lens alone is worth at least $250-$280. I bought if off a local photographer whose business took off quicker than he anticipated and he was upgrading.

The major difference, which may or may not make a difference to you, is that the D3100 can take HD video. If you are looking for an all in one, perhaps this is appealing to you. Me, I stick with my Nikon for pictures, and my sony HD handcam for video.

Hope this helps, if not disregard! :xyxthumbs:

EDIT: Wanted to add I have used this for all of my son's pictures from newborn (literally within thirty seconds of birth) to present (13 months). All the photos have looked very professional, especially with the proper editing software. I have saved a lot of money in those "pro shoots" for holiday pics, etc.
 
Last edited:
This is not an area where I can offer a lot of technical input or detail that is very meaningful as my wife does most of our photography.

However, I can tell you that recently we purchased a Nikon D3100 and it takes pictures that far exceed the quality of any point and shoot we have ever owned. I don't think you will be disappointed with this camera. The picture quality is stunning and I think that it is a reasonably good value for the money considering the quality construction of the camera and everything it does so well.
 
Dubbin1 said:
Once Bill (Legacy GT) sees this and responds you will be all set ;)
Click to expand...

:iagree:

His photography at the 2011 Detail Fest was outstanding.

Troy: You may have one of these stores (Dodd's/Click Camera) in your area. If not, they have them on sale, online:

Digital cameras - Products - Dodd Camera[decision_model_guids][]=a58a8268-4946-4121-8912-f53ba8efa0ea&catalog[search][spec_value_ids][207062][]=9984866&catalog[search][price][min]=&catalog[search][price][max]=

Good camera choice!

Bob
 
Troy Fuller said:
I know this isn't really the place for this but I feel I know some of you and actually respect what you guys have to say and also feel I will get correct info from you.

Like the title says I am thinking of buying a Nikon D3100 which will be my first DSLR. As of right now I am in the beginning stages of learning the terminology and what each of the entry level cameras have to offer. My knowledge is very limited and would like to know what to look for and what is needed to capture the images I want. I will be using it to take pics of the vehicles I detail and my wife will take pictures of our daughter.

I know I need a wide angle lens to capture a full car in my garage but don't know what else I would need.

I use a point and shoot now and while the pics look good on the LCD display after I take them, they actually look like crap when blown up on screen and I usuay don't use them. I would like to take the nice pictures some of you do in your posts. Right now I will be buying a starter kit to get me going unless I am convinced otherwise.

Any help or suggestions for different models and lenses are greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Troy,

I have not shot the 3100, but I always highly recommend you take a few hours and go over the reviews at DPReview, here is the link for the camera you are looking at: Nikon D3100 Review: 1. Introduction: Digital Photography Review Think of their reviews to be the 'CEE DOG' review of photography.

From looking over the review, it looks like a great transitional camera, as you are coming from a point and shoot background. The 3100 will help you to lean the techniques and terminology behind why your photos are looking like they do, a feature which I think is really great for the first time DSLR owner. I would try to graduate into the manual modes of the camera pretty quickly (Program, Time, Aperture, Manual) to take full advantage of the camera.

Wide angle lenses will help to capture a full car inside of a garage, but they will also impart quite a bit of distortion to the image. This can be corrected in software, hopefully in the included tools with your camera, otherwise it is usually only in higher end software such as adobe lightroom. I would wait on the wide angle, as it really is not nearly as useful as a really good prime or zoom lens. I suggest getting a 50mm 1.8 prime before going wide angle as you will get a lot more use out of it. I shot a 50mm prime for close to a year and a half exclusively, as it is an incredibly versatile lens.

It is going to be really tempting to get long zoom lenses that has a high internal f-stop because they are cheap. I would encourage you to get a better large aperture lens and use your feet and cropping to get the zoom that you need. This will become especially important for indoor photography, and low light situations. I rarely use a flash indoors, and because of that my pictures capture the warmth of the ambient light while using prime or fast zoom lenses. High ISO shooting has come a long way, and you can use the kit lens to find the limits of what is acceptable for your shooting, but I would encourage you to save up for a f2.8 zoom lens. Rent lenses to see how you like them before investing hundreds or thousands of dollars. Borrowlenses.com is a great resource for this; I use them a lot if I need a specific lens for an event that I would not normally use and can't justify buying.

Image stabilization does nothing for you unless your subject is standing still. This is why I would go with a faster lens over a slower image stabilized one, it will give you many more options.

You are going to quickly realize that lenses are where the money sink is in photography. The camera body will depreciate fairly quickly, the lenses on the other hand will keep their value, so don't be shy to invest some money up front in glass, knowing that you will probably upgrade the body later.

If you are going to shoot video, get at least a class 6 memory card (90MB/s), they cost more than the normal cards, but you are going to need the extra write speed to write HD video to the card. Again, better to spend the money now than to upgrade again later. I would suggest to buy a pair of cards within your price range, 8GB or 16GB are good sizes to consider.

Backup, backup, backup. I am sure you already know this, but it is important. Keep multiple copies of your pictures in different physical locations. With a DSLR you are going to start creating many GB of pictures very quickly, if you need more tips, pm me and I can be more specific on this.

Share your pictures - sign up for online hosting if you do not have it already. I can get you a discount to SmugMug if you do not already have something setup. This enables you to show off your pictures, enable family members to view / purchase them.

Sign up for a photo community to challenge yourself to get better. There are a lot of these, the basic premise is that they give you a subject, and about a week to shoot a picture related to the subject, then everyone rates and gives feedback. DPChallenge is one such community.

Shoot, shoot shoot. The more pictures (and mistakes) you make the better your photography will get. Review all of your shots, and develop your eye. Don't delete pictures on the camera ... always wait to review them on the computer. Many times they will be salvageable, have caught an important moment even if not great, and will always help you to shoot better in the future.

Pretty quickly you are going to start to need software to fine tune and edit your pictures. The digital darkroom is an important part of the process. I would start with the free software that comes in your camera, and depending on how into this you get, and what type of computer you use, there are a lot of great options out there.

Lens care - get a UV filter for your lenses, and basically try to never touch the lens optics. The UV filter is cheap insurance against a damaged lens - if you scratch a $60 filter it is easy to replace ... if you scratch the optics you are in trouble.

Tools - GorillaPods make great portable tripods, and are a great gift idea. Very soon (I hope) I will have a very cool quick release clip for my DSLR that I can give you some input on. I am currently a backer on kick start, and I think this is a revolutionary idea.



Hopefully that is a start, and if it has spawned more questions, let us know.

I think this will be a great investment :)
 
Last edited:
Go to a site run by Ken Rockwell...... It will explain in detail all about the Nikons and Canon cameras....
It's the most amazing and thorough examination of what's available and what to expect.
Give it a try...
 
LegacyGT said:
You are going to quickly realize that lenses are where the money sink is in photography.
Click to expand...

Oh, how true! Im the MAN

LegacyGT said:
If you are going to shoot video, get at least a class 6 memory card (90MB/s), they cost more than the normal cards, but you are going to need the extra write speed to write HD video to the card. Again, better to spend the money now than to upgrade again later. I would suggest to buy a pair of cards within your price range, 8GB or 16GB are good sizes to consider.
Click to expand...

A good point there. Since you will be using a high end camera and taking very big pictures/video you need a card that can keep up. I know several people who just thought a normal card would be good enough simply becuase they didn't release she sheer size of this videos and pictures that they are taking.

Most people don't think about the speed of the card and forget. I'm glad Bill made a point to mention it!


Im the MAN
 
Hmm, I'm thinking of a D3100, or D5100.:xyxthumbs:
 
Here is something else you could do. Before you buy any DSLR, I would look at the lenses, accessories, flashes, and the prices. Make sure that company has what you want at a price you are willing to pay. The camera is the cheap part, its the lenses and accessories that REALLY start to add up. With either Canon or Nikon you really cant go wrong.
I started with a Canon XTi about 5 years ago, and its what I still use. Im getting to a point where I want more out of it. Mainly the ability to fire my flashes off camera. Get a camera that you will grow into as well.
 
Troy, a couple of things. #1, I own a D3000 Nikon with the 18-55 lens that came with it. (I think that's the size; I'm at work right now and can't confirm). I used to have a film Nikon FG 26 years ago. I'm no expert in photography but I do understand the basic philosophies. Troy, you will love that camera. It also shoots video now I believe whereas mine doesn't.
 
Another couple of thoughts - Live view uses a lot of battery power, using the optical view finder will give you better auto-focus performance and give you a lot more shots on a battery. I would get a second battery so that you have a spare, nothing like running out of juice when your kid is doing something memorable, and you can't just use AA's from the corner store. The upside from a point&shoot is that many DSLRs get 1000+ shots per charge.

Jeff has a good point as well; I try not to sway people from Nikon or from Canon; they are both excellent products, but you should review the offerings from Canon. The XSi or T1i would be in the same ballpark.
 
maximus20895 said:
Keep in mind Bill as a Canon :P
Click to expand...
I was trying to be impartial by not bringing up what I have.

Yes if you are interested I have a couple of Canon cameras, and love them to death. I also have friends that are die hard Nikon fans, and at the end of the day they are both great companies.
 
I was just messing with ya!

Both are really great cameras! To me, it doesn't matter which one ya get!
 
Bodies come and go, lenses last forever. If you are entry level, it would be good to start with a less expensive body, just to make sure you will actually use it, and this is something you want to hang on to for a while. Then once you realize it is something you will stick to, you can upgrade bodies, and start spending every last penny on all the lenses and accessories. I was trying to compare it to something, and I think the best thing I have come up with is, think of the lenses as a polisher, and the camera body as pads & polishes. Polishers are well built machines ranging from entry level to high priced polishers. You might start with a pc7424, then work your way up to a flex 3401, maybe a makita rotary, these things will last you forever, no matter what new pad/polish comes out. The different polish companies are always coming out with some new technology, so you might change from m80, to m105, to the new DA MF system, but you will always have your flex 3401. Here with the cameras, the same thing, a good lens will last you from body to body but the camera companies are always trying to one up eachother with the actual camera body itself. After all that mumbo jumbo just realize that no matter what camera model you put in this thread, in a year, or a couple years it will be "old".
 
My recommendation is try to hold cameras you are considering, go through the menu's, take some practice shots, play with controls, look at LCD screen, etc. You may find one just feels and works better for you.

In the end, the limitation of the DSLR camera will be the person behind the lens not usually the camera.
 
Wow, you guys are amazing! I knew I could count on you all! That's why I love this community!

After reading everyones replies and doing some research online, I have a bunch of questions that I would lime to run by you guys.

We just moved and don't have the Internet set up here so right now I am replying by phone. It will take way too long to type this out so I will wait until I get to work tomorrow to do it.

I just wanted to let you guys know tonight that I greatly appreciate all of the great info and that I didn't just create a post and abandoned it while all of everyones time it took to reply was wasted.

Thanks again everyone!

BTW Bill, you will have to help me with all of the lingo you used because I have to admit, you lost me a couple times lol!
 
AD Converter: The Analog to Digital Converter transforms the Sensor information (charge) into digital levels suitable for the digital processor.

AE Lock: The Automatic Exposure Lock holds the exposure settings (aperture, shutter) over a series of images. Panoramic stitches require locking exposure.

AF Servo (AI Servo): This keeps the focus on a moving subject. AF Servo is useful for sports and wildlife photography.

Aliasing: Refers to the stair stepping (jaggies) of diagonal edges in images when the resolution is too low.

Anti Aliasing: Technique to reduce Aliasing by softening of aliased edges through blending and averaging of pixel values. The resulting image will look smoother and more natural.

Aperture: The size of the lens opening that determines the amount of light hitting the sensor. F-Stops are a measure for Aperture. The aperture affects Exposure and Depth of Field.

Aperture Priority: In Aperture Priority mode, you will select the aperture and the camera will determine the correct shutter speed for the available light. The shutter speed will also depend on ISO Sensitivity. To control Depth of Field use this mode.

Artifact: These are unwanted image abnormalities like Chromatic Aberrations, Blooming, Moire, Noise, JPG Compression and others.

Aspect Ratio: This is the relationship of horizontal to vertical dimensions of images.

Autofocus: The camera will automatically focus on subjects in the image. Depending on the focus points, some subjects might not be “seen” by the focus system.

Barrel Distortion: This will cause images to look inflated near the center of each corner (like an old CRT TV). It usually occurs on wide-angle lenses and at the wide end of the zoom.

Bit: Bits represent digital data in computers. Digital Images are made of bits. The Bit Depth refers to the amount of bits used for each pixel. A bit depth corresponds to 2^(Bit Depth) levels (e.g. 16.7 Million for 24-bit).

Blooming: When overexposed pixels affect adjacent pixels, we call this blooming. Please see my tutorial on how to fix Blooming for night scenes in Photoshop.

Burst Rate: During Burst, the Camera will take multiple shots after each other, as fast as it can. The Burst Rate is measured in frames per second (fps). The maximum number of pictures that can be taken during a burst mainly depends on the available camera memory and memory card speed.

CCD: Charge Coupled Device. Usually refers to an array of CCD cells used as a Sensor in Digital Cameras.

Chromatic Aberration: As the lens focuses different wavelengths slightly differently, Chromatic Aberration occurs. One example is the purple fringing you often find around edges (e.g. leafs before a bright sky)

CMOS: Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. This refers to the technology in which today’s digital chips are fabricated. The technology is suitable for integration of image sensors together with digital processing units.

Color Space: A color space is attached to an image to determine how the image is represented (tutorial on color profiles)

Color Calibration: This is the process of matching the color of two or more devices through software and/or hardware (tutorial on Color Calibration)

Colorimeter: A device for measuring and calibrating color devices.

Compact Flash (CF): Compact Flash is a removable storage card format. It has the largest physical size of all competing memory card formats. Most digital SLR cameras use this format.

Digital (Signal) Processor (DSP): The DSP is a digital microchip that has been designed for special tasks (signal processing). In Digital Camera Systems, the DSP is handling all the image processing required.

Digital Zoom: Do not use this feature! Forget that you ever heard of this, seriously. This is nothing more than In-Camera Crop.

Depth of Field (DOF): DOF refers to the areas behind and in front of the main focal plane that are still sharp. DOF is thus highly subjective and depends on the final print size and viewing distance. A small aperture (large f-stop number) generally increases Depth of Field. More about Depth of Field is found in this Tutorial about DOF and HFD.

DPI (Dots Per Inch): A unit used to describe the resolution of scanners or output devices and also images (although PPI would be more accurate in this case).

Dynamic Range: Dynamic range is the ratio between the largest possible signal a sensor can output before it saturates to the lowest possible signal it can measure.

Effective Number of Pixels: Sensors have more pixels then are used for creating an image, since the data needs to be processed (e.g. bayer, anti-aliasing …). Most of these algorithms require information of neighbor pixels. The DSP crops the image and the resulting smaller image has the Effective Number of Pixels.

EXIF: The Exchangeable Image File header contains information about the image, the camera, location, date and time and camera settings.

Exposure: Exposure refers to the amount of light a sensor receives. It can be influenced by the aperture and shutter speed.

Exposure Compensation: This will use the cameras automatic exposure, but it will allow the photographer to increase or decrease the exposure by a certain amount, set by the exposure compensation value.

Firmware: The camera system consists of hardware and software. The software that runs the internal microprocessors is the firmware. It can be updated to fix bugs or add new features. Sometimes this is used to hack in new features (I did this on my Canon S3 and Canon Digital Rebel).

Focal Length: The focal length is a measurement (in millimeters) that determines how far from the lens the focal point (on the sensor) is. It will determine your field of view (wide angle, telephoto).

F-stop: Apertures are marked in f-stops, the larger the f-stop the smaller the aperture. Common numbers are: 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32. Large and expensive lenses can achieve smaller numbers.

Histogram: Histograms represent brightness distribution in digital images. They are important to evaluate correct exposure. The height (y-axis) represents the amount of pixels and the x-axis represents the brightness value.

Image Stabilization: Image stabilization helps you taking handheld shots that would otherwise require a tripod by compensating for small and fast movements (shaking). It is especially useful on long lenses in less than ideal lighting.

Interpolation: Interpolation is a method of generating information from neighboring elements. It can be used when increasing images, where new pixels are interpolated or during the Bayer Interpolation to generate color information (from the RGGB matrix).

JPEG: This is the most common digital image file format. It is compatible with virtually all image editing programs and camera hardware. It offers a good compression and decent quality. Although there are rivaling formats, the widespread use of JPEG will make it very hard for them.

Lag Time: This is the time from pressing the shutter release until the camera takes the picture. A shorter lag time is desirable, especially for action photography.

LCD Screen (Liquid Crystal Display): Color LCDs have become a standard in Digital Cameras. They provide instant feedback and can display information such as histograms.

Macro: Macro photography is the ability to capture a subject at very close distance. Usually the size of the subject is at least 1:1 on the sensor (in 35mm terms).

Memory Card: Removable Storage used in Digtal Cameras.

Memory Stick: This is a Memory Card developed by Sony.

Noise: Statistical variations that are inherent to the sensor system cause Noise. Noise is always present, but higher sensitivities and smaller sensors (used in cheaper and smaller cameras) usually generate more noise.

Pincushion Distortion: This is the opposite effect to barrel distortion. It causes images to be pinched at the center. Usually this occurs at the telephoto range of a zoom lens.

Pixel: Digital pictures consist of pixels, the smallest units. Each pixel has a color, that can be represented by 8 or 16 bit or as a floating-point number (32bit HDR).

PPI: PPI=Pixels per Inch. This is often confused with DPI. Color printers use several dots to create a single pixel. This looks good on the specification of the printer, but it also confuses. PPI can be used to describe the actual Pixels per Inch of a Print.

RAW: A RAW is the image in its raw form, as it comes from the sensor. By processing RAW files on the computer instead of using the in-camera function, more degrees of freedom are available.

Secure Digital: This is one of the smallest Memory Card formats (besides XD).

Sensitivity (ISO): A higher sensitivity can be used to trade off low light performance for Noise. The sensitivity in terms of ISO standards has been introduced to imitate those of Film.

Sensor: The sensor converts photons (light particles) into electrons (electrical charge). More photons (brighter) generate more charge. Color filters placed in front of the sensor elements encode the color information, as the light sensitive elements are not color selective.

Sharpening: This is the process of increasing the edge contrast of an image. It does not increase detail, but only create the appearance of a sharper image.

Shutter Priority: In this mode, the photographer selects the shutter speed and lets the camera decide the correct aperture for the pre-determined ISO speed. This is used to blur water or freeze action in sports photography.

SLR: When you look through the viewfinder of a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera, you will look through the lens itself via mirrors and/or prisms. This has certain advantages preferred by many photographers.

Viewfinder: The viewfinder is the “eye-piece” that you look through to compose your shot.

Vignetting: Small long lenses can experience vignetting, which darkens the corners of the image. The barrel of the lens is responsible for this effect. In other words, the image circle your lens can project is too small for the sensor.

Zoom: Making an image larger (zooming in) or smaller. Zooming effectively lets you decide how much of a scene you wish to include in your picture.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top