Nikon D3100 (and alternatives)

[Temple Meads]

Hi guys,

I should hopefully be able to purchase a new camera in a few weeks time, and despite it being an older model now I've heard a lot of good things about the Nikon D3100, but I just wondered if anyone has had any hands on experience with using a D3100 for transport photography? Would you recommend it?

I'm also open to alternative suggestions (doesn't have to be a DSLR), with a budget of around £300, I'm looking to purchase new for peace of mind and the "unboxing factor".

Cheers

 

[455driver]

The D3100 is a good starter SLR camera as is the Canon 1100D but for £350 you can get the newer D3200 with an 18-55 AFX DS lens which is a much better camera than the older D3100, not that the D3100 is bad in any way.

For £360 you can get a Canon Kiss X5 (600D in English) with an 18-55 IS lens.

For £370 you can get a Nikon D5100 or a Canon 600D, both with 18-55 lens, a little more money can get you much more camera, of course the difficult decision is whether to go Nikon or Canon, but then there are the new Fuji super zooms or the Sony Alpha range of cameras, there really is a lot of choice out there now and it all depends what you want to do with the camera (video or just pictures) and how you get on with the camera.

 

[Temple Meads]

The D3100 is a good starter SLR camera as is the Canon 1100D but for £350 you can get the newer D3200 with an 18-55 AFX DS lens which is a much better camera than the older D3100, not that the D3100 is bad in any way.

For £360 you can get a Canon Kiss X5 (600D in English) with an 18-55 IS lens.

For £370 you can get a Nikon D5100 or a Canon 600D, both with 18-55 lens, a little more money can get you much more camera, of course the difficult decision is whether to go Nikon or Canon, but then there are the new Fuji super zooms or the Sony Alpha range of cameras, there really is a lot of choice out there now and it all depends what you want to do with the camera (video or just pictures) and how you get on with the camera.

I would probably use the video mode fairly regularly, but picture quality is more important, as long as it has video capability I'll be satisfied on that front.

I'd probably be inclined towards Nikon, as I have prior experience of using their SLR's (and I've rather liked them), the only sticking point being the lack of an autofocus motor in the lower level bodies.

Onto the specific options mentioned, I'll check out the D3200 and D5100 in more detail, not had any experience of Sony stuff, and I've not particularly liked the images I've seen from the big Fuji's, looks very washed out IMO, Canon 600D could be a contender..

 

[455driver]

A good place to look would be DPreview

http://www.dpreview.com/

and spend an hour or 2 looking through there.

The new Fujis get rather good reviews even at 30x magnification, the HS20exr and HS30exr especially so.

 

[mp01]

I've owned both the D3100 (until I broke it) and then the D5100 as a replacement. When I replaced the D3100, I also weighed up the D3200 which was new out at the time. To be honest, they're all excellent cameras. The decision to upgrade was marginal, but it was based mainly on being a good deal, and having the vari-angle screen on the back, which makes taking photos like this http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeplonk/9417554644/ easier! I suspect that for your needs any of them would be fine.

The thing I think you might consider more is lenses. DSLRs big restriction over bridge cameras is lack of zoomability. So if the standard 18-55mm lens isn't going to give you the versatility you want, I'd recommend you think about buying the cheaper of the cameras so that you have more cash to get the best lens options for you. Two ideas I'd suggest would be to supplement the standard kit lens with the Sigma 70-300mm APO macro lens, or to see whether you can get a deal by ringing an online retailer such as Mifsuds or Park Cameras for a bundle of the D3100 with the 18-105mm lens instead of the standard lens, which will give you twice the zoomability. The overall point is that you might get better satisfaction for the money you spend by having more imaging flexibility than an extra few pixels etc.

Final thought I have if you decide not to go down the DSLR route, would be whether the camera you choose lets you shoot in RAW format. This gives so much flexibility to tinker with images after the event that it might be worth you reading up about or considering.

Happy to help further if you want to ask anything else. My "railway" photos aren't what most people on the forum would be interested in, but take a look if you want to see some of the images I've taken with both the D3100, the D5100 and an Olympus bridge camera before that: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeplonk/sets/72157627925686556/

Mark

 

[Royal Male]

You will find the purchase of a decent quality 70-200mm lens very useful for railway photography. Also a spare battery or 2.

 

[island]

Nikon has a cheapish 70-300mm lens. This is it, £129.

 

[Temple Meads]

Some good advice here gents, cheers

I'm probably going to get a D3100 and then invest some of the extra cash into a better lens when I've mastered the camera's basics. Although I have seen a great deal on a D5100 that is very tempting indeed..
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Nikon has a cheapish 70-300mm lens. This is it, £129.

That lens won't auto-focus with a D3100/D3200/D5100 as the lens hasn't got an auto-focus motor, it would rely on a motor in the camera body, which Nikon don't see fit to install in their cheaper bodies.

Cheap though.

 

[David]

Guys, there are other companies who make and sell dSLRs you know, it isn't a market exclusive to Nikon and Canon! There's this camera available for example, although it is out of your price range.

As for a 70-300 lens, this 1 by Sigma is an absolute cracker! I've had 1 for quite a few years now, and is my preferred lens (dream lenses though are the Sigma 120-400 and Sigma 50-500)

 

[Temple Meads]

Guys, there are other companies who make and sell dSLRs you know, it isn't a market exclusive to Nikon and Canon! There's this camera available for example, although it is out of your price range.

As for a 70-300 lens, this 1 by Sigma is an absolute cracker! I've had 1 for quite a few years now, and is my preferred lens (dream lenses though are the Sigma 120-400 and Sigma 50-500)

That K-500 does look rather tasty (especially the continuous shooting figure), but I couldn't really justify an extra £150 odd over the Nikon cameras.

 

[mp01]

My Sigma 70-300 lens includes an AF motor; I assume they all do!

 

[David]

That K-500 does look rather tasty (especially the continuous shooting figure), but I couldn't really justify an extra £150 odd over the Nikon cameras.

If you check the likes of Amazon et el, I'm sure you'll be able to find a cheaper model though. I just chose to link to WEX Photographic thogh, as they will have all the current models at representative prices.

There is ths Pentax on Amazon currently (I've got a K-r as well). I can't vouch for the 55-200mm lens, but the 18-55 lense is a reasonable 1.

But aside from that, my best advice is to goto a camera warehouse (such as WEX Photographic (but I accept Norwich will be too far from your location) and have a look at the various models. You may find that your opinion differs from everyone elses here, including mine. I bought my first Pentax as I thought that the ease of use, plus the easy to use menu system was the best combination at the time. Things may have changed since then, but as I have 4 lenses that fit entax cameras, I'm pretty much tied to Pentax now.

Anyway. having just done a quick Google on your behalf, I've seen that the London Camera Exchange has this K-x (the precurser to the K-r) available at their Exeter branch. Perhaps it would be worthwhile for you to call in there and ask for their aadvice, as well as handling and trying a few cameras.

To summarise, my recommendation as to which brand you should buy is Pentax. Others will differ. To find out for yourslef which brand and camera your prefer, I strongly advise that you visit the Eexter branch of London Camera Exchange so you can see for yourself (and try) the differences between the various cameras.

 

[Bevan Price]

Nikon has a cheapish 70-300mm lens. This is it, £129.

Personally, I would prefer a 18 - 200mm or 18 - 250 mm zoom, as this gives you both wide angle and telephoto options in a single lens. It also almost eliminates the need to change lenses, and reduces the possibility of getting dust on the camera sensor.

 

[island]

That is true, but both are substantially higher in price, for official Nikon lenses at least!

 

[Temple Meads]

Anyway. having just done a quick Google on your behalf, I've seen that the London Camera Exchange has this K-x (the precurser to the K-r) available at their Exeter branch. Perhaps it would be worthwhile for you to call in there and ask for their aadvice, as well as handling and trying a few cameras.
.

It's funny you should mention that particular camera, I'm planning to pop in and check it out tomorrow!

When I come back, I should have a camera of some sort. Will keep you updated.

 

[starrymarkb]

Might be worth checking Devon Camera in the guildhall centre too

 

[Temple Meads]

Well on Tuesday evening I did end up coming home with a D3100 + 18-55 kit, I tried the K-X and a used D5100 at the Exeter LCE shop along with a D3100, and for me, only the D3100 really felt "right", so that was where my wedge of £20 notes ended up going.

I'll try to give some more feedback when I've used it properly.

 

[Temple Meads]

Well almost a month in, and I have to say I'm very pleased with the D3100 overall, I'm surprised that only having an 18-55 zoom range isn't annoying most of the time - in fact I can only think of one situation where that has been a real issue so far, the physical drive mode and live view switches are a neat touch, battery life is pleasing too, lasting over a week while being used about 3-4 days a week.

Any downsides? Well, the memory card door seems a bit fragile compared to the brick like quality of the rest of the camera, also continuous shooting isn't the fastest around, however both of these points are probably just nit-picking really.

You can see various pictures I've taken with it in the photo site links in my sig.