D3100

[Smashed]

Does anyone have one of these?

How would you rate it and would you recommend it?

I'm pretty new to photograhpy have mucked about with my brothers SLR (D40 I think) for a while but I want to get into macro photography aswell as landscapes and wildlife stuff so would like my own camera so that I can spend a bit more time messing about.

cheers

[andy-xr]

Does quite a decent amount for the price. Only limitation I can see that would put me off is that focus abilities and that because it doesnt have a focus motor in the body, it has to have one on the lens. The D40 is the same, so something that you may already be used to. What this means in real life though is that if you get the cheap 50mm 1.8 lens, it's manual focus only which can be tricky

The D5100 has the same issue, but a second hand D90 doesnt

[Smashed]

Hmm okay thanks. Yeah my brother has a few lenses that require manual focusing which I got quite good at doing but I'd rather not have to do that.

Can a D90 be had for around £400 that's my budget really, I'm not worried about getting refurbished or second hand stuff either so if anyone can think of anything within that price that'd be great.

[Gad-Westy]

If Macro is your bag, I don't think you should give the lack of internal focus motor a moment's thought. I almost never use AF for macro shots anyway. It's a decent camera though like the post above, used D90's are pretty cheap these days....

By the way have you put any thought into which macro lens you will go for?

[Smashed]

Gad-Westy said:

By the way have you put any thought into which macro lens you will go for?

Nope I wouldn't know what I'm looking for either to be honest.

I bought my brother quite a nice lens for his birthday one year I remember him saying it wasn't a true macro but I got some very good close up shots with it. I'll find out what it is. All I'm looking for at the moment is the camera body and I think the lense it comes with should keep me entertained for a bit.

Also do jessops etc let you have a play with the cameras? I want to go and try out the features etc before I order one.

[Gad-Westy]

Smashed said:

Nope I wouldn't know what I'm looking for either to be honest.

I bought my brother quite a nice lens for his birthday one year I remember him saying it wasn't a true macro but I got some very good close up shots with it. I'll find out what it is. All I'm looking for at the moment is the camera body and I think the lense it comes with should keep me entertained for a bit.

Also do jessops etc let you have a play with the cameras? I want to go and try out the features etc before I order one.

True Macro is basically 1:1 reproduction. So if the camera sensor is 25mm, an object that is 25mm in size could take up your entire image. I have a Sigma lens that claims to be 'macro' but in actual fact reproduces at a max of 3:1. Ok for some stuff but no good for insects etc. Decent macro lenses start around £200 used. There other cheaper 1:1 options too though, you can get clip on auxiliary lenses that go on the front of your regular lens to allow them to focus closer (Raynox seem to be your best bet) and then there are extension tubes which go between the body can camera and again allow you to focus closer.

Jessops are a mixed bag. Some branches are great, some are poor. It's pot luck I'm afraid!

[Smashed]

Thanks for the info, the camera is £400 at jessops so not too bad a price might buy it today.

Just looking at there website the one with a (non VR) lens is a tad cheaper, why is this? What is VR?

[andy-xr]

It's Vibration Reduction - helps you out if you're not steady enough to handhold at slower shutter speeds. Comes in useful every so often, most often on longer lenses over say 150mm in zoom

It's up to you whether you think you need it or not, I have it on my 70-300mm but I usually tripod mount when I'm using that.

[Smashed]

Got it yesterday and am very pleased so far! Went for a cycle around a lake near us and got some good pictures of my neice and nephew. Just need to start learning how to use it now rather than sticking it in auto and snapping away.

Oh and what the hell is up with the "sales experts" in Jessops? Bunch of bloody plebs, he didn't have a clue what he was on about then tried selling me a bunch of stuff that I really needed apparantly. I declined.

[andy-xr]

Dunno, I think yesterday must have been Canon Focus Day or Nikon Sales Prevention Day. I fell out with the Sheffield branch while trying to buy a D7000 and walked away empty handed

[james_tigerwoods]

I have one now too - aquired after my beloved D40 died.

First impressions are how good a little camera it is for the money and how much more it offers over the D40 and how close it is to a D90 (IMO). Having only been able to do ISO800 at best on the D40 (ISO1600 was pretty poor) the D3100 will do ISO3200 pretty well (6400 and 12800 are very noisy as I expected) - Video recording is pretty good, but I'm not sure how much I'll use it either.

The 18-55 VR kit lens is ok, but not a patch on my 18-70 so it's only been on once to make sure it works and will be sold in fairly short order.

Going from a D40 to this has been really simple as it's a very similar camera, lightweight and so easy to use - my OH is rather pleased that you can use the screen as a viewfinder as she always hated using the viewfinder.

I've not taken any photos with it yet (apart from of furniture while I played with it) but my initial view is that if I'd paid full whack for it, Id still be happy - but as a "freebie", I'm over the moon