Nikon D3xxx owners thread

Now looking for recommendation for a suitable lens hood for the 18-55.

Thanks,
Al
 
HB-45 - should be able to pick up a genuine Nikon one for around a tenner
 
35mm so sharp!
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OK - numpty question 2 :)

Is metering continually active or only active with a half press of the shutter button?

Thanks,
Al
 
Just became a D3100 owner. Couldn't say no at £215 after cashback!

First venture into DSLR so still getting to grips a little. Having a lot of fun though :)
 
It is a great camera and it isn't a camera you will necessarily grow out of :)

You can use it for nearly everything, with only 1 or 2 minor limitations, but this would mean spending £500+ on a body to overcome, so I can wait.
 
Absolutely. I don't anticipate outgrowing it for a long while yet. It's a big step up from my old P&S.

Quite happy with my first attempt


Lyvia by Samdy Gray, on Flickr
 
Dale_d3100 said:
It is a great camera and it isn't a camera you will necessarily grow out of :)

You can use it for nearly everything, with only 1 or 2 minor limitations, but this would mean spending £500+ on a body to overcome, so I can wait.
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the whole notion of 'outgrowing' any modern DSLR is perpetuated by forums like this, and it's a little disingenuous!

....Without the internet, who else would remind you that you need 88-point AF cross-type f/2.8 sensors coupled to a gripped 30-fps body with magnesium-molybdenum-carbon-kevlar handgrips and the latest 24-25mm f/1.4 Gold-Ringed-zoom-Nikkor-behemoth through a Lee-90-stopper pumping 1-gigabyte-RAW-CR2-NEF images out of your backlit-700Megapixel-full-framed-sensor into a photo-lightroom-DXO workflow [anything else and you might as well use your iphone, right?]...

I've been there, suckered in to the hype. It's the same hype that would sell you your rainy day, traffic-jam commuter car on the back of sweeping sunny drives through alpine passes with the token leggy model aside you...

Don't listen to hype, and certainly don't listen to people re-tweeting the hype. Your eyes and your vision count for more than any camera. In fact, enjoy the perverse satisfaction of being better than the guy with more gear. All that takes is discipline!

It's art, it's personal, it all counts for ***** in the end. There are millions of great shots out on the internet already and many people with uber-rigs aim for nothing more than to be a carbon copy of what already exists. Enjoy what you have, it's already a hundred times better than it used to be, and infinitely better than not having any camera at all!
 
For those who have replaced the kit lens, what did you go for? I dont have a D3100 I have the D3200 but im looking to replace the kit lens with something better, when you compare the same images with the 35mm f1.8 you can see the difference in quality. The only reason I like the kit lens is because of its wideness at 18mm so potentially looking at the 18-70mm or something similar? KR seems to rate the kit lens incredibly high, im not expert but I personally dont...
 
18-200 is a great lens for everyday use, I suspect the 18-300 is even better as on a crop sensor it gives that little bit more reach.

KR rates the 18-200 very highly.

I love mine. I also like my 50mm 1.8 lens for portraits etc but sometimes it just seems a little a bit long. I bet the 35mm is great too and cheap.
 
imogensdad said:
18-200 is a great lens for everyday use, I suspect the 18-300 is even better as on a crop sensor it gives that little bit more reach.

KR rates the 18-200 very highly.

I love mine. I also like my 50mm 1.8 lens for portraits etc but sometimes it just seems a little a bit long. I bet the 35mm is great too and cheap.
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Cheers for the reply. I did look at the 18-200, I have a Tamron 55-200mm for my Canon but ive probably only kept a handful of shots ive took it with, I rarely zoom in that far, I suppose it would be nice to have though.
Im considering the 18-105mm or 18-70mm because I think that extra reach is really useful, im assuming the price increases every time from 18-70 to 18-300 too and I only have limited funds :(
The 35mm is brilliant, again, I have the 50mm for the Canon so decided to get something a bit different but I think its a better length than the 50mm, a bit more versatile and better for landscapes.
 
I replaced my 18-55 (I never liked it) with a sigma 17 -70 f/2.8-4 and it is a great lens, much better IQ at the same ISO, shutter speed and aperture.

This lens is always on my camera.
 
Thrash said:
For those who have replaced the kit lens, what did you go for? I dont have a D3100 I have the D3200 but im looking to replace the kit lens with something better, when you compare the same images with the 35mm f1.8 you can see the difference in quality. The only reason I like the kit lens is because of its wideness at 18mm so potentially looking at the 18-70mm or something similar? KR seems to rate the kit lens incredibly high, im not expert but I personally dont...
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First 35mm f1.8, then Tamron 17-50
 
I'd be interested to know what favourite settings you long time owners use.

Al
 
I only ever shoot in Aperture mode or shutter mode.

Occasionally I will move to manual, but not often.

Change the fn button to ISO and use manual ISO, this way you are in charge of the camera and know what it is doing.
 
Dale,

Do you find the metering is ultra sensitive? Tried a couple of shots outside yesterday. About 10% of the frame was blue sky, the rest mostly greenery. When I viewed them on my PC the sky was blown out completely and couldn't even rescue it with post processing (RAW file). That shot would have been fine with my old G12. Obviously I need to get used to the peculiarities of this camera, maybe some exposure compensation needs to be set as a permanent feature.

Have already assigned the Fn button to ISO and the AEL to 'lock - hold' - a great feature, means you don't have to keep your thumb on the button, just press for on and off as required.

Al
 
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Are you on spot metering or centre weighted? This will make a difference.

Don't forget in centre weighted the camera is trying to make the whole scene a mid grey., certain subjects are hard to shoot, gorillas etc. so I dial in more compensation

I have found it is generally OK, I use the blown highlights on the screen so I can check (flashing).

I found as I shoot RAW that dialling in -0.7 in exposure compensation allows me to use slightly faster shutter speed and I can rescue if needed when opening the RAW.
 
I used Matrix first, then centre weighted, which oddly enough seemed a little better - I thought it would have been the other way around. Lots of trial and error to come I think :)

I'll try the negative exposure compensation. Not a good day for testing today - it's murky dismal here at the moment.

Al
 
Recently purchased a Lowepro Slingshot 100 on this forum - superb bag in every way. I have a D3100 with 18-55 and 55-300 lenses. With the 18-55 fitted to the camera and the 55-300 stored at the side the bag is very convenient to use , but I can see times when I would prefer to have the 55-300 fitted and the short zoom stored. With this configuration the camera/lens has to be put in the bag 'top to toe' and it isn't so convenient to get out of the bag quickly.

So now looking for suggestions for a bag/case for the camera/telephoto combination only - something like a toploader maybe?

If anyone has experience of this type of bag I would be grateful for your views.

Thanks,
Al
 
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Got a D3100 for Christmas (my first DSLR) and apart from around an hour when I first got it haven't had time for any shooting.

My first impressions are I'm going to enjoy this camera a lot!

I took a couple of shots in the garden and point blank refuse to use the 'Auto' setting hence they probably aren't much good!. The light was poor and my tripod hasn't yet arrived so I was also shooting handheld after a couple of glasses of wine as well!
 
Big Nick said:
Got a D3100 for Christmas (my first DSLR) and apart from around an hour when I first got it haven't had time for any shooting.

My first impressions are I'm going to enjoy this camera a lot!

I took a couple of shots in the garden and point blank refuse to use the 'Auto' setting hence they probably aren't much good!. The light was poor and my tripod hasn't yet arrived so I was also shooting handheld after a couple of glasses of wine as well!
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Have fun, always use a shutter speed greater than the focal distance, take ISO up if you need it and set the FN button to ISO so you can change it easily.
 
Dale_d3100 said:
Have fun, always use a shutter speed greater than the focal distance, take ISO up if you need it and set the FN button to ISO so you can change it easily.
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With VR switched on (or attached to a tripod) the focal distance/shutter speed matching isn't needed. It's old advice from the times before VR.
 
SThornton said:
With VR switched on (or attached to a tripod) the focal distance/shutter speed matching isn't needed. It's old advice from the times before VR.
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Not 100% true, it helps with objects moving, not just your shake.
 
Was gonna post a couple of pics but Photobucket has crapped out on me

It sure isn't easy this photography lark though if you want to try and get beyond holiday snaps on a compact that is!
 
True. I assumed DSLR = instant fab pics.

2 years later, I'm still learning that its not as easy as it looks
 
Today is a sad day, after 19 months of fun, me and my D3100 have parted company but she hasn't moved far (to the girlfriends brother) and has been replaced by a D7k.
 
Had mine for over 2 years now...my first Nikon DSLR and I still blooming love it now. Would like to add either D3200, D5200 or D7000 to my kit, but wouldn't part with the D3000.

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Dale_tem said:
I only ever shoot in Aperture mode or shutter mode. Occasionally I will move to manual, but not often.

Change the fn button to ISO and use manual ISO, this way you are in charge of the camera and know what it is doing.
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Completely agree with this.

Dale_tem said:
I found as I shoot RAW that dialling in -0.7 in exposure compensation allows me to use slightly faster shutter speed and I can rescue if needed when opening the RAW.
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Might give this a try. :)

Al1944 said:
Have already assigned AEL to 'lock - hold' - a great feature, means you don't have to keep your thumb on the button, just press for on and off as required.
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I really need to get my head around this one. :thinking: :D
 
Right, gave back button focussing a try and its pretty nice..... obviously catches you out from time to time as you are so used to using the half-press shutter button method. Just need it to become second nature.

One downside though is that i've had to switch off 'instant preview', (where you get instant view of the picture you've just taken on the LCD) as you can't start pressing the AE-L/AF-L button until the preview has disappeared as that button is also 'LOCK' when in preview.

I also have occasional problems when I focus with BBF and take me finger off and the shutter just won't depress. Sometimes its obvious as the place you'd focussed on has gone out of frame, but other times it just sits there not letting me press the shutter..... baffling me a little. :thinking:
 
Anyone had issues with iso settings? Although I might set it in the menu, the iso keeps changing. I know I set this one to iso100 in manual, yet the exif data shows iso1800?

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george g said:
Anyone had issues with iso settings? Although I might set it in the menu, the iso keeps changing. I know I set this one to iso100 in manual, yet the exif data shows iso1800?
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What mode are you shooting in. I'm pretty sure in any of the auto or scene modes the camera will pick the ISO. It's only A,S,M and P that gives you control over ISO.
 
It was in full manual. I was trying night photography so setting all three to get good results.

There was a thread on here somewhere about it I stumbled across a week or so ago, someone had a similar issue to this but I can't find it now...
 
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