Newbie: D5200 or the D3300?

retread

Please keep us posted. It will be nice to see how your dad is doing.

SB_beginner

Hello everyone, apologies for the delay. As promised to my family, I was offline for few days. Thank you all for your wishes and helping me staying confident about my choice. I was quite anxious and scared beacuse he usually gets very angry when he feels I am wasting money. Since D7K is costlier than D5200, so I expected him to blast me off.

I received my package on 26th Dec. After an afternoon nap, I went to his room. The package was lying there and the invoice by its side. I was nervous. But when he saw me, he hugged me hard and cried. After he opened the package, I tried to tell him how it has more feature that D5200. He told me he already knows how good it is. God knows, how many times he might have been to other camera dealers and I knowing nothing about it. I am glad he is happy.

@spraynpray: Your words were quite motivating and assuring. I read your comment that day and waited to post you all after receiving the package. You were right, he was quite comfortable with the manual mode.

@MikeGunter: Sure. it is one of those to fall in love with. Although we spoke about the flippy screen. But he doesn't seem to care about it

@Ironheart: That is exactly what one of my friend told me. Yet to buy him a guide as you suggested earlier. Will do it now.

@tcole1983: Yes, lens cost was one of the major factor. That will give him enough room to play.

@retread: Thanks for your kind words. I will love to keep everyone of you updated with the progress and put my queries. You all helped me a lot to learn few things quite quickly. I wish to see my father and me contributing to the forum in future.

@Photobug: You are right, he is happy with the camera. Yes, he has a steep learning curve ahead. The next thing will be to make sure he gets good amount of free time to explore it fully. Somewhere I read it is more the quality of time than the quality of lens that makes all the difference.

@NSXTypeR: Yes

@heartyfisher:

Photobug

@SB_beginner - Thank you for replying to all those who helped out with the decision making. It's nice to see people close the loop back to everyone.

Do allocate some time to spend with your Dad and go shooting together. It's these times that will long be remembered. Happy Holidays.

NSXTypeR

I'm so glad you're dad liked it!

A bit of a side note, glad you got back to us.

You have no idea how many new forum members ask for advice, post a few questions and then never come back.

retread

I think I see a second camera for son in the future. It can be quality time you will never regret when he is finally gone. I cherish the time with my grandkids.

SB_beginner

@Photobug: Yes, I received immense help from yours and everyone's suggestions here. The least I could do was to respond back and let you all know how much grateful I am. I will take your advise and will spend the weekends with him to explore the features together

@NSXTypeR: I understand how it feels. It is sad that people sometimes use forum and just don't get back to share their happiness.

@retread: Hopefully I have a secret interest in Night sky and Astrophotography. I went through some posts in this forum which discuss it. But, I will keep that discussion for some time later. You are right, the time we spent together learning will be unforgettable and priceless. What could be better to start today than to leave it for sometime later

KnockKnock

This is a nice thread. Congrats SB.

mhedges

Annabel said:

Go with the one you feel you want, and relax. You will take excellent pictures with either one. The lenses you get will determine more image quality differences than will the camera bodies.

Err.. This thread is 4 years old... I would hope he made his choice by now

donaldejose

Back to the original question slyronit asked: get the D3300. Make sure it comes with the new collapsible kit lens. You will be able to tell because the new one has a button and you have to push the button to uncollapse the lens before it will work. You will see that when you try it out at a camera store. The new kit lens is much better than the old one. Once you have saved money and want to get a better lens get the 35mm f1.8 DX lens. It is cheap (about $200) and good. Once you have saved more money and want to get a better camera get the D7500 body. Your two existing lenses will work on it fine. Once you have saved even more money replace your 18-55 kit lens with the Nikon 16-80 f2.8 to f4 DX VR AF-S E N ED lens. By the time you have been shooting with these recommendations for a while you won't need more advice from us because you will know enough to know what you want next (which will be a camera with a full frame (FX) sensor, FX lenses and that camera may be mirrorless by that time as that will be many years into the future). I looked at your photos. You are doing great and will love the photos you can take with the suggestions I have made above. With the equipment I am suggesting you are going to be able to make quality prints up to 16 x 24 inches when you have an image shot at base ISO in good quality light. When you move up to full frame (FX sensor size) many years from now you will be able to make poster size prints even though you shot above base ISO. Enjoy yourself.