D3400 / D3500?

ADKDaveyJ

I shot today back up North with the D7500 and 16-80 and also the D7200 on the 16-80. That is very, very good. I did shoot again on the D3200 I have and have the D3500 and those two lens. All of the offerings on this til Mother’s Day sale list the 70-300 as the AF-P DX VR very clearly. I have though never shot with the non VR version. I called the Nikon Digital hotline, B&H all claim the 70-300 is the VR version. Still, for myself the single advantage after the extreme low price is smaller size. Sometimes a real advantage. The tiny little focus grids, low light pretty terrible performance, etc., I have til Saturday to decide. I of course checked D7200 and D7500 body prices. I may wait one month and buy a Z6, FTZ, 24-70, 72 mm B&W polarizing filter and B&H bag kit and be done with it!

mhedges

If you want small size get the 55-200 VRII lens. That’s a great performer and it’s tiny.

ADKDaveyJ

The friend I photograph with most has that lens. I have taken quite a few photos with it and I have rarely been impressed with a single one. Maybe he has a bad copy? He has though photos he had in calendars with it that are impressive. For some reason that very rarely shows up in kits nowadays. I’ll check on availability.

mhedges

Is it the newest collapsible VRII version? That’s the one I had. I thought it was much better than the AF-P lens.

They are stupid cheap on eBay so it won’t cost much to try it out.

CaMeRaQuEsT

Ebay is giving 10% in ebay bucks this couple of days, Adorama on ebay is selling the D3500 dual lens kit for $3 less than MSRP and is throwing in a couple of freebies, it ends up costing $357.26. In years past I would have jumped on this offer, but I'm now through with dark kit zoom lenses and I specially despise how sticky the current 18-55 AF-P's zoom ring is, making it absolutely useless for zoom-in/zoom-out while taking videos (the 70-300 is way much better in this regard), which is a real shame as Nikon's 1080 output is way better than what you get from Canon at this same price level. Also, I've totally lost faith in all Multi-CAM focusing modules below the 3500DX.

As for the 55-200 VRII, yeah, that's a peach of a tiny tele zoom, way sharper than the previous iteration, but just as with the 18-55 VRII, they both get obliterated by the AF-P lenses in AF speed, it's literally the difference between thunder and lightning.

NSXTypeR

I started my foray into photography with a D40 with a measly 6mp and 3 point autofocus. I would have loved getting a D3400 or D3500 10 years ago. How far we've gone since then. I got really pleasing results back then and there's no reason why you couldn't get great results now. Although cell phones have gotten exponentially better, there are a few things cell phones still can't reliably replicate because of physics- telephoto and macro.

spraynpray

NSXTypeR said:

Although cell phones have gotten exponentially better, there are a few things cell phones still can't reliably replicate because of physics- telephoto and macro.

unless you get a good quality clip-on lens then they are quite good at that too.

NSXTypeR

spraynpray said:

unless you get a good quality clip-on lens then they are quite good at that too.

Oh yes, my cousin has lenses from Moment and I think they're fun to use, but when you're fiddling with lenses, I might as well just use the real deal at that point. Same thing with M4/3 or even the Nikon 1 system. They definitely had smaller lenses available, but when they're the same price if not more expensive than full frame or DX lenses, add the fact that you still need to carry a bag, are you truly gaining any advantage?

spraynpray

NSXTypeR said:

spraynpray said:

unless you get a good quality clip-on lens then they are quite good at that too.

Oh yes, my cousin has lenses from Moment and I think they're fun to use, but when you're fiddling with lenses, I might as well just use the real deal at that point. Same thing with M4/3 or even the Nikon 1 system. They definitely had smaller lenses available, but when they're the same price if not more expensive than full frame or DX lenses, add the fact that you still need to carry a bag, are you truly gaining any advantage?

Let me just compare the size and weight of my bag containing my D850 and lenses to my phone and a couple of clip-ons...

Seriously though, we want the best possible image so the D850 would win but for that time you haven't got it, out comes the phone.

FreezeAction

My cell phone is staying put. May leave it in the van later in the week when I'm out with a rental D850 for testing along with my 35mm Art and a 20mm Art and 28mm Art. I know a D3500 with a wide dx zoom would take the photos I'm after and so would my cell and tablet but the D850 is in the only class that will render large canvas prints. I've take some with a cropped sensor body and know which lens to use on the D850 when I get there. I have a DIL who stopped using a good camera and uses nothing now but her phone but she makes no prints. Oh well we are entitled to shoot and let shoot. I will rent the D850 or Z7 until the 60MP body is actually available for purchase. Phones I use for sharing what I had for lunch on Facebook. A D3400-3500 is what I give a granddaughter as a gift so they find out the difference between carefully composing a beautiful landscape and just pointing a phone toward a goofy face....