Please HELP!

Casey

All I've ever had were the basic point and shoot cameras so this is all new to me. I don't even know if I'll be able to get back to my question on this site to see if anyone answered it so if anyone does I want to thank them for the effort in advance.

My problem.....I just got the Nikon D5100 camera. I'm going on vacation next week and I've played around with it some but I mainly want to know since I am so inexperienced should I take just the (AF-S DX VR NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G) lens and leave the (AF-S DX VR Zoom-NIKKOR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED) lens at home? So far I have had good pics with the 18-55 lens.

dissent

Sure, take the 55-200 lens with you too, if you feel like you might be able to use the extra zoom range. Before you take your trip, put the 55-200 on your camera and take it out to shoot some test shots; see what you can do with it. If you like what it can do, then take both lenses with you. The 18-55 is a decent lens, definitely take that one.

sevencrossing

"Play " with the 55-200 before you go. If you get "good pics" take it with you
if you do not like the results, leave it at home and have a "play" when you get back
enjoy your vacation

aquarian_light

Who says you can't take both? Youll want the 18-55 for any wide angle landscapes and you'll want to take the 55-200 if you plan on shooting any of the wild life, or anything just far away... They're both really great on the 5100 and you'll easily find a use for both of them.

Casey

I had thought about experimenting with the 55-200. Guess I will. Thanks so much for your time in answering a new photo enthusiast.

shawnino

@Casey: What kind of vacation is it? Will you be taking mostly landscape shots, or will you also be looking at wildlife you can't get that close to, or ... what? Cheers.

Casey

Hi shawnino. Casey here. Actually I'm going to Disney World so I know some will be landscape (especially at the resorts) and some wildlife (animal kingdom) so maybe I'd better take both, huh? I am wondering how pics will turn out on the Jungle Cruise at Animal Kingdom with the ride being so rough. My pics from my point and shoot (kodak EasyShare) have actually turned out rather well on that ride. I am going to experiment first though. I think I'll try some off my deck in the same area with both lenses zoomed in and out. Wish me luck. Thanks again to all who responded.

aquarian_light

For that bumpy ride, just be sure to use a fast shutter speed to get rid of any blur.

Casey

Hey aquarian_light. I soooo appreciate all the help I'm getting. I've only used "auto" to take pics so I will have to look into this. I do not expect everyone to help me 100% and you all have been fabulous.

aquarian_light

Oye... You'd best start taking it out of auto mode if you want to be consistent in getting really good pictures. I'd suggest putting it into Aperture Priority ("A" on the mode dial) setting it to it's smallest number (Small number = wider opening. Bigger number = Smaller opening) to keep your shutter speed as high as possible. And if you can get it figured out, set it to auto ISO as well and you should be set. And then when you come back, start learning all of the other manual settings for your camera.
I'd suggest starting here
-
This guy does a great job of explaining the basics.

adamz

@casey - take both. also You can set up the iso to auto to 1600 and set the camera into A mode and glue it to f8 at the very beginning. also check either shutter speed is not lower than 1/200.

Casey

Thanks aquarian_light and adamz. I did watch the youtube suggested. Now I need to get out my info to find out how to set the ISO and shutter speed. I see the "A: on the mode dial but need to look up the rest. I am totally illiterate when it comes to camera settings. Thanks to everyone for being so patient.

aquarian_light

look up a guide on your camera on youtube and read the manual. Everything you'll need to know can be learned in one of those places or the other. And keep looking up "camera basics" videos you;ll find dozens of videos with good info and different ways of looking at the system.

dissent

Here's some light reading (oohh, pun intended!!)
http://photographylife.com/photography-tips-for-beginners

Scroll down first to the "Understanding Basics of Photography" section.

flyndragonz

I am wondering if anyone else has ever had this problem. I have a Nikon D5000. It has been in the camera bag for a couple of months. I took it out the other day to use it, and it would not power up. The battery shows to be fully charged, but when I switch it on, nothing happens at all. Any ideas? The camera worked perfectly the last time I used it.

Fatcharlie

Never had that issue, but then I use my camera everyday.

I am sure you have tried this: unmount the lens, eject the battery, put the battery in the charger to top it off, put the battery back in the camera after the charger denotes a full charge by a steady light. Hope this works, else it is Nikon Support. May be the internal battery has drained in those two months.

NSXTypeR

flyndragonz said:

I am wondering if anyone else has ever had this problem. I have a Nikon D5000. It has been in the camera bag for a couple of months. I took it out the other day to use it, and it would not power up. The battery shows to be fully charged, but when I switch it on, nothing happens at all. Any ideas? The camera worked perfectly the last time I used it.

Maybe you have a bad battery?

See if you can borrow another battery to see if it's your camera's problem.

Another thing you can do is to check and clean the contacts both on the battery and the body. Not sure what to clean them with though, so make sure you look that up.

flyndragonz

Thank you all for your response. (I have another camera that I was using meanwhile, is why it wasn't used.) I will try all of your suggestions.

spraynpray

I think it could be a bad connection between the battery and body because I had the same thing.

flyndragonz

spraynpray, what did you do to remedy it?

spraynpray

I cleaned out the slots on the battery where the connections are using a wooden toothpick which improved it. I will be sending the body and that battery back to Nikon at some stage before the warranty ends to get the connectors in the body replaced.

daveznspace

Actually the 55-200 vr models aren't all that bad. I got one from b&h referb'd for like $120 and didn't realize how good it was until later after I gave it to my daughter and got a sigma 70-300... now that was a POS... it literally Couldnt focus on a big bright red cardinal on snow and was so loud that it usually scared the birds away. So I sold that and got a nikon 70-300mm vr and it's been great... birds, portraits, etc..., the af on my d700 is dead on and instant and never misses... well it does now thanks to my mistake in buying a tripod from a well known English company, which promptly and repeatedly let my camera fly off it(so now my D700, 70-300 and a 24-120 are all broken and even after promising 18+ times that they'd replace and upgrade the gear they screwed me at the last second and even now still have my property... don't even get me going on them right now! lol..

For the battery... I use eclipse on a pec-pad to clean not only the sensors but all the metal and electronic connects like the battery terminals .

Msmoto

@flyndragonz
Welcome to Nikon Rumors Forum. Let us know if the solutions offered were successful.

Pistnbroke

A mode f5.6 auto iso 100-3200 picture control ..sharp @ 9 ...off you go ...