A New Camera- A Big Purchase For Me

I’ve always enjoyed photography as a hobby. As a kid my first camera was a Fisher price 35mm camera. It was actually pretty decent despite being a “kids” camera. In fact it performed until I was grown and moved out of my childhood home. In more recent years I always keep my phone’s camera handy and even chosen my cell phone around the camera attached to it. On my recent trip to Myrtle Beach I decided I want to do more with photography than I have been. That meant choosing a new camera and learning a few new skills…

Many choices- Had to settle on one!

I finally settled on a Nikon D3500. I got the deal from Costco that came with the camera bag, an sd card, two batteries, and two lenses. Oh, and an introductory Nikon “class.”

The class was kind of neat. It was a video where a professional walked through the basics of utilizing the manual settings on the camera. Selecting them, as well as what each was used for. Because I did take a class on digital photography it was more of a refresher course on what each setting would do, but I also found it useful in figuring out how to change each setting.

New Lenses!

 For me, the lenses were pretty exciting. I’ve never owned a camera where there was more than one lens, and I know there will be a learning curve there with changing them.

The lenses that came with it were an AF-P DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR Lens, and a AF-P DX NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3G ED Lens. It’s been fun so far learning just through experimentation.

It seems the 18-55mm one works for most shots. These are the ones I’d usually take with my camera phone, but want to try for a higher quality photo, and play with the settings a bit. This is the one I used during my walk in the woods the other day.

The 70-300mm one gets the pictures I wished I could get on my phone camera a few weeks ago. That one has been the most fun to play with. I haven’t actually used it as much as the 18-55mm one though because It is a bit more specific in what It seems to work for. I have used it more for landscape shots, or when the subject is further away.

Changing the lenses has proven pretty simple too. The part that takes the most time is taking the caps off both sides. The bag has dividers for four lenses in addition to the camera too, which helps in keeping things easy to find.

Old habits die hard

It’s still not the first camera I reach for when a subject suddenly presents itself, like the sunset that happened the other day. I kind of wish I had grabbed my 3500 and tried each lens, and a few different aperture settings, but I knew the light was changing incredibly fast…

Somewhat ironically, I did use my new camera to get a photo of the snow we had recently! I wasn’t happy about the snow, but I got some good practice with various settings in.

Practice and play, play and practice

So far I’m pretty happy with my choice of new camera. I definitely still need to get to the point where I grab it more readily. It is nice to have choices though, and my standby camera phone still does an excellent job, and is always there. The biggest thing to remember in this journey is practice, practice, practice!

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Shop around, find the right match for you!

One thing I found interesting while shopping around is that there is no camera that would be best for everyone. Even when money is taken out of the equation. The key is to know your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as your goals with photography. So, while I love my new Nikon 3500, it’s wise to learn at least a little bit about a camera’s strengths (and weaknesses) before purchasing. I found that the 3500 was well rounded and capable of enough to keep me happy for quite a bit after reading reviews from both amateurs and professionals. I personally think my favorite subjects will be wildlife, and landscapes. Having kids though I’m likely to take my share of portraits.