I get mine on sunday?

What are your thoughts, experiences and suggestions for it?
Getting the anything happen warranty for 2 years so endless refurbishments and 1 camera replacement if i drop it in a puddle.

Going to use it for video’s and photo’s

getting a lowerpro bag with it also (slingshot)

I’ve got a D80 and it’s been great.

Surprisingly tough and pretty intuitive to use.

A 50mm Nikon f1.8 stays on most of time these days, pin sharp, cheap, perfect for portraits.
The metering can be a bit off sometimes, I find centre weighted to be much more reliable than matrix.

The manual can be tough going, but reading it thoroughly is pretty essential.
There are a lot of options and setting things up ecactly how you like them makes things a lot easier.
I like a screen grid, no beep, auto ISO for gigs, customised focus points etc, all easy to set up with the menus.
Good luck anddon’t forget to post up your results!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbmtb/

all of mine on my first have a go dslr, borrowed a friends cannon for a week

I’ve got the Slingshot (-:

It’s ace, would be even better if they did a left-handed (shouldered) version.

all of mine on my first have a go dslr, borrowed a friends cannon for a week

You have a knack, buy one.

(also, “Canon,” argh.)

you really think i have a knack for it?

D80 here too. Agree with the f1.8 50mm – hardly ever off mine. I have the cheap old D version but I gather the newer AFS version is also brilliant and focuses a bit faster.

What kind of photography you doing? Anything specific?

you really think i have a knack for it?

I’m only a neophyte, but I’d be proud of some of those. Do you not?

The d90 comes with the 18-105mm new vr lense.

Well i’m setting up a part time photography, video and design business to bring a few pennies.

I have already done one video for a wedding with photo’s, free videos for my mtb club.
Sold a video ad to a local business and ITV and Sky News have both bought news clips off me.

Hoping to weddings, personalized video’s and leaflet design work ect

I now own the domain so I’m working on my first ever website.

I’ve got a D90, use my F1.8 50mm lens most and love it. The clarity the lens gives is so much better than my other stock lenses it’s great.

My advice would be play. Play with the bracketing function, faff with White balance, set the buttons up as you want etc.

It’s a great camera (in my limited experience) and more capable than I am.

has anyone got/used a d3100? Looking to get my first dslr, would love to hear some user views.

Cougar, yes some i am proud of.

How ever some of my closer mates have done a lot of photography as a hobbie and are very critical. they look at it techincly.

I prefer to look at a photo as a non camera user would and does what will apeal.

Ignore what the camera bores say and just shoot what pleases you.

It’s like talking to musicians about music:
Frustrating and ultimately pointless. If anyone uses the word bokeh, run like the wind.

you mean the blur?

Technical you can learn. Eye is harder. Creativity is harder.

IMHO.

If anyone uses the word bokeh, run like the wind.

Arf! I was just about to say that I’ve not used the 18-105 but I’ve played with the 18-200 and the bokeh is horrible on it. Not round and really busy looking. The 50mm has lovely bokeh for a cheap lens.

Technical you can learn. Eye is harder. Creativity is harder.
IMHO.

Agreed. I got into photography because I wanted to expand my artistic side.
As a geek I can grok the technical stuff, but the arty bit I struggle with (which was kinda the point).

what is bokeh?

Your pics have the look of… random pictures taken by a beginner 🙂 But that’s ok, it’s all about learning; expect to shoot mountains of stuff but make sure you look at it critically.

Your pictures have to have something that you can say is good, as in “this is what I really like about this picture”. It’s not enough to see something cool and just snap it (unless it really is spectacular), you have to think about what it is that you are snapping and how you can put it on a frame.

Sky pictures are extremely difficult for this reason – the sky is a huge thing! Most good sky pictures are half sky and half something else like scenery I think. The sky is a fickle thing – it doesn’t mean much on its own, just in relation to other things. Ever heard Montana described as the Big Sky state? It’s not because it’s very flat and treeless, cos it’s not – other places have more sky on view. But the sky looks big in Montana because they have these very wide valleys with mountains in the distance, and it’s the mountains against the sky that make the sky look big despite actually blocking some of it.

Sorry – rambling there.. but you need thought processes like that I think.

what is bokeh?

It’s the stuff that’s out of focus. Good “bokeh” is smooth, bad is lumpy; you see ‘bad’ bokeh on cheaper lenses, circular spots of light come out like pentagons due to having fewer elements.

glad we cleared that up

Lumpy bokeh is definitely going to be the name of my next band.

Sorry Frank, wherever you are.

I have a D90, its great, when it got stolen, rather than upgrade I bought a new D90 and spent the extra insurance money on a 50mm prime (as above, lovely lens, get it 2nd hand for about £50)

Get the “dummies Guide” I hate buying their books as I don’t like being a dummy, but it is a really good book!

The main thing is stick it on manual, learn to take good pictures like that (or at least properly exposed sharp pictures with decent depth of focus) and all the other modes will then make sense.

I also paid about £10 for an online photography course, which was great, and the course writer appeared to use a D90, so tat was easier! If I find the link I’ll post it up!

Lumpy bokeh is definitely going to be the name of my next band.

On the downside, your official band photographer is never going to get anywhere.

Wors – I don’t own a D3100 but a friend has one & I have used it briefly. It is a very competent camera, but I found it harder to use than my D80 as it doesn’t have as many buttons to access function – you need to use the screen & menus a bit more, which to be honest is probably fine once you get used to it!

Fourcrossjohn – I have a D80. A friend has a D90 which is very similar. The best thing you can do is get to know the features & controls of the camera as best as you can. Don’t be afraid to play with settings, take plenty of pics & don’t be afraid to experiment.
There are some good books out there that will help you out.

The d90 is due for replacement soon.

The main thing is stick it on manual

Really? I hardly ever use manual – usually only when I want the same exposure for a bunch of pics (i.e. for stitching) or when the scene is particularly tricky for auto (i.e. birds against sky).

The rest of the time I’m permanently set on Aperture priority.

paid about £10 for an online photography course

There is a good online FREE course here:
http://www.morguefile.com/docs/Classroom

Good advice for a DSLR is spend ages reading the manual and doing the stuff with the camera. I took hundreds of shots of my living room messing with the settings and figuring it out. If you don’t know all about exposures and how cameras work in general then you’ll need a generic book too or something.

@CHB The D90 was really replaced by the D7000, although the D90 is now heavily discounted so it appears to be in a lower range. Both are really the first step towards a pro camera with more features appearing as individual buttons (rather than menu items) and an in body auto focus motor.

I think the key is to learn manual but not use it all the time. Once you understand the three key variables in photography: shutter speed, aperture and iso, then everything else is just bells and whistles.

If you know about exposures then you can see what the camera is doing and understand it; only if you disagree or it’s not doing what you want then you need manual. Leaving it on manual is daft I reckon unless you love pressing buttons and fiddling with dials instead of actually shooting.

The main thing is stick it on manual,
…
paid about £10 for an online photography course

I’d respectfully suggest that these two statements are mutually exclusive.

Cheers cougar! Loving the support! The course I did is here http://www.digital-slr-guide.com/dslr-lessons.html

When I say stick it in manual, I did then go on to say “learn to take good pictures like that (or at least properly exposed sharp pictures with decent depth of focus) and all the other modes will then make sense.” lets not get in the habit of posting partial quotes in the style of the daily mail.

The D90 has the normal Auto, shutter priority and aperture priority modes as well as a program mode. It also has several presets for portrait, landscape, macro, sports and night time. These give you a helping hand in a good variety of situations and should cover most peoples photography.

However, if you keep your camera in manual, even just for a week, by the end you’ll have a much better understanding of your camera, its limits and how to overcome problems that automatic or priority modes can’t. This allows you to preset for the situation, allowing for quicker adjustment to perfect photos. If you are trying to catch things that are happening rather than posed people/items then this is the key to having more good than bad photos!

I honestly don’t know why you’d use manual regularly. If you want a certain DoF, then put it on aperture priority; if you want to freeze action put it on shutter; if you want it under exposed use exposure compensation.. surely it’s all easier than full manual mode.

I use the priority modes, the different metering modes, exposure lock, and manual focus.

lets not get in the habit of posting partial quotes in the style of the daily mail.

I’m quoting as an aide memoir to clarify what I’m replying to, rather than to twist what you’re saying. But, y’know.

I’d disagree that ‘putting your camera in manual’ is good advice for a beginner. Sure, you’re absolutely right in that understanding your camera is critical, but it’s way easier to learn by drip-feeding more control progressively as you get your head round things.

I honestly don’t know why you’d use manual regularly

Long exposure shots leap to mind, or stuff where metering otherwise fails; astro-photography, waterfalls through several ND filters, IR photography, using passive macro tubes. You know, all the basics.

I agree with Cougar. It’s way way more important to learn how to spot and frame good pictures. If you concentrate on faffing about with your settings it’s going to be all the slower.

Re the manual mode – yes of course there are reasons to use it, but I meant as a matter of course not for a special situation. I last used full manual when trying to take lightening pictures. I got one mediocre one, but that was cos almost all the lightening was above the clouds 🙂

Indeed. Why bark when you’ve got a dog.

ION, where’s my bag? (-:

It’s under my hallway table 🙂

I’ll do it one of these days imminently next time I go to Asda. Two of the lenses I bought recently came with their own fancy schmancy bags, I’m inundated with the damn things and I don’t need ’em.

I’ll have ’em. And the bags.