About to do an upgrade to Nikon D3300

[TheLibrarian]

To the original question on zoom, yeah I was dissappointed with the zoom capabilities on these cameras. IDK how lesser cameras zoom more with much smaller adjustable lenses. The digital zoom is the same on either maybe better for the higher mp's in some dslr and I'm sure there's some loss of quality with these mechanical lenses on one piece handheld cameras but like you say they let you zoom in significantly for practical purposes much easier and in a smaller package, art and high quality aside. To get comparable zoom on a dslr you're going to need money and will have to carry around a pretty big lens, like bigger then you might expect to get results less than you're expecting from such a big lens. I'm not 100% sure the basic introductory dslr is much of an upgrade from a point and shoot. I know its blasphemy to say that in a place like this but if you dont care about fiddling with iso or shutter speed then it's a bit of a waste. You already recognize it's much larger to carry about, won't fit in your pocket and all that. It'll have to be specifically a camera day and you'll have to be all about your camera those days. Other times i suppose you could just use your cell phone but i think people jump to say get dslr when tourists and the average user doesn't really need one but might like more than a cell phone. I prefer it to fit in my pocket, be waterproof, and take a simple picture without difficulty. SLR's have auto settings but these seem to produce inferior pictures to a point and shoot on auto for some reason. Maybe it requires fiddling with exposure comp and white balance that has already been calibrated on a simple camera. You can get fancy higher end handhelds if you desire. Getting an slr might be what makes you happy too idk.

 

[Jay.DeVries]

I just got the D3300 on Monday. I went with a kit that had a 18-55 and a 55-200. It gives me good all around options for shooting. I do wish I had more zoom, but I also feel that is a slippery slope, because if I had the amount of zoom that I would like to have, the lens would be giant. But over all it has been very easy to learn how to use and how to take photos with it. This is my first DSLR and it only took me about 45 minutes to go from taking photos in auto, to taking photos in manual mode with full control.
DuckSplash by Jay DeVries, on Flickr
Here was my first picture from my D3300.

 

[DarkShadow]

Here Is one from the D3300 18-55mm VR II. Granted gulls are no problem getting close but still the Lens is extremely sharp Resolves the 24MP Sensor with no problem and focuses quick and has very close focusing.Like I said, don't expect high build quality but for the price to performance it's pretty darn good.

 

[odagled]

Have you looked in to the D7xxx series? I think the dials for shutter and aperture, which the D3XXX series lacks, make it a much better tool. Plus, you get the added benefit of being able to use D series lenses as opposed to on G series (for autofocus). A used D7000 can be found very cheap.

 

[Peeb]

The "times zoom" you asked about is the big number divided by the small one, so an 18/55 zoom is approximately a 3x zoom lens. This ratio is referenced a lot on point-and-shoot cameras but with interchangeable lenses, a it's not really as helpful since your 'starting' focal length isn't always wide with DSLR cameras. For example, an 18/55mm and a 70-200mm are both about "3x zoom", but they are entirely different animals.

Still, if you are interested in a wider range of focal lengths, the 18/55 is pretty limiting, and you might seriously consider the 18/140 (7.7x).