I had been using a Canon zoom compact digital camera for taking pictures for my blog because as much as I love the quality of the pictures my Minolta film slr system takes, inevitably you have to wait for the films to be processed with scans done to use them for blogs so unless it was something special then I'd use the Canon.
Trouble is by design a compact camera without getting very technical give you little choice about how the end picture turns out as it's really designed for point and shoot so all you can do is just zoom in and out the lens and that's it.
What I had been wanting for a long time was a camera that gave me the creative control of my Minolta film system such as control of how sharp things either side of the subject I focused on, the ability to freeze or blur movement and use more specialized lenses.
The inability to use easily my Minolta MD existing lenses on current digital cameras was an added complication.
Fortunately I found a camera kit that was fairly well constructed, not to difficult to relearn basic things like setting shutter speeds as my Minolta had separate controls for such things where most newer camera from the late 1980's used a input dial to set them with that could form a second all digital system without being too expensive.
The Nikon D3500 is just about the most basic model Nikon do lacking Wifi and attendent GPS and uploading to social media stuff plus had a basic non touch screen LCD display but had a proper viewfinder which apart from anything else promote proper well supported handling as you look through it while taking the pictures rather than holding the camera in front of you, staring at the screen.
I feel especially in an age where it can be all too easy to track people down NOT having that information by default in your image files and them automatically uploaded to social media is desirable.
Unlike cheaper Canon offerings like the EOS4000, it does have a metal lens mount so you can use heavier lenses without risk of breaking the mount.
It comes with a so-called Standard Zoom which on this "DX"sensor model works out at the 35mm film equivalent of 28mm for wide angle shots of scenic views to 82mm which is better for taking portraits or groups of flowers with a more natural perspective.
It is a surprisingly good lens of its type having had some real horror stories in my hands over the years so lends itself to more general photography even if it's light gathering doesn't match that of my film cameras fixed length ones.
That's little different than those I tried in the 90's.
What does help with one consequence of that is it actually has built in image stabilization that keeps camera shake at bay where a slower shutter speed might be needed
There is a small pop up flash that can help for fill in flash although seriously, you cannot bet a separate dedicated flash for decent flash photography being able to direct the flash for less harsh images.
Having got that kit down by a good 25% I was looking around for a telephoto lens for it as in order of usage I tended to use my 135mm moderate one on the Minolta only occasionally using the 200mm or Tamron 300mm and wasn't wishing to have a near duplicate range of fixed length lenses where two aren't used much.
Nikon had in the twin lens kit their 70-300mm which works out at 105 through 450mm in 35 mm film terms but the twin kits were expensive especially as I wanted the one that also had image stabilizing as I find holding soon produces shakes.
As it happened I found a individual who'd bought the kit but was selling of that better version of the lens still in the I wanted in near mint condition as they'd bought another lens tested but otherwise not used in the field so when you added the camera kit cost and this lens the combination was considerably cheaper
Over the range I'm likely to use it over it will perform well enough for my purposes as again it has well designed with the only economies in the all plastic construction which is quite durable too.
No comments:
Post a Comment