Hi! My wife and I have decided to try our hand at photography. We live in the Peak District in the UK which has plenty of landscape opportunities but I'm also keen to try my hand at some abstract photography. We haven't bought a camera yet as my Dad has gifted us his Nikon D5300 plus a few lenses (there's a 35mm 50mm and a 70-200m I think). Should get us going! Anyway, I'm doing lots of research and this website has been an absolute gold mine for a beginner.
Seems that the big question in our future is DSLR or Mirrorless but for now, we will crack on with the D5300 and see what we can produce
Hello all!
Best,
Darren
Thanks - I'm now at home and going through what my Dad has which is as follows - any advice on anything obvious that's missing would be very welcome!
Base Camera - Nikon D5300
Lenses:
1. Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 35mm 1:1.8G - Good for portaiture?
2. Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm 1:3.5-5.6G - Useful all rounder?
3. Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm 1:35-5.6G - Not sure?
4. Tokina AT-X Pro SD 11-16 F2.8 (IF) DX II Good for landscapes I think as it has a wide viewing angle?
5. Tamron SP 70-300mm DI - Telephoto lens for long-distance etc?
6. Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8 G - Similar to the 35mm?
Feels like a really useful mix and I'mn excited to play around with them. The only thing I definitely need is a decent camera backpack :-)
Welcome, Darren!
Welcome to the forum and to Photography Life! Those lenses will be great for some landscapes, I reckon.
Hi Folks,
Michael here and I have been doing photography in some form or another since 1963, when I was about 12 years old.
I've run the gamut from 35mm to 2 1/4" square (Mamiya medium format TLRs and SLR), 2 1/4" x 3 1/4" Graflex and 4" x 5" Calumet view camera.
Finally tried out digital in its early days with a Kodak P&S and was intrigued that I did not need a darkroom! I was like "WHOAH!!!" Then went first to Nikon with a D80 and D90 to a Canon T3i (the articulating screen hooked me.!
Anyway I am now a full blown Canon Mirrorless user. Have an R10 and an R8. Yes the batteries are underpowered but I only do photography and not videography. I got a spare battery with each, iso I have 4 batteries per camera as I only go out with one of them at a time. LOL
I love photographing everything from landscape to street to architectural to wildlife/sports, macro and essentially anything that comes my way.
My kit consists of, in addition to the R10 and R8 the RF16mm 2.8, RF 28mm 2.8, RF 35mm 1.8 "macro", EF 50mm 1.8 (with adapter), 86mm 2.0 "macro", RF 24-105 4-F7.1 (mainly as a walkaround for the R8) and RF 100-400mm 5.6-F8 for wildlife/sports etc with either body.
I chose ot go with the prime lenses because they are f2.8 or faster, not so much for using lower ISO (thankfully the mirrorless cameras today can really handle higher ISOs) but for nicer bokeh when I want it.
Since none of these lenses are L-series it means I have to buy a separate lens hood. I get the average $12 ones from Amazon rather than the $30+ ones from Canon. They all have been excellent.
I am still working through post processing. I got a Mac Mini M2 Pro for photo editing (also have a windows i5 machine but the Mac is faster) and mainly use Gimp, PhotoScape and ON1 Photo Raw on my Mac and Gimp, Paintshop Pro and ON1 Photo Raw on my PC. I have my eye on various free trials for editors as well!
So that's about it. Sorry for rambling. Hope to post some images soon.
@Povster: Welcome!
Welcome!! Glad to have you here
Hello everyone! I've been following the site for some months now, so I decided to join the forum too!
I have recently picked up photography as a hobby again after taking a long break, since now I have both the time and the financial resources to sustain it, I'm really enjoying it.
I'll probably post some photos soon, have fun out there everyone!
I'll jump on as well and introduce myself. I've been a consistent PL reader for about 4 years and have learned so much from all the great articles and reviews.
I'm still using my Nikon D3500, and have picked up some extra lenses along the way (my favourite is the 105mm 2.8 Macro).
I've also recently picked up a Minolta X700 and am currently doing more film photography, especially street photography in my home city of Brisbane Australia.
I'm looking forward to contributing to the weekly photo challenges once I'm verified.
Warm regards,
Chris
Welcome, @tidiwinks! Sounds like you're approaching photography in a similar way as I did. I started using the D5100 and then the D7000 with the 105mm f/2.8 Macro, my favorite lens. And now I'm shooting a lot of film :)