D3300 - Advice required

I am very close to purchasing the Nikon D3300 camera. I am not sure whether to buy just the body or the actual kit (body + 18-55mm VR lens).

I will mainly be photographing landscapes and close-up shots (macro). I see that you can purchase a 18-140mm VR lens which would undoubtedly give me more flexibility. I worry that the 18-55mm lens is too limited. I was thinking of
buying macro filters, initially, to take close-up shots until I am in a position to buy the more expensive macro lens. Does anyone know if macro filters work well on the 18-140mm VR lens?

I would be grateful for any advice you can give me.

Many thanks

Hannah

Welcome to the website.

The kit lens (18-55mm) is ok to get you started, I have took quite a few good pictures with mine.

Yes the 18-140mm is a very good walkabout lens, again you will take a lot of good shots.

If it was me in your position, and budget allowing, I would got for the D3300 and the 18-140mm.

You can buy macro filter for both lens, or another alternative, is a macro extension tube.

HStan said:

I am very close to purchasing the Nikon D3300 camera. I am not sure whether to buy just the body or the actual kit (body + 18-55mm VR lens).

I will mainly be photographing landscapes and close-up shots (macro). I see that you can purchase a 18-140mm VR lens which would undoubtedly give me more flexibility. I worry that the 18-55mm lens is too limited. I was thinking of
buying macro filters, initially, to take close-up shots until I am in a position to buy the more expensive macro lens. Does anyone know if macro filters work well on the 18-140mm VR lens?

I would be grateful for any advice you can give me.

Many thanks

Hannah

Click to expand...

1. Get the D3300 with the 18-55 kit lens. It is fantastic piece of glass for its price.
2. Avoid zooms with long zoom range. The higher the zoom ratio the less is the image IQ.
3. The 18-55 can shoot at very close distances, and you will get a magnification of 0.3x at 55mm. Use the 24MP sensor to crop extensively. Most of my bird shots are cropped to 800x800 which is a decent size for WEB display. Macro filters do degrade the image IQ, and there is no substitute for a dedicated macro lens. As the 18-140 is relatively soft lens, close up lenses will make the image even more soft. A close up lens will also decrease the object to lens distance in proportion to the magnification it offers.

Regarding Macro lense, there are quite a few focal lengths available.
. Shorter focal lengths have shorter object to lens distance which is a disadvantage while shooting insects. Fine for flowers and other still life.
. Longer focal lengths will have longer object to lens distance, perfect for insects. 90mm, 105mm and 200mm are the longer lenses.
. For copy work - stamps and coins, you will need a macro lens that has flat field and low distortion. 60mm is the lens to go for this type of work.

Hi Hannah. If you're going to do landscape I wouldn't get the 18-140 tbh. The 18-55 be better since it's the 18 end you'll use. It's a great wee lens too. 40mm macro could be your choice when you come to buy the macro.


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I got a D3300 with the 18-55 kit lens about a year and a half ago and later upgraded this to a Sigma 18-50 f2.8 lens (i.e. not variable aperture) - I could tell straight away from the weight difference that the Sigma lens was superior - and this performs much better in lower light if I'm indoors or if it's not during the middle of the day. In retrospect I wish I had got the body and the Sigma lens, but I was a total beginner to photography so I didn't know that back then

The general advice is buy the best that you can afford...because if you don't then you'll just end up wanting to upgrade later anyway and so would've paid twice.

I don't really do macro photography so can't advise on that aspect but nonetheless hope this helps.

As the D3300 does not have AF fine tune I would not go over the 150mm mark .I find any 18-xxx where xxx is over 150 to be soft in the rest of the range.
The 18-140 is not soft ..what makes any lens soft is not having your sharpness set at +9 as all nikons come out the factory set soft at about +3.
Use a cheap set of automatic extention tubes and flash on an extension cable for your macro work.
You can buy a body and a 18-140 cheap as a grey import.