Hey guys! I didn't want to start a new thread, so I just figured I would bump this one. I just picked up my first DSLR.

I was originally looking for a P&S for vacations and family snaps, and I had a budget of up to $500. I thought a DSLR would be too expensive and too big to carry around, but the more I looked, the more I thought it was worth carrying around, and $500 could--just barely--get me primed. My sister has a D200 with a few lenses and enjoys it, so I was looking for a Nikon since then I can borrow her stuff and vice versa through the years. For me and for a quick xmas thing a D90 was too much money, but...

I found a new D3000 for $400 with the kit lens (18-55mm VR, f/3.5-5.6) and picked it up. I spent another $100 on supplies--8G memory card, spare battery, case, remote so I can get the wife and I together in non-arm's-length photos, etc. It does a nice job. In RAW mode and/or with the ADR on, the buffer for photos drops from 16 down to 5, and that can be annoying, but that's all I've been frustrated with. For a cheap starter body it's been great, and I like the kit lens quite well for what it is. It's leaps and bounds beyond a price-comparable P&S, which was my frame of reference.

I just got the Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 lens this week and am having a lot of fun learning on it. Bokeh is neat. I got it for low light photos in the late evening, museums without a flash, etc., but I'm seeing that because it's a prime and can go to low f-stops, it's going to really help me learn to shoot better.

I'll probably get an 18-200 VR lens next to have a better all-around vacation lens than the kit lens (but not have to switch lenses every time I want to zoom), and then after while I'll pick up a wide lens and upgrade the body. Perhaps the wide lens I won't be AF-S so I'll need the built-in AF motor. But for now this works great--I can use the lenses I want, and I'm certainly skill limited with this equipment, not hardware limited.


Looking through your photos here in this subforum is instructive. Cost and free time (full time work + PT grad school) make PS too demanding for me to learn at this point, but learning the art behind taking good photos is ... a little bit fascinating.