# Nikon D5300



## Bird (May 10, 2005)

Well, I finally bit the bullet and bought a good DSLR. I picked up a Nikon D5300 on sale. It was bundled with an 18-55 3.5/5.5 and a 55-200 4.5-5.6 lenses. I have done a lot of photography in the past with my trusty Minolta Maxxum 700si (y'all remember actual film , so the basics of taking pictures, framing, metering, bracketing etc I'm good with.

First impression of this new camera that I have to get used to are all the gee whiz features and options. I played around with it tonight and figured it out mostly. I tend to use aperture priority mostly so a lot of the auto features I won't bother with much. I have to admit though, that some of the special effect modes are really cool. It is pretty cool doing some of the initial post production work right on the camera and then being able to send it to selected wi-fi devices to share. Having a good sized screen I can flip out and around to use as a viewfinder and picture/video pre-view is nice. I hope to get some good shots I can post up for y'all to enjoy.


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## TWHJ28 (Jun 27, 2007)

Im looking at the same setup. What was your determining factor in buying the d5300 vs others?


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## Bird (May 10, 2005)

Actually I was looking at the D5200 after reading very good reviews online. I ended up with the D5300 because the store had the 5300 in stock and on sale, while I would have had to order the 5200. I chose Nikon over Canon more so on personal choice rather than any big pro/con list. The comparable Canon, the EOS T5i, also had good reviews and similar pricing. The two cameras are very closely matched. Good luck and let us know what camera you chose.


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## stargazer (May 24, 2004)

Cool, Congrats on the new toy


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## TWHJ28 (Jun 27, 2007)

I'm in Alaska right now and looking to get shots of the auroras. From what I've read it seems the 5300 would do better with low light. What do yall think?


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## Bird (May 10, 2005)

Ok, I'm guessing here but shooting the Northern lights light show is probably going to entail full manual settings with shutter in bulb mode. Since your focus setting on your lens is going to be close to infinity and your focus point is a zillion miles away, depth of field is somewhat unlimited. I'd guess that you can open your aperature pretty wide, say f/4 or F/5.6. You might try to meter whatever reflected light off your palm and see what the camera says for f/stop and shutter speed, then switch to manual and click off a bunch of pics. Take note of the camera settings between each shot for reference. So with all that said, I'm not sure that the Nikon 5300 has any real advantage over any other good DSLR. Best pics I've ever taken were on 35mm film...Good luck.

BTW- I bet Stargazer could give you a much better idea of how to set up the shot.


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