New Toy

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Jason
I've had a break from modelling recently. About two months I think! Frustration with a certain Harrier kit nearly broke me so I packed everything away and waited for the bug to bite again.

In the meantime, I've been looking at the quality of photography on this site and across the web generally and I have been prompted to try and up my game.

After some good advice from members here, reading many reviews on the web and a very helpful salesman I decided to spend the spoils of my recent birthday on the Nikon D3300. This is Nikons entry level DSLR but more than adequate for my needs. It's the first camera I've had that doesn't fit in my pocket and has so many settings and adjustments that it'll probably be this time next year before I can take a decent photo with the thing, I picked up a tripod at the same time and am waiting on a light tent.

At the moment I've got all the gear and no idea, hopefully I'll be able to master the thing and post some shots worth looking at :smiling3:

Jason

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john i am

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Nice camera now the fun begins wish I could help but like yourself all my cameras fit in my pocket and have not seen one of those for ages as I now use the camera on my iPad I'm sure the lads on here will help so enjoy your birthday present and look forward to you beating the harrier into submission and some nice shots of the results cheers John
 
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Polux

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Happy belated Birthday ;)

I have the 3100, and I really like it!

My advice is play and shot, play and shot again... The first time was afraid to use the manual settings, but now are my "favorites".

I'm wishing to see those new photos with your builds :rolleyes:
 
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Deleted member 3568

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I have a canon d10 which I bought off the Internet thingy and though it does take amazing pics and I bought it specifically to photo my models(trying to polish a you know what) I still hardly ever use it as I've always got my phone handy which I use for the update photos but I do intend to use it for finished models or dios.

A wedding photographer gave me a tip(I don't know if you have the same on the nikon) but he told me alway check the shutter speed display when you half press the button and if the shutter speed is less than 60th sec either open the appeture or use a tripod as anything less than a 60th you risk camera shake.
 
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Deleted member 3568

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Sorry just to add a down side of opening the appeture is you lose depth of field (stuff further away is soft or blurry), but my wedding friend did say whatever you do try not to use a flash if you have to you could speed the iso up, but then you risk the photo getting grainy as you blow it up (something to do with noise) he went to great lengths telling me how great DSLR,s are and what you can do with them, but my brain cavity is only so big and when it's full other stuff starts falling out so unfortunately I can't remember a lot of what was probably very good advice.
 

flyjoe180

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That is a very nice new toy Jason. Have lots of fun with it, when I got mine I went out and photographed lots of birds, scenery and boats, then moved on to moving aeroplanes etc. Now days it gets used for photographing my models.

From memory the Harrier was the Tamiya Sea Harrier? What happened that is has caused you to stop for a bit?
 
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Stevekir

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Jason: I did what you have done, last Autumn. I bought a Nikon D3100 (introduced in October 2010 but still available (then anyway). I use it mainly for photographing models and other objects ("Table-top Photography") using manual focussing. It has more features than my 2 1/2 year old Sony toppish of the range compact, especially manual focussing. I use Aperture Mode to adjust the built in rangefinder which is easy to use (the rangefinder appears only in Aperture Mode), then switch to Manual Mode to set the F-number and exposure time and take the photo. Using artificial light (my desk lamp usually) a tripod allows time exposures, (usually needed with a high F-number). Remember to set the focussing switch on the kit lens itself from A (Automatic) to M "Manual". A photographer friend told me that the sharpest images are made with a high F-number (as everyone knows) but he said not to go higher than F-18. If you do, the very tiny aperture picks up unwanted light reflected from the iris which always happens at any F-number, but at a tiny aperture it becomes a much higher proportion of the total light entering the lens.

I find it does everything I want (and more, the downloadable manual has 208 pages but I have learned only what I need to use). A really useful feature of digital cameras is the ability to see whether the photo you have just taken is properly exposed, allowing you to adjust and take another immediately.

If you want the extra year's warranty you have to subscribe to Nikon's monthly newsletter which is quite interesting (and worth the extra warranty).
 
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Jason
Thanks for the tips, I'm finding my way around it now and it's definitely a huge improvement on my old compact and phone. I'll be getting back to the workbench soon so hopefully I'll be able to post some decent shots.

Well remembered Joe, it was the Sea Harrier that got the better of me. I managed to replicate some of the panel lines and rivet details that were lost but I couldn't get the wings to fit properly (not sure if it was me or the kit to blameo_O). I'll be leaving it in the box for a while and have a go at something else, I'm sure it'll get finished eventually!!!

Jason
 
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