Wife picked me up a Nikon D3300 for father's day.  First DSLR I've owned.  In the 80's I had a Ricoh, a Canon and my dad's old Nikon.  For about the past five years I've been using a 60's Pentax with a bunch of lenses my wife got at a garage sale.

So this Nikon D3300 came with a AF-S 18-55 lens and a 55-200mm lens, plus all the cords, cables etc.  Aside from a couple of point-n-shoot digital pocket cameras this is my first modern non-film camera.  I've seen some adaptors that will let me use (manually) my old M42 lenses.  Any other cool gadgets that I should pick up ? I was pretty proficient with my older SLR's; I had a B&W darkroom as a teenager and I love just fooling around with film/ISO speeds and exposure, love old grainy B & W images and narrow focal distance, stuff like that.

If there was one thing that could significantly improve your shooting experience without breaking the bank?... I would pick up either the 35mm f/1.8G DX or the 50mm f/1.8G FX for $200.

This.  Though the 18-55 is a surprisingly good lens.  Don't worry too much about the gear, spend the time playing with aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.  "Bracket" a fixed subject, see the effects of changing speed and light have on the image.

I'm a big fan of tripods; but I take a lot of low-light (and night) outdoor shots.  If you get a tripod, don't buy the $20 Wal Mart special.  Bite the bullet and get a $120 Manfrotto or similar; doesn't have to be fancy carbon fiber top-line, but you want solidity and stability.

Get a remote.  I'm pretty sure the 3300 works with Nikon's ML-L3; a $15-$20 infrared remote.  Lets you take self portraits and also lets you take tripod-mounted long-focal-length shots with minimal camera shake.

But the best thing you can do take LOTS of pictures of LOTS of subjects.  Digital photography is essentially free, once you have the camera.  Bad shots get deleted.

I will second this times 10,000... I have a 50mm F/1.8G Fx and the thing freaking rocks..

I saw the 50mm for a pretty decent price on amazon.  I have to dig out my Super Takkumar lenses and see what I have; I know with the adaptor I go to manual and lose infinity but that really doesn't concern me.


Weird thing I noticed yesterday evening...I went out around 5pm (golden hour) and was just taking a few pics with the 200mm lens at various aperture and speed settings.  Over the past year my eye prescriptions have changed.  I've always been near sighted, about -3.00 in both eyes, correctable to 20/20 with contacts.  Since last year my eyesight has actually improved slightly--now I'm at -2.75--but on the opposite spectrum my up-close vision has degraded and when wearing contacts I now need +2.5 reading glasses for anything under 120 or 12 inches from my eyes.  Really noticed it when using the camerascreen to examine the photos as I changed the camera setting.  The manual/optical eyepiece can be adjusted to make up for near/far sightedness, but I had to slip on my reading glasses when using the digital screen.  Ugh, middle age strikes again.

On a related note, all my old enlarger and development equipment is boxed up at my parents' house; I think I might set up a darkroom for B & W 35mm.  What's a good source for B & W film and darkroom supplies ?  Been years since I've developed my own film or prints.

I've been using my Super Takumar lenses on the D3300 but it's been really humid and overcast today so not many good opportunities for pictures outside.

Zoom lens--M. Wards 1:3.8 85-205mm

Telephoto lens--Super Takumar 1:4 200mm (really like this lens but I need to have the innards cleaned, there are dust specks behind the lens and I've had some flecks show up when using this on my Spotmatic).

W/A lens--Super Takumar 1:2 35mm  Haven't used this one much on my Spotmatic, going to give it a shot on the D3300).

Takumar 1:1.4 50mm  This lens pretty much is my go-to on the Spotmatic.  Tried it on the Nikon and was very pleased.  Adapters worked without a hitch, I've read some folks take the lens out of the adapter, haven't tried that yet.  Really liked the 200mm lens with f-stop opened up to 4, great focal contrast.  Fiddling around with different ISO settings and shutter speeds to see what kind of exposure I get.  Ordered some filters and a micro attachment for the Nikon DSL lenses.

I have a D3100.  The 35mm f1.8 takes the D3100 to another level.
I also bought a refurb 55-300 DX for it.  They're still around at $269 at some places.  At that price it's a steal.

The 35 1.8G is the absolute best lens deal for a Nikon.  It has a good field of view on the DX camera and is incredible in low light.  The sharpness and colors are nothing short of unbelievable for the cost.  I have the 50 as well, the field of view is a little limited ,but it is great for portraits.  I have a D7100 and the 35 just about lives on it.  The 35 is the way to go!