I'm currently looking to purchase my first DSLR. When I visited my Fiance in Thailand in January, I missed a lot of great photo opportunities and even grabbed some photos that just came out terribly. I couldn't take good night time photos, for the life of me. Especially on our last night together, we dined at the top of Baiyoke tower... and my point and shoot as well as our cell phones just couldn't snap crisp photos of the neon cityscape below. 

I'm looking at getting one of the following:

Nikon: D3200, D3300, D3400.
Canon: T3, T5,

I'm not sure which to pick between. Mostly I want to take great photos for whenever we go on nature hikes, sight seeing, and night time shooting. I'm also looking to purchase used.
So, between the two... which should I go for? Canon? or Nikon? I have heard arguments for and against both. I hear Canon's lenses tend to be cheaper,  on the used market... but Nikon's have a n00b user friendly interface.

I really can't afford to buy the biggest and most expensive camera out there. With our wedding coming up in July, I just can't squeeze too much into the budget. I've been seeing some of the above listed cameras for sale on Craigslist for around the $300 mark... and $300 is still a lot for me (considering my other expenses that are coming up).

I'm partial to Canon.  The "T" cameras are decent to learn on.  Just learn your controls and don't succumb to using the "green box".

You're asking a lot for your price range.  Honestly, for a good night shot, you'll either need high ISO which will get noisy, a tripod and long exposure, or a fast lens, which start around half your budget used.

In that price range, Canon and Nikon are pretty similar.  Canon squeaks out Nikon on inexpensive lenses, but Nikon gets slightly higher image quality.  Unless you are a pixel peeper, at that point it doesn't really matter though.  The big thing to remember is that you are buying into a lens system.  Best advice I could give you is to play with a few different ones if you have a camera shop, Sam's Club, etc nearby.  Canon just feels weird in the hand to me, so I went with Nikon.  Kinda like guns, if it feels weird when you use it, odds are you won't use it much.

The best Nikon deal I've found close to your price point is a D3400 with 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses for $429 refurbished at Adorama.

Even used through KEH, which is a very well known used camera shop, you'll be hitting 10+ year old cameras before you can get into the $300 price point easily.  There's not much on the EE here either.  FredMan has a ~10 year old D200 professional body that fits in that price range though.

Just remember you'll need to budget (at minimum) for a SD card and cleaning kit, but that's $20-30.  I'd also recommend picking up a copy of Understanding Exposure 4th Edition $15 to learn the camera.

Any of the cameras mentioned will get you the good photos you want, as long as you do your part. (All cameras in point-n-shoot mode tend to do equally poorly.)

Your best bet is to get to a camera shop where you can physically play with the cameras to see which one you like best: size, weight, shape, button placement. Pick the one that feels best in YOUR hands, otherwise you will tend to leave it at home.

Personally, I like the ergonomics of the Nikons. However, my large hands do not like any of the D3000 and D5000 lines due to the cameras being physically too small even though the tech in the cameras is great.

Actually in my area, there seem to be quite a few sellers on craigslist and facebook marketplace regularly selling the above mentioned cameras for about $8 $300.

ETA: Odd typo. I meant to say $300.

I'd strongly and thoroughly look over the cameras inside and out, especially for aperture, shutter, and mirror controls, dust/crud on the sensor, etc.  BUT it might not be a horrible deal.

You're not gonna get much past a beginners camera with a fixed lens for $300, sir.  

As I see it, you can either go lay-a-way on a $900-1000 combo package & get a pretty nice unit or break out the credit card. Your choice.

As for choice, I am a Nikon man. Between their lenses, spotting scopes & binoculars I believe they KNOW optics. Their web site offers refurbished goodies at a substantial savings, FWIW.

My .o2

dbl tap

What is wrong with a D3200? I see them locally for $300 including a 18-50mm kit lens.

Would it just be a waste of money with no real appreciable difference in photo quality over my smartphone camera?

Right.... ISO, shutter speed, lighting, exposure. Im definitely willing to learn the ropes, I guess I should have worded the initial post better. I would also like to get better at taking photos... 

Im not realistically expecting to become some crazy professional photographer. I just want to surpass the limitations that a smartphone pushes on me. I feel it would be a fun hobby to get into, and give me something more to to do when I go sight seeing. Something to provide more fun "objectives" like getting an awesome shot of whatever.

I was well aware you have to get off auto mode. My sister has been complaining that their $1000 DSLR  takes crappy photos... and I told her exaxtctly what you told me. I told her that camera is wasted on them if they arent willing to learn how to use a camera and all it's additional control features.

On my trip to the Philippines, I will actually be there for quite a while and will have a lot of free time to practice my photography. I was just wondering if a D3200 ( or equivalent as listed above) would be a good starter camera to learn on.

Im flying out on the 7th of July.

But I will be heading to Gen San. I will, however, be stopping in Manila for a few days to get my Affidavit in Leiu of Certificate Of No Marriage from the US embassy. 

Sorry for the typos in this thread. Im using a smartphone right now since I'm not home right now.

If you can get one for that price, then that's what *I* would do.

$300 is probably not enough money. I would stick to what you have, and just learn how to use it. DON'T get a brand new camera for an important event and start taking pictures, you need to learn how to naviagate the controls etc before than important day.

BTW I am a nikon person, but a Canon will do also. I know a teenager who has a Nikon D7000, that she can barely control and she take awful photos. She might as well stick to her Iphone camera

Well I just found, and purchased a very slightly used Canon T3i + 18-55mm lens for $300. It comes with USB Cable, AV Cables, Charger, Battery, and Tripod. 
This thing looks like new out of the box. Not a single smudge on any of the lenses. Very little dust. Not a single scratch, or dent or ANY signs of wear or anything. Even all the contact surfaces seem to lack any "dead skin" that tends to rub off into seams and corners. Only flaw I see, is that the viewfinder had a small spec in the top right of center. Looks like a piece of dust, but it does not show up in any of the images. Some youtube videos I watched, said that this isn't much issue for concern, and is only a concern if it is right in the middle where it might be distracting. It isn't distracting at all. I also checked, with my laptop that I brought, for any dead pixels. From my very quick scanning, I didn't see any. 

Anyways, I posted on the AZ forum for recommended spots to shoot and practice photography in the real world. I've been playing around with both the Shutter speed and Aperture settings... and getting a feel for how they interact with one another. I think I'm going to really enjoy this new hobby. Any recommendations on where to take my newfound hobby from here?

ETA: I love learning new skills. So I am more than willing to learn. Only issue is, I probably can't budget anything more for more lenses. After I get back from the Philippines, I might invest in a couple morse lenses. Probably a 50mm Prime lens? I hear that is a strong recommendation. And then perhaps a good zoom lens? 

Anyways, what do you guys recommend I try out? I'm willing to even start posting photos here in this forum to sort of "blog" my progress as a wannabe photography hobbyist. 

The T3i is a crop sensor, right?

In that case, if you want an effective 50mm prime get a 35mm prime instead.  That should give you an effective 56mm on the crop sensor (35x1.6).

If you get into this (and I hope you do), save your pennies and get the best glass you can.  I don't speak Canon, but a good basic inventory of lenses would be a good prime and a mid-range zoom (along with that 18-55) to start.

I suggest the 35mm prime and a zoom along the lines of 70-300.  But do your homework, if Canon is like Nikon, there's "very good" and "meh" lenses in each category (i.e. there's a craptastic Nikon 70-300 and a pretty damn good 70-300).

Lenses last a lifetime.  Bodies come and go.  As they say, when you buy a particular brand of body, you're really buying into a lens system.  My understanding is that Canon likes to fiddle with their mounts, so some lenses may not fit on some bodies.  My Nikon f-mount body will accept almost any f-mount lens ever made.  Some of the features may not work (metering, autofocus, aperture), but it will fit on the body.

The crop factor for Canon APS-C cameras is approximately 1.6, which means your apparent focal length will be approximately 1.6 times whatever the marked focal length is (24mm = 38mm, 35mm = 56mm, 50mm = 80mm, etc...).

You'll be able to mount EF and EF-S glass.  Not EF-M (for the mirrorless M-series cameras), nor FD (old manual focus mount) without adapters that work with mixed results.  EF lenses have an image circle large enough to cover a full-frame sensor, EF-S lenses have an image circle sized for APS-C sensors.  If you even think you may be upgrading to full-frame, might want to think about purchasing only EF glass so you don't have to buy new glass with the new body.

Generally, the faster (larger aperture) a lens is, the pricier it gets.  L glass is built to a higher standard than most of their other glass, and priced accordingly.

Don't discount the small STM lenses if you need small and light, some of them perform above their price range.  The 24/2.8 STM is a pancake lens and makes for a handy small package on a smaller body.  The 10-18 STM is also a good performer for the price.  Some people like the 50/1.8 STM, I haven't been very thrilled with the results of mine.  Only other lens I have is the 100-400L mkII, so I can't offer personal opinion on anything else.

ETA - don't feel like you have to rush out and buy other lenses immediately, nothing wrong with learning to use the camera and one lens.  When I first switched to digital in 2004, I had a Nikon D70 with the 18-70 kit lens.  I used that setup for several years before buying other glass.

What exactly does "EF and EF-S" refer to? 

EF and EF-S are the lens mount names.  "EF" stands for "electro-focus".  "S" stands for "small image circle".  EF covers a full-frame sensor size, EF-S covers the smaller APS-C sensor size like on the T3i.  APS-C bodies can mount EF and EF-S lenses, full-frame bodies mount EF lenses.

I've always liked Canon, and I've been running a T3 for the past 5 years. It's been a great camera to learn on, and I still don't know how to run everything on it.

I got a T6 as a work bonus last week. It's very similar to the T3 except it's way faster, and it's got wifi for remote control with a smartphone and for transferring photos to a phone or PC. I've seen this kit at Target for $499 and it has a 75-300mm zoom in addition to the 18-55mm.

My daughter laid claim to the T3 when I got the T6, or I'd probably list it on the EE for $300.

I highly suggest the 50mm f1.8 lens to go with it. It's only $110 and takes awesome shots.
Lens on Amazon


ETA: Looking at the camera stuff om Amazon again... I just bought a lens hood for the 75-300mm, and a 2x teleconverter. This stuff is almost as addictive as guns.

Ditto.  Congrats on the new camera though. 

Yeah. I was going to go for a Nikon D3200, since one guy was offering one for sale for only $250. But then the guy ended up selling it before I had a day off from work to go meet up with him. The next good deal I came across was this Canon. 

and get the "i" version. IE: T3i, T6i (or T6s), T7i
better than the Tx versions

ETA: I see a T3i was bought.  The EF-S 55-250 STM is a awesome lens for the money and has outstanding image quality. just short of a "L" lens.

For Post-Processing, is Rawtherapee and/or darktable workable? My laptop runs linux, and when I'm overseas... I'll only be able to run linux applications. My home PC is a windows PC.

Unfortunately, Darktable doesn't have a windows equivalent. So would it make more sense to use RawTherapee and stick to that since it is available on both Linux and Windows?

As explained above ef-s lenses only work on crop sensor cameras like yours. But your camera can also use the standard ef lenses.

The 50mm 1.8 stm lens is a great value. It would add more low light capability. Some good efs lenses are:

10-18 efs, wide angle
55-250 stm, best value zoom
18-135 efs, duplicates your current lens but adds more zoom

Those lenses are very good for what they cost. In my opinion they are probably as good or better than they best lenses from 10 to 15 years ago. They all have very effective image stabilization.

The other option is to buy premium canon lenses with the idea of later uprgrading the body. The 85mm 1.8 is a great value and solid lens. You can also find the 24-105 L IS for around $500. This is the first version and i see more of them than just about anything else on craigslist.

Just downloaded RawTherapee onto my Windows PC. 

For some odd reason, it keeps crashing to desktop on my Chromebook running GalliumOS (Linux distro specifically made for Chromebooks). 
Anyways, this editing software seems pretty thorough, but to be honest... 99% of the stuff in it is way over my head. Any way to learn the ins and outs of post processing? Unfortunately, it seems like the vast majority of courses I can take online will only cover how to do it on lightroom and/or photoshop.... 

I've been taking pictures for years.
Post processing for a few months.
Here's the headache process I've been struggling to master.  

Unsharp Mask

It's another way to sharpen an image.  Once in a while it works for me.
Raw Therapee has those settings.

Wait... you can sharpen a picture after it's been taken?

I have a really, BADLY taken selfie of me and my Fiance... If it wasn't for the beautiful smile on her face, and just the moment we were able to capture, I wouldn't cherish the picture as much as I do. Problem is, there is a lot of glare in the photo, and it came out really fuzzy, out of focus.. It was a VERY casually taken photo, but though poorly taken... I found it beautiful because her eyes just look really beautiful in it, and her lips have this beautiful shimmer to them. I just really wish it had been taken with better care, skill, and camera. 

Kind of tragic when you take a really bad... "good" photo. Not sure what you call that in the photography world?

I'm no expert, but I get around well with the Canon cameras. I just started messing with Magic Lantern this last week or so. I really like it.

I have a D3200 with the 18-55 and 55-200mm kit lenses. The D3200 is my go to camera for most things.
Pros: Good image quality. Handles 64GB SD Cards. Battery life is good. Decent glass. Easy to navigate menus.

Cons: Feels like a damn toy, even with the battery grip. Not weather sealed. Some "Down in the weeds" settings are not accessible like on a higher end camera.

I also have a Pentax K20D and its a tank! I feel like I could beat someone to death with it, and then take their picture. I use it mainly with the f1.4 50mm FA lens for portraits. I also have the 18-55 kit lens, a Tamron 75-300mm telezoom, two vintage f2.0 Manual Focus 50MM Primes, and an old 70-200mm Manual Focus Zoom.


I got the D3200 and kit lense for $110. The 55-200 was added later for $75.
I got the K20D for $180, with the kit lens and the 50mm, 3 batteries and a nice case.
Pros: Weather sealed. Still capable at 14MP. Can use ALL old K-mount vintage glass. Focus trap! Top LCD for setting display.
Cons: Sucks at low light compared to the D3200. Slow burst mode and small cache make it crappy for action shooting.