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I feel the D5xxx series 5300, 5500 hit the sweet spot for me as a quasi casual photographer with its price, picture quality, amazing battery life and lightish w

by sh87 9y ago

I feel the D5xxx series 5300, 5500 hit the sweet spot for me as a quasi casual photographer with its price, picture quality, amazing battery life and lightish weighing body. Felt slightly overpriced at $800 with 2 lenses for my budget. So far so good.

throwanem 9y ago
Which body and kit did you get? I found the D5300 kit (18-55 VR, 70-300) for $600 new on Amazon. (Incidentally, that 70-300 has a surprising resale value! I traded mine in at Service Photo toward a 70-300 VR II, and was very surprised to get $120 for it instead of the $50 or so I was expecting for an unstabilized kit lens with no meaningful secondhand market. Granted, that's one small shop in one town, but if anything I'd expect it to be low, considering that Service Photo is very much geared to the professional end and likely has the revenue problems of any small business.) (Further incidentally, I had a chance for a hands-on with a D5500 recently, and found it rather distasteful. The touchscreen seems nice, but would easily be nose-triggered when using the viewfinder, so you'd need to fold the screen in and out all the time, and it does not offer any of the PSAM modes on the selector dial! It's light and easy to maneuver, but all the same, I was glad I'd gone with the previous model.)
- sh87 9y ago
  I got the 5500 with the 18/55 VR2and 55/200 VR1 lens from B&H. In hindsight though I feel a 18/140 vr2 would have suited me better. The touchscreen is always off for me when using the viewfinder. Never was an issue.
  - throwanem 9y ago
    That's reasonable - I have my 5300 configured the same way, and hadn't thought about that in relation to the 5500. If you can find a shop that sells used gear and has an 18-140 in stock, you might be able to trade the two kit lenses toward it - I can't recommend buying used sight unseen, lenses being the relatively delicate creatures that they are, but certainly the trade I mentioned before worked out really well for me! If my experience is any guide, you might reasonably expect to pay about half the new price for a gently used model with a few wear marks but perfect functionality, and the kit lenses together, if they're both in like-new condition, probably have enough resale value to cover most or all of the cost.
arnaudsm 9y ago
As a videast it's the sweet spot too. I shoots at 1080p 60fps while most of the <1000$ Canon DSLRs can't.

by sh87 9y ago

throwanem 9y ago

Which body and kit did you get? I found the D5300 kit (18-55 VR, 70-300) for $600 new on Amazon. (Incidentally, that 70-300 has a surprising resale value! I traded mine in at Service Photo toward a 70-300 VR II, and was very surprised to get $120 for it instead of the $50 or so I was expecting for an unstabilized kit lens with no meaningful secondhand market. Granted, that's one small shop in one town, but if anything I'd expect it to be low, considering that Service Photo is very much geared to the professional end and likely has the revenue problems of any small business.) (Further incidentally, I had a chance for a hands-on with a D5500 recently, and found it rather distasteful. The touchscreen seems nice, but would easily be nose-triggered when using the viewfinder, so you'd need to fold the screen in and out all the time, and it does not offer any of the PSAM modes on the selector dial! It's light and easy to maneuver, but all the same, I was glad I'd gone with the previous model.)

sh87 9y ago
I got the 5500 with the 18/55 VR2and 55/200 VR1 lens from B&H. In hindsight though I feel a 18/140 vr2 would have suited me better. The touchscreen is always off for me when using the viewfinder. Never was an issue.
- throwanem 9y ago
  That's reasonable - I have my 5300 configured the same way, and hadn't thought about that in relation to the 5500. If you can find a shop that sells used gear and has an 18-140 in stock, you might be able to trade the two kit lenses toward it - I can't recommend buying used sight unseen, lenses being the relatively delicate creatures that they are, but certainly the trade I mentioned before worked out really well for me! If my experience is any guide, you might reasonably expect to pay about half the new price for a gently used model with a few wear marks but perfect functionality, and the kit lenses together, if they're both in like-new condition, probably have enough resale value to cover most or all of the cost.

arnaudsm 9y ago

As a videast it's the sweet spot too. I shoots at 1080p 60fps while most of the <1000$ Canon DSLRs can't.