ButchA

Who on HNI is into photography? I mean, besides the common, WalMart style, simple point-n-shoot, cameras... I am talking about the big digital SLR cameras, Canon EOS T6, Nikon D3500, Sony, Olympus, etc... etc...

My wife and I bought a brand new, right out of the box, Nikon D3500 "package deal" from the local camera shop here in town.
Nikon D3500
Nikkor 18-55 lens
Nikkor 70-300 zoom lens
64GB memory card

Holy {expletive} what a camera! It does everything you can imagine and boggles the mind with so many buttons, LCD screen settings, menus, etc... So, we just have it set on "Auto" and keep in mind the aperture and shutter speeds that it chooses, while we learn more and more about it.

Any advice?

CalHunter

I've had a few Canons for years. I started with film in 35mm and switched to DSLR (basically Canon's version of what you have although much older, a T2i). I will warn you that photography is just as much of a dark hole $$-wise as guns and hunting. You can buy books, take classes or just surf the internet and find a lot of articles with good information. There's filters, photo editing software and the magic drain on your checking account--lenses. The good news is that the lenses will outlast the camera (they have a certain lifespan) and can be used again if you buy/upgrade in the same line of cameras or sold if you switch to a different line of cameras. Nikon and Canon are the two main camera lines so you started off right. Enjoy the photography and memories.

RobertSubnet

Have been carrying a camera in one form or another since the 1980's. Have to agree with Cal, photography can get expensive especially as your skills improve and you want better equipment that can keep up with you.

Congratulations on the purchase, you and your wife will no doubt enjoy the camera. Now go out and get a new/bigger hard drive, you are going to need it for all of the pictures you will be taking.

ButchA

LOL... Thanks. We already have a massive 1TB external USB backup drive that we both use for our laptops. I could easily make another folder called "Nikon D3500" or something and store all the photos there.

The camera is amazing so far. You see, I used to be "old school" with the 35mm SLR cameras, mainly the famous Canon AE-1. But then somewhere along the way, I sold it and all the extra doo-dads that went with it. My wife and I just simply used one of those inexpensive point 'n shoot digitals from Kodak for a number of years, until we realized that it's own system date & time clock only went to 2022! So, we figured we might as well take the plunge and get back into the big digital SLR cameras. We found that deal at Richmond Camera here in town and jumped on it.

Valorius

I love photography, but because I have 2 other expensive hobbies (cars and guns) i have managed to restrain myself from spending serious money on it.

CalHunter

I'm actually looking at a bridge camera by Sony. Still cost a bit of money but has great glass, is self contained and would be perfect for those trips to Yellowstone, etc.

Phil from Maine

I have a Canon Rebel EOS and I love it. But no matter what this dummy still can’t figure out how to use all those settings properly. Once I think I figured it out I will forget to use the one I want. But I surely still enjoy it. They some how end up taking a lot of SD cards over a fairly short time. You may also find that you may want more than one folder on your laptop. I also enjoy using separate folders to save the photos that I want. This makes it easier to load them on a separate SD card. Then I can clean up the SD card that I will be using. At least that’s how I do it anyhow..

Gm54-120

I got this last year but would prefer the Nikon p900 for the view finder. Only having the LCD for viewing is a pain in the sun. Otherwise this thing takes killer pics and 1080p video cheap. No need to even remove the SD card. It connects to my PCs, tablet and even printers wireless. I got a couple 64gig high speed cards to go with it too. Only real complaint i got is you cant charge the battery in the camera. That is a huge feature now days with USB so common even on a surge strip. My UPS even has a couple charging ports.

North Texan

I’ve been taking pictures with SLR and dSLR cameras for 20+ years now. I always liked Pentax the best of the 35mm film cameras, but switched to Nikon when I went digital because Pentax was behind the digital curve. Not sure they will ever catch up.

My go-to camera right now is my D500. It bumped my D90 to backup status, but even the old D90 will still take great pictures.

As you get more into photography, I would suggest two lenses as must-haves. One is the 35mm 1.8. On your D3500, it will come closest to matching what you see with your eyes. Very sharp, very clear, very fast, and not prohibitively expensive. Also consider the 50mm 1.8. It is one the cheapest lenses Nikon makes, gives a little bit of zoom to a crop-sensor camera, and is just a great lens.

Ive gotten in the habit of using a tripod and remote shutter where possible, as hand shake can be detected sometimes, especially zoomed way in with a zoom lens.

RobertSubnet

Going to give this a big thumbs up!
The Nikon 35mm 1.8 "G" lens is a great general purpose lens; it is small and lite weight making it a great travel or walk around lens.