Nikon D3300 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR with Auto Focus-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II Zoom Lens (Black)

I recently purchased the Nikon D3300 Digital SLR with the included Auto Focus-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II Zoom Lens in black, and it has exceeded my expectations in every way. First and foremost, the image quality produced by this camera is outstanding. With its 24.2 MP CMOS sensor, I've been able to capture incredibly sharp, detailed, and vibrant photos. Whether it's portraits, landscapes, or low-light conditions, the D3300 performs admirably. The included 18-55mm VR II zoom lens is versatile and has proven to be a great choice for everyday photography. The Vibration Reduction (VR) feature is particularly useful in ensuring that my shots are crisp and blur-free, even when shooting at longer focal lengths. The D3300 is also user-friendly, making it an excellent option for both beginners and enthusiasts. The intuitive controls and user interface are easy to navigate, and there's even a helpful Guide Mode that provides tips and assistance for those who are new to DSLR photography. I've appreciated the camera's lightweight and compact design, which makes it easy to carry around for extended periods without feeling fatigued. The battery life is also impressive, allowing me to shoot without constantly worrying about recharging. The D3300's ability to shoot Full HD video is a bonus. It captures smooth and clear videos with excellent color reproduction. In summary, the Nikon D3300 Digital SLR with the included 18-55mm VR II Zoom Lens is a fantastic choice for anyone looking to step up their photography game. It delivers exceptional image quality, ease of use, and versatility in a compact and affordable package. Whether you're a beginner or a more experienced photographer, this camera is sure to impress.

It's been a long time since I've bought myself a new camera, and I wanted something a step up from the super-zoom bridge cameras I've been using. I purchased the D3300, and I'm happy with my decision. The camera comes with the usual set of accessories, and an Auto Focus-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II Zoom Lens. The camera itself seems well built despite being largely rubberized plastic. The tripod mount is thankfully made from metal. The 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II Lens is pretty good for a kit lens. Again there's a lot of plastic on the outside, but it has very good glass as I'm having very good results with it. Together with the camera, it's a fairly lightweight combo for a DSLR. The camera is on the small side which I consider a positive thing. It has good ergonomics, and the controls are laid out well. I'm still getting used to the Nikon menus, and fine tuning the settings. After charging the battery which took little over an hour, I took several dozen pictures and some HD video using the default camera settings just to get an idea what kind of results to expect. I shot in Program Mode and JPEG (Fine). For the most parts the results ranged from excellent to good. Shots taken outside in good lighting conditions were excellent all around. Colors were vibrant and accurate. Reds were slightly exaggerated, but only slightly and no big deal to me. Also all the pictures seemed a little "soft" to me. This was easily corrected/improved though by bumping up the camera's Sharpness Setting a couple of steps. Changing it from the default +3 to +5 (on a scale of 0 to +9) made the pictures look much better. So far that's the only change I've need to make to be almost totally satisfied with my outdoor results. My indoor/poor lighting pictures are a work in progress. By no means were my results poor though. They were actually pretty good, but I know there's room for improvement. Even using the default settings though, the results surpassed anything my bridge cameras produce. I'm still learning how to get the best results with my new Nikon D3300, but the fact it can still produce good results right out of the box tells me things will only get better. As for my video results, they were very good too. I actually have little interest in taking video with this camera, as it isn't the reason I purchased it. But I wanted to test it anyway. HD Video was clear and smooth using a very fast 633x 32GB SDHC UHS-I/U3 Card. I believe people planning on using it for video taking will be happy with it. Finally, the battery life seems very good too. I took over 200 pictures with and without the flash on, and several videos. I've also spent a lot of time with the screen on messing around in the menus. The battery is still showing about 25% left. I'm sure under normal usage I could get over 500 shots on a single charge. Here is a summary of the Pro's and Con's that I've found so far with the Nikon D3300. I've also attached a low light/no flash ISO 800 picture to show the camera can still take good pictures even in poor lighting conditions. Pro's: Price. Excellent image and video quality. Small and lightweight. Well built. Very good kit lens with image stabilization. Easy to use. Good battery life. Auto Mode works well for novices. Cons: Only has 3 resolutions and 1 aspect ratio (4:3). A lot of plastic. No in-camera battery charging. Fixed non-touch LCD screen. WiFi requires an external adapter.

After doing a ton of research, I decided on the D3300 and I'm so glad I did. I will say that my dad and father in law both are Nikon guys so that swayed me a little just because I know Nikon makes great quality products. This camera is easy to use and with lots of YouTube videos on the camera and how to use it, you can be shooting in modes like Aperture Priority Mode(my new favorite) in no time and I've never taken a photo with anything but auto mode so this is making photography really cool to learn. The camera has a great built in manual to help show you the setting adjustment options and what they mean so it is just such an easy camera to learn and get comfortable with. I decided on the D3300 over the D3400 because with the limitation of only being able to download a max 2MB picture using SnapBridge, I didn't need to spring for that feature as I just pop the memory card in to my PC to quickly download my images. This camera takes great photos, is light and feels good in your hand, and is a great price for all you get. I plan on enjoying this camera for years to come and am excited to progress my photography skills. I plan on purchasing 2 lenses down the road which are the 35mm and 55-200mm DX lenses but this kit lens will be just fine for now.

As far as I'm concerned, this is not a complete review because I've got considerably more to learn about the camera. However, some comments at this point, after several months of limited use, might be helpful to others. I consider this a strong 4-star rating, first of all (it's hard to get a 5-star rating from us - we don't want to help "inflate" the rating system, thus making it relatively useless). Is there a better camera in the price range with the same features? I have no way of knowing. But I'm leaving the rating as a very strong 4-star evaluation at this point to indicate significant satisfaction with the camera. To start, I've experienced NONE of the complaints a few others have had with this camera, particularly the lens distortion (most prominent, reportedly, at the extremes of 18 and 55 mm). I intentionally took some photos with the intent of "finding" the distortion, if present, and it just was not evident (one was taken in a room with shadows that highlighted all the edges between the walls and the ceiling on three walls, along with long furniture that extended from the facing wall out toward the camera. The distortion reported by some others simply was not evident. Speaking of the lens, it was a hard choice whether to keep this kit lens or the lens that went with the camera this replaces. I have my old Nikon D-70 that came with an 18-70mm lens, but it did not have the VR feature. The extra focal length out to 70 mm approximates the old 100mm lenses frequently used for portrait photography in the old 35mm film days, but I also don't do much portrait photography anymore. So I'm going to sell the D-70 with its 18-70mm lens and opt for this slightly shorter one with the VR feature. So far, with relatively limited use (but including several fairly short videos just to test that out), battery life is excellent. I have yet to recharge! The video quality is very nice. Of course audio isn't going to be studio quality, but that should not be expected. It is, however, quite adequate for "amateur" videos, and perhaps even YouTube-type videos. Using a tripod and a non-Nikon, non-autofocus telephoto zoom lens out to 300mm, I was very pleased with the quality. Getting it to focus properly manually, was a bit of a challenge given the subject and the distance, but that was a function of manual focus and the photographer, not the camera of course. Frankly, there are a lot of features on this camera, and I will likely NOT use them all, even in time. But having them is nice. I obtained an excellent D-3300 after-market book that has been and is likely to become very helpful, and separately recommend it: Nikon D3300 Digital Field Guide, by J. Dennis Thomas (Wiley Publishing), available through Amazon. I won't review it further except to say that it would be helpful for anyone just learning this camera even with considerable other photographic experience, as well as beginners, since it also contains basic instruction about photography (particularly digital) in addition to the model-specific instruction. In short, I am quite satisfied with the camera thus far, with much to learn. It was a major step up from my trusty old D-70, and cost considerably less than the D-70 did when it was new. Particularly with inflation over the years, LOWER cost for better features and quality is always welcome, even if technology costs are coming down. OH - I almost forgot size. I was actually surprised at how small this camera is. It is quite noticeable in comparison to the D-70. Some seem not to like it. My hands are not huge, but they're larger than many men, and I have quite long fingers. Yet it is not too small - in fact, I like the size even better than my old D-70, I think (and I really liked that camera).

Having used a Canon Powershot SX100 IS for the last six years, I decided it was finally time to switch over to DSLR cameras. I considered sticking with Canon at first, but I did not want a camera with an articulating LCD screen. I just cannot justify paying the extra price for video features that I will probably never use. I also thought it was unwise to invest in Canon's advanced and professional level cameras considering I do not have much experience with DSLRs. That left me with the Canon T3 and the SL1, but in the end I decided to go with the D3300. The first thing that caught my attention with the D3300 out of the box was how light and comfortable it feels in your hands. The camera grip is very smooth and big enough to allow enough friction for a secure grip. I also like how the lens retract, allowing the camera to be more compact and take up less space in your camera bag. The camera's menus and functions are very easy to use even when not using GUIDE Mode. I will admit that I studied the manual before using the camera, but even then I found the menus more accessible and less confusing than those of my old point-and-shoot camera. So far I have only taken pictures indoors in low-light conditions but the results have been very impressive. I turned Auto ISO sensitivity control off and set the ISO to 800 to see how the camera would handle low light situations without relying on using high ISO settings. The images looked sharp and crisp even though the camera used very slow shutter speeds without a tripod (Note: I had VR and noise reduction enabled). Granted, if your subject will require fast shutter speeds you will have to raise the ISO anyway unless you use another lens with a wider aperture. According to Snapsort the D3300 has better image quality than the Canon 70D, T5i, and SL1. I cannot confirm this myself though since I do not have any of those DSLRs to make a side-to-side comparison. I also tested the different release modes available but did not notice a significant difference between single frame and quiet shutter release mode. Maybe it is just me, but they sound the same to me. Continuous release mode has a maximum of 5 fps and up to 100 photographs can be taken in succession. The autofocus feature is fast and very easy to use. However, I should mention that thus far I have only taken pictures using Single-servo AF with Single-point AF. Overall I am very satisfied with my decision to go with the D3300. It is very lightweight, user-friendly, and most importantly, takes pictures with excellent image quality.

Update: For those looking to capture action photography when the subject is not near the camera (e.g., throwing a toy as a dog is running away from you, wildlife and bids), I highly suggest looking into the following lens: Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED Vibration Reduction Zoom Lens with Auto Focus for Nikon DSLR Cameras . Great camera, I purchased this mainly to take action shots of my dog. Luckily I purchased this around Black Friday and it was considerably cheaper than the normal selling price. I love this camera, I have no issues using it and by exporting the images as RAW format I am able to do post-processing in Adobe Softwares (i.e. Photoshop, Lightroom). I am by no means a pro photographer, simply someone who reads information online and then tries to go out and take pictures. Attached as some pictures I have taken as-is (i.e. no post-processing). I also have a few accessories that I found great, they are: - Remote Time Shutter SHOOT MC-DC2 Timer Remote Shutter for Nikon D90 D600 D610 D3100 D3200 D3300 D5000 D5100 D5200 D5300 D7000 Digital SLR Cameras . This is great for wanting to take long exposure shots, as well as when the camera is on a tripod. - Tripod AmazonBasics 50-Inch Lightweight Tripod with Bag - Telescope/Microscope T-adapter VITE T Adapter 1.25'' and T2 T Ring Adapter for Any Standard Nikon Lens and Telescope Microscope Metal . Great for taking images of the sky via a telescope, as well as microscope images. - Camera bag Medium Soft Padded Digital SLR Camera Travel Case/Bag with Clip-on Detachable and Adjustable Strap . Large and comfortable to carry. - Camera Cover EasyCover ECND3300B Silicone Camera Case for Nikon D3300/3400 (Black) . Gives protection and nice grip. - Starter Filters/Lens Kit 52mm Starter Accessory Kit for Nikon DSLR Bundle with Vivitar Wide Angle and Telephoto Lenses

Simply there appears to be a systemic failure in the Nikon DSLR product line where the camera fails and camera trying to keeps accessing the memory whether the camera is turned off or not. This drains the battery from full charge to dead in about 6 to 7 hours. This is called "green light of death" since the green LED is blinking on and off about every 5 seconds. This failure mode is discussed in a lot of NIKON blogs and technical pages and affects the Nikon DSLR product line. Just search for "Nikon green light of death". It is about a $200 repair. I purchased this camera in Nov of 2015, so it is no longer under warranty (one year). I have heard of Nikon reliability and excellent for years which is why I bought the Nikon system and it has taken superb pictures on my vacations. However I do expect my cameras to last more than 2 years without developing a problem. Considering the number of posts (and age of posts (starting in 2005) on the "green light of death" problem and that it apparently affects their WHOLE DSLR PRODUCT LINE I would have thought Nikon would have fixed this problem years ago. Apparently not. I will NOT buy another Nikon product in the future.

I just got this camera and I immediately tried it out. I absolutely love it. It took the cutest pictures of my dog and they look a little blurry on here but they came out so clear and amazing. I had another camera but it ended up not working great so this is a great replacement. I’m just a beginner, but it’s so easy to use and all I did was look up a YouTube video on the best settings for what I was looking for.