New camera - Nikon D3100

[bhk]

Well, I tried it out properly this morning and a selection of pix & comments are available RIGHT HERE!

[sgtmajor]

Lovely shots indeed Bruce......Looks like it was a wonderful day!!!

Many Thanks as usual!!! (smile)

Cheers,

[bhk]

Thanks, Steve.
Yes, it was a nice morning, albeit rather windy.
My wife rode her bicycle on a 10Km round trip to "work" & back and said that coming home at 2:30 was like trying to ride up Mt. Everest, the headwind was so strong!

Some info for Roger & Tom on the camera, as they were interested in it:-

There is a feature called "Live View", operated by a switch on the back above the screen.
This is used for recording movies, where the scene is viewed via the screen and not through the SLR viewfinder.
But it can also be used as an alternative to the viewfinder when taking still photographs - the mirror is raised and the viewfinder is blanked out.

So in essence this SLR offers the user the best of both worlds - for those (like me) who prefer a viewfinder because of the difficulty in seeing an image on the screen in bright daylight, there is the SLR mode.
For those who are happy with a screen, then it's available as an option.

For video recording, only the monitor mode can be used because movies are only recordable in "Live View" mode.

[Deleted]

Good stuff Bruce and nice shots, so thanks for that. I'm pausing to think about what to do now, and here's the reason.

I've got two 'pre-paid' phones at the moment, an English one and a French one, both steam-driven with small screens and totally un-smart (a bit like their owner). I've had a re-think and have decided to buy a new dual-sim smartphone from China that will give me what I've always said I'd never have, which is a live internet connection. I have to say that there were times recently, eg on our west coast tour, when it would have been great to have been able to check on weather and update our flight plan in real time, which was impossible at the time but would have been easy on a smartphone with a reasonable size screen and an internet connection.

I think the latest models with 5.5" screens (iPhone 6+ size) are too big for a normal pocket so I've gone for one called the G+ 5s with a 5" screen and ordered it last night. One of the features it comes with is a 16 MP camera, so I'm going to wait and see how good it is and what it does. I think this is why a lot of good digital cameras are coming onto the s/h market - people are using their phones to take pictures with nowadays. Anyway, I'm going to wait and see - the last thing I need is another camera to add to my (unwillingly) growing collection if I will have little or no use for it!



I'll let you know how it goes - but not for a month or so as it usually takes 20-30 days for stuff to arrive from China.

Roger

[bhk]

Makes sense, Roger. Particularly as you have a need for something to "internet" with when you travel.

[Keith]

Bruce, how do you like the 3100? I was thinking of getting one. I have a d7200 but want something a little less expensive to just take out wherever I go. How is the manual focus on it?