Nikon D3300 Advice

vorman

vorman

Expert Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2016
Messages
1,184
Reaction score
63
Location
Cape Town
Good Day

Just need advice regarding the Nikon D3300. I would say I am a beginner to photography but know my way around a camera and the features of it. I would not want a bridge camera but can neither afford an intermediate model.
I wish to do astrophotography and have researched the Nikon D3300. I do understand it has an ISO of 12600, upgrade-able to 25000.

Has anyone here used this model and has any advice for me? (Even more so, if you have used this camera for astro, and type of lens used)

Many Thanks
 
I used to have a D3200 but I never shot astro with it, with a Fullframe it's a different story:

DSC_4419.png

First tell us what lenses you have, I can give you some general advice from there?

Lots can be shot with an entry level setup like yours. You're not even going to get close to using ISO 12600 for astro so don't worry about it. Max I've shot at was 6400 both on a D800E and a D600. But realistically you'd want to shoot 1600-3200 because I assume the noise on that baby is going to be next level!
 
Last edited:
prOd said:
I used to have a D3200 but I never shot astro with it, with a Fullframe it's a different story:

View attachment 391418

What lenses do you have?

Lots can be shot with an entry level setup like yours. You're not even going to get close to using ISO 12600 for astro so don't worry about it. Max I've shot at was 6400 both on a D800E and a D600.
Click to expand...


Well Dion has a deal with the following: NIKON - D3300 + 18-55DX LENS + 55-200VR LENS +16GB+WU-1A + SBAG
For R7900, online says a different story though.i have seen the R7900 deal in store.

Any advice regarding both the kit lens for astro and just everyday general photogrpahy? Would you recommend another lens to purchase?

Another factor for me was the AF points of only 11, something to worry about?
 
vorman said:
Well Dion has a deal with the following: NIKON - D3300 + 18-55DX LENS + 55-200VR LENS +16GB+WU-1A + SBAG
For R7900, online says a different story though.i have seen the R7900 deal in store.

Any advice regarding both the kit lens for astro and just everyday general photogrpahy? Would you recommend another lens to purchase?

Another factor for me was the AF points of only 11, something to worry about?
Click to expand...

I'd go for a 35mm 1.8 or a 50mm 1.8 above those kit lenses. The 35mm more so since it's pretty good for everyday photography as well. The 50mm is just as good but you're limiting your field of view tremendously with one of those on a APS-C body. Both of those are amazing quality and you'd want something that allows in a lot of light anyway (f/1.8).

You're not going to be using AF with astro, it's almost impossible for the camera to focus on stars on a very dark night, so AF points are of no use here. It's all manual baby!

By the way, if you're ever concerned about the possibilities of shooting with entry level gear then check this guy out: www.lonelyspeck.com. He shot some crazy milkyway photos using low level gear, even cellphones & point and shoots. Another thing to consider is that milkyway 'season' is coming to an end now. So if you're in a rush then I've got bad news for you, the milkyway won't be completely visible up until April sometime next year. Is astro your main reason for buying?
 
Last edited:
You would probably (at some stage) also require a telescope adapter kit.
 
prOd said:
I used to have a D3200 but I never shot astro with it, with a Fullframe it's a different story:

View attachment 391418

First tell us what lenses you have, I can give you some general advice from there?

Lots can be shot with an entry level setup like yours. You're not even going to get close to using ISO 12600 for astro so don't worry about it. Max I've shot at was 6400 both on a D800E and a D600. But realistically you'd want to shoot 1600-3200 because I assume the noise on that baby is going to be next level!
Click to expand...

What prOd said, I have the D3200 and the noise is very bad from 1600, so I won't even try to go to 12600... It will not be a nice picture. As far as I know the D3200 and D3300 is very similar with noise etc...
 
Astrophotography has moved away from the film paradigm where the photo must be taken in a single exposure. The common practice now is to use stacking software where multiple images are combined into a single final image. Among other things this stacking also removes the random sensor noise from the final image. The important thing is to ensure that during exposure the signal level from each image is above the noise level of the post-sensor ADC. From a friend's B3200 that I played around with this ADC noise does not seem to be too much of a problem on this series of Nikons. To put it another way just turn the ISO up to 1600 to 3200 and stack the images.

Lonelyspeck has some articles on stacking. If you want to go all out then there a couple of Linux distributions dedicated to astronomy and image processing. Examples are Distro Astro and the Fedora Astronomy Spin.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X