jim in TC Loc: Traverse City, Michigan

I am happy to have just found this forum!

As a long-time enthusiastic amateur, and missing the experience of my old SLR days I am ready to upgrade from a little Canon point/shoot that has actually served me well and a Fuji X20 that is just not quite nice enough. I shoot landscape, mostly, but like to tinker with very close up stuff. Fast action and focal lengths needed for wildlife are not particularly an issue. Favorite shots might get printed, never larger than (and almost always smaller than) 16x20 or so.

Other things equal, I will work with my local camera shop, unless selection becomes an issue. The further I can stay under $1,000 the better, though I would stretch a bit to lens up later if necessary.

I am looking at Nikon D3300/3400 at a good price with a lens kit (18-55mm and 55-300 mm) or D5500 but without some of the promo pricing. They carry Canon but do not seem too thrilled with Canon's lower end DSLRs compared to Nikon. Thoughts on that? I do like the relatively small size of the D3300/3400. One of the changes with the new 3400 is the elimination of a sensor cleaner in the camera. Do those things work very well, or is a (carefully done) manual cleaning the best way to maintain anyway? Both are currently available, but D3300 will be gone for good when sold out.

Intriguing, and also with some holiday promotions, are a couple offerings in the Olympus OM-D mirroless series, with smaller size and interesting features. They have a Fuji model I haven't yet looked at.

For macro work it seems that the options are a standalone lens, which the camera shop people strongly recommend or an inexpensive screw-on closeup ring. Nikon and Olympus both offer a closeup ring - any specific experiences with them?

Are there thoughts or experiences on sensor quality between Nikon low end DSLR and Olympus OM-D (and Canon, for that matter)?

Of some small concern is battery life in the mirrorless, which I am told is substantially less than DSLR. What are your experiences there? I don't need to cover an all-day wedding shoot or like that, and am willing to carry a spare if necessary.

General thoughts on the mirrorless experience will be appreciated. The OM-D series has a viewfinder built in, which is, for me, an essential feature.

RobertW Loc: Breezy Point, New York

Made the change from Nikon Kit long ago to Olympus and with EM-1----Extremely happy with it ------- For walkaround though, still with Leica D-Lux 6 and ancient Minox IIIs------I have been unable to discern any advantage in using DSLR unless need for sports action

orrie smith Loc: Kansas

The Nikon d3300 would work fine for the photos you will be taking, the d5500 would be a nice upgrade, but maybe not necessary for the type of photography you described. The nice thing about Nikon is you may use older lenses, saving money, where it is harder, if not impossible, with canon to use the older lenses. as for close ups, macro primes would be your best choice for lenses, costly, but very nice lenses. I realize that you are not asking about other models from Nikon, but if you could stand the price difference, the d7100 is also something to look at. the image quality is not significant, but the d7100 uses a focus motor built into the camera so you may use any autofocus lenses made by Nikon, whereas the d3300 and d5500 needs lenses that have autofocus motors built into the lenses to work.

n3eg Loc: West coast USA

The OM-D is a good camera for those with the bigger hands who don't want to give up that much in size. The E-M1 II is the largest of the group.
I do just fine with the smaller E-PL5 (no viewfinder, hate 'em) and I can shoot for a few hours with the LCD on continuously.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Yes - the sensor cleaning does help. I'm surprised that Nikon took this advanced technology out of their lowest tier camera. It's not perfect. The more you expose your camera to situations where dust can get inside, the sooner you'll need to manually clean the sensor regardless of the camera's sensor cleaning technology.

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

The sensor cleaning is just vibration of the sensor. When my sensor needs cleaning the vibration built in never has helped and I must clean it manually - initially it was frightening to do but not anymore. With or without that technology you'll need a quality sensor cleaning kit.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

So have you turned off the sensor cleaning mode altogether?
I've wondered how effective it is, just never bothered to see.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

There's nothing low-end with the OMD series...especially the new em1ii.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

The removal of vibration sensor cleaning on the D3400 is how the battery life was upped from 700 shots per charge to 1200 shots per charge.

I will add that I have the in camera sensor cleaning turned off in all my cameras, Nikon and Canon alike, mostly for just that reason, increased battery life, it does make a big difference. I also clean my sensor after every shooting excursion so I do not miss the feature at all.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Amen to that!

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

I'm finding that with mirrorless through firmware updates, my circa 2013 original em1 still performs to today's standards. Not sure that dslrs can say that.

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

Yes, it stays off on mine.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Only problem is the D7100 can not mount the pre-ais or non-ais manual focus nikkor film lenses without modifying them.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Fuji is very good about updates as well.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Probably the best of the bunch from what I've read up on.