Nikon D800E for a Beginner? My niece may have an opportunity to acquire a used D800E from her late great uncle’s estate at a bargain price with some good lenses. She is a beginner but...

JonathanChemE

My niece may have an opportunity to acquire a used D800E from her late great uncle’s estate at a bargain price with some good lenses. She is a beginner but shoots mainly for a local newspaper. She does no post processing now but is planning to take a course. Would this be good for her or would it potentially just frustrate her? This question is mainly for Nikon users and I don’t know much about this camera other than what I read at the BH site. Right now she uses a CanonT100.

BebuLamar

Should work fine for her. It's a nice camera.

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

I have a D800, basically the same camera. It takes some getting used to in order to get good results. If she’s been using a camera with the preprogrammed modes, it takes some getting used to. If she was using an old manual SLR, it would be really easy to learn the 800E.

I’m sure it’s not as good at low light as today’s cameras, but I’m very satisfied with the results. Large file sizes will take up a lot of computer memory but you can do some really serious cropping and still have a good image. It’s fairly large and moderately heavy, especially so when combined with the heavy pro quality lenses. Kind of slow at rapid fire shots and you can out shoot the processor fairly quickly. The additional battery grip speeds things that up but adds additional weight.

I like mine.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

JonathanChemE wrote:

My niece may have an opportunity to acquire a used D800E from her late great uncle’s estate at a bargain price with some good lenses. She is a beginner but shoots mainly for a local newspaper. She does no post processing now but is planning to take a course. Would this be good for her or would it potentially just frustrate her? This question is mainly for Nikon users and I don’t know much about this camera other than what I read at the BH site. Right now she uses a CanonT100.

There's no reason that a D800e would not be a good camera to start out on. Operation is incredibly straightforward, with almost no mysteries. I learned on a D200, and the D800 has the identical user interface.

She will, of course, have to navigate the switch from her T100 to the Nikon environment. Hopefully the estate can locate and provide her with the Operating Manual to assist with that. It should produce great JPEGs until she learns how to process raw files.

One important task will be checking that it has the latest firmware so that she can use respectably sized CF cards (although she may choose to stick with SD cards).

Orphoto Loc: Oregon

It is a very capable all rounder. The one limit i found was handholding shots when at full resolution. Solution, is like baseball...choke up on the bat. In photo terms get used to shooting in medium or small jpgs if lighting is less than ideal. Full size can be challenging.

btbg

JonathanChemE wrote:

My niece may have an opportunity to acquire a used D800E from her late great uncle’s estate at a bargain price with some good lenses. She is a beginner but shoots mainly for a local newspaper. She does no post processing now but is planning to take a course. Would this be good for her or would it potentially just frustrate her? This question is mainly for Nikon users and I don’t know much about this camera other than what I read at the BH site. Right now she uses a CanonT100.

You said that she shoots for a newspaper. As long as it isn't sports a D800E will be more than satisfactory. If she is trying to shoot sports then it is marginal.

It's a good camera. Simple enough to learn how to use, and has relatively little noise at lower ISOs. There is no reason that it should frustrate her. If she doesn't understand all the functions and capability of the camera she can always shoot on automatic while she is learning. Most of the people working for small papers shoot in auto mode virtually all the time anyway.

zug55 Loc: Naivasha, Kenya, and Austin, Texas

Here is the dilemma. This certainly is a fine camera that can get the job done. However, this does not address the ethical dilemmas this poses.

We should get away from the notion that DSLRs are good starter cameras for young people. The DSLR format is dead. We are not doing young people a service getting them into cameras that have nothing to do what photography is now and will be in the future.

flip1948 Loc: Hamden, CT

zug55 wrote:

Here is the dilemma. This certainly is a fine camera that can get the job done. However, this does not address the ethical dilemmas this poses.

We should get away from the notion that DSLRs are good starter cameras for young people. The DSLR format is dead. We are not doing young people a service getting them into cameras that have nothing to do what photography is now and will be in the future.

I don't see any ethical problem here at all. She can get the camera and lenses from a great uncle's estate at a good price.

I guess the great uncle wasn't into mirrorless. Should she wait for another relative to die that was?

Warhorse Loc: SE Michigan

flip1948 wrote:

I don't see any ethical problem here at all. She can get the camera and lenses from a great uncle's estate at a good price.

I guess the great uncle wasn't into mirrorless. Should she wait for another relative to die that was?

papagem Loc: Greensboro, NC via Bklyn NY

https://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/products/17/D800E.htmlHere is Nikons own party to download the users guide I have an 800 and when my daughter got married I needed a pair on legs to help me shoot her wedding cause I’m in an electric scooter the girl was a teacher at her school 10 minutes instruction and she did fine had never shot before great camera
George KN4JPB

Grahame Loc: Fiji

zug55 wrote:

Here is the dilemma. This certainly is a fine camera that can get the job done. However, this does not address the ethical dilemmas this poses.

We should get away from the notion that DSLRs are good starter cameras for young people. The DSLR format is dead. We are not doing young people a service getting them into cameras that have nothing to do what photography is now and will be in the future.

The DSLR format is certainly not dead.

Lukabulla

How did she get a Job as photographer for a local newspaper if Shes a Beginner and does no post processing .. ?

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

zug55 wrote:

Here is the dilemma. This certainly is a fine camera that can get the job done. However, this does not address the ethical dilemmas this poses.

We should get away from the notion that DSLRs are good starter cameras for young people. The DSLR format is dead. We are not doing young people a service getting them into cameras that have nothing to do what photography is now and will be in the future.

BebuLamar

zug55 wrote:

Here is the dilemma. This certainly is a fine camera that can get the job done. However, this does not address the ethical dilemmas this poses.

We should get away from the notion that DSLRs are good starter cameras for young people. The DSLR format is dead. We are not doing young people a service getting them into cameras that have nothing to do what photography is now and will be in the future.

OK get her an A1?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Grahame wrote:

The DSLR format is certainly not dead.

Unfortunately it is to some people.........