Got it - thanks

I doubt that - perhaps art type photo can be created by AI - but how would it do so to document, for example, a couple’s wedding, or a young girl’s sweet-16 party?

Is it me you are accusing of creating click bait - is so, how so?

I think the entire debate and the surrounding "concerns" are ridiculous. Back when film replaced glass plates, or more recently the dominance of digital imaging over film- did any of those changes kill photography? Much ado about nothing.

Enjoy your retirement!!

AI is a designation used by Nikon to indicate lenses that are “auto indexing” - which means they linked the maximum aperture of the lens to the camera’s metering system automatically as the lens was mounted on to the camera body.

How is manually focusing a “waste of time?” - seems more like someone expressing a preference rather than wasting their time. As well, there are situations in which manual focusing is actually a better decision and, in such cases, a true manual focus lens is preferable, by several orders of magnitude, than an AF lens where focus by wire is fiddly at best.

Why patronize “shady” dealers at all? More than a few reputable dealerships available.

Before considering Abe’s of Maine - check reviews on them as well. Or simply stick with the major reputable dealers like B&H, Adorama, Roberts. If you also wanted to see what’s available on the used market, add KEH and MPB to the list.

When “camera dealer” and “Brooklyn, NY” are mentioned in the same breath - avoidance is the best recommendation. Just check out their less than sterling reviews. There are many reputable dealers including B&H, Adorama, Roberts etc. where you can purchase Canon cameras - is a supposedly lower price attracting you? Camera retail prices are set by the manufacturer - reputable, authorized dealers are required to stick to those prices.

And these ripoff artists get excessive prices because some people are stupid enough to pay them

Yes - the actual lens focal length of the lens is 23mm. Coupling that the crop sensor it provides a field of view akin to what a 35mm lens provides on a full frame camera. For that reason the camera is generally represented as having a 35mm “equivalent” lens.

Just looked him up on YouTube and watched this tutorial on depth of field - my opinion - lackluster. The only thing he talked about is shooting at either f/16 or f/2.8 (as if aperture was the sole determinant) leaving out any detail about where point of focus needs to be (for deep depth of field photos) and the effect that camera to subject distance has on depth of field. A newcomer to photography would be getting less than half the story from this tutorial. Perhaps his courses are better but I’ve seen other tutorials offered (for free) on the topic that do a much better job at really explaining the topic.

https://youtu.be/JeD0KTVZ33I?si=ZaM2kqSYYwYkbwoI

I think you’re confusing MP and MB. A full size JPEG might be 24MP (megapixels) which is the resolution but the file would likely be around 8-10MB (megabytes) which is the file size.

If you do decide to purchase just be sure you are getting a Nikon USA version. Third party sources that are not Nikon authorized dealers sell import or so-called Gray Market versions - if you need repair service on such, Nikon will not do the repair even if you are willing to pay out of pocket.