The general lack of responses actually does give me more information about my original question than the non-responsive answers. It tells me people in this forum are not familiar with the tutorials, which is a perfectly fine result to my query.

I come and go at this forum. Sometimes I read it every day, sometimes I get so fed up with it that I go away for months. The reason I get fed up is when someone asks for help, so many times the thread gets clogged with non-responsive responses. Personally, I would rather get no responses than non-responsive responses.

I guess now I'll go away for a few months until I get suckered back in to thinking there might be something useful in this forum.

Well then I don't need to hear from them.

It doesn't help me to tell me about other tutorials, etc., but thanks for trying. I wanted to hear from people who actually used this particular tutorial and what those people thought of the tutorials.

Has anyone used these tutorials? It's a lot of money to plunk down, and I'm looking for feedback.
http://www.elialocardi.com/

Artisan State

http://www.artisanstate.com/photo-book/layflat.html

I've seen a couple of their books but never used them. Very very nice.

This is a not accurate. A 35mm crop sensor lens has the same depth of field as a 35mm full sensor lens. The crop factor simply enlarges the photo, it doesn't change the depth of field in the photo. Both lenses spread the subject out and push it away, exactly the same way. If I take an image with a 35mm crop sensor lens on a crop sensor camera and do the same with a 35 mm full frame lens on a full frame camera,
from the exact same spot, and crop the full frame images to match the crop sensor images, they resulting images should be identical.

But a 52.5 mm lens, both crop and full sensor will produce images that have a different depth of field than the 35 mm lens. The images will not be equal. If I take a 35mm crop sensor lens on a crop sensor camera, take the same image with a 52.5 lens on a full sensor camera, crop them to the same size, the images will not be equal, the depth of field will be different!

This is important in portrait photography since with portraits of people, you want to go to the telephoto side of 50mm for the more flattering depth of field rather than wide angle side of 50mm with the spread out depth of field. A 35mm or 50mm crop sensor lens on a crop sensor camera will not get you the effect you want for portraits.

Portraits - to flatter the subject of a portrait, you want over 50mm. That makes the 85mm the better lens for portraits of the ones you listed.

Wide angle lenses like the 35 mm spread your subject out. When you get above 50 mm, or telephoto, you narrow your subject.

I would want all three of these lenses. But if your primary goal is portraits of people, 85mm will be the most flattering to people.

This assumes that the only use for more pixels is for those who want to enlarge images. It overlooks cropping.

I have a Nikon D810, and various lenses. There are times when I just cannot frame the shot to fill the frame. If my subject is only 50% of the image, then cropping takes my 36.3 MP down to 18 MP. You cannot always move forward or switch lenses to fill the frame.

I do like having the ability to crop an image and still have enough pixels to do a good enlargement or make a nice print.

There are many factors that I consider first before the number of MP when choosing a camera, low light sensitivity being one of the biggies. But doesn't the MP race facilitate improvements in sensors and low light sensitivity?

Best Buy ran an ad last weekend for the D5500 with 18-55mm lens for $500 or thereabouts. This kit normally sells for $850. A friend of mine went into the store with the ad and they honored it. They didn't have the camera in stock at that store, but ordered it for him to ship to his home for the advertised price. The online price has since been fixed, but if you can find the print ad and get to a store, they should honor the price.

Yes, you can get better advice than this.

The OP did not ask whether he should buy new equipment, he asked what new equipment to buy. Give him some respect for being able to make up his own mind about whether to spend money, and answer the question he asked, not the question you want to answer.

Purchase what makes you happy. Some people are happier if they know they have a less expensive camera feeling joy at having a bargain. Some people are happier if they know they have the best camera they can afford feeling joy in knowing they have the best tool they could buy. Either way, the cameras you are talking about can take equally good pictures, as long as the person using them is happy.

Have you ever used an SLR before? If you answer no, then I am going to say to nix the 50mm for now. Eventually, you will want a 50mm, but you may want to splurge and get an f/1.4. Or you may decide you want a fast 35mm. So don't make that decisions yet until you know what you are doing. The 18-55 is going to be a good range for you for now. Get used to the camera, and then decide what prime you want.

If you have used an SLR before, you should know the answers yourself and I don't need to tell you what lenses to buy.

I'm going to suggest that you check out a special on QVC right now. A Canon Rebel T5, 18-55 & 75-300mm lenses, & case - $449.00, free shipping right now. I'm only suggesting because the T5 is newer but has the same megapixels. Other places have the same price, but if you qualify for a QVC credit card and use it for the purchase, you can buy it on easy pay, meaning you can make 6 payments interest free. No finance charges.

I'm so glad you posted this. I've been looking at the Tamron & Sigma and did not know the Nikon had one in the range. I will add the Nikon to my list to review.

You forgot Android vs. iPhone, and Star Trek vs. Star Wars, and Superman vs. Batman.

When it comes to tripods, you get what you pay for. This is not an area to skimp. A good tripod with a good ball-head is worth every penny. I have a Really Right Stuff ball head with an L bracket and a 3-legged-thing Eddie travel tripod and they are a breeze to carry yet very strong.