UPDATE: Although it probably isn't a newbie friendly camera, The widow of a professional photographer has offered to sell me his Nikon D2H with a 70-300mm AF G Lens for $200.00. I haven't seen it yet but it has about 2,000 shutter clicks on it. Will this be a good investment?
UPDATE: Although it probably isn't a newbie friendly camera, The widow of a professional photographer has offered to sell me his Nikon D2H with a 70-300mm AF G Lens for $200.00. I haven't seen it yet but it has about 2,000 shutter clicks on it. Will this be a good investment?
The D2H was a fine camera in its day. Very fast AF and a joy to handle. However its only 4.1 MP and I wouldn't take the ISO higher than 400. Adorama is selling one for $400 and I've seen them going for higher than $400 on E-bay so the price of $200 with the lens is a very good price.
Harry http://behret.smugmug.com/NANPA member How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
UPDATE: Although it probably isn't a newbie friendly camera, The widow of a professional photographer has offered to sell me his Nikon D2H with a 70-300mm AF G Lens for $200.00. I haven't seen it yet but it has about 2,000 shutter clicks on it. Will this be a good investment?
If you are willing to consider used cameras I would much rather recommend a Nikon D90 than the Nikon D2H. The D2H is a professional sports body from 2003-2004. As such, it has features which you may find contrary to an easy-to-use newbie body, as well as a rather high noise signature starting at ISO 400 and relatively small pixel count.
In good light and with simple subjects, 8" x 10" prints are no problem, but with more complicated subject matter and in poor light (indoors/night and without a decent flash) I think that you would struggle to appreciate the images compared to a more modern body like the D90 and newer.
The Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G is a consumer tele-zoom and works best if you think of it as a 70-200mm, f5.6-f8. It too is not designed for low-light and indoor images and the 300mm end is pretty soft.
Nothing wrong with the $200 price for the pair and yes, you could learn much from that body and lens, but it's not what I would necessarily recommend for your intended uses of, "macro photos of flowers and insects ... portraits of my grandkids and other family, and I also love doing landscapes. My passions are wildlife and kids portraits."
Again, I can recommend a used Nikon D90 (in the $300s-USD), but for the above uses I think that you need a larger budget. Certainly you could start smaller and build to a more complete kit.
Figure $350-ish for a used D90 plus add a used flash and flash modifier plus add a few lenses. If you give us your priorities on what you want to achieve first we can be more explicit on recommendations for first lenses.
Thanks, this answers a big question I had. Whether it would be difficult to figure out. The ISO use is also an important factor. I did notice that the batteries were ridiculously expensive for this camera.
Comments
The D2H was a fine camera in its day. Very fast AF and a joy to handle. However its only 4.1 MP and I wouldn't take the ISO higher than 400. Adorama is selling one for $400 and I've seen them going for higher than $400 on E-bay so the price of $200 with the lens is a very good price.
http://behret.smugmug.com/ NANPA member
How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
If you are willing to consider used cameras I would much rather recommend a Nikon D90 than the Nikon D2H. The D2H is a professional sports body from 2003-2004. As such, it has features which you may find contrary to an easy-to-use newbie body, as well as a rather high noise signature starting at ISO 400 and relatively small pixel count.
In good light and with simple subjects, 8" x 10" prints are no problem, but with more complicated subject matter and in poor light (indoors/night and without a decent flash) I think that you would struggle to appreciate the images compared to a more modern body like the D90 and newer.
The Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G is a consumer tele-zoom and works best if you think of it as a 70-200mm, f5.6-f8. It too is not designed for low-light and indoor images and the 300mm end is pretty soft.
Nothing wrong with the $200 price for the pair and yes, you could learn much from that body and lens, but it's not what I would necessarily recommend for your intended uses of, "macro photos of flowers and insects ... portraits of my grandkids and other family, and I also love doing landscapes. My passions are wildlife and kids portraits."
Again, I can recommend a used Nikon D90 (in the $300s-USD), but for the above uses I think that you need a larger budget. Certainly you could start smaller and build to a more complete kit.
Figure $350-ish for a used D90 plus add a used flash and flash modifier plus add a few lenses. If you give us your priorities on what you want to achieve first we can be more explicit on recommendations for first lenses.
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