An honest review of the Nikon D3000 DSLR Camera.
Hey there folks! Thanks for coming to this week’s edition of the Golden Hour Girl Blog. This week is the first (of hopefully many ) product reviews! First up we have the Nikon D3000 DSLR camera. AKA my first big-girl camera. AKA the absolute best beginner camera out there.
I might be slightly biased.
First up, the boring, but important stuff, the nitty gritty. AKA the technical specifications of the camera.
Name: Nikon D3000
Weight: 536g (1.2lb) - super light for a DSLR!
Megapixels: 10.2
Image Sensor: Nikon DX Cropped
Monitor: 3” fixed LCD Screen
ISO Range: 100-1600
Continuous Shooting: 3 frames per second
6 Scene Modes: Portrait, Landscape, Child, Sports, Close-Up & Night Portrait
Now on to the fun stuff. Honestly, I absolutely love this camera. It was my main camera for over ten years and it’s the camera that got me into photography. Even though I’ve recently upgraded, I can’t bear to sell it!
This camera is the ultimate beginner camera. It is the perfect camera to introduce someone into the world of DSLRs. One might ask, what makes this camera so special for beginners? Well I’m glad you asked! It’s because this camera features the fundamental beginner’s tool – Guide Mode.
Guide Mode is a beginner’s dream. It essentially teaches someone how to operate the camera to obtain the desired outcome. Even better yet, there is an easy operation and an advanced guide mode.
With easy operation, through various menus and selections, the photographer is able to select their situation, such as close-up, and the camera selects the appropriate aperture, ISO, shutter speed, etc. In advanced guide mode the camera guides the photographer towards aperture priority or shutter speed priority based on the situation selected.
This is honestly the most incredible tool for a beginner photographer! It helped me so much when I was just starting to dabble in the photography world.
Another amazing feature of this camera, the Nikon D3000 is the battery life. I swear it lasts forever! This is perfect for any new photographer that wants a camera that they can take on trips such as backpacking or camping where they won’t have access to an outlet at all hours of the day.
The specs say the camera battery lasts for around 500 photos. To be quite honest mine always lasted much longer than this. I could go days with significant shooting and still never worry about the battery life – which trust me is a HUGE relief for any photographer, no matter your ability level.
In order to make this an honest product review and show you all that I’m not extremely biased, I must point out a few things that aren’t the bees knees with the Nikon D3000. In my opinion, there are three main cons that I want to point out:
1. While guide mode is great for beginner photographers, it is not something more experienced photographers will enjoy. The Nikon D3000 lacks the control of a more expensive DSLR, something a more advanced photographer will be looking for. However, coming from someone who used this camera for oven ten years – it has plenty of features and control for most photographers, especially beginners!
2. With only 10.2 megapixels, the Nikon D3000 doesn’t have the best image quality out there. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still amazing. But, can you blow up the images to the size of the wall in your bedroom? No. Luckily, most new photographers don’t need to make their photographs that large. Any standard photo size will come out nice and crisp! – PS – all of the pictures in this week’s blog post were taken with this beauty of a camera.
3. The camera doesn’t shoot videos. Truthfully this was not a huge deal breaker for me. I wasn’t huge into shooting video when I got the camera, and any videos I did want, I would just take on my phone. However, when I decided to upgrade my camera, I did look for one that was able to shoot videos. It was a nice feature that I’d like to have as I grow up a bit and start thinking about having a family (eventually… don’t freak out mom and dad ).
But honestly, I plan on having my new camera for a LONG time and that will eventually include my life with kids, and it would be nice to be able to take some quality videos with my camera. It definitely comes down to your personal preference on this one.
So let’s sum this bad boy up, shall we? I absolutely love my Nikon D3000 DSLR camera. It is the camera that fuelled my photography passion and gave me the confidence to turn my hobby into a business. I highly recommend it for brand new photographers, or photographers looking to get their first DSLR camera. It’s incredibly user-friendly and surprisingly capable.
If you have any questions that you’d like to ask about this beauty of a camera, hit your girl up. I’d love to chat about it!
Now, before I wrap up this blog post, I have to give a shout out to my parents, who bought me this incredible camera many years ago. They believed in my passion, and they allowed me to become the photographer that I am today. Thanks Momo & Popo <3
Alright, enough with the mushy gushy. If you even remotely liked this week’s blog please give your girl a like, comment and share with your friends! I’m looking forward to our next product review!
Until next time,
I love this! The D3000 was my first DSLR as well and honestly, I recently pulled it out and shot a few images of my little one with it and it still delivers....even though I've moved up a few models this little camera definitely is worth it's bang for the buck....