The price to performance of used cameras is absurd. My view is that digital photography tech hit maturity in 2008 with the release of the Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D700.
There is an overwhelming amount of professional gear out there at rock bottom prices. Consumer gear can be a blast when it’s cheap enough. The right camera for a style of shooting is going to be better than whatever the newest camera happens to be. (Unless you’re doing sports/action/wildlife. AF tech is getting absurd.)
Third Party Battery Paranoia
I have had batteries fall apart, fail within months, and with a capacity far below what’s on the label. It’s difficult to find good quality third party batteries.
There is an easy way ANYONE can inexpensively capacity test camera batteries. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to capacity test camera batteries. It is a simple DIY project that only requires, ~$30, a screwdriver, and pair of wire strippers.
Picking Out Vintage Lens Winners
All lenses aren’t equal, especially when it comes to vintage and early digital camera lenses. Modern lenses will give you images that are razor sharp corner to corner. Vintage lenses can set themselves apart by how they render, the color you can get with them, interesting bokeh, or other characteristics not valued by current photographers.
On the other hand, many vintage lenses are not good. Their performance may not be good enough to set them apart from other lenses. Worse, as time has gone on some lenses have defects such as haze, fungus, balsam separation, or degraded grease, that will render them worthless because of the difficulty in repair.
I’m somewhat indiscriminate in my purchasing of gear, so I get a mix of good, bad, and average. The lens reviews will help you find a lens worth owning. These are popular film cameras that recieve frequent lens questions.
Professional cameras have better ergonomics, built quality, and features. They are often better than newer entry level cameras.
Lens costs have not been included. Every system has a kit zoom, 50mm f1.8, or equivalent standard lens that can easily be found for less than $100.
Cameras have been ordered roughly in terms of price to performance. Availability can be an issue for cameras lower on the list. This is due to the systems not being supported for very long due to poor sales.
There are 188 Nikon Coolpix cameras. 165 use SD memory cards. 20 can use Compact Flash (CF) cards with a maximum capacity of 2GB or smaller. 3 only have internal memory.
Older Nikon Coolpix cameras have hardware limitations that prevent them from working with newer, larger capacity memory cards. It’s like they can make a phone call, as long as it doesn’t require an area code. As a result, a camera might be limited to using up to 2GB or 32GB maximum capacity.
Here are 5 cameras that you can find for under $200. They can be found with lens, battery, charger, and hopefully a memory card.
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Bad news, mushrooms are growing in the lens. This can also be seen in prisms, viewfinders, digital sensor filters, and other optics.
Lens fungus is the mycelium from fungal growth. There are multiple types of fungus that can grow.
The optimal conditions for fungal growth are a temperature range of 10C to 35C, relative humidity of 70% or higher, and darkness. For instance a damp camera bag or basement during a period of heavy rain.
Used D3000 cameras fall into a price range of $125 to $200. The difference will be due to condition and accessories included.
Nikon D3000 Battery Type & Replacements
The Nikon D3000 uses a Lithium-Ion EN-EL9a rechargeable battery & charger.
The battery can not be charged via USB. This means a battery charger will be necessary.
Third party battery chargers will be less expensive than OEM Nikon chargers. There will usually be an option to get one bundled with a third party battery purchase.
Nikon digital cameras use a variety of memory cards. The most common are SD cards and CompactFlash.
Older cameras can be limited by the maximum capacity of a memory card. Larger capacity cards will cause errors. The camera will not work.
If the camera model is not prominantely displayed, look at the bottom of the camera. There should be a sticker with the model name, number, and possibly a serial number.