I bought a really excellent condition Nikon D5300 and kit lens the other day.  It was too cheap to pass up and after using the exif checker, this camera had only been used for about 4000 pictures.  I thought it would be nice to have a simple light camera that has a flip out screen for higher/lower angles.  I hadn’t owned a Nikon with a twisty screen since my Coolpix 8700 way back in the day.

This camera combo is pretty nice and light, especially after slinging so many different boat anchor kits over the years.  Yes many of the features and quickness of focus has been usurped by the latest mirrorless cameras, but this 2013 camera has a pretty powerful “engine.”  A 24 megapixel APS-C sensor that produces 14-bit RAWs without an AA filter.  And plus it’s old enough that I can still use my also ancient NX2 software.  The files process pretty quickly too, so that’s always a benefit of using older tech.

It’s funny, in the car scene you often see stickers that read: “Respect your elders”  Old cars will always have an appeal, if you give it enough time.  Hopefully cameras from this era will come around again once the next generation realizes that they were designed to be pure imaging powerhouses.

The D5300 and pretty much every consumer level DSLR of this era going back 15+ years was never really about style. They were designed to be used but not coveted for their product design looks. They don’t really photograph well since there aren’t hard or straight lines like a vintage film camera or modern Fuji.  When you see them hanging around someone’s neck with the default camera strap, it screams dad’s seldom used camera that is only brought out for graduations and family trips. These Nikon/Canon lower tier DSLR’s are the equivalent of New Balance shoes. The dad shoe and dad camera–both comfortable and not flashy.  But as always in the right hands and lighting situation they still sing.  Even with that so so kit lens.

So here are some sample photos taken this fall, which alternated from warm, to crazy cold, back to hot again.  For these next few posts I’ll be featuring the shots only taken with each individual camera.  That way no camera or lens combo outshines the others, which they almost always do.

For these next photos I did swap out the kit lens for the much nicer (obviously) 70-200 2.8 and 105mm 2.8

I might take this camera combo along for future work stuff.  Since it’s so light, uses the same battery as my Df, and lasts quite a long time on a charge.  Any DSLR that you don’t have to constantly worry about charging is great in my opinion.

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See how the D5300 performed in these other settings:

Spring Photos + Nikon D5300

Holi Color Festival – Dunwoody, GA 2024