Welcome to my Cyber Monday series of travel gifts for active travelers. Until Christmas, I will be providing product reviews and recommendation on some of my favorite travel items. I meant to get this series started earlier but got caught up in moving to my new apartment and settling in my new job.
The first item I would like to feature is my Nikon D5300 Digital Dingle-Lens Reflex (DSLR) and three lens. My lens are a 10-20mm, an 24-85mm and a 70-300mm.
I selected a Nikon SLR for several reasons. The first and main was I had experience using my father’s Nikon D50 during my summer in Mount Rainier in 2010. It also helped that I had been drooling over DSLR’s for the last several years. Not just that it has a good features, it can also be used as a good vlogging camera, It can capture high quality videos that I will be needing while shooting my vlogs. I had tried several of the Nikon and Canon DSLR in the store and I liked the feel and weight of Nikon’s over Canon’s. Overall, Canon and Nikon cameras are of similar quality and price point. I am not really bothered by the Nikon vs Canon argument. I have had several Canon point and shoots over the years and loved them. Another point is that I like the fact that Nikon lenses zoom in when I turn them to the right vs Canon zoom in is to the left. It might seem like a small thing but trust me it matters. The D5300 has 24.2 million megapixels and can shoot 5 frames a second. It has an ISO range of 100 – 12,800 and a shutter speed range of 1/4000 to 30 sec.
I purchased my Nikon D5300 camera in October 2014 as a birthday present for myself. I had an interesting time getting my camera to me. I was working in Equatorial Guinea, West Africa at the time and wasn’t going to buy a camera there. My only option was to buy it in the USA and shipped it. The issue was at the time I wasn’t planning on going to visit my parents. In order to get my camera to me in Equatorial Guinea, I had to overnight the camera to one of my co-workers in the USA. He then very nicely brought it in his carry-on to me.
At the time, Nikon was running a great deal on a camera body and two lens. I also purchased an extra battery as well. With the sale and deal, it worked out cheaper to buy my camera directly from Nikon rather than on Amazon. If they weren’t on sale it would have been cheaper on Amazon. From Nikon, I purchased
- Nikon D5300 DSLR Camera Body
- AF-S NIKKOR 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR
- AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED
- EN-EL14a Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
I also have a Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras that was purchased from Amazon.
Since purchasing my DSLR, I have traveled with it to Colombia, Iceland, England, Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. The camera body and three lens weigh about 6 pounds. It is rather heavy in my backpack, but I love the flexibility of having three lenses. I am finding more that for hiking and wandering around I will take one or two lens based on what I am expecting to photograph.
I have some discovered some features I really love on this camera. The first is the fact that the camera GPS will geotag my photos automatically. The next and my favorite is the Wi-fi network that turns my cell phone into a camera remote. The wi-fi network also allows me to easily transfer my photos directly from my camera to my phone.
AF-S NIKKOR 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR
This is my main lens. I tend to put this on my camera and leave it. I can use it for some landscape photography and closer animal shots as well as some great closeup shots. I also use this lens for star and night photography.
AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED
This is my long range zoom lens. It is rather heavy so I tend to avoid carrying it if I can. Truth be told, I tend to carry it because one never knows when they are going to shot long range or need to zoom in use it instead of binoculars.
Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM Lens
This is my favorite lens. I love how much of the landscape I can capture in a photo. I love getting to play with this lens in some city situations as well.
I love my Nikon D5300 Camera. What kind of camera do you use?
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase any of these items. I get a small commission from all sales.