Help student upgrade from d3200

Hi, my daughter in law is looking to upgrade from her 3200 and kit lens to a 3400 / 3500, shes doesn’t have a lot to spend on it, so it’d be used kit

She mainly does portraits/art projects at college 

I had a look and although they are newer I’m not convinced that’s worth doing, but I know nothing about Nikon.

Would she be better for example with a portrait lens / flash gun ? Or a different Nikon ?

What would you advise ? 

Thanks

Jim

If the D3200 is in good working condition, I don't think an upgrade to the body would make much of a difference, especially since portraits and art projects mostly aren't areas where more modern AF systems or higher burst rates are particularly relevant. Replacing the aging kit lens with a nice prime, on the other hand, would seem like a very good idea to me.

A Nikkor AF-S 50mm (75mm equivalent) will give her a very useful, reasonably priced portrait lens.

Thanks, Is that the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G Black Lens ? I did see a 1.8 as well and when used they are similar £s

Thanks, thats my feeling as well but thought i'd better check, its a similar senor so i'd expect similar output, the autofocus and processor would be better but for static subjects its probably not going to make much of a difference

Either one, Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 G or the AF-S 50mm f/1.8 G, whichever you can find and afford. (Not expensive used.)

I feel like a portrait photographer needs nice light more than most. That's why people would hire you instead of shooting a selfie with their phones. If she doesn't have any lighting equipment yet, that's generally a big difference per dollar spent.

If she already has decent lighting equipment, upgrading the kit lens to a faster prime lens is a good move too. The camera body matters less than the light and the lens (and bringing out good expressions in your subjects) for portraiture.

Thanks, and yes, I also think a new lens, allowing shallower DoF, and some form of lights would be a better option than a similar body, now it’s time for the convincing part…

I would recommend she take a look at this commercial photographer's YouTube channel. He gives a huge amount of sensible advice on starting out in studio work and what is the minimum he would suggest and it isn't very much I can tell you.

Tin House Studio is the youtuve channel.

thanks moggi, i'll have a look

If her D3200 is not broken, probably not any big reason to update to 3300-3500. I would recommend a decent auxiliary flash that has bounce capability as the first thing to try. The 18-55 and 55-200 vr kit lenses are actually excellent lenses. The 55-200 dx vrII lens is the sharpest lens I own and I use a lot on all my Nikon DSLR's and mirrorless cameras.

See here versus.com/en/nikon-d3200-vs-nikon-d3400 for a comparison. It is apparent that the change is not worth it. I too think the 50mm is a better upgrade.

Thanks phototaker, I think she only has the 18-55, which is why I thought a portrait lens might be better than a body, I’ll check and yes some extra lighting options are a good idea

Yes get a nice prime or so. The 50/1.8G is pretty good but the 50/1.4 if you can get it cheap.

as with others, no particular reason to move to s D3400 for these applications. There is just one point and its do with the AF-P DX lenses ie the 10-20, 18-55 and the 70-300 VR DX. These are thought to be the best DX kit lenses in that price range but they won't work with a D3200 and there is a limitation with a D3300.

richard

Thanks Richard, thats good/bad to know about lens vs bodies.

I think shes finally decided on a decent prime and some flash equipment

jim