A couple years ago the folks around here steered me toward a Nikon D5000 because one of my sine-qua-nons was good low-light performance, and Nikon did a little better than Canon at that at the time. I’ve been perfectly happy with it, and I have a couple things to note that worked out really well for me.
Here are a couple shortcuts so you can understand the numbers thrown around:
Numbers like 18-55, 55-300, or 50 prime: This refers to how much the camera lens zooms. Low numbers are wide angle, useful if you’re close to a subject or if a subject is very large, like a sunset. High numbers are very zoomed in, which you’ll want for a safari because the animals will not be in your lap. A number without a range is a “prime” lens, which does not zoom. 50mm, for the cameras that you’re talking about, is more or less neither zoomed in nor zoomed out. It’s the midpoint. Prime lenses have other great qualities.
Numbers preceded by “f/” refer to aperture. That means how big the opening in the lens is and thereby how much light gets in. Smaller numbers are bigger holes. Bigger holes let in more light means that you can take pictures in darker situations or with shorter shutter speeds. Larger apertures (that means a larger hole and a smaller number) also have a smaller area that’s in focus. For instance, a f/1.8 setting, focused on an object fifteen feet away, may see other things start to become out of focus at thirteen and seventeen feet away, and pretty darn fuzzy at ten and twenty feet. A lens set at f/6 focused on the same object might only start to get fuzzy at ten and twenty feet and only get really fuzzy out at about forty feet. That’s not all bad; by keeping only your subject in sharp focus, you draw more attention to your subject and not to the trees in the background or the long grass in the foreground. Lenses that have the ability to go down to very large apertures are very expensive, unless they’re prime. That’s why some people are recommending you get the 50mm prime lens: it can go all the way down to f/1.8, which is really awesome. It’s also the cheapest lens Nikon makes, even cheaper than the kit lens, so it’s a nice addition.
Shutter speed is a measure of how long the light sensor is exposed to light. Longer shutter speeds are brighter, but if there’s any motion, either from the camera moving or the subject moving, the picture will be blurry. You’ll need longer shutter speeds in darker situations, and shorter ones if you want to catch something very fast. Your DSLR has settings to control this, or you can set it to automatic.
Don’t shy away from buying a factory refurbished camera or lens rather than a new one. They’re tested to the same standards as new cameras by the manufacturer, and you’re getting the exact same warranty.
If you’re buying a zoom lens other than the kit lens (and you should if you’re planning on doing wildlife photography, because the kit lens does not zoom enough to shoot anything more skittish than a house cat), consider buying the camera body-only or bundled with a longer lens, so you can skip the kit lens entirely. I went with an 18-105mm lens instead of the 18-55mm kit lens and it was a great choice.
If you’re worried about low light situations, you need a lens that can go down to low aperture numbers. The f/1.8 50mm lens is a great one for doing that. I use it all the time to take pictures of people at parties because even if it’s pretty dark, you won’t need a flash and you won’t disturb people.
