Nikon D5500 Digital Camera Kit with 18-55mm and 70-300mm - Black

Initial review. Only had it a week and will update over time. First, you can't beat the price. $595 with 2 adequate zoom lenses. The lenses are average but do the job. You can spend a lot more for faster lenses but these will work in most cases. I wish lenses would come with UV filters for protection. Bought a B+W XS-Pro 55mm and a Hoya PRO1 58mm right away. Tried one of each brand as I saw issues in reviews of both. My other pet peeve is lens covers that don't have a lanyard to keep it attached to the body. Nice feature is touch screen that folds out and turns to face front if needed for real expensive selfies ;). Rotates so screen faces into camera back for protection when not in use. There are a LOT of options. Even had to read the manual! Bought a copy of D5500 for Dummies to get a quick review of the functions and keep it on my Kindle app on my phone. Also bought 2 more batteries and charger with car option although battery life seems quite good. Don't scrimp on the SD card! Attached photos all shot with filters in place. Pics: Fire pit 22mm 1.5s F3.8; Plumeria 195mm 1/60 F5.3 with fill flash; Full Moon 300mm 1/250 F11(-3 exp comp); Rising Moon 300mm 1/60 F6.3; Sunrise 70mm 1/125 F4.5; Sunset 300mm 1/750 F6.3

This is a terrific little camera. Noticeably lighter than the D40 it replaced. I bought this when it seemed Nikon was clearing out these kits for the D5600. The price difference was significant. The D5500 also is lighter than the D5600, and has higher ISO performance. The D5600 has a new Bluetooth feature for on-the-fly file transfers, but that doesn't mean much to me. Know that the 70-300 lens is not the VR model, but people have been shooting with long lenses for a long time with VR. It's a good lens, and is the new 18-55 VR that collapses to save space. The touch screen allows for quick adjustments to settings as well as scrolling and zooming in review mode. This is a great camera for beginning photographer as well as more advanced amateur photographers. You can take great pictures right out of the box and learn your way through the various modes and settings. It is a sturdy piece of equipment yet small and light enough to carry with you all day. I loved my D40 for nearly 10 years and look forward to many years with the D5500.

Amazing camera! This is my first DSLR and I've found it to be very user-friendly. I started out playing with Auto but after watching a few YouTube videos, I was taking photos in Manual like a champ. The quality is very very impressive. I mainly bought this for video and I couldn't be happier with the video quality as well. I chose this over a less expensive D3400 or D3500 mainly because of the flip-out screen. I'm so glad I did that because I honestly have the screen flipped out and tilted at various angles 90% of the time that I'm shooting. I couldn't imagine using this with a fixed screen. It is a very expensive hobby because there are a lot more accessories that you're going to find yourself wanting. I highly recommend buying the Nikon NC filters to protect your lens, as well as the respective Nikon hood for each lens to both protect it, and help you with taking outdoor shots. This kit also doesn't include the relatively-cheap Nikon LF-4 lens cap so you'll want to get one of those as well.

I've used this model before and it's always a mixed bag of goodies. While it worked as I expected with the smaller lens, the bigger lens was a huge let down -- I couldn't get it to auto focus properly through the viewfinder, though that may be my fault because I haven't used a bigger lens with a D5500 before. The equipment was in good shape and clean. Camera equipment ain't cheap and I got what I paid for. Just a little buggered about the bigger lens. It's a not a camera for sports unless that sport is chess.

I love, love this camera. I have owned consumer Nikon SLRs since 1988 starting with the iconic N2000, pre auto-focus. Then the N80, D90, D50 and D7000 and even the very awful Nikon AW1. My D7000 has basically been sitting in the closet for a few years as it weighs a ton, and for vacation and hiking photos, the great algorithms in newer phones and point and shoots has made it downright foolhardy to carry around my 2.5 lb D7000 set up. When Facebook posts with creative iPhone pics illicit the wow factor, it got down right depressing to see what I was doing with my D7000. I am not big into photoshopping. But I saw a few hiking pictures a friend took with a new dslr and I decided to start researching cameras again. Weight is a big factor for me (that's why I tried a Nikon 1 CSC) as I usually need to lug the camera over a lot of vertical. Well, when it comes to technology, one just has to bite the bullet and upgrade way more often than in the old days. I bought the D5500 because of all the positive reviews and the weight and size savings over the D7000. It is awesome, from the controls to the actual pics. It has made me love carrying around a dslr again. I can't believe I waited so long. Well, I can believe it as who wants to keep shelling out big bucks every few years when Ansel Adams probably had the same camera for decades! My only gripe was no field of depth preview button. But then I realized, who cares, just snap a quick preview. I am so old school, I was at first undoing the lens a bit like in the old days. What can I say, some of us are slow learners. I don't know how many other people have stopped using an slr because it barely seemed worth it anymore, but my advice is to upgrade. This camera has given me joy again in my old hobby.

I bought this for my wife for Christmas. The price was great relative to purchasing a new one. Everything arrived in the condition promised. We are extremely pleased. We purchased a slr camera after college in 1977. It was relatively easy to use. Unfortunately it was stolen in 1983. Hadn’t bought one since. It is an understatement to say that technology ,as in all things, has changed the picture(pun intended). She is retired and half the fun is going to be in learning how to use it. She is looking forward to another experience in a lifetime of experiences.