The field of Additive Manufacturing at Home, aka 3D Printers isn’t terribly new. However it is still a field in which it’s new to most people. It’s also a field that is very rapidly evolving. Therefore the hardest part for me to write is “which 3d printer to pick” because by the time you likely read this, there will be other new options to consider. So rather than telling you what to select, I’m going to share my thought process and a few things to keep in mind.

This is part of a multipart series on buying a DSLR. For the camera, see Part 1 or the Lens, see Part 2. Once you’ve bought your camera and your lens, you’d think you were done, but like anything remotely expensive and/or complex — there’s more! Of course, cameras have a thousand different accessories, bits, boggles, and doodads that you can buy. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should (unless of course you’ve got money to burn, in which case, skip this guide and just buy whatever strikes your fancy). As with the previous segments, I’m targeting the first time photographer here.

This is part of a multipart series on buying a DSLR. For the camera, see Part 1. Once you’ve selected a camera, you need to get a lens (or two, or three ^_^ ). If you’re buying a Nikon, you don’t need to worry about them fitting. All Nikon cameras that we care about (and most of the lenses) since 1959 use their F-mount system. Canon isn’t so lucky, but they’ve been pretty good about standardization too (from what I understand). As with the camera, lenses come in a variety of shapes and sizes with their own classifications of “types” and their own set of numbers/features/doodads.

Today, digital cameras are ubiquitous — everyone who has a cellphone has a camera. Even with this proliferation of cameras, if you want a camera that is a step above the rest, you need an SLR or more correctly a DSLR. Fortunately for intrepid amateur photographers, DSLRs can be had on the cheap (Nikon D3100s start under $600), but what features do you need? What lenses should you get? What accessories? These are all questions I was recently asked and I thought I’d share.