Is the Nikon d5200 for $330 worth it if I have an iPhone?

I have an 8 something but my mom has the new xsomething which I could use. I want a nicer camera, is this a good one?

It could be worth it, but ask yourself what you'll do differently with a DSLR. The camera on it's own doesn't take better pictures.

The D5200 is capable of taking wonderful pictures if you learn how to use the camera and learn the craft of photography. If you don't want to invest time in to learn about photography and how to use the tools, then your phone camera will suffice.

Things to consider:
* Lugging around a DSLR gets tiresome. Are you willing to lug around a DSLR? I got tired of lugging my DSLR around which is why I bought a pocket camera so I almost always have a camera nearby and for trips where my pocket camera will suffice. When I do interesting trips, I lug my DSLR and a few lenses around.

* Lenses can end up costing a bunch of money. The 18-55 kit lens that usually comes with this camera is a good starter, but better lenses can cost over $400.

* Are you willing to put in the time to learn how to use the camera and improve your skills? The learning process for photography is continuous. If you think you are accomplished in a years time, you aren't - it just means you are ignorant of the craft.

* Then, learning about post processing tools to get the exposure that fits your artistic needs.

If you are able to take great pictures with the iPhone, the D5200 is trash. If you know photography, you won't be asking.

Your question is just like asking if I need a chef's knife if I've got a Swiss Army knife. Like the SWA knife, an iPhone can do a lot of things including take photos and videos. A SWA knife can cut, chop and dice, but it's not anything like using an actual chef's knife.

Comparing the photographic capabilities of an iPhone to a DSLR, one has to understand that the iPhone is extremely limited in what it can do technically and creatively compared to any DSLR. For example, an iPhone can't take photos well in dim lighting conditions. An iPhone only has one wide-angle lens which, when taking portraits, makes people look very ugly because of the wide-angle distortion as can be seen here (for reference an iPhone has a 28mm lens equivalent to 35mm format):

With a DSLR, the sensor and pixels are much, much larger than the tiny sensor & pixels in an iPhone. The lenses that are available for a DSLR, even without spending much, are superior to the plastic lens in an iPhone. It should be understood that the camera module in a $1,000 iPhone X costs $25 on eBay. The combination of a vastly superior sensor and lens allows DSLR users to get vastly superior images than what any smartphone at any price could ever produce.

Then there's the options. In an iPhone you have very limited capabilities of controlling the exposure and no ability to change lenses. Remember, the iPhone has a wide-angle lens which is for landscapes, interior shots and group shots. With a DSLR you have the ability to use lenses ranging from 8mm~800mm and beyond if you add on tele-converters.

Focusing systems in DSLRs are light years ahead of any smartphone. You can't zoom in with a phone. You can't track moving subjects. You don't have a real flash, but instead a bright LED which is nothing compared to an actual flash. You can't control the balance of flash: ambient light ratio when trying to use fill flash outside.

Now, for only $330, that's a pretty good deal on a D5200 which is a mid-range DSLR (not entry level and not advanced). It's a great camera for anyone who wants to have a DSLR that they can use for many years without feeling that they've outgrown it.

If you want to go beyond the generic snapshots that the iPhone is fine for, then you need to go with either a DSLR or a mirrorless camera. You'll have so many options that it'll make photography a lot of fun.

I would go for the later model the DS5300.It is an excellent first DSLR and is probably the best of the DSLRs at that price range. Just make sure you get the 18-55 mm lens with it

A cell phone is not a camera.

The presence of an iPhone has absolutely no bearing on the camera's quality. Remember, owning a fine camera does not automatically make you a good photographer. There's no substitute for study and experience.

What do you want to achieve which your phone camera can't do? Because if you use what you have correctly it is capable of producing superb photographs.

The d5200 has a much larger image sensor than your current camera so will have less noisy images (particularly noticeable in the shadows of your photos), but the supplied kit lens isn't much sharper than your present one.

Just buying a camera which can give you more options and better shadow detail will not improve poor photographic skills. If anything it could show them up far more.

You'd probably do far better for now using a simpler camera which still gives fantastic image quality and offering many of the settings of a dSLR if needed. An excellent used Panasonic DMC-TZ100 would achieve that and has a much larger image sensor than your phone and almost all other compact digital cameras. And the Leica designed lens is immensely sharper than the cheapo kit lens supplied with the d5200. It also has a superb electronic viewfinder.