I am a canon man myself, so I am not familiar witht he Nikon numbers. But as long as it is a DSLR you will have a lot of control over your shots. Best book out there to learn about shooting, in my opinion, is Bryan Peterson's book Understanding Exposure. It is like the beginers handbook. After reading it you will have a very solid basic understanding of what each adjustment does on the camera. Also look up photography tips or tutorials on you tube. There ia a crap ton of info on there. And again i urge you to look into a camera club in your area. these clubs are full of super knowledgeable photograpohers that are there to help and share the knowledge with you. Here is a link to one of the many photographers I follow on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/FontanaKnowledge .