Is the D7100 Nikon's best camera?

esquilo

I bought a D7100 to replace my D5100 in September 2013. Boy what difference! Higher resolution sensor without AA-filter, focus motor, better autofocus, Creative Lighting System, intelligent auto-ISO, usable HDR-mode, bracketing, etc, etc. The achilles heel for the D7100 is the limited buffer size, but since I mostly shoot JPEG I don't notice that very much. It's been fixed in D7200 though.

heartyfisher

"... but since I mostly shoot JPEG ... " Ouch ...
Its just me I cant live without my RAW :-) Not yet anyway.. But the D7200 has a "Flat" profile that is almost as good as Raw .. I am using it.. Its lovely I have not been using the Raw file on the D7200 since I got it... :-) ...

spraynpray

With the shallow buffer of the D7100, if you want to do a 6+ frame focus stack of a living creature, you have no choice.

kyoshinikon

One of the biggest problems with a high mpx camera is that it picks up more slight camera shake like a fine grain film. Lower mpx may be the same sharpness as the hi but because of the finer detail it interprets the 800nanometers of shake as sharp. I haven't tried the flat profile yet. How is the DR on it with highlights?

turnthedarncranks

With the shallow buffer of the D7100, if you want to do a 6+ frame focus stack of a living creature, you have no choice.

No choice meaning you have to shoot jpg?

DaveyJ

I have photographed a lot of wildlife as in addition to being a life long farmer I was also a fish & wildlife biologist for long enough to retire from that profession. I have taken quite a few wild animals. Short of very time consuming blinds and the like......most were one or two clicks and the huge buck or the like was headed for the hills. I have used Nikon F5s which with a motor drive would take quite a few frames. One or two would be really nice and then all that was in view was a RAPIDLY departing antelope or whatever I was taking the pic of. The D7100 would do very well compared to a Nikon F5 with a great big motor drive. I fail to see the value in a motor burst of frames. In Acadia I saw a pro with two D4s and big lens shoot every eagle of or seal with burst of 8. Catch is it was from a tour boat. These animals know when something is a threat or just a damn tourist so that is the kind of photo you get with the burst game.

If you are alone, and the animal regards you as in the hunt......there is about two or MAYBE three frames. I just watched a very well done oriental photo pro doing a shoot out between a Pro DSLR with a cheapo lens versus a cheapo DSLR body with two very good lens. You know the results of such a shoot out right now. I would put a D7100 and a very good lens as a very good scarey wildlife rig. And the shots taken in JPG FIne Large would do very very well. Sometimes I think the purpose of these threads is to justify a certain way of doing things. I SAY it is being at the right place at the right time with a camera as good as a Nikon D7100 and a decent lens. The Nikkor 55-300 would do pretty well here or say a Nikkor 70-300VR. Pretty modest outlay. Also having seen hunters with fantastic expensive rigs fail to outhunt really seasoned outdoorsman with a iron sighted 30-30 rifle that was designed in 1894. It isn't all about gear. NOW LETS THROW IN THE REAL PROBLEM........Get all your expensive top shelf gear and the great animals are dwindling so fast that they are mostly in zoos.

I have been on many model shoots for magazines The challenges that one faces in the wild are just not there at all. Still a person with a good eye, and an upbeat personality may record some nice results.

I have shot in RAW at some pretty carefully controlled settings. The JPEGs in my professional opinion were so close that the RAW shots were a total waste of time. Having spent many thousands on large and medium format I am constantly on guard against overkill. I just saw a subject though that the only available shot was a cell phone photo. It was very well composed. It was of a very important subject. And it was soft and less valuable. Even a modest D3200 Nikon could have done justice to the scene. However once the subject is shot with a D7100 and say the new 16-80 I feel I don't want for anything more.

esquilo

"... but since I mostly shoot JPEG ... " Ouch ...
Its just me I cant live without my RAW :-) Not yet anyway.. But the D7200 has a "Flat" profile that is almost as good as Raw .. I am using it.. Its lovely I have not been using the Raw file on the D7200 since I got it... :-) ...

I've never managed to get better results from processing a RAW-file than from JPEG's.
Darktable is imho quite awkward to use (I run Linux, so Lightroom is out of the question).
When shooting JPEG, the shot is lost if the settings are wrong. You don't get no second chance to fix whitabalance and such things. If the settings are right, the result is good enough that only some minor tweaking in Gimp is all that it needs.

spraynpray

@turnthedarncranks:

Yes.

heartyfisher

One of the biggest problems with a high mpx camera is that it picks up more slight camera shake like a fine grain film. Lower mpx may be the same sharpness as the hi but because of the finer detail it interprets the 800nanometers of shake as sharp. I haven't tried the flat profile yet. How is the DR on it with highlights?

I feel "flat" provides at least 2 maybe 2.5 stops of DR more .. and since I expose with -0.7 on default I think I gain about 2 stops of Highlight protection compared to standard metering.. Really nice .. You can see why I have not needed to go in to RAW yet :-) actually "Standard" on the D7200 is pretty good too.. since the DR of the D7200 is rather good .. but the "Flat" profile is just darn good at recovering highlights ... and lowlights too !!

spraynpray

"I feel "flat" provides at least 2 maybe 2.5 stops of DR more"

You are going to have to explain that one a bit more @heartyfisher?

michael66

With the shallow buffer of the D7100, if you want to do a 6+ frame focus stack of a living creature, you have no choice.

That was really deceptive advertising on the part of Nikon. Six frames the first second. Then you find out it is one frame a second thereafter. Yeah, you can do a few tweaks and use fast cards, but you won't get multiple frames per second. For that, you'll need a D4+ at six times the cost. At least I avoided the D800 and D600 fiascos.

All things considered, I'd say you can't get more bang for your buck than the D7100, even if it is DX. Besides, I'm a slow learner and I haven't even begun to master the thing. I can almost catch slow moving planes...

manhattanboy

I feel "flat" provides at least 2 maybe 2.5 stops of DR more .. and since I expose with -0.7 on default I think I gain about 2 stops of Highlight protection compared to standard metering.. Really nice .. You can see why I have not needed to go in to RAW yet :-)

I don't know about this. The amount of recovery out a RAW file is vastly greater than JPEG. Shooting backlit scenes and then trying to raise the shadows without distorting natural colors, tones, etc. is brutal without RAW.

spraynpray

"The amount of recovery out a RAW file is vastly greater than JPEG. Shooting backlit scenes and then trying to raise the shadows without distorting natural colors, tones, etc. is brutal without RAW."

Agreed for sure, but if you get the jpeg right, it makes the workflow so simple! I am almost (almost) tempted to shoot 1000 image weddings in jpg a la Pistnbroke.

WestEndFoto

"The amount of recovery out a RAW file is vastly greater than JPEG. Shooting backlit scenes and then trying to raise the shadows without distorting natural colors, tones, etc. is brutal without RAW."

Agreed for sure, but if you get the jpeg right, it makes the workflow so simple! I am almost (almost) tempted to shoot 1000 image weddings in jpg a la Pistnbroke.

This part I don't understand. You try to get the right setting on the back off an LCD screen, which means you are focusing on your gear rather than the wedding, than shooting a thousand images on the same setting?

What if you change your mind on the optimum setting, get it wring, or need to change your settings?

In Lightroom, if I want all the pictures on one setting, I fine tune one, copy to the rest, have a coffee for five minutes while it copies, export and have another coffee for 20 minutes.

Done! And likely with a better setting and a lot more flexibility if I need it.

Ironheart

"The amount of recovery out a RAW file is vastly greater than JPEG. Shooting backlit scenes and then trying to raise the shadows without distorting natural colors, tones, etc. is brutal without RAW."

Agreed for sure, but if you get the jpeg right, it makes the workflow so simple! I am almost (almost) tempted to shoot 1000 image weddings in jpg a la Pistnbroke.

This part I don't understand. You try to get the right setting on the back off an LCD screen, which means you are focusing on your gear rather than the wedding, than shooting a thousand images on the same setting?

What if you change your mind on the optimum setting, get it wring, or need to change your settings?

This is why @pistnbroke has big brass ones. He shoots a whole wedding in JPEG with his controls taped over. I bet his WB is set to AUTO, and the camera gets it right 99% of the time. The other 1% he has to fiddle it in LR/PS. I don't think he worries about highlight/shadow recovery because ADL is turned on.

CaMeRaQuEsT

I am not sure if it is the best Nikon camera, but for me it sure is the best value of the current Nikon lineup. With good glass, optimum lighting conditions and shooting at ISO 100, it can deliver even sharper images than the 24M-pix FF bodies thanks to its lack of AA filter. It has Nikon's best AF sensor array and video IQ up to 30 FPS. It is the least expensive body with pro features like an incorporated flash that can be used as a commander for Nikon's CLS compatible external flashes, weather sealing, AF motor, AI coupling, U1-U2 customization, double command dials, LCD control panel, headphone jacket, long lasting and well damped shutter/mirror assembly, double memory cards, big bright pentaprism OVF, magnesium top/rear plates and the myriad customizable functions and controls. You are getting all this for almost the same price as a D5300 and you need to pay up to twice as much to buy the next better camera, the D7200. It's not perfect, though, with its spotty indoors WB and its banding issue, problems that can be at least tackled with in post or prevented by exposing the scene correctly, but there is one issue you can't avoid and that is its hatefully shallow buffer. But the final tally is that you are getting a huge lot more camera at basically the same price as the next lower-rung in the lineup while you need to pay up to twice as much to get just some slight upgrades over it. I am getting the best bang for my bucks, and that makes me a really happy customer.

spraynpray

What he said ^

heartyfisher

:-) And i got mine d7200 (with all that and the "little" upgrade tweeks) on sale for == 750 USD :-) So I am a happy chappy.. It is becoming my main camera, I use it more than my D610 (which is really nice too) I feel like selling all my other gear now.. but any spare time I have I just go shooting LOL. No time to sell stuff :-)

spraynpray

That was a great price hearty.

CaMeRaQuEsT

:-) And i got mine d7200 (with all that and the "little" upgrade tweeks) on sale for == 750 USD :-)

:-O Wow, that's a really great price! Where and how?

heartyfisher

It was an end of financial year sale.. lasts a couple of weeks .. lots of camera stores in Australia do it. once a year.. Got my D7000 the same way some years ago :-) (different store) .. just patience and looking out for it... and Timing. fun in its own way :-) .. yes a $400 saving ... ($999 AUD)

DaveyJ

I personally use the D7100 over all other cameras. Our D7200 gets more used by all of us here......I feel the two of them are best for me. Sure wish much of the money I plowed into medium and large format had been put in a interest earning fund to invest in Nikon DX and FX gear. However I did get to directly see myself what the value of medium and large format was. The D7100 and D7200 are to me the world's best camera values!

donaldejose

Best value, yes. The Nikon D7xxx series is always the best Nikon DSLR value. Best Nikon camera, no. All Nikon FX sensors are superior to Nikon DX sensors of the same generation; such as cleaner high ISO in low light or the ability to make wall sized prints, but you many not need that superiority. Also, some Nikon models offer other superior attributes such as 11 fps, longer life shutter, more robust case, or more than 24 megapixels. But again, you many not need those attributes, few do.

DaveyJ

I'm still using my D7100 as my primary camera. Recently I have begun to question my D3200 and the 18-55 kit lens. The new 16-80 Nikkor or the 70-300vr or my Sigma 10-20 handles almost everything I encounter
Very well. Our Nikon 1 AW 1 gets a lot of on the job use!

CaMeRaQuEsT

Recently I have begun to question my D3200 and the 18-55 kit lens.

You should replace it with a D3300 with its new 18-55 VR II retractable kit lens. Both are a huge leap: the D3300 is more responsive and surefooted, with better colors and noise, the lens is sharper while being more compact, and together both are even lighter than the D3200 kit. You won't regret changing, I sure didn't! The D3300 even answers to my D7100 gotchas: no green cast, no shadow banding and faster response!