zamanakhan
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2010
- Messages
- 473
- Reaction score
- 29
I used to have the d5000, and when i had it it was always: "oh man i wish i had the d90, autofocus motor and cls are soooooooo great" i eventually sold the d5000 and i was half right... The d5000 rocked in that it was smaller, and while i had it didnt think too much of the articulating screen, i REALLY miss it now, esp for video or really low shots. I used to take shots from really odd angles when i had the 5000, no so much anymore with the 7000. The other big thing is i thought i would buy alot more AF lenses as they are cheaper, and the only AF lens i purchased was the 50 1.8, which i quickly sold of. At 1.8 the AF-D wasnt all that great, i picked up a pro nikon 2.8 zoom and even that had a motor built in, i could of stayed with the 5000 and would of been happy. I also thought i would buy more AIS lenses and get more use out of my lensbaby, i have a 28mm series e lens and i barely mount it on the camera, again wide open performance is sub par and i pixel peep quite a bit, the only way you are going to be truly happy with manual focus performance for street photography is if you get yourself a split screen. I also dont use the lesbaby at all still.
-Depending on how you shoot, your style maybe different, but i choose single point af-s or af-c and i rarely use the far end focus points, in fact i have alot of the focus points turned off so i can get to other focus points faster, i notice no difference between d7000 and d5000, atleast for me.
-resolution is the same, so that wont be a problem, you should get very very close results at the same settings on either camera.
-Although the d5000 does not have an AF motor, will you actually purchase lenses that requires a motor? or already have lenses? most of the nice dx lenses fx lenses now have a motor built in anyways. The ones that have both an AF-D (no motor) and AFS(motor driven) versions, the G or AFS version seems to be better across the board. Take for example the 50 1.8, this was the main reason i wanted the d90, everyone said it was a great lens and it seemed to have a magical lore around it, that lens now has a motored version and the motored version is significantly SHARPER!!!! this was a bigger deal with the d90 as this lens was about the cheapest nikon lens you could buy, and when you first buy your camera you want to buy everything for it, dont fall into that trap.
-If you go with either the 5100 or 7000 basically your next lens will probably be a zoom or 35 1.8 or 50 1.8, both lenses are super sharp and work on both cameras, you wont loose anything by going with the d5100. same if you decide to get a zoom, the 55-200, 55-300, 70-300 18-200 are all AFS lenses.
-FPS, do u see yourself shooting sports often? even then 4fps isnt exactly slow, i cant recall a single time when i shot the full 6fps on my d7000. Pick your shots you wont need that high of fps, it also clogs up your card pretty quickly especially if your shooting raw.
-D5100 is a great camera, i don't own one but i had the d5000 and the d5100 is miles more convenient that the 5000, the screen is located at a better joint, better resolution better everything total upgrade AWESOME CAMERA!!!
Now having said all that... would i have gotten the d5100 instead of the d7000? Absolutely not... having had the d5000 i learned tons about photography, actually i believe if i had gotten the d90 to begin with i probably would of been confused for the first couple of weeks of shooting. I also would of spent more money on flashes and might of purchased a ton of diffrent lenses that i would now find useless, like a 70-300AF-D or off brand zooms with slow aperatures. Like I said before when you get your new camera, you want to buy all sorts of goodies for it. I purchased to crappy ebay wide angle, fisheye and telephoto attachement. WHAT A DISSAPOINTMENT. Stick with nikon gear or well reviewed offbrand gear.
-What i love about the d7000 is the U1 and U2 setting modes, GOD I LOVE THIS FEATURE, being able to recall all your settings and save them to two distinct dial modes is awesome. But you wont have to worry about this with your first camera, at least not for a while. I wouldnt miss this feature if i never experiened it.
-CLS, i have 3 nikon sb speed lights and being able to fire them wireless in full auto is very very very convenient, but again also a feature you will probably not use for a long time... if you do decide to, an sb-700 is only $300 and another sb-600 is about $200 used you only loose about $100, but when u do upgrade and have a body with cls you'll have 2 flashes, its win win.
-it took a while to get used to the double adjustment wheels and i actually mised the d5000 interface for a while, you can change settings just as fast with the d5100 as you can with the d7000, dont let people tell you that its better to have more dials blah blah blah. When you get comfortable with a camera you learn to shoot it and change settings on the fly just as fast as any other camera.
-i think thats about it, those are the features that i REALLY use other than that everything else is just fluff or things i barely use, just the cls and and user settings mode, once i've gotten used the dual command dials and such tho i dont think i could go back.
There are a few other features that i use quite often but now that i have used them, they aren't really a deal breaker, like the dual card slots, extra dial with diffrent shutter modes (mup, quiet, remote etc,) horizon, manual lens metering. These are all conveneice features, i would miss them if they were gone, but i dont think i would pay an extra $400 just for these. For these, along with CLS and AF motor i would.
You will be happy with either of them, if money is tight i would go for the d5100, if money isnt tight i would still go for the d5100 and perhaps the 35 1.8dx and 50 1.8dx. If you have even more money i would spring for a d7000 without kit lens and get a 35 1.8.
D7000 is without a doubt better built and has better features, but in the end quite a few of those features are just "Convenience" you can do the EXACT same thing with either of them. As you get deeper and deeper into the nikon system however you'll realize that $400 doesn't always go that far in terms of lenses, the only lenses worth having under $400 that i can think of off the top of my head are a few primes, and maybe an off brand zoom here and there. Personally i cant live without CLS and for $400 you can get CLS on your d5100 via sb-700.
If your are hard to please and want every feature even if you wont use it, go for the 7000 if not d5100 will suit you 100%. Neither of them are the wrong choice "period"
I'd even be ok with a d3100... Having said all that... I am actually itching for the d800... i know i dont "NEED" it but i want it, (and may actually put the money down in the summer.)
PS:
to anyone saying they had to go into the menu to make important exposure changes or if a salesman is trying to upsell you a 7000 by saying that all the functions have their own dial and you dont have to go into menus:
With the d5000 and iam 99.9999% sure the d5100 will be like this as well, you dont have to go into the menu's to change major settings. Basically the only settings most people change are 1. shutter speed 2. aperature 3. iso
I shot mainly Aperature prioroty and in this mode i had no problems settings aperature via command dial and iso via button plus command dial, it was just as fast to change settings on the 5000 as it is on the d7000. These 3 settings are what you will change the majority of the time, other settings also have dedicated buttons and you simply use the command dial.
-Depending on how you shoot, your style maybe different, but i choose single point af-s or af-c and i rarely use the far end focus points, in fact i have alot of the focus points turned off so i can get to other focus points faster, i notice no difference between d7000 and d5000, atleast for me.
-resolution is the same, so that wont be a problem, you should get very very close results at the same settings on either camera.
-Although the d5000 does not have an AF motor, will you actually purchase lenses that requires a motor? or already have lenses? most of the nice dx lenses fx lenses now have a motor built in anyways. The ones that have both an AF-D (no motor) and AFS(motor driven) versions, the G or AFS version seems to be better across the board. Take for example the 50 1.8, this was the main reason i wanted the d90, everyone said it was a great lens and it seemed to have a magical lore around it, that lens now has a motored version and the motored version is significantly SHARPER!!!! this was a bigger deal with the d90 as this lens was about the cheapest nikon lens you could buy, and when you first buy your camera you want to buy everything for it, dont fall into that trap.
-If you go with either the 5100 or 7000 basically your next lens will probably be a zoom or 35 1.8 or 50 1.8, both lenses are super sharp and work on both cameras, you wont loose anything by going with the d5100. same if you decide to get a zoom, the 55-200, 55-300, 70-300 18-200 are all AFS lenses.
-FPS, do u see yourself shooting sports often? even then 4fps isnt exactly slow, i cant recall a single time when i shot the full 6fps on my d7000. Pick your shots you wont need that high of fps, it also clogs up your card pretty quickly especially if your shooting raw.
-D5100 is a great camera, i don't own one but i had the d5000 and the d5100 is miles more convenient that the 5000, the screen is located at a better joint, better resolution better everything total upgrade AWESOME CAMERA!!!
Now having said all that... would i have gotten the d5100 instead of the d7000? Absolutely not... having had the d5000 i learned tons about photography, actually i believe if i had gotten the d90 to begin with i probably would of been confused for the first couple of weeks of shooting. I also would of spent more money on flashes and might of purchased a ton of diffrent lenses that i would now find useless, like a 70-300AF-D or off brand zooms with slow aperatures. Like I said before when you get your new camera, you want to buy all sorts of goodies for it. I purchased to crappy ebay wide angle, fisheye and telephoto attachement. WHAT A DISSAPOINTMENT. Stick with nikon gear or well reviewed offbrand gear.
-What i love about the d7000 is the U1 and U2 setting modes, GOD I LOVE THIS FEATURE, being able to recall all your settings and save them to two distinct dial modes is awesome. But you wont have to worry about this with your first camera, at least not for a while. I wouldnt miss this feature if i never experiened it.
-CLS, i have 3 nikon sb speed lights and being able to fire them wireless in full auto is very very very convenient, but again also a feature you will probably not use for a long time... if you do decide to, an sb-700 is only $300 and another sb-600 is about $200 used you only loose about $100, but when u do upgrade and have a body with cls you'll have 2 flashes, its win win.
-it took a while to get used to the double adjustment wheels and i actually mised the d5000 interface for a while, you can change settings just as fast with the d5100 as you can with the d7000, dont let people tell you that its better to have more dials blah blah blah. When you get comfortable with a camera you learn to shoot it and change settings on the fly just as fast as any other camera.
-i think thats about it, those are the features that i REALLY use other than that everything else is just fluff or things i barely use, just the cls and and user settings mode, once i've gotten used the dual command dials and such tho i dont think i could go back.
There are a few other features that i use quite often but now that i have used them, they aren't really a deal breaker, like the dual card slots, extra dial with diffrent shutter modes (mup, quiet, remote etc,) horizon, manual lens metering. These are all conveneice features, i would miss them if they were gone, but i dont think i would pay an extra $400 just for these. For these, along with CLS and AF motor i would.
You will be happy with either of them, if money is tight i would go for the d5100, if money isnt tight i would still go for the d5100 and perhaps the 35 1.8dx and 50 1.8dx. If you have even more money i would spring for a d7000 without kit lens and get a 35 1.8.
D7000 is without a doubt better built and has better features, but in the end quite a few of those features are just "Convenience" you can do the EXACT same thing with either of them. As you get deeper and deeper into the nikon system however you'll realize that $400 doesn't always go that far in terms of lenses, the only lenses worth having under $400 that i can think of off the top of my head are a few primes, and maybe an off brand zoom here and there. Personally i cant live without CLS and for $400 you can get CLS on your d5100 via sb-700.
If your are hard to please and want every feature even if you wont use it, go for the 7000 if not d5100 will suit you 100%. Neither of them are the wrong choice "period"
I'd even be ok with a d3100... Having said all that... I am actually itching for the d800... i know i dont "NEED" it but i want it, (and may actually put the money down in the summer.)
PS:
to anyone saying they had to go into the menu to make important exposure changes or if a salesman is trying to upsell you a 7000 by saying that all the functions have their own dial and you dont have to go into menus:
With the d5000 and iam 99.9999% sure the d5100 will be like this as well, you dont have to go into the menu's to change major settings. Basically the only settings most people change are 1. shutter speed 2. aperature 3. iso
I shot mainly Aperature prioroty and in this mode i had no problems settings aperature via command dial and iso via button plus command dial, it was just as fast to change settings on the 5000 as it is on the d7000. These 3 settings are what you will change the majority of the time, other settings also have dedicated buttons and you simply use the command dial.
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The AF, on the other hand, is definitely the one and only weak point of the D90 (at least for the way I use it).
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