Talk me out of G.A.S.

[shadowlands]

If you can afford the move, make it. I've been moving up "body wise" for years.... I keep selling and buying....

 

[nerwin]

Just wanted to clear something up. This is what we'd consider G.A.S.

 

[wezza13]

At the very least you could recoup that one your next lens ... buying a AF-D vs a newer and pricier AF-S lens that is required for the d5x00 body.

Astro,

I notice you advocate using AF-D lenses quite a lot in various topics. I have a D7100 so have the focus motor but will switch to a D610 in the sometime near future. Obviously I will need FX lenses before switching. Is there any optical difference between AF-D and AF-S? It would appear to me that there may be a difference because of the big price increase. I'll look into which AF-D lenses are highly rated.

Wez

And OP, I would say go for it. If it's your hobby and you aren't bankrupting yourself, do it!

 

[nerwin]

At the very least you could recoup that one your next lens ... buying a AF-D vs a newer and pricier AF-S lens that is required for the d5x00 body.

Astro,

I notice you advocate using AF-D lenses quite a lot in various topics. I have a D7100 so have the focus motor but will switch to a D610 in the sometime near future. Obviously I will need FX lenses before switching. Is there any optical difference between AF-D and AF-S? It would appear to me that there may be a difference because of the big price increase. I'll look into which AF-D lenses are highly rated.

Wez

And OP, I would say go for it. If it's your hobby and you aren't bankrupting yourself, do it!

There really isn't that much difference in optical performance. Some AF-D lenses will be better than newer AF-S lenses and sometimes its quite the opposite. It really depends on what lens it is. I absolutely adore my 35 f/2D, one of my favorites lenses. The colors it renders and the bokeh it produces just gives almost a vintage look straight out of the camera.

I mean there are technical differences like coatings and type of elements, etc. Some of the older lenses were poor at controlling chromatic aberrations but are easily fixable in post. Today they are controlled a lot better due to the high end coatings they use now and of course better element designs.

There are a lot of excellent AF-D lenses out there, I hear lots of good things about the 35-70 2.8D and you can pick one up for pretty cheap.

 

[astroNikon]

At the very least you could recoup that one your next lens ... buying a AF-D vs a newer and pricier AF-S lens that is required for the d5x00 body.

Astro,

I notice you advocate using AF-D lenses quite a lot in various topics. I have a D7100 so have the focus motor but will switch to a D610 in the sometime near future. Obviously I will need FX lenses before switching. Is there any optical difference between AF-D and AF-S? It would appear to me that there may be a difference because of the big price increase. I'll look into which AF-D lenses are highly rated.

Wez

And OP, I would say go for it. If it's your hobby and you aren't bankrupting yourself, do it!

Actually, I'd advocate using alot of the newer technology, lighter AF-S lenses with VR .. IF you can Afford them. I CANNOT. The newer lenses can be optically better, but also at a higher price. It depends upon whether you value that higher price with the IQ and can afford it, and which lens it is.

But sometimes you can get a d7x00 with an AF-D lens for less money than a d5x00 or even d3x00 with a high end AF-S lens. The price difference can help you afford a higher end body, if you so desire.

There's a lot of AF-D lenses out there that are really good and you can save hundreds even a thousand over it's newer cousin. The Nikon 80-200/2.8 AF-D and the slightly newer 80-200/2.8 AF-S are great examples to the 70-200/2.8. And they're built like a tank.

These are the lenses that I own
AF-D
18-35/3.5-5.6 - nice lens if you get a good one.
35-70/2.8 - I actually did not like this lens except for studio, and recently sold it. It was sharp and all, but turn it towards the sun at all and it had problems. The 24-85 was more easily flexible .. ie, if you're not a Pro it was easier to control the shot better with the sun.
24-85/2.8-4.0 - great all around lens, compact and light. Gets "good" ratings on DxO mark even compared to the 24-70s out there and much, much cheaper. plus a macro mode. if you get a good copy.
80-200/2.8 - my main sports lens
300/4 - neat lens I'm using for the Sun right now and got me hooked on photographing aircraft/birds which led to the Bigma .. partially Kris's fault too lol
50/1.8
85/1.8 - may add to the G lens as it's a lot sharper, but the D lens has edge softness which is nice for a portrait (especially the 1.4, so I've read). But then I don't use it much anyways.
24/2.8 - sold because the 24 on the 24-85 was better
75-300/4-5.6 - nice and sharp BUT Sloooowwwwww focusing ..... good for manual focusing though and had a MACRO mode. I sold it a few years ago but I wish I kept it.
2,000mm/12 inch - purely manual lens or telescope

AF-S
50/1.4
150-500 Sigma
18-105 DX Kit for my d7000
70-300 VR - replaced the 75-300 with it .. wish I kept the 75-300. Had issues with focusing in low contrast situations in sports. Drove me nuts. Saw other users driving them nuts in certain situations. Sold it .. glad it's gone. Bought the 300/4 as a replacement, which I don't use for sports.

So price out my AF-D lenses, and price out their AF-S counterparts and look at the $$$ difference. Granted, I'm hoping to upgrade some of them to a newer variety at some point but they all work just fine right now.

hmm ... expensive hobby none-the-less ...

I'm sure you see a lot of threads where the OP states .. "price is no limit" until they see the prices of the good lenses then all of a sudden there's a price limit of only several hundred dollars. LOL
So I throw out the AF-D lenses for saving money. They may not be the greatest, but they're pretty good for the price.

Plus, they're all FX lenses. So when I bought my d600 .. I had to do NO lens swapping.

 

[wezza13]

Wow Astro, fantastic post.

Nice to get actual thoughts on the gear that people own rather than the same things you read on every "review" website!

Very interesting and I will certainly look into acquiring some D lenses, as like you say, we don't all have unlimited budgets.

The 80-200 2.8 interests me as well as the 300 f4.

Cheers for the informative post.

 

[bribrius]

point and shoot panorama. i have better cameras. i did it it because i could.

 

[bribrius]

In January I bought my first DSLR, a refurbished D5300 with the 18-55 kit lens. I've picked up two additional lenses (a nikon 35mm 1.8 and a Tokina 11-16 wide angle) and have been shooting like crazy and enjoying every second of it. I quickly got out of auto mode and priority modes but, admittedly, I'm still have a lot to learn in every aspect. Recently I had to opportunity to shoot with a D7100 and really liked everything about it. It just felt better in the hand and while I wasn't fluent with the controls I felt they were easier accessed and more intuitive.

I'm aware that I'm still very much a new photographer, have a ton to learn and my 5300 is far from holding me back. BUT I can't shake how much I enjoyed that 7100.

Financially I can recoupe most of what I have in the 5300 and looks like I can upgrade to a 7100 for about $150-$200. Which isn't a huge deal.

Would it be ridiculous to upgrade after just four months? Not having much Experience with the 7100 is it actually more intuitive? Does anyone have any real life long term experience with both bodies that can weigh in?

Thanks!

do what you want. i shoot with a 7100, point and shoots, bridge cameras, film cameras. Whatever mood i am in. I like shooting with my cheap bridge camera quite a bit. Also if you look on here i follow del fox quite a bit in the personal galleries. Look him up in the galleries. He does quite well too for what he shoots with. Mike Lamb as well. It isn't all the camera. Depends on what you want to shoot but upgrading isn't a miracle. Depends on what you shoot or how you want to shoot.

 

[Solarflare]

Just wanted to clear something up. This is what we'd consider G.A.S.

No, thats what we consider a camera collection. Its perfectly viable to have this much stuff if what you want to do is collecting camera gear. And have a lot of money to waste on that hobby.

The problem is if you actually want to make photographs, not collect photographic gear, and you already have too much stuff and yet keep think about getting even more all the time, believing that not having enough gear is your problem.

 

[jinx703x]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their input. I actually found a non gray market refurbished D7100 with the 18-55 vr and 55-300 vr kit lenses shipped for $799. The 18-55mm will make it easier to sell my my D5300 (oppose to selling it as a body only). The 55-300 will be interesting to play around with as I've never owned a lens with that much reach. It'll arrive Friday, just in time for the weekend, and couldn't be more excited.

Again, I appreciate everyone's input!

 

[Derrel]

Where did you get such a good deal?

 

[jinx703x]

On ebay. They were unloading a surplus at 50% off. I generally don't like buying electronics on eBay but the seller has 100% positive reviews and had been a seller for over ten years. So I gambled a little on him. Sadly, I'm not sure he's an authorized Nikon retailer or anything but they sold over 200 kits at this price. I found the link on the unofficial Nikon D7200 facebook page.

I caught the sale in the final seconds of the auction

 

[Designer]

On ebay. They were unloading a surplus at 50% off.

Did that not ring bells in your belfry?

It sure would for me.

 

[RocketCowboy]

As someone who has also made that D5300 to D7100 jump shortly after getting the '53, you'll never look back.

 

[jinx703x]

@Designer - Yeah, the price was both enticing and concerning. Obviously, for me, more enticing than concerning. As I said, The seller is a proven Ebay seller who has strong feedback from over 500 recent sales. As I also mentioned, I typically shy away from buying electronics on ebay but the market for used D7100's hasn't realized they are no longer worth $900. Shoot, you can get a BRAND NEW one for what *most* people want for them with shutter counts 20k+. But time will tell if I'm a fool or fortunate.

@RocketCowboy - I hope you'r right. I really was on the fence about this. But once I decided to pull the trigger I was all in and totally fired up about it.