Cant decide which camera 7500, 500, Z50

focalzphotography · Mar 18, 2023

Hi, I have a D3100 and have had it since it first came out. I started out as a hobbiest, but over the past year or so, I've decided to start making a little passive income with it. Not looking to trade the D3100 since it would be a backup, but I am more of a landscape, wildlife photographer. I do some street/urban on the side and eventually want to save some money for a good telephoto and dedicated macro lens. I have an all DX setup, 18-55mm f3.5, 55-200mm f4, 35mm f1.8 and a Tokina 11-16mm f1.8. I've been looking at the D7500, D500 and the Z50. I'm trying to decide which would be the better financial buy. The D500 I am worried about size, the D3100 is a good size and with things like street photography it would be too big, but it has amazing AF for wildlife. 7500 is smaller, not as many AF points, but cheaper especially used, but still an all around good buy, I really like the tilted screen (would be good for street and other niches). The Z50, I know mirrorless is the future, but I also have to factor in the FTZ adapter for another 200ish dollars. So I am having a hard time deciding on which one.

cgw · Mar 18, 2023

Stay with DX. Get a clean D7500, shoot it till it breaks. Worry about Nikon(or any other) MILCs then.

Strodav · Mar 18, 2023

Don't let other people tell you how to spend your money. There are excellent reviews floating around the net on all those models, which should help you make the decision that's right for you. For landscape, portraits and street photography a higher mp body like the D7200 might be a better fit at 24mp. It also has the highest rated sensor of all the Nikon DX cameras according to DxOMark.com. For wildlife, the AF system is more important and the Z50 probably has the best AF system of the bunch followed by the D500. The low light performance is very similar for all the models. The big drawback of the D7500 to me is that it only has 1 card slot. I like to shoot raw + jpg with raw on card 1 and jpg on card 2. You can't do that on the D7500. You have to decide what features are important to you and make your decision accordingly.

I see a used LN- Z50 for $680, an EX D7500 for $690, EX D7200 for $500, EX D500 for $1k on KEH.com

For a long telephoto, I'd recommend the Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 I tried a couple of 3rd party Zooms and was disappointed. The Nikon lens is not bad at all for the price.

RAZKY · Mar 18, 2023

Strodav said:
Don't let other people tell you how to spend your money. There are excellent reviews floating around the net on all those models, which should help you make the decision that's right for you. For landscape, portraits and street photography a higher mp body like the D7200 might be a better fit at 24mp. It also has the highest rated sensor of all the Nikon DX cameras according to DxOMark.com. For wildlife, the AF system is more important and the Z50 probably has the best AF system of the bunch followed by the D500. The low light performance is very similar for all the models. The big drawback of the D7500 to me is that it only has 1 card slot. I like to shoot raw + jpg with raw on card 1 and jpg on card 2. You can't do that on the D7500. You have to decide what features are important to you and make your decision accordingly.

I see a used LN- Z50 for $680, an EX D7500 for $690, EX D7200 for $500, EX D500 for $1k on KEH.com

For a long telephoto, I'd recommend the Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 I tried a couple of 3rd party Zooms and was disappointed. The Nikon lens is not bad at all for the price.

Best advice so far.

ndcisiv · Mar 18, 2023

Having owned all three of the bodies you've mentioned, you can't really go wrong with any of them.
D7500 - Nice, but I honestly liked my D7200 better. There was just something about the colors that came out much better on the D7200 which helps with landscapes for sure.
D500 - A fantastic camera, but I've never thought of trying mine for street or macro. I only use it for birds really anymore but it does excel at that.
Z50 - This one is always on me. It's tiny, has excellent quality and is just a pleasure to use. I don't find the AF as good as the D500 for tracking subjects, but it's not far off. Granted, it looks ridiculous with an FTZ and a 200-500mm on it but it works very well.

As mentioned above, it's a decision you need to make based on how much you want to spend, what you want to shoot, and your planned roadmap of more gear. I LOVE my D500 with my 200-500mm attached to it 100% of the time, but only when I'm out shooting wildlife. I used to use it for sports as well, but I've started using my Z7 more for that and am perfectly happy with that at the moment. Do you plan on trying to stay with DX and F-mount glass? If so, I'd personally pick up a nice minty D7200. If you plan to make the move to mirrorless in the future, call it a day and get a Z50 with an FTZ adapter then improve your glass as you can.

Regardless, it sounds like they can all give you an improvement over the D3100 and each will have its advantages/disadvantages.
D500 is the only one with 2 card slots (albeit different types) and is the heaviest/largest. Z50 cannot use older screw-drive AF lenses and maintain autofocus (some great cheap AF lenses out there), only goes to 1/4000 sec shutter, and is not weather sealed but is the fastest and has face/eye tracking. D7500 only has 51 focus points, is the slowest FPS.

Good luck with your decision! I'm going to stop rambling now.

focalzphotography · Mar 21, 2023

Yeah, I am keeping the DX lenses for now. I literally just bought the wide angle lens and I've never really thought about buying the FX versions instead in case I ever switched to full frame, kind of a mistake I guess. I got some quotes for selling the DX lenses and they really are not giving me much for them, except maybe the wide angle, but considering the FX versions cost twice as much, it's a lot of money. I would like to switch to mirrorless, but I think for now, I'll upgrade to a better dslr camera body. The lack of physical controls on the Z50 I don't like so I would probably switch to full frame in the mirrorless category. I would have to save some money and focus on full frame on the future.

greybeard · Apr 24, 2023

focalzphotography said:
Hi, I have a D3100 and have had it since it first came out. I started out as a hobbiest, but over the past year or so, I've decided to start making a little passive income with it. Not looking to trade the D3100 since it would be a backup, but I am more of a landscape, wildlife photographer. I do some street/urban on the side and eventually want to save some money for a good telephoto and dedicated macro lens. I have an all DX setup, 18-55mm f3.5, 55-200mm f4, 35mm f1.8 and a Tokina 11-16mm f1.8. I've been looking at the D7500, D500 and the Z50. I'm trying to decide which would be the better financial buy. The D500 I am worried about size, the D3100 is a good size and with things like street photography it would be too big, but it has amazing AF for wildlife. 7500 is smaller, not as many AF points, but cheaper especially used, but still an all around good buy, I really like the tilted screen (would be good for street and other niches). The Z50, I know mirrorless is the future, but I also have to factor in the FTZ adapter for another 200ish dollars. So I am having a hard time deciding on which one.

I've owned a 7500 and presently own. Z50. The 500 is more of a pro high frame rate wildlife and sports camera. The IQ of all 3 are pretty much the same. The 7500 and 500 are SLR's like your present camera. The Z50 is mirrorless and needs z lenses or afs with the ftz adaptor. I love my z50 and will not go back to an SLR and I've owned everything from a d5100 to a D850. Given what you shoot, the D7500 would be a nice upgrade from your 3100.

greybeard · May 20, 2023

The D500 is as professional of a DX as you can get. It is however, designed for fast shooting wildlife and sports. The Z50 is a mirrorless that takes Z DX lenses. Your current F mount DX lenses will require a FTZ adapter which makes things a bit of a pain in the neck. The D7500 would be a true update to your D3100. I owned one for a time and it did a good job but, it doesn't have a battery grip and only has 1 card. Not really what I would call "designed for professional use". (imho) the best upgrade you could make at this time would be a used D7200. MPB has a LN one for around $600.
https://www.mpb.com/en-us/product/nikon-d7200/sku-1963758

DenisS · Oct 17, 2023

I too use a D7500, and the lens as mentioned by ndcisiv. I use this Nikon 200-500 for most of my wildlife shots and....compressed landscape photos, and also as he stated comes at a good price .

MartinCrabtree · Oct 18, 2023

F5. Try film.

Coincidence is this was taken with a D3100.

JoeW · Oct 19, 2023

I'm a long-time Nikon user. If you want to shoot wildlife (ie: small things moving very fast) then the best DX option out there is the D500. Obscenely fast autofocus.