D5200 broken -> upgrade

katthebomb · Oct 7, 2017

Hello everyone,

I recently broke my D5200 (4 years old) and I thought that it was a good chance to make an upgrade. I have budget of around 500-700 euros. I am not a professional, but I am about to put a lot more focus and effort in going that way. I shoot wildlife, landscapes and pet photography as well.
I have some pretty good lenses already.
I have the possibility to buy:

D7100 + Nikon 16-85 mm 3.5-5.6 G AF-S DX ED VR (9600 clicks) for 700 euros (with battery grip, uv filter, batteries)

D700 for around 550 with 15000 clicks and only body

jaomul · Oct 7, 2017

Are your lenses fx or dx, not much point in going for the d700 if all your lenses are dx due limitations.

The d7100 is nice, you lose the articulated screen, but everything else usage wise is better, probably same image quality as d5200

I had the d7100 and upgraded to the d7200 which is not something I'd normally do, especially as on paper the d7200 is such a minor upgrade over the d7100.

The d7200 is the best camera I have used, if you can get one in budget you can't go far wrong (in my opinion)

k5MOW · Oct 7, 2017

I just upgraded from the Nikon D 5300 to the Nikon D 7200. I am very very happy with the Nikon D 7200.
Roger

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katthebomb · Oct 7, 2017

I have Sigma lenses and one DX. I will consider the D7200 - the price range seems to fit in the budget. Thank you for your input so far!

jaomul · Oct 7, 2017

katthebomb said:
I have Sigma lenses and one DX. I will consider the D7200 - the price range seems to fit in the budget. Thank you for your input so far!

The d7200 is dx but is really very good. I wouldn't go with a fullframe with your budget unless I had a good set of fx lenses. I think if you needed fullframe you'd know it, meaning you'd be upgrading from your d5200 because it wasn't good enough rather than it broke.

As a matter of interest, what sigma lenses do you use?

KmH · Oct 7, 2017

Sigma lenses for APS-C size image sensors have the DC designation.
So DC is the same as Nikon's DX.
DG is Sigma for full frame. FX is Nikon for full frame.

Derrel · Oct 7, 2017

D700 is/was a good shooter, and offers the full-frame advantage of a HUGE back catalog of lenses that are what they were designed to be, meaning, focal lengths and ranges FOR 24x36mm image area, like say the 28-105mm AF-D Nikkor zoom, or the 28-80 or 28-70 or 24-70mm zooms, or the low-cost 35-70 f/3.3~4.5 zoom, or the pro-grade 35-70mm f/2.8 AF-D zoom, or the 70-200 or 80-200 zooms, and the 20,24,28,35,50,85,105 lenses. Over 95%, as in more than 95 of 100 models for decades, were designed for 24x36mm capture area and shooting distances!

When you take a 70-200 or 80-200 and throw away the outside area of what the lens "sees", you have a lens that is no longer "right" for many places....the 24-70 is too long at 24mm to be a real wide-anbgle lens, but still not long enough at 70mm as a porteaiture telephoto, because the crop-body FORCES you to stand farther away from your subjects at every,single portrait distance. The 50mm is NOT a substitute for a high-quality 85mm lens. The 24mm is a nice WIDE, wide-angle on full-frame, but a bastardized mess on APS-C or DX as Nikon calls it.

Yeah, there are a few DX Nikkor lenses, but again, 95%-plus of the lenses in F-mount were designed to be shot on 24x36mm image area, at the distances we all know. The APS-C or DX cameras are fine, but the lenses are far fewer in number, and this is why a used D700 would make a lot of sense, because it could work so,so well with soooooo many lenses. A full-length two-person portrait with an 85mm focal length: 35 foot camera-to-subject distance on DX, but a mere 20 feet distance on a full-frame Nikon. Moving the camera back, from 20 feet to 35 feet, changes the way the depth of field is rendered, and means that many DX-camera shots have a more-recongnizable, and less-blurred background rendering than shots done from way closer camera-to-subject distances with a full-frame camera. Some people do not mind that DX camera look, but I do somewhat.

The D700 has a bigger, brighter, and BETTER viewfinder image than any of the D3000 or 5000 or 7000 series bodies; to me, the actual view through the viewfinder of the camera itself (not Live View) is a critical selling point,and makes me shoot better, or worse. For this reason, I dislike the squinty viewfinder pentamirror bodies, but some people shoot Live View, so that's an area where the newer consumer, mid-, and high-end Nikons have an advantage.

A D700 may be "old" to some people, but it was a high-grade camera. I prefer that type of D700 and the $3,000 camera body to a $349 or $599 camera body of the D3000 or D5000 series. The 7100 and 7200 were what I call the "$1,200 bodies"...nice, but not quite the same as the D700 was.

katthebomb · Oct 10, 2017

jaomul said:
katthebomb said:

I have Sigma lenses and one DX. I will consider the D7200 - the price range seems to fit in the budget. Thank you for your input so far!

Click to expand...

The d7200 is dx but is really very good. I wouldn't go with a fullframe with your budget unless I had a good set of fx lenses. I think if you needed fullframe you'd know it, meaning you'd be upgrading from your d5200 because it wasn't good enough rather than it broke.

As a matter of interest, what sigma lenses do you use?

I have a Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3 EX DG HSM and a Sigma 10-20mm 1:4-5.6 EX DC HSM. I also have a sigma apo teleconverter 2x EX DG. And a lens I got with the camera back when I brough it; Nikon AF-S DX 18-70 mm f/3.5-4.5.
I got all the sigmas from my uncle who was really into photography at some point, but not really anymore.