In need of some advice!

[rokstomper]

It has been a while since I have last posted here. I plan to become a lot more active again.

I need some advice on what to buy; yes, another what should I buy thread. With that being said, I am sorry.
Currently I have a Nikon D3100 with the two kit lenses, 18-55 and 55-200. I have shot a ton of photos with that set up, loved it, but it is aged and I feel I need something new and improved to take me to the next level.
I do think I will take some photography classes sometime during my college stay. Right now I have a very good idea what most settings do and how they change what is going on and the result. I am far from great, however I am not totally new and have a good amount of experience.

I have been doing a lot of research on both Nikon and Canon options. I am not purely stuck on Nikon based on the little money spent and the not so great kit lenses that one day need to be replaced anyway.
Video performance is of no importance to me.
I mostly shoot family, landscape, and action.
I have been researching the Nikon D7000, D7100, D7200, and canon 70d. I am open to all other options as well.
I have concerns over buffer with the D7100
I have heard of low aperture auto focus issues with the 70d.
With all of this being said my budget max is $1000.
Thank You for your time and help.

 

[jaomul]

Do you shoot Raw? If no the d7100 wont really impeded you with its buffer. I currently have a d3100 (recently sold a d7100 and awaiting delivery of a d7200 which was not my original plan).

I have owned a good few canon cameras, I could not really fault them. I do however shoot raw and when i bought the d7100 I was amazed at how much post processing I could do on a raw file and it still looked good in print. Also the resolution and image quality from this camera is excellent.On the flipside to that a good photographer will get it mostly right in camera. So, long story short I would not recommend you moving to canon because , 1- you are familiar with nikon and 2- you have 2 lenses already (and despite the lens snobbery the nikon kit lenses are really quite good).

What will you notice if you upgrade from your d3100- well I find the d3100 quite nippy and easy to use. I have taken photos I really like with it. However the newer sony/toshiba based sensors found in the newer nikon cameras does not blow highlights as much and noise is well controlled.

Only you know if the d3100 is holding you back. If 6 frames in raw (or 30 odd in jpeg) is enough for you where buffer is concerned I really recommend a d7100. Its focus system, dual cards, fps and cls for flash make it a worthy upgrade. I sold this camera intending to go all Olympus and re-thought my decision, its the only camera I ever sold that I regretted almost immediately. As I was ligning up to buy another the d7200 was released so I ordered that.

 

[rokstomper]

Thank you for your speedy reply.
Now I would like to add that right now I currently only shoot jpeg, but with the dual card slots I would like to shoot raw + jpeg. I have toyed with raw files and do love how much I can tweek them and they still look fantastic. I find that the three most troublesome things with my d3100 are high iso results, only 3 fps, and auto focus.
One last thing is that I am not against refurbished models to bring price down and get more for my money.

 

[jaomul]

Well as said the d7100 will improve all those points. However despite what every review says, the high iso from the newer cameras is better than older ones, but its not massively different. I see numbers quoting 2 stops hi iso improvement, blah blah, when a newer model comes out.

I would say the d7100 is maybe a stop or less better than the d3100 (this is unscientific), but the d7100 at 1600 is probably similar to the d3100 @ 800. If you do process raw files though the d7100 files allow a lot more processing, and because there is a lot of detail, if you resize on export from say lightroom you can get very good looking shots even from very high iso shots

 

[goodguy]

D7200 is best crop sensor camera in market but it aint cheap.
D7100 is very close to it, very close indeed!
Buffer issue on D7100 is really an issue if you do most of your photography of fast moving subject like serious sports of wild life photography.
I had the D7100 for over a year and honestly the rather smaller buffer was simply not an issue and I did do the odd sports and animal photography, with a fast memory card and some practice the D7100 can be an good sports camera for the casual user.
The D7100 is a very well balanced camera, its a great general use and for 1000$ I would highly recommend it.

 

[sm4him]

The only downside to the D7100 is that it will eat up almost all of your budget, leaving very little for lenses. Still, since that would be true of almost any camera that was a really significant upgrade to your 3100, I'd agree that it would be a great choice.

Get that and maybe one sort of "all purpose" zoom lens for now, then save, save, save. Because if you do much action photography (actually, probably true for family and landscape as well), you are going to want some much better glass. Faster lenses are going to help as much or more than a new body.

 

[rokstomper]

Thank you all for your replies. I will say that the D7100 was on top of my list before even posting this but I needed reassurance because this is a pretty high end product for me, a kid with no job going to school. It brings me great pleasure to have this great group of people to ask and know I will receive the information I need.

The big problem I have is that I really do need some new glass and a new body. I figured I could get by with the lenses for a bit longer but a new body really is needed as soon as possible.

Sm4him, thank you for your reply. If you see this or anybody else wants to answer, what would be a good all purpose zoom lens? I was thinking the 70-300 AF-S VR would be great, but it starts at 70mm which is a little bit much for all purpose. Most of the time my 55-200 stays on anyway though.
What would you all recommend for an all purpose lens?
Thanks again

 

[jaomul]

You can get by with those lenses for a bit longer. They are ok, sure there's better, but you have a 27-300 mm range with existing lenses, people get by with less

 

[DarkShadow]

Nikon 18-140 IMO would be a great all purpose walkabout lens.it would almost cover the range of both your kit lenses put together and from what I have read,its a pretty sharp lens.

 

[Braineack]

Use what you have, save money, shoot more until you're limited by gear.

using tapatalk.

 

[jaomul]

Nikon 18-140 IMO would be a great all purpose walkabout lens.it would almost cover the range of both your kit lenses put together and from what I have read,its a pretty sharp lens.

This is a good second option. A cheaper option may bhe the d7100 with 18-105mm lens, which is in my opinion a great lens but others don't rate it as highly. I'd probably try to sell all my kit if upgrading to the d7100 and buy it with a kit lens with more range (as its usually cheaper to go this route)- you could later add a telephoto. The Tamron 70-300mm vc is argueably as good as nikons 70-300 at a much reduced cost

 

[rokstomper]

Thank you all again. I have read very good things about the 18-140 and it would be cool to have all that range in one package if it isn't degrading image quality to much. I will have to look into that Tamron 70-300. I've kind of always read that usually the actual Nikon glass is better but if it's equal in quality, money saved is great. One day I want to acquire a 70-200 f2.8 but that is going to be a while down the road.
As a side note you guys have all made me decide on the d7100. It sounds like a truly fantastic body for most of what I do.
thank you all again.

 

[DarkShadow]

I use to love my little D3100, the biggest thing I hated was menu diving and the grip would get gummy from heat. Maybe it was just the one I had because I never read anyone else complaining about it on the interwebs.

 

[rokstomper]

I agree, I have the same issue with my grip in heat. It is over 100 degrees frequently here. Another issue I have is very large hands on a small body. My pinky figer just lingers around with nowhere to go.

 

[rokstomper]

I just thought I should give a little update, I ordered a D7100 officially. I can not wait to receive it so i can get busy and enjoy it. Thank you all again for the awesome help.