Need buying advice: Nikon D7200/d5500 for moving horses / animals outside and lightbox macro work?

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Hi,

Last time I did photography was in the era of the Nikon D40/D70/D90. I need some serious buying advice. I am a beginner. I do grasp basic concepts, but I have a lot to learn. Making quick perfect pictures is most certainly not in my muscle memory.

I want to buy a new camera for two things:
1) moving horses outside
2) lightbox work: macro photos of technology

Oh and I like vivid, a bit oversatured photos. I find "reallife" a bit dull (does that sound weird?)

I am leaning towards either the Nikon D7200 or D5500. Would that fit the purpose? What do I need to look for? Or should I consider canon / sony or what else?
 
Both are great, the d7200 does have the advantage of having better autofocus and more frames per second along with being weather sealed and having better handling, but as for image quality they are both so similar it won't matter most times.

It be better to buy a d5500 with a very good lens, than buy a d7200 with a poorer quality lens
 
Hi,
Oh and I like vivid, a bit oversatured photos. I find "reallife" a bit dull (does that sound weird?)
I agree with jaomul...but I'll also add that the "oversaturated" look is something that can be done in post-processing very easily, so the camera doesn't matter so much with that, as long as you shoot in RAW.
 
Both are great, the d7200 does have the advantage of having better autofocus and more frames per second along with being weather sealed and having better handling, but as for image quality they are both so similar it won't matter most times.

It be better to buy a d5500 with a very good lens, than buy a d7200 with a poorer quality lens

Thanks! What kind of lens should I be betting? I've seen two kits for the d7200, one with a 18-105, and one with an 18-140. Now I've googled on wildlife photography and people use a 300mm zoomlens? Do I really need that when photographing horses? I think I'm standing mostly 60 meters apart.
 
60 meters is a lot. I suggest you buy with either kit lens you mentioned, both are pretty good and represent great value when bought in a kit. You will probably need a lens that goes to 300mm as said, or even more. You would have to say what your budget is before lenses can be recommended but initially I'd look at the tamron 70-300mm vc usd
 
Both are excellent cameras and share same sensor so you are looking at same low light performance, same image quality.
One of main differences will be auto focus system and while the one on the D5500 is excellent the D7200 has a better AF system and for moving horses it will be better to get the D7200.
Oversaturated pictures is more about how you process the pictures (shoot in RAW) Lightroom is good for that.
As for lens, well 18-105mm, 18-140mm are kit lenses and are good but not top notch lenses.
70-300mm VR is also good but again not top of what you can get, if you can afford it then consider getting 70-200mm 2.8 either Sigma, Tamron or Nikon depends of your pocket.
But if you are on limited funds I would start with the 18-140mm and 70-300mm and then upgrade as I improve my skills.
Good luck :)
 
60 meters is a lot. I suggest you buy with either kit lens you mentioned, both are pretty good and represent great value when bought in a kit. You will probably need a lens that goes to 300mm as said, or even more. You would have to say what your budget is before lenses can be recommended but initially I'd look at the tamron 70-300mm vc usd

Thanks for the info. Budget.. it's all relative. If I'm in for a D7200 with 18-140, it'll cost me around 1315 euro's here in the Netherlands. I've been looking at the Nikon AF-S 18-300mm lens, which is around 729 euro's here. That's very expensive, I believe. Around 300-400 euro's would be better. If it takes good photos of course. If I have to drop 729 euros for an acceptable lens, I could.
 
Both are excellent cameras and share same sensor so you are looking at same low light performance, same image quality.
One of main differences will be auto focus system and while the one on the D5500 is excellent the D7200 has a better AF system and for moving horses it will be better to get the D7200.
Oversaturated pictures is more about how you process the pictures (shoot in RAW) Lightroom is good for that.
As for lens, well 18-105mm, 18-140mm are kit lenses and are good but not top notch lenses.
70-300mm VR is also good but again not top of what you can get, if you can afford it then consider getting 70-200mm 2.8 either Sigma, Tamron or Nikon depends of your pocket.
But if you are on limited funds I would start with the 18-140mm and 70-300mm and then upgrade as I improve my skills.
Good luck :)

Thanks for the info! Is here other post process software than lightroom? Or do I just need to get and learn lightroom?

Is a 70-200 2.8 Sigma/Tamron/Nikon a better bang for the buck than the 70-300mm VR?
 
What I like about the 7000 series Nikons is the use of the same thumb/finger wheels as the D80/90. I used to use a D80 and was accustomed to that. Otherwise, it shouldn't make any difference.
 
What I like about the 7000 series Nikons is the use of the same thumb/finger wheels as the D80/90. I used to use a D80 and was accustomed to that. Otherwise, it shouldn't make any difference.

Thanks! Yeah... that's the only really complaint I could find about the D5500.. only one dial and a bit "unintuitive" placing of the buttons.

I guess that the placing of the physical buttons / dials / knobs is very important.
 
Both are excellent cameras and share same sensor so you are looking at same low light performance, same image quality.
One of main differences will be auto focus system and while the one on the D5500 is excellent the D7200 has a better AF system and for moving horses it will be better to get the D7200.
Oversaturated pictures is more about how you process the pictures (shoot in RAW) Lightroom is good for that.
As for lens, well 18-105mm, 18-140mm are kit lenses and are good but not top notch lenses.
70-300mm VR is also good but again not top of what you can get, if you can afford it then consider getting 70-200mm 2.8 either Sigma, Tamron or Nikon depends of your pocket.
But if you are on limited funds I would start with the 18-140mm and 70-300mm and then upgrade as I improve my skills.
Good luck :)

Thanks for the info! Is here other post process software than lightroom? Or do I just need to get and learn lightroom?

Is a 70-200 2.8 Sigma/Tamron/Nikon a better bang for the buck than the 70-300mm VR?
I don't think bang for the buck is the point here, it depends how important image quality is for you and if you want a fast lens.
70-300mm VR is a good lens and used will cost a fraction of the much faster 70-200mm 2.8 lenses.

You can get Faststone, its a free RAW processing software, its considerably limited compared to Lightroom but it will get the job done, its easy to move skills you learned on it to Lightroom in future, I used Faststone for few years till I moved to Lightroom.
 
Question - you say you want to do macro of technology items - just how big are these items that you want to photo and how big in the frame do you want them to be
 
I don't think bang for the buck is the point here, it depends how important image quality is for you and if you want a fast lens.
70-300mm VR is a good lens and used will cost a fraction of the much faster 70-200mm 2.8 lenses.

You can get Faststone, its a free RAW processing software, its considerably limited compared to Lightroom but it will get the job done, its easy to move skills you learned on it to Lightroom in future, I used Faststone for few years till I moved to Lightroom.

Image quality is very important for me. That's the whole point: crisp and sharp picture of the horse with or without the horseback rider, perhaps with the rest fading to the background. Question: Do I need a fast lens? For this kind of photography?

Nah I'll use lightroom :-D No problem with investing in it. I just thought perhaps there is better software out there but apparently not.
 
Question - you say you want to do macro of technology items - just how big are these items that you want to photo and how big in the frame do you want them to be

From largest to smallest: motherboards, keyboards, mice, mice PCB's, keycaps.
 
Spending money on lenses can be from small money to remortgage the house money. Most say it's better to put the money on lenses over the camera body, personally I think its a bit of both.

The tamron 70-300mm usd vc is a fine lens. If you intend on shooting in good light it probably is a better option than a 70-200 f2.8 for the fact that it has a better range and is lighter and of course cheaper. When light levels drop the 70-200 f2.8 come into their own because they let more light in and will have more confident focus.

You asked also about macro. I suggest you look at the sigma 105mm f2.8 OS or the tamron 90mm f2.8 vc. Both are fine macros, with a focal length that means you are not on top of your subject when you are shooting, making it better for scared little bugs and for not casting a shadow on your subject. I am not sure how relevant this is for you using a lightbox, but there probably isn't any relevant reason to spend double on a nikon brand here.

lightroom is great, but even in jpeg, your camera will have settings that allow the high saturation look straight out of camera
 

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