Welcome Opions on buying a New DSLR Body

[Fund8329]

Good Afternoon,

I am getting ready to buy my first mid level DSLR Camera Body. I currently own an older Nikon D60 and the Kit Lens that came with it.
My main subjects to photgraph are my grand kids playnig soccer and football, travel, and nature.
My budget for lens and body is $2500.00. I only have one older Nikon kit lens, so I am able to choose which ever body that will fit my needs.
I have researched and narrowed my choices down to a Nikon D7100 or the new Canon 70D. Both cameras have pros's and con's.
I am not trying to start a conversation or arguement on which brand is best, I am trying to get input on which body will suit my shooting needs.
I am evenly devided now and not sure which one to choose. I still need to hold each camera to see which one feels better, but my local Camera Store has not recieved the Canon in yet.
I would welcome any comments, advice, or input you may have. I also would welcome any thoughts on if I should look at any aother manufacturers.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and/or respond to my thread.

 

[brunerww]

Hi Fund and welcome to the forum. My first DSLR was the D50, a great camera for its day, but you're right - it's probably time to upgrade the D60.

For still photographs, my vote would be to get the D7100. It is available right now, it has a larger, higher resolution sensor, plus a larger, higher resolution LCD, 100% viewfinder coverage and a weather and dust sealed body that you don't have to worry about in an unexpected rainshower.

If you plan to shoot any casual video, however, my vote switches to the 70D for its fast video autofocus, which actually makes it a useful home video camera - especially for chasing grandchildren around.

If more modern conveniences such as built in wi-fi and an articulated touchscreen LCD are important to you, then the 70D is again a better choice. But, as for me, I'd rather have real weatherproofing

Good luck with your decision!

Bill

 

[goodguy]

Since the 70D is still not out any comparison should be taken with a grain of salt but still I think its not stretching it to say that the 70D will be a very good camera.

From reading the specs of the 70D it looks to me like Canon put a bigger emphasis on the video side of the camera but I am sure its still pictures will be very good.
The D7100 on the other hand is really designed to give you the best stills pictures in low and high ISO and does very good video too.

If mostly you plan on doing stills photography you probably off better getting the D7100 and if mostly video then the 70D but I think the differences for the casual user of these 2 cameras will be very small so either way both are very good cameras for both stills and video.

The 70D should be better for sports photography due to its bigger buffer and doing 7fps
The D7100 can do 7fps only in the 1.3 crop mode and its buffer is smaller.

Owning the D7100 I can tell you from first hand its a sharp, sharp camera, I did the occasional burst shots and as long as you don't sit on the shutter release button too long then the camera is perfect, I took bursts of my kid and I really didn't need more then that.

So as I said I recommend the D7100 but I am sure the 70D will be excellent too.

Good luck

 

[Juga]

Canon EOS 6D DSLR Camera with Canon 24-105mm f/4.0L IS8035B009

or

Nikon D600 DSLR Camera with 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR Lens13187

Nikon is offering rebates right now so it is the better value. B&H also offers a ton of free stuff with each camera and on top of that they give you 4% of the total back as a store credit.

 

[Stevepwns]

Have you considered Sony? They have great equipment and few features that neither Canon nor Nikon have that I find essential. The A77 or A65 with a Ziess 24 - 70 or the Sony 15 - 50, they also have a, 18 - 135 lens that I use for walking around. All 3 very nice lenses. Camera an lens would fit your budget by far and you would have a hell of a kit. The 2 main features I love about the Sony's are, the EVF, if you plan on shooting in Manual mode, every change you make of the ISO, Aperture, WB or shutter speed for example you will see what that change makes in real time with no lag. The view finder is not optical, its an LED screen. Very nice for me. The other thing I love is the peaking feature, in manual focus it highlights the peak focus area so you can be sure you have the proper area in focus. The A77 has 12 frames a second continuous shooting as well, great for kids running around but ti eats up memory pretty quick. They use all the old Minolta lenses as well, which can save you money in the long run. They are great lenses and available for very reasonable prices.