D3100 upgrade.. or not?

<p>Hello everyone<br>

I am currently a college student studying photography, and I'm looking for opinions. <br>

I've been taking photography classes in school since 9th grade, and I've always used my Nikon D3100. Its had 6 years of heavy school use. It works so well, and I refuse to get rid of it because it's a great little SLR.<br>

I used to use the kit variable zoom lenses or a Sigma 17-50 but I'm finding I like Prime lenses more.. Lately I have been using a 50mm and having a blast. <br>

I am so tired of messing through menus to change white balance and flash settings.. I know the D200's and up, have buttons for this... Tempting.<br>

I guess my question is, are the feature buttons and options worth the upgrade price? I don't need more than 12 mega pixels, I don't need crazy FPS, just something that might or might not be easier to study on. <br>

Or should I get some new filters and flashes to play with.. <br>

I don't have a massive budget.. but a used D7100 is not out of my reach.<br>

Thanks for your time! This site has so much information </p>

 

<p>The reason I got rid of my D5100 was due to having to use the menu so much. I did buy a D7100. Works great. The major functions are a button away, but you can still create a custom menu for the quick things you may want at hand. The image quality on a D7100 is going to be far superior to a D200. The D200 will still take good photos, but the D7100 will be much better in lower light situations. The D7000 is still a good camera too. It has an excellent sensor at 16mb. </p>

<p>The D7100 is a huge improvement over the D3100 in its sensor, its autofocus capability, its viewfinder and controls. Given that photography is important to you, it is very much justified.</p>

<p>I also recommend D7100. One of the reason that others forgot to mention is that you can use it with all older AF-D and manual focus lenses.</p>

<p>If you can afford a used D7100, it's a very nice idea. I have a D3200 and my wife a D7100, and there are some very nice differences - enough that I suspect I'm going to be upgrading soon, especially if the new D500 brings some other prices down. One is, of course, that you can AF with older lenses and meter with manual lenses, which may or may not be important. I don't have any legacy AF lenses, and I don't so much mind the lack of metering for others, but some might.</p>

<p>As noted, the low light performance, auto focus, and viewfinder are all a good bit better on the D7100, and it has a number of other small but useful advantages. One which I particularly would wish for is the ability to switch between manual and auto ISO without the menu.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Learning about lighting is a key part of anyone's photographic education, so I'm leaning away from recommending a camera upgrade and going with the flash option. However, you won't learn very quickly using speedlights since they have no modelling light - meaning you'll need to do a lot of "chimping" to see what effect the light has. And on-camera flash is just the most appalling light ever invented unless bounced.</p>

<p>The D7100 is a lot of camera for the money, and I don't think you'll be disappointed...... <em>but</em> I still think the camera body is a very small part of the chain, and building your skillset as a photographer is much more important. It sounds as if you have a very sensible attitude to the hardware side of things, and I hope you can avoid the temptation of being drawn into the way of thinking that goes "If only I had a better camera/lens/flash/tripod/gadget bag then my pictures would be soooo much better". It's nonsense and a distraction. Keep shooting - no matter with what, and good luck Sean!</p>

<p>About 20 years ago I met a guy at some (remote) family gathering I was covering. He told he owns a (back then) impressive list of impressive cameras, but his best pictures were taken with what he had as a young student.<br>

I'm trying to say: Get your hands on some decent gear before you turn 30! Save elsewhere (just not on file storage backup) and shoot like hell! Average lifes are really that way, that they become less inspiring over time and while you are the co-student with a camera in close contact with still good looking people, I as an older external would have way bigger issues to get permission to shoot them. Middle aged people are also less likely to go out as much as students.<br>

Flashes are nice to have but what do you really need? A bunch of used hotshoe flashes with inexpensive optical slave sensors can already do a lot. <br>

And since you started to like primes: IMHO a 2nd body is a must have with the 3rd of these. - Here I am not really familiar with the Nikon system, but still, I think such a camera is worth getting.</p>

<p>My opinion, don't upgrade! Keep using your camera until you can and want to upgrade to the camera that really fit your need.</p>

<p>Thank you so much for your responses, data and opinions are like gold to me when shopping for gear. <br>

My professor recommended a full frame to me this morning.. <br>

Actually this brings up another option, I could get a full frame setup, for not much more than the D7100. As D600's are only a hundred-ish more. If i can see the potential, I would definitely spring for the bigger sensor. <br>

I thought of this a few years ago while buying lenses, and all of my favorite prime's are setup for full frame. <br>

Is this something to consider? Both have the feature buttons I'm looking for, but I would pay alot more for that sensor.. Or stick with the crop. Keep in mind, my lenses are full frame so no upgrading there. </p>

<p>If all your lenses are full frame then a full frame camera makes a lot of sense. </p>

<p>The D7100 would be a fine upgrade.</p>

<p>How much are those used D600 you have in mind? The D600 has a somewhat notorious oil on sensor issue. Make sure that you won't end up with one that has problems.</p>

<p>Shun's advice is good - beware of a D600 that has the oil problem. Nikon offered a free fix for D600 owners, so ask the seller if it has been sent in for the fix, and if so, ask for some paperwork to verify this. If it hasn't, I believe (but do not know) that Nikon will still do the free shutter replacement - you could check with Nikon on that. If you go this route, and if you have a local camera store that carries Nikon, that store may be willing to send it in to Nikon for you - it's worth asking about it.</p>

<p>But be advised - getting a full frame body means full frame lenses. Thus, the cost of a move to FX may have to include buying lenses that you don't already have in addition to the cost of the camera body.</p>

<p>A used D7100 is indeed a good idea. The buffer is not large, but for many purposes it is large enough. Even the D7000 would be a good idea, since 16 mp is enough for many applications.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

<p>If you hang on a while Sean, I'm sure that used D300s will be hitting the market by the bucketload when sales of the D500 get underway. That'll doubtless send the price down.</p>

<p>As far as full-frame goes, I think you might be better off getting a used D800 or D800E, and at least your existing DX lenses would be useable on it at a reasonable 16 megapixel resolution. A D700 would be cheaper, but DX lens use is very limited. The D700 is still a good camera, but given the minimal price difference between that and a used D800, it's not looking good value for money.</p>

<p>If you get a D600 or D700, then you'll almost certainly have to budget extra for lenses. The D600 will only deliver a 10 Mp picture with DX lenses, and depending on the lens and how you crop you might get 8 meg of useable pixels out of a D700. Both of which are very low-res by today's standards. So IMO your lowest overall cost (body+lenses) entry into full frame would be a used D800. Full-frame lenses can then be added later when you get the cash together.</p>

<p>Awesome information! </p>

<p>How important is shutter count? </p>

<p>I know lower is better, but what would be a safe threshold? </p>

<p>CF storage would be a pain at school, they've upgraded the systems with SD readers. </p>

<p>I've figured my budget to be around $1,000. I like the D610 alot.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>A D600 that has had the shutter replaced is 99% the same as a D610.</p>

<p>With a shutter replacement that shutter count starts at zero again. So shutter count is not a good indication of how much use or abuse then camera has seen. D600 though is less likely to have many clicks on it compared to D800 or D3 or similar cameras that are common pro cameras.</p>

<p>Just to give you a number, 10K clicks is nothing. A pro shooting weddings can easily do that in two weeks. Sports shooters can do that on a weekend. If you get a camera with less than 20K clicks on it has likely not seen any pro use, except perhaps as a backup camera.</p>

<p>Since you want to use more prime lenses I would look into getting a few of the older manual focus lenses. With a full frame camera your viewfinder is larger and it's easier to manually focus. A full frame camera also has a sensor that is 2.2 times larger than a DX sensor, like the D7100 or the D3100 you have. That means that older lenses will still look good even if you have 24 Megapixels and do big prints.</p>

<p>Classic good lenses that can be had for not much money is for example the 24mm f2.8 AI, 55mm f3.5 AI (micro) and the 105mm f2.5 AI. The 20mm f4 or f3.5 is a nice wide angle. 35mm f2 AI is a nice walk around lens, a classic focal length.</p>

<p>With a macro lens, a wide angle, a normal and a telephoto you can do lots and lots of shots. You already have the normal (50mm).<br /> Lighting is the next thing to look into after having a few different focal lengths to play with.</p>

<p>As a general rule I'd pick a full frame camera over a crop camera.</p>

<p>The advantage the D7100 have over the D600 is a slightly better autofocus. The D7100 is also smaller which for some is a plus and for others a minus. Other than that the D600 is the better camera.</p>

I moved up to the D7100 for the very reasons you describe. Love it, and kept same glass.

<p>Hello all!<br>

I ended up going with a D700 with 10,000 actuations on it. I love this camera, the FX sensor is brilliant and my outdoor work is improving drastically. <br>

Still working on the indoor lighting.. the sensor is significantly more sensitive than my crop frame. <br>

Great for wide angles, I'm not one for shooting with crazy focal lengths I like to move around. <br>

Im also finding the interval timer and multiple exposure modes to be great. I've used them on 35mm cameras but never a digital. Who knows what I'll come up with using these features. <br>

I'm in my last semester at my current school, next year will be filled with travels and studies, and this thing is coming with me. </p>

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