Hi Nasim. Your love for the d700 is well documented. I also have many friends who still use the D700 and love it.
I have progressed through D70, D300, D7000, D7100 (10,5, 12-24, 18-200, 70-300, 70-180). I was very happy with th D7100 until a few months back. I was offered to buy a used D700 (14.000 clicks). I use it with 20/3,5 Ai, AF24/2,8D, AF35/2D, Af-S 50/1,8 G asph, 70-300 plus the 70-180
There is a special quality to the D700 inages. I can’t technically put my finger to it. I just create more beautiful images in Lightroom with the D700 NEF (14bit) files. I am even considering selling my DX stuff, upgrading lenses (maybe 24-120) and eventually buying a D750
My question. Would you prefer a D700 to a D7100 under any circumstances? Do you recognise my feeling for the subtle quality of the D700?
Goran, welcome to the full-frame world :) Yes, the D700 is one hell of a camera. I held on to mine and always thought I would keep using it until it gives up on me. But after I moved onto other full-frame cameras, my D700 just sat on the shelf, so I ended up selling it. If you love the image quality out of the D700, you should look at the D750 when you are ready to upgrade. A lot more pixels, amazing image quality and the best Nikon AF system. Now that you have tasted full-frame, I don’t think going back to DX will make much sense for you – it definitely won’t make you happier :) I would stick with the D700 if I were you. And yes, I do perfectly know what you mean when you reference the D700, I had exactly the same feelings as you and I could never go back to using my D300, which I quickly sold together with my 10-24mm and 18-135mm DX lenses.
Hi Nasim. Thanks for your reply. I feel relieved as you confirm my thinking and experience. Will prepare selling my DX stuff, so the upgrade may not be so far away!
I also have 2 V1 bodies. One with 6,7-13 and the other with 10-100. One on each shoulder and I can walk any distance without weight problems. And, relatively speaking, sometimes the quality of images defies the specifications. And I would have loved the upgrades (V2 and V3) to maintain the basic form factor and built in EVF. I read your 70-300 review. It will come next after some heavy FX shopping!
Mike
November 3, 2014 5:20 pm
Nasim!
Will a true D300s replacement ever hit the retailers? D400 and/or D9300 rumors are driving me nuts but no real update on anything.
Mike, now that the Canon 7D Mark II is here, I believe it will – yes, still hoping :) Q1 of 2015 is my hope, but who knows what a heck Nikon is thinking!
Rosa
September 28, 2014 10:28 pm
Hi there. Could you please help? I am currently saving up to buy a new camera, I’ve narrowed it down to the Canon 60D and the Nikon D7100. Which one would be better for medium to large prints? Mainly shooting portraits and landscape. Thank you so much.
Hi…. Just my review for Nikon D7100. The main problem with this camera : there are some transparent black spots on photos after some pictures have been taken. ( for example after 3000 times of of pictures taken ).
I thought it caused my lens is dirty, but after cleaning my lens, the spots are still on the photos till now. From the info I got, it said the black spots were came from the oil that stick on the sensor.
But I don’t know with other D7100 series. Mine still having the black spots till now.
I can send the photos for sample if you want.
ian pua
February 19, 2014 10:21 pm
hi nasim. great review on nikon d7100. i am on the market to buy one. my question is, how good is the high iso capability of this nikon d7100 (when downsampled to 16mp) compared to the fuji mirrorless cameras? thanks a lot.
by the way, my only camera right now is the fuji x100. :)
Sherman L Barr
January 27, 2014 9:14 am
Hi Nasim,
I have a question about White balance fine tuning. I set the white balance on my D7100 to Auto. Now the question is, do I fine-tune white balance by adding any of the four colors? I am using the D7100 for bird photography.
Thanks for any advice.
Sherm
Marybeth Stephenson
December 14, 2013 6:38 pm
Greetings Nasim,
You rock! I have enjoyed spending countless hours over the past four years reaping knowledge from your exceptionally thorough articles, so from one perfectionist to another, THANK YOU! =)
Because I respect your judgement so much, I’d really appreciate your guidance in my endeavor to begin portrait, sports, landscape, and real estate photography. I’m an elementary teacher with a long time passion for art in general, and have longed to feed my love of photography with truly quality portraits that would sell like mad! I understand that investing in quality glass far outranks purchasing today’s camera that will be yesterday’s technology by “tomorrow”. Which, is why I’m leaning toward a DX body and would like to purchase QUALITY lenses that are compatible with an FX body should I progress to a D800 (or the like) in the next 5 years or so.
I’m starting from scratch and have 2k to invest in both camera and glass. Would you please let me know what system you would recommend in light of my desire to capture truly quality photos while only working with 2k initially?
Thus far I’ve considered:
D7100 w/ 35 mm 1.8G
D7000 w/ 16-35 mm 4G ED VR zoom
D7000 w/ 70-200 4G VR (used ?)
A year from now I will hopefully have saved up 1k for the next addition to my system.
Kindest and Most Respectful Regards, Marybeth
Murali
December 4, 2013 1:04 pm
Hi Nasim,
Nice review to understand more about D7100. I am toggling to decide between D7100+18-140 or D7000+18-300. Both priced same with ongoing sales. Please suggest the better combo to start with. My main interest is nature photography and wildlife. I appreciate your advice on this.
Regards, Murali
Mike
November 18, 2013 8:17 pm
Hi Nasim, I’ve recently found your review site – thank goodness and thank you for great reviews. I am upgrading from a Nikon D80 to a D 7100 and want to get a second body as well. I am looking at a used D 7000, 3 years old. Would this be a wise choice, in terms of the age of the D 7000, possible quality problems back then and the fact that there are differences between the D 7000 and the D 7100 (functions, buttons etc.) ? I would be using two lenses for wildlife / birding, the Nikon 300 f4 and the Nikon 70-200 f4, one on each body, with 1.4X TC. I’d appreciate some advice. By the way, I’m from Richards Bay, on the east coast of South Africa.
David
October 28, 2013 4:13 am
Well, we are now near the end of 2013 and a d400 is definitely not coming this year and I doubt it ever will. As a D200 user with 17-55mm and 70-200mm lenses, what would you recommend as an ‘upgrade’ – d7100 or d610?
Thanks Nasim, I was afraid you were going to say that LOL :-) D610 is approx £1000 more expensive than the D7100 at the moment – and that’s before you start upgrading lenses! So, I’ll have to have a serious think about whether I can stretch the budget that far. Thanks, David
Funny old world. 7 years on from this and you can get a good used D610 for around £5-600. Who’d have thought it? The D610 is still a very capable camera.
Mark
October 27, 2013 3:58 am
A very interesting camera, The D7100. Looking at the pictures that you have taken, The clarity cannot be argued with. I have used the D90 and D300s for a while and have been happy with both. I beleive that they both use Sony sensors. So I wonder why Nikon have now decided to install the D7100 with a Toshiba sensor instead..Is this a cost cutting exercise or have they fallen out of favour with Sony..
Mark, in all honesty, the maker of the sensor is not the most important thing. A lot of people do not understand that what goes behind a picture is not just a sensor – Nikon’s proprietary image processing pipeline, which reads the data, digests it and modifies it for the RAW output is far more important than the actual sensor. If you look at Nikon and Sony cameras that use exactly the same sensor, you will find that the images from the Nikon cameras have different colors and they handle noise differently (often better). That’s all coming from the pipeline, not the sensor…
Hi Nasim. Your love for the d700 is well documented. I also have many friends who still use the D700 and love it.
I have progressed through D70, D300, D7000, D7100 (10,5, 12-24, 18-200, 70-300, 70-180). I was very happy with th D7100 until a few months back. I was offered to buy a used D700 (14.000 clicks). I use it with 20/3,5 Ai, AF24/2,8D, AF35/2D, Af-S 50/1,8 G asph, 70-300 plus the 70-180
There is a special quality to the D700 inages. I can’t technically put my finger to it. I just create more beautiful images in Lightroom with the D700 NEF (14bit) files. I am even considering selling my DX stuff, upgrading lenses (maybe 24-120) and eventually buying a D750
My question. Would you prefer a D700 to a D7100 under any circumstances? Do you recognise my feeling for the subtle quality of the D700?
Love to read what you write – always/Goran
Goran, welcome to the full-frame world :) Yes, the D700 is one hell of a camera. I held on to mine and always thought I would keep using it until it gives up on me. But after I moved onto other full-frame cameras, my D700 just sat on the shelf, so I ended up selling it. If you love the image quality out of the D700, you should look at the D750 when you are ready to upgrade. A lot more pixels, amazing image quality and the best Nikon AF system. Now that you have tasted full-frame, I don’t think going back to DX will make much sense for you – it definitely won’t make you happier :) I would stick with the D700 if I were you. And yes, I do perfectly know what you mean when you reference the D700, I had exactly the same feelings as you and I could never go back to using my D300, which I quickly sold together with my 10-24mm and 18-135mm DX lenses.
Hi Nasim. Thanks for your reply. I feel relieved as you confirm my thinking and experience. Will prepare selling my DX stuff, so the upgrade may not be so far away!
I also have 2 V1 bodies. One with 6,7-13 and the other with 10-100. One on each shoulder and I can walk any distance without weight problems. And, relatively speaking, sometimes the quality of images defies the specifications. And I would have loved the upgrades (V2 and V3) to maintain the basic form factor and built in EVF. I read your 70-300 review. It will come next after some heavy FX shopping!
Nasim!
Will a true D300s replacement ever hit the retailers? D400 and/or D9300 rumors are driving me nuts but no real update on anything.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks,
Mike
Mike, now that the Canon 7D Mark II is here, I believe it will – yes, still hoping :) Q1 of 2015 is my hope, but who knows what a heck Nikon is thinking!
Hi there. Could you please help? I am currently saving up to buy a new camera, I’ve narrowed it down to the Canon 60D and the Nikon D7100. Which one would be better for medium to large prints? Mainly shooting portraits and landscape. Thank you so much.
Hi….
Just my review for Nikon D7100.
The main problem with this camera : there are some transparent black spots on photos after some pictures have been taken.
( for example after 3000 times of of pictures taken ).
I thought it caused my lens is dirty, but after cleaning my lens, the spots are still on the photos till now.
From the info I got, it said the black spots were came from the oil that stick on the sensor.
But I don’t know with other D7100 series.
Mine still having the black spots till now.
I can send the photos for sample if you want.
hi nasim. great review on nikon d7100. i am on the market to buy one. my question is, how good is the high iso capability of this nikon d7100 (when downsampled to 16mp) compared to the fuji mirrorless cameras? thanks a lot.
by the way, my only camera right now is the fuji x100. :)
Hi Nasim,
I have a question about White balance fine tuning. I set the white balance on my D7100 to
Auto. Now the question is, do I fine-tune white balance by adding any of the four colors?
I am using the D7100 for bird photography.
Thanks for any advice.
Sherm
Greetings Nasim,
You rock! I have enjoyed spending countless hours over the past four years reaping knowledge from your exceptionally thorough articles, so from one perfectionist to another, THANK YOU! =)
Because I respect your judgement so much, I’d really appreciate your guidance in my endeavor to begin portrait, sports, landscape, and real estate photography. I’m an elementary teacher with a long time passion for art in general, and have longed to feed my love of photography with truly quality portraits that would sell like mad! I understand that investing in quality glass far outranks purchasing today’s camera that will be yesterday’s technology by “tomorrow”. Which, is why I’m leaning toward a DX body and would like to purchase QUALITY lenses that are compatible with an FX body should I progress to a D800 (or the like) in the next 5 years or so.
I’m starting from scratch and have 2k to invest in both camera and glass. Would you please let me know what system you would recommend in light of my desire to capture truly quality photos while only working with 2k initially?
Thus far I’ve considered:
D7100 w/ 35 mm 1.8G
D7000 w/ 16-35 mm 4G ED VR zoom
D7000 w/ 70-200 4G VR (used ?)
A year from now I will hopefully have saved up 1k for the next addition to my system.
Kindest and Most Respectful Regards,
Marybeth
Hi Nasim,
Nice review to understand more about D7100.
I am toggling to decide between D7100+18-140 or D7000+18-300. Both priced same with ongoing sales.
Please suggest the better combo to start with.
My main interest is nature photography and wildlife. I appreciate your advice on this.
Regards,
Murali
Hi Nasim,
I’ve recently found your review site – thank goodness and thank you for great reviews. I am upgrading from a Nikon D80 to a D 7100 and want to get a second body as well. I am looking at a used D 7000, 3 years old. Would this be a wise choice, in terms of the age of the D 7000, possible quality problems back then and the fact that there are differences between the D 7000 and the D 7100 (functions, buttons etc.) ? I would be using two lenses for wildlife / birding, the Nikon 300 f4 and the Nikon 70-200 f4, one on each body, with 1.4X TC. I’d appreciate some advice. By the way, I’m from Richards Bay, on the east coast of South Africa.
Well, we are now near the end of 2013 and a d400 is definitely not coming this year and I doubt it ever will. As a D200 user with 17-55mm and 70-200mm lenses, what would you recommend as an ‘upgrade’ – d7100 or d610?
David, full-frame is the future of DSLRs – go with the Nikon D610 (see my review).
There is still a small probability of the D400 coming – Q1 of next year, in preparation for the winter Olympics.
Thanks Nasim, I was afraid you were going to say that LOL :-)
D610 is approx £1000 more expensive than the D7100 at the moment – and that’s before you start upgrading lenses! So, I’ll have to have a serious think about whether I can stretch the budget that far. Thanks, David
Funny old world. 7 years on from this and you can get a good used D610 for around £5-600. Who’d have thought it? The D610 is still a very capable camera.
A very interesting camera, The D7100. Looking at the pictures that you have taken, The clarity cannot be argued with. I have used the D90 and D300s for a while and have been happy with both. I beleive that they both use Sony sensors. So I wonder why Nikon have now decided to install the D7100 with a Toshiba sensor instead..Is this a cost cutting exercise or have they fallen out of favour with Sony..
Mark, in all honesty, the maker of the sensor is not the most important thing. A lot of people do not understand that what goes behind a picture is not just a sensor – Nikon’s proprietary image processing pipeline, which reads the data, digests it and modifies it for the RAW output is far more important than the actual sensor. If you look at Nikon and Sony cameras that use exactly the same sensor, you will find that the images from the Nikon cameras have different colors and they handle noise differently (often better). That’s all coming from the pipeline, not the sensor…