D7100 In the bag..

[A J Alderson]

I just thought I would post some initial thoughts on the D7100 I picked up today. I am comparing this to the D7000.
I will add to this thread as I get to know the camera.


Things I like...

Build quality seems a little nicer than the D7000 and fits nicer in my hand.
Its noticably lighter than the D7000.
The new autofocus system seems to be smarter (in AFS 3D mode) and obviously covers more area than the d7000.
The Viewfinder and rear screen info display is clearer and brighter.
High ISO performance looks fantastic up to ISO 3200.
LCD screen is brighter in daylight.
Ok button to zoom.

Things I dont Like or need to get used to...

The locking mode dial is a little fiddly.
The shutter button to be a bit vague and squishy.
The + - zoom buttons have moved slightly.
There seems to be a longer delay to activate live view and image review.
The first thing I noticed was how green the LCD screen tint is. This is not overly important in the end but it would be nice to have a more neutral tint.

AF was a bit off initially so i I AF fine tune a couple of lenses which was easy.

High ISO looks a lot better than the D7000 which is great. Below is a couple of images (Jpeg med) I shot at ISO 3200 so you can see for yourself.

I cant wait for the Adobe support for D7100 NEF to see what this camera is really capable of.


D7100 High ISO by Andrew Alderson, on Flickr


D7100 ISO 3200 by Andrew Alderson, on Flickr

[Lance B]

Thank you for your report, Andrew. This camera was on my list as a crop sensor camera for even more reach than my D800E, but I am having second thoughts as I don't think the extra Mps is going to make a difference for me.

[Warren Ackary]

Thanks Andrew
Been reading reviews out of curiosity. Seems its horses for courses in regards to the D7000 & D7100

I think Ill save my pennies an still got for FX

[mechawombat]

Thanks for the review.

Going to do the same as Warren (weird typing my name in response to someone else also called Warren HAHAHAHAHHA)

Saving for that D800e or what ever Nikon decide to make their High end model (D600 seems too much of a stop gap IMHO)

[A J Alderson]

Thanks guys.

I was lucky to trade in my D7000 for the same price I paid for it second hand. I was never happy with the (3 month old) D7000 due to oil on sensor issues, weird dead pixels and high noise during long exposures. I am treating this as a D90 to D7100 upgrade financially.
I have seriously considered moving to FX but for now I will wait for the next generation of D600/800. I also have reservations about the d600 so this camera should serve me well until then.

After mucking around with it tonight I can see that the ML-L3 remote mode on the sub control dial has been removed and buried in a menu. Interesting

I am going away fishing for the weekend so I should have some shots to post next week..

Have a good one everyone

[Tommo1965]

on paper the d7100 looks great..and Im sure it will reflect that in real life shooting....have fun..

one thing..are you noticing a shaper image without the anti aliasing filter present in the 7100 versus the 7000

the camera store on YouTube did a good review of the 7100

[arthurking83]

.........

Things I dont Like or need to get used to...


The first thing I noticed was how green the LCD screen tint is. This is not overly important in the end but it would be nice to have a more neutral tint.

.......

I wouldn't compare the D7100 review screen to the D7000 review screen.
Compare it to your computer monitor instead.

I also thought similarly, in comparing the D800 to the D300(and even my D70s) review screen, and initially the D800 screen looked a lot greener when compared to the D300.
But placing the cameras against the PC monitor(which has been calibrated) .. the D800E review screen is a lot closer in colour balance to my PC monitor.

Looking at the PC monitor against the D300, the D300 now looks to red, so my estimation is that the D300 is actually out of whack in colour balance when compared to the PC screen.

The images I used for this test were plain grey background scene with WB set to 3850K on each camera, and used Nikon's ViewNX2 to compare images(all raw files).
Reason for this is that Nikon's software respects the in camera settings, so technically each image used for comparison had the same WB setting too.
Third party raw converters may not render the WB for comparative images in the same way between different model cameras, so a consistent image rendering reference point is important as a baseline.
(hence ViewNX2).
Another thing to note too, is that even tho both cameras used the same lens, and that they were both set to WB 3850K(for my lighting conditions) with other tint settings zeroed, the D300 image has a slight tendency to red compared to the D800E which has a slight tendency to green in the WB of the image too(as seen on the PC via VNX2)

I stopped worrying about the difference in review screen colours very early on, once I worked out that the D800 renders images closer to how my final images should look off the camera.

Besides that ....

I'm thinking that a D7100 would also make for a very nice macro camera too.

Thanks for the info too.

[A J Alderson]

I spent the Long weekend camping on the Murray River playing with the D7100 and I can say that I am impressed.

The green screen isn't too bad. As I expected I have gotten used to it so its not a drama. Just like speakers or headphones they all sound different but in the end you get used to what you hear or see.
The squishy shutter button is also fine but I think Nikon could have done better.
I also like the feel of the camera in hand. It is more comfortable than the D7000 IMHO which is a massive bonus. I also think the camera feels stronger (less rattles) and all of my lenses fit better with less play in the mount.
Another bonus is the autofocus performance. It was much better at tracking birds and water skiers than the D7000. In Af-c 3D the camera followed targets easily, even from a rocking boat. All of my lenses required an AF fine tune but that's OK.
The OLED viewfinder display is a welcome leap forward. All of the shooting info is much brighter than previous Nikon's, especially in bright sun. This is nice.
The new 1.3x crop is interesting. I found I used it quite a bit as the file sizes are reduced which extends the buffer life. The autofocus points also nearly completely fill this 1.3x crop frame which I felt helps tracking BIF.


One downside is that I think the camera seems way slower at things like image review, Live view activation, and write speed. This slows down many processes which is a bit of a bother. This may be due to the larger file sizes it has to handle but I would have expected that the new processor would have at least kept up with the D7000. Sadly not.

As far as image quality goes I will let other, more qualified, people comment for now. So far I am VERY happy with what I see.

So thats my thoughts for now. Anyone considering a D7100 should seek qualified advice of course but I think you will be very happy if you do get one.