I have the opportunity to purchase a second hand D7000 from a friend - it was her brother's who passed away a little while ago. My friend has decided to go with his Canon & Olympus gear.

Shutter count is under 6,000 - so as good as new - comes with 18-105 lens & macro extension tubes, bag, charger, batteries & sd card - $900.

My dilemma is for about $250 more I can get a new D7200 (body only).

My decision is clouded by the slightly disappointing purchase of the D5100 - which is a later camera than my trusty D3100, but the D5100 appears to have a problem with some of our existing lenses in that the focus is sometimes 'off' depending on which lens is attached - the 55-300 seems to be the most successful. The D3100 however does not have any issues - I can put any lens I have on it and it works perfectly.

In my tests of the D7000 so far, I have found that our existing lenses work just fine - even though there will definitely be a learning curve on how the D7000 works - what are the chances that I could have a similar issue with purchasing a new D7200 as I have with the D5100. We are talking about over $1,000 here - so a lot of money!

and just so as there is something pretty to look at, here is a test shot A New Holland Honeyeater in my front yard

testing D7000 by Cathy Cates, on Flickr


Anyone have any thoughts/suggestions?

What would you do?