I bought my D7000 in June from eglobal for just over 700 bucks. It is a fantastic camera and I have no regrets dropping the extra money over the 5100, which I was also considering. For the money you get an AF motor, a much better and much more comfortable body, a 100% viewfinder, front and rear dials (a huge difference over the lower models) and a whole bunch of other stuff that I would never turn back from.

At that stage I had been using a D3100 for a couple of months and had already found it to be limiting, especially in terms of ISO performance. Image quality was also a huge step up. It sounds like you'll outgrow those two lower models pretty quickly.

Consider buying a grey import. 700 bucks for the D7000 gives you 1100 to play with for lenses and accessories. That could get you a Tamron 17-50 2.8 ($270), a 35 or 50mm 1.8 ($200 max), a sigma 10-20 f4-5.6 ($400) and a Nikkor 55-200 ($130). I just added it up and that kit comes in 20 above budget including shipping.

That will cover most types of photography to start with, or if you're into a specific genre you've got 1100 to drop on lenses you'll really enjoy.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk