Camera choice help

SEPkent

SEPkent

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Jon
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I smell thinking of upgrading and wondered if you could help me choose...
I have a Nikon D7100 and sb600 with a 14-20 mm (sigma) and 70-200 mm lens. (sigma)

Thinking of either
Samsung nx1
Sony a7r ii
Nikon D500 / D810

Any thoughts.
 
SEPkent said:
Any thoughts.
Click to expand...
Why do you want to upgrade?
- to achieve something specific you can't do with your current body?
- to scratch the itch for something different?
- retail therapy?

Without a reason why, absolutely any camera will be equally inappropriate.
 
To answer...... Something newer, better, or should I just stay... Are these cameras I mentioned better..... Or not really......
 
You can't assess "better" without a criteria of what's important to you. Sorry pal, you're going to have to think about what you really want from a new camera.

If it's just to scratch the itch for change, then nothing short of a fortnight vacuuming up all the reviews on each model will give the satisfaction of an almost-right choice you'll only slightly regret.
 
SEPkent said:
To answer...... Something newer, better, or should I just stay... Are these cameras I mentioned better..... Or not really......
Click to expand...

I can't talk about the other 2, but I just upgraded d7100 to d500.
Is it better? As I'm keen on wildlife yes it's significantly better, faster focussing, better ISO, better viewfinder, nicer feeling body, two back buttons for single and group af, new toys such as touch screen for flicking through pics and wifi for geotagging my pics via my iPhone, and again the focussing is great. Not to mention 10fps.
I wouldn't say the picture quality is miles better, but all the above (even though I only had it a week) are showing signs my keeper rate is gonna be so much higher.
Having said that, the info the cam takes and how recoverable shadows and highlights are, is night and day compared to the d7100.
Your lenses seem to point more towards landscape/portrait not sports and wildlife so perhaps d810 would be more relevant?

I don't think picture quality is worth the upgrade enough to say better, but the above features make the upgrade better for me.
 
SEPkent said:
To answer...... Something newer, better, or should I just stay... Are these cameras I mentioned better..... Or not really......
Click to expand...

Mirrorless cameras will give you different options such as using manual lenses and come with things such as the EVF, in view histogram and focus aids etc. that lot might be worth thinking about.

I'm a fan of my A7, it's the best camera I've ever had. The in view aids are wonderful as is using old manual lenses.
 
Do you feel you have outgrown your existing camera capabilities? if so then time to upgrade. As I have already a Nikon D800 my next step would be the D810 should I need to go the next step up,but that is personal choice having come up through the nikon range and used to the way Nikon have laid out the function structure. Do you wat to stay with a DX camera or go Full Frame (FF) What I would say is the 36 mp D810 is a world away from your D7100. I could not believe how much better than my D300. On big advantage I have found with my D800 is how much cropping one can do without picture quality loss ( Pixalisation/noise). i would even go as far as to say the extra long telephoto lenses won't be needed. Your Sigma 70-200mm lens I used to have until I got the Nikon version which I find is good enough for up to a fair middle distance range. My 24-70 mm lens allowed me to get a canvas print done 29x36 inches without any problem
 
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I mostly photograph dogs and my family. Need fast focus
 
A few thoughts...

Samsung have (apparently not sure if there was ever an official announcement) shuttered their camera division.

The Nikon D500 will be offer very similar functions to your D7100 ... only "better".

The Nikon D810 will offer different options being full frame. Your wider end will be wider (I'm assuming Sigma 14-20 actually should be Sigma 12-24?) but the long end will offer a narrower field of view. The quality on the images you take should be (subjectively) better but it depends what you are doing with them?

The Sony A7r ii will be a very different camera. It has advantages of weight and size as well as offering better functions for manual focusing and offering better video facilities; but the (native) lens selection can be limited but that may lead you to exploring adaptors and alternative lenses - this can offer good results but is very different from the assurance that picking up a Nikon lens (or Sigma or Tamron etc) will give you a certain result you are expecting. Personally I also don't get on with the EVF but that seams to be a minority opinion. The weight / size advantage can also soon vanish to insignificance when you add a lens.

At the end of the day, the three cameras you list (excluding the Samsung) are comparing an Apple, an Orange and a Pineapple.
 
SEPkent said:
I mostly photograph dogs and my family. Need fast focus
Click to expand...

I assume this is dogs running around then? Can't your D7100 keep up? If not and you're sure it's not down to technique then the D500 may be the answer as it's got Nikon's latest and greatest AF system, plus you'll be able to keep all of your existing lenses.
 
I agree with the previous, for one if the faster focus is the thing bothering, maybe a better lens is a solution, other is how used is your camera, and if the shutter is close to finishing its life, then upgrade is a way to go :)
 
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