Upgrading from Nikon D90

Fairyrose

Fairyrose

Suspended / Banned
Messages
75
Edit My Images
No
Hi, I am looking to upgrade my Nikon D90 which has been my trusted DSLR for about 8 years, bought when my son was just born and i was fed up with all baby photos not actually looking like him ...
I was tempted by the ease of portability and low weight of the Coolpix B700 which I bought in a spontaneous acquisition a few days ago. Whilst by no means a bad camera I am missing the speed and precision of a DSLR already. I take a great deal of pictures of children, pets and other fast moving objects and nothing beats the speed of a SLR (avoiding the many pictures of the back off the head or eyes shut!)
I think I will have to upgrade my D90 with a new DSLR in any event and keep the Coolpix for those occasions where a SLR is a little too bulky to carry with me.
The chap in the photoshop advised that today's equivalent of the D90 is the D7200. Is that right? It struck me as somewhat more complicated and heavier than my D90. He also said that buying *any* of today's DSLRs would be an upgrade compared to my old D90.
I am instinctively looking to buy another Nikon, but if you think that a Canon (or even another brand) would constitute a worthwhile alternative please say!
Many thanks for your thoughts.
 
Hi

Welcome to TP?

A few questions which may help suggest the best option:

What is your budget?
What lenses do you have?
Do you shoot outdoor or mainly indoors?

An upgrade from the d90 would be d7100 or D7200.

If you think these are heavy you may want to look at the d5xxx range in Nikon.

Thanks
 
Buying any modern DSLR might be an upgrade, but you have to think what you will need. D5xxx will offer you some basic functionality, but if you start to use flash, it will not be enough. D7xxx offers much more for not much more money. I'd personally go for D7200 if I wasn't keeping eye on FX.
 
Hi, thanks for your prompt replies and such a nice welcome to this forum!

Sep - to answer your questions - I have the kit lens that came with the D90, a 18-105 VR and to be honest I am not one for having multiple lenses and changing them all the time.

My budget is.... hmmm.. somewhere that gets me a good camera but without bursting the bank (in real terms, not over £1,000)

I take mainly outdoor pictures, the only times I take pictures indoors are on birthday parties twice a year and at Christmas!

Will the D7200 have many functions which i will rarely use and which might be confusing? Just to clarify, I am not a pure point and shoot photographer, I don't exclusively take pictures on the Auto setting, i play around with aperture and speed settings, also ISO adjustments, but I am by no means a pro (not even an amateur pro).

Many thanks again for your help.
 
D7200 is not a pro body either. But offers nice features, such as weather sealing, commander mode, dual slot for memory cards, fast shutter speed and few others.
 
With that budget, I agree with @Major, worth looking for a used one and spending some money on another lens like the 18-200 vr.

I have a D90 with multiple lenses and have recently upgraded to a d750 which is a Nikon Full Frame camera and the difference in the files out of the D750 is amazing.
 
I tried to say this in another thread, there is no direct modern D90 because the d7000 range was designed as a higher end body and they never made a replacement to the d90, they killed that line and had lower end d5000 range and higher end d7000 range. I have a d90 and d7000 and the d7000 is clearly a higher range camera. I suspect the d90 was not quite good enough for the enthusiasts and a little too much for consumers although I expect they sold plenty to both camps.

As most others have said the d7200 is a good option or you might find the d5500 / d5600 more suited to yourself.
 
That's all really helpful, thank you. I will have to look at the D7200 more closely but also the D5xxx range.... since that seem to be the general consensus.

Do you think I made a bad choice in buying the Coolpix recently? Or do you think I will find uses for it (which is how I am currently justifying the purchase).
 
I would say it was a bit miss with purchase of Coolpix, but "whatever floats your goat"....
 
Last edited:
When I upgraded from a D90 recently I opted for the D500 as it suits my needs well.
 
Fairyrose said:
Hi, thanks for your prompt replies and such a nice welcome to this forum!

Sep - to answer your questions - I have the kit lens that came with the D90, a 18-105 VR and to be honest I am not one for having multiple lenses and changing them all the time.

My budget is.... hmmm.. somewhere that gets me a good camera but without bursting the bank (in real terms, not over £1,000)

I take mainly outdoor pictures, the only times I take pictures indoors are on birthday parties twice a year and at Christmas!

Will the D7200 have many functions which i will rarely use and which might be confusing? Just to clarify, I am not a pure point and shoot photographer, I don't exclusively take pictures on the Auto setting, i play around with aperture and speed settings, also ISO adjustments, but I am by no means a pro (not even an amateur pro).

Many thanks again for your help.
Click to expand...


If you are not one for using all the functions on a camera then there is good news.

The differences between 'levels' of camera are more or less down to how many extra functions you want direct access too, i.e. how many buttons it has, not the image quality they produce.

In terms of image quality, basically all cameras of the same age have the same IQ so you could buy the most recent D3X00 camera (not up to date enough to know specific model numbers) and have image quality that is far beyond the D90.

More expensive cameras also have better AF systems but to be honest even bottom of the range cameras are good enough nowadays - if your D90 was ok then any modern camera will be.

No need to spend loads of money and no need to buy a D7200 (although it is an amazing camera), anything newer than a D3200 with the controls you want will be a major improvement.
 
OTOH if you DO like to make adjustments to settings while taking pictures then a camera with separate control wheels for aperture and shutter speed can be advantageous, however the lower spec cameras 3XXX and 5XXX series have just a single control wheel. They also lack a motor in the body to drive older lenses, though yours may have a built in motor if it's got VR.
 
Thanks again, much appreciated advice.

Forgive me, but I've assumed I need to buy a new lens with a new camera- presumably the old lens will just 'downgrade' or extinguish everything I've just acquired from the advanced technology of the new camera?

Any advice what would be a good all round use lens for my kind of usage (children, daily life, some portraits, sports (as in family sports)... mainly outdoors, mountains and beaches, rarely indoors... will the kit lens that comes with the D5xxx or D7xxx be ok?
 
Fairyrose said:
Thanks again, much appreciated advice.

Forgive me, but I've assumed I need to buy a new lens with a new camera- presumably the old lens will just 'downgrade' or extinguish everything I've just acquired from the advanced technology of the new camera?

Any advice what would be a good all round use lens for my kind of usage (children, daily life, some portraits, sports (as in family sports)... mainly outdoors, mountains and beaches, rarely indoors... will the kit lens that comes with the D5xxx or D7xxx be ok?
Click to expand...

Your old lens will autofocus with the new body, and is absolutely fine - probably at least as good as the kit lens with the new body in terms of image quality. An advantage of Nikon is that the same lens mount has been in continuous use since the 1950s: my oldest lens dates back to the 70s, and still gives excellent results (manual focus though).
 
Last edited:
Yeah, you can keep your lens, it's decent enough (I liked mine when I had one).

The modern high resolution sensors means getting better lenses can give sharper images but that's a whole different question and you will end up having to compromise in one way or another (e.g. size/weight, cost, focal length) so is best tackled separately depending on what kind of stuff you like to shoot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top