Nikon D7100 Announcement

Ah! How exciting!

When the Nikon D7000 was introduced in 2010, there was a lot to be excited about. The D7000 was priced like a D90, which the top of Nikon's "consumer" line, but had a lot of the attractive features of the entry level "professional" model, the D300.

I got myself a Nikon D7000 in August of 2012. By this point, February 20th, I've taken over 10,000 photos with the camera, so I'm pretty familiar with it. I love the D7000. There isn't a thing I would change about the D7000, except for I would swap out the sensor with a full-frame sensor, and I wish the buffer size was just a little bigger. I don't motor drive often, but when I do at 6 fps, the buffer fills up pretty quickly. Other than those two issues, though, the D7000 does everything I could ever want it to.

The D7000 is old though, in terms of dSLRs, and I figured it would only be a year or so until a replacement came out when I purchased my D7000 in August. When the Nikon D600 came out, which many argue is a D7000 with a full-frame sensor, I thought that the D600 could quite possible be the replacement for the D7000. Also, when the D600 came out, which is described as an "inexpensive" full-frame camera, I thought that if there was a replacement for the D7000, it would almost certainly have a full-frame sensor.

Apparently, I was wrong about the sensor.

From what I've read so far, I'm not incredibly disappointed that I didn't wait the six months for the D7100. The only things that really seem to have changed from the D7000 to the D7100 are the amount of megapixels and the amount of focus points.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I hate ridiculous amounts of megapixels. I shot with a D70 for six months or so, and that camera only had 6.1 megapixels. I can't say there was ever a time I said to myself, "wow, I wish I had more megapixels." As far as I'm concerned, megapixels are now just a selling point for people who think it matters. The only reason anyone would need that many megapixels is if they're printing enormous prints, or need extremely detailed photos, in which case they would probably be shooting with a medium format camera, anyway. Also, more megapixels means worse low-light performance and bigger file sizes; no thanks.

The D7000 has 39 focus points while the D7100 will have 51. To be honest, the layout of the focus points is a little strange. They're clustered in the middle. I can only hope that the focus points of the D7100 are spaced out a little more. 51 focus points arranged the same way as the D7000's would be ridiculous.

Other than those two improvements, though, the D7100 seems almost identical to the camera it is replacing. Same ISO range, same maximum shutter speed, same minimum shutter speed, both have two SD card slots, same frames per second. Even the button layout looks the same. I did notice the mode dial can be locked. I definitely approve of that...

If I didn't have a D7000, and was still considering upgrading, I don't know which model I would go with. I would probably try to find a used D700, or something. Everything has either too many megapixels, or the features have been cut in order to keep the price down.

Unfortunately for Nikon, an increase in megapixels and an increase in focus points will not cause me to ditch my D7000. If you've been considering upgrading to a D7000, though, now would be the best time to do it. The price has already been dropped, which was a good indicator it was going to be replaced soon. Otherwise, feel free to dish out the extra cash for more focus points, larger file sizes, and worse low-light performance.