RKL349 Loc: Connecticut

Typical Ken Rockwell, this is the best thing ever, until the next best thing ever comes along.

Picshooter

His 55-300 ED VR is a great lens for the D7100 and probably all he needs for a while.

Picshooter

Well at least he does not play favorites. He buys and uses all the major new cameras on his own dime. After the Nikon 800 and 800E came out he was a Canon guy. Did not like those cameras. Now he is a Nikon guy again with the 810.
I've seen him on a Leica kick too.
Canon will have their answer to the 810 and he will be back on the Canon wagon. The Nikon/Canon competition thing is good for the consumer in terms of getting better cameras.

LPigott Loc: Monterey Peninsula, CA

Best Selling Cameras & Lenses – February 2014 Statistics

AMAZON
BEST LIST

Buying a camera for the first time, or upgrading your current gear can be quite a tough challenge. Besides many other factors, it’s usually wise to see what other people are buying/using, because that surely must work properly. If thousands of photographers use and rate the Canon Rebel T3i as a great tool, then there must be something good about it, right?

Below you will find a list of best selling DSLR's. This is based on Amazon’s reports and their overall sales.

Top 10 Digital SLR Cameras:

Canon Rebel T3i
Canon Rebel T3
Nikon D3200
Nikon D3100
Canon Rebel SL1
Canon Rebel T5i
Nikon D4s
Canon EOS 6D
Sony a3000
Nikon D5300
That’s 6 models from Canon, 4 from Nikon and 1 DSLR-like camera from Sony. It’s a perfect sign that most consumers are happy with the products from 2011/2012, and don’t want to overpay for todays’ DSLRs that are almost the same (at least the entry line ones).

Nikon_DonB Loc: Chicago

I would get a D7100 and use it with the dx lenses you have. The 18-55 and the 55-300 are more than adequate lenses to get you rolling. Though inexpensive lenses, you get a lot of bang for the buck with them. I used them both with my D3100 and got very good results
I would sell the 200 and get a nice speedlight. Also don't forget extra batteries and memory cards.

JC56 Loc: Lake St.Louis mo.

Birds and Wildlife.........no brainer buy a Canon 7D and if you have 6 grand buy a canon dx.

A Pentax shooter.

JC56 Loc: Lake St.Louis mo.

Birds and Wildlife.........no brainer buy a Canon 7D and if you have 6 grand buy a Canon DX.

A Pentax shooter.

Acountry330 Loc: Dothan,Ala USA

If in fact you are going to retire soon and you want to make photography a major part of you life, spend the money on a good full frame camera. I personally like Nikon. Get the best you can afford, so later you will not have to upgrade.

Caysnowman Loc: MN & SC

Or wait a bit for the 7D Mark II. http://www.kdramastars.com/articles/27520/20140703/canon-7d-mark-ii-release-date.htm

Bill

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Gotta love it, dueling KRockwell quotes!

How about we sum it up with a quote from Sir Walter Scott:

"Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive!"

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

HH, welcome to the Hog.
I can see this is mostly a Nikon conversation. Are you serious about considering a Canon?
H, I was at your crossroad in 09. I really wanted a Nikon, but after a lot of research went with a Canon system for many reasons. I'm glad to elaborate those reasons if you are interested.

I would recomend a Canon 5dmklll over a Nikon d800, as it's a more versatile camera. You could easily shoot a 5dlll for the next 5-7 years, it's that good. At this point to go FF, you need to change out all of your glass. It's a good time to make a switch, so you might consider marrying into a more versatile system. There is a lot more to a camera than what DXO says about the sensor! But don't take any of our words for it.
Go to the search function at the top and type in, "the 2012 popular photography magazine camera of the year is".
Pop foto professionally evaluates both cameras and tells why the 5dlll is better. As I said there is a lot more to a camera than a bunch of old men standing around slapping themselves on the back and having their noses buried in DXO and never shooting.
Take a good look at that. It's up to you what you get, but your at a point where you can move in either direction. Pick carefully, as there won't be another divorce in your future! :lol:
SS
Yes,

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Retirement makes an interesting distinction, though it will probably take a couple years for it fully take hold of your life... Business success is not required, only personal success... and that applies equally to amateur and professional photography.

You hint broadly at the potential to become very serious about photography. I won't address that decision, and instead will comment of the significance of deciding that is in fact what you will do. If you haven't, and don't, decide that is where you are heading, then my comments might not be applicable.


Consider all of them temporary substitutes until they can be replaced, and do not weigh them at all in deciding on a camera body.


Wildlife, birds, and sports always seem to require a longer focal length lens than whatever we have. Vacations and landscapes aren't extra ordinary for lenses. But grandkids almost always means some kind of "event photography" which will include poorly lighted school gymnasiums and auditoriums. That means cameras with low noise at higher ISOs and f/2.8 zoom lenses.

Event photography, even with today's technologies, just about requires the top of the line cameras and lenses to do it justice.


Another fascinating bag of worms! Check out the Epson 7890 printer. If you have the where with all (time, space and money), and feel it would be worth it, I'd be happy to share my experiences on that topic too.


Canon isn't really in the running these days.

I use a D4 and a D800. The D800 gets about 75 percent of my work, but frankly if I could only have or the other I would have to take the D4. Sports and event photography are a step above with a D4.

If and only if you just can't justify the budget for at least a D800, would I recommend the D7100. That said... for the price the D7100 is an astounding camera for image quality. It's just that for convenience and functionality a D800(E), D810, D4 or D4S is worth the extra cost for serious work.

But the cost does start adding up. With any of those cameras, if you do sports and event photography to get shots of the kids, a 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII is all but essential. The original VR version, or maybe the Tamron 70-200mm might be okay if you choose a D7100. The Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 makes a great walk around lens. If landscapes or the like are very important to you, then other lenses such as one of the wider zooms and/or the 24-70mm f/2.8 may be very useful.

For wildlife, birds and sports you might also want to look at something longer. The Tamron 150-600mm zoom seems to be a fantastic lens. The Tamron's longer focal length is better for wildlife and birds, but the shorter range of an 80-400mm is missing with either the Tamron or with a 1.4x TC on the 70-200mm. How important the shorter or longer extent of these zooms might be depends on your needs and is hard to predict until you really get into it.

Picshooter

I agree with the recommendation of a Canon 5DMkIII over a Nikon 800/800E except there is a new Sheriff in town called a Nikon 810. Things have changed since 09 and 2012 in the camera world. That is ancient history.

Picshooter

Based on sales and popularity which is mass market and price driven. Popularity is a good guide but sort out the cameras for the features, value and what you need and will use it for.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Realistically though, the past two years have shown that the D800 does in fact top the 5DMkIII by a significant margin. When DXOMark did get around to testing them, the overall score for the 5DMkIII was 81. That isn't bad, except the 4 year old Nikon D700 was 80 and the 5 year old Nikon D3 was 81 too. So Canon did catch up with what Nikon had been producing for the past 5 years at that time.

The Nikon D800 overall score was 95. Not even close. The resolution was 36 MP, which also is not even close. And even at that, the dynamic range and nose of the D800 is virtually the same as the 5DMkIII.

In fact the read noise at ISO 6400 and 12,800 of the 5DMIII is higher than on any Nikon since the D3. On the good side though, the 5DMkIII has virtually the same dynamic range from ISO 1600 to 12,800 as do the 1DX, the D800, D4. Of course the Nikon D3S, on the market since 2009, was actually slightly better than the 5DMkIII.

From reading the Pop Photography review it is clear that they didn't like the effects of a large data set from a 36 MP sensor. Larger files, even with only slightly slower write times, did not make up for the fabulous resolution and high dynamic range at low ISO's, in their opinion.

Canon is a terrific company. They are more in touch with the market, the implement the latest trends quicker, and Canon is basically driven by the marketing folks. Nikon is smaller, it has poor marketing skills by comparison and makes much less effort at tending. They are driven by engineering, and when they do implement a feature set it is usually very well integrated into the system. The effect is that Canon makes their customers feel better about their picture taking equipment, and Nikon lets their customers take better pictures.