The OP likely has good enough equipment to provide the majority of his current needs and enjoyment. More lenses or another camera is not magical or necessary. He has a great focal length range and a decent camera.

The perception that we need all this great gear to produce satisfying pictures is bogus!

If you enjoy expensive stuff, that's fine. 30 mp plus is not a necessity nor will it provide some magical potion to produce noticeability better pictures.

"Been there, done that."

I'm a 75 year old great grandpa who was quite into photography in my 20's and then life happened and I went from my SLR to point and shoots. Life now have lives of their own so last August I purchased a Nilon D3500 kit then I purchased a Tamron 18-400 zoom last week. I'm not a professional, not interested in any one thing to photograph. I'm using the camera for vacations, grandkids, experiments with birds, the moon and anything else I might think about. So, here's the questions, should I upgrade to the D7200? Will I really gain anything or will the 3500 do all I want it too? Thanks

Papadon. I am a 72 year old grandpa and use my d7200 with Nikon 18-300 zoom much like you. 2 years ago I sold my d5500 and bought the d7200 and haven’t regretted the switch. The only thing I sometime miss is the articulating screen on the d5500. The little extra weight doesn’t bother me, even on a long day out while traveling.

If you are only going to use the 7200 or any other more advanced camera you might choose as more a point and shoot camera then stick with your current camera. However if you are going to take advantage of the advanced features of a more complex features of a camera such as the 7200 then go for it. You will like the larger viewfinder of the pentaprism of the 7*** series and up Nikon camera. The dual card slot comes in handy on my 7200. Slot 1 is for raw files and slot 2 is jpeg backup files. You don’t have to go into the menu system to change different settings. Get a good book or 2 on whatever camera you choose.

The d7500 has a better video shooting system and an articulating screen. I am seriously considering buying this body for those 2 features alone. It does have some other advantages over the 7200 but none that really would pull me on that direction.

I am definitely not interested in the d500 for one very big reason...there is not a built in flash. I like being able to pop up the flash and get a shot of the grandkids or other closer objects without having to always carry an external flash. The d500 requires a flash on the hot shoe. I also use the 7200 Built in flash in commander mode to trigger off camera flash. The d500 requires something in the hot shoe to do this.

Anyway good luck in making your decision.

Chuck

I'm a 75 year old great grandpa who was quite into photography in my 20's and then life happened and I went from my SLR to point and shoots. Life now have lives of their own so last August I purchased a Nilon D3500 kit then I purchased a Tamron 18-400 zoom last week. I'm not a professional, not interested in any one thing to photograph. I'm using the camera for vacations, grandkids, experiments with birds, the moon and anything else I might think about. So, here's the questions, should I upgrade to the D7200? Will I really gain anything or will the 3500 do all I want it too? Thanks

It's your money. It's your decision. It you let the UHH community spend your money, nothing you have will ever be good enough to their standards.

If you were serious about wildlife and sports, you could get a larger buffer and higher frames per second so you could rip a burst of images over a few second and come away with 20+ images to choose from with the D7200. The D7200 also gives you 2 card slots and more controls of the camera on the camera body rather than buried in menus. But, your D3500 is a serious DLSR and more than enough camera for all your uses, including wildlife and sports. You don't have to process your images, but even just for sharing, you'd benefit from some organizational software. That might be a better next purchase than a camera change.

Your camera is only as good as you can use it. Are you shooting in AI Servo using selective focus points? Do you capture in RAW, expose to the right, or adjust the settings for the situation for JPEG? The camera can help, but a new camera alone doesn't make you a better photographer.

I'm a 75 year old great grandpa who was quite into photography in my 20's and then life happened and I went from my SLR to point and shoots. Life now have lives of their own so last August I purchased a Nilon D3500 kit then I purchased a Tamron 18-400 zoom last week. I'm not a professional, not interested in any one thing to photograph. I'm using the camera for vacations, grandkids, experiments with birds, the moon and anything else I might think about. So, here's the questions, should I upgrade to the D7200? Will I really gain anything or will the 3500 do all I want it too? Thanks