A photographer buddy has a large collection of excellent Canon FD lenses and loved his T90 camera. When 35mm film and processing became hard to find he bought a Sony NEX (crop sensor). With relatively inexpensive adapters he can mount FD lenses on the Sony NEX.

His results are very good. However he does have to focus manually and has only Manual and Aperture Priority exposure control. He's a rather deliberate sort so this suits him. (He also dreams of a digital back for his 4x5 camera.)

YMMV

I have used an inexpensive Neewer grip on my D7000 for over a year. It fit well and works perfectly.

After my new D7200 arrived I bought a Neewer grip for it. It did not fit perfectly flush against the bottom of the camera body; there was always some free play. I was not confident that it was secure enough for the ARCA plate tripod adapter with a strap fitting. I like the way the camera hangs at my hip (my usual lens is the Nikon DX 18-200mm) from my Op-Tec shoulder strap when I attach the ends to one top lug and the ARCA plate.)

I'll return it and buy the Vello grip. (I wish I'd read this two weeks ago.) IMO nothing is a better recommendation than a first hand report from a actual user.

Enjoy your new Wide-Angle Zoom lens. I think that one is winner and a bargain too.

I share your excitement. The Big Brown Truck brought my Nikon D7200 yesterday. I bought a Refurb from the Nikon.com sale last week. It looks like new and the shutter count was 154.

I've been using a D7000 for three years so the learning curve shouldn't be too steep. I took a couple dozen shots with two of my lenses on it, and in a variety of modes. The results were satisfactory and it felt familiar to my hands and eye.

I'll field test it at the Oregon Country Fair tomorrow.

I have the Nikon 10-24mm and have used it for a few years on my D7000 (still waiting for my D7200) and I'm happy with it. It doesn't have VR and there were times I believe that would have helped.

If I was going to buy an Ultra-wide zoom now I'd seriously consider the just announced "budget" Nikkor AF-P 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR DX lens. It's listed at $310. Note that there are some limitations for AF-P lenses, e.g., they only work on some newer DX bodies. The 7100 is one of them.

YMMV

I believe that the difference between a snapshot and a Photograph is whatever you believe it is.

Long ago I would be offended if - after I'd spent hours looking for just the right spot, setting up the tripod and camera, waiting for the light to be just right, taking a few shots and carefully looking at them before making exposure setting, and finally taking a few 3-shot bracketed image groups - some person would walk up and ask "Getting any good snaps"

Nowadays I just smile and reply "I sure hope so."

I think your camera has a Pixelgeist.
#Occam's razor

I used a 18-200mm zoom (IS) for 95% of my shots on my last trip to Yellowstone (one of my favorite places.) Many times I would have liked to have a 400 or 500mm lens, but many of my shots were of events that occurred quickly and that I would probably not have caught with a longer lens on a tripod.

I think that a lot depends on your style of photography. Instead of setting up a tripod I usually just walk around and shoot as opportunities occur. I do like the idea of renting a good telephoto lens; I think that would be a relatively inexpensive way of learning how well that lens works for you.

If using a tripod and longer lens I wouldn't have got a shot of this wolf. He was loping away and stopped to look at me only for a moment. Of course he was too far away for 200mm and I had to crop a lot. Still, it was the highlight of my trip to see wolves and this photo adds to the memory.

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I read about the Nikon sale on June 26 and almost immediately ordered a D7200.
I opted for free standard shipping and the scheduled delivery date is July 5.
The suspense is almost unbearable :-)

I have twice bought camera lenses from a Craigslist seller.

(1) Searched regularly until I found the lens I wanted within convenient driving distance. This required a lot of patience.
(2) Contacted seller and arranged to meet seller at a Public place, e.g., Starbucks, for me to examine and test lens. I informed seller that if the lens was acceptable to me that I would make an offer.
(3) Used Adorama, B&H and KEH as a general guide for used Nikkor lens prices. Did research to learn about that lens. In one case I used a friend's lens of the same model for a few hours.
(4) Met seller and examined equipment. Put lens on my Camera body and tested function.
(5) Walked around outside Starbucks with seller, taking photos in variety of conditions, as practical.
(6) Back inside Starbucks transferred images to my Laptop and examined quality, comparing to images taken with friend's lens (that I'd previously saved to laptop.)
(7) When satisfied with the lens I made an offer. Seller and I negotiated and compromised on what I considered a fair price. I asked the seller to fill out a bill of sale and we each kept a copy.

Last year I bought a Nikkor 10-24mm DX lens (like new condition in the original Nikon box) for $450.

I upgraded from a D5100 to a D7000. While they both can make similar quality images I found that the 7000 was comfortable for me use as I like to make lots of changes as I'm shooting, like ISO, bracketing, and selecting User saved settings. The external controls of the D7xxx series make this quicker and easier than the 5100 menu system and I quickly adapted. The ability of the 7xxx series to autofocus many older Nikkor lenses was a bonus for me.

Yesterday I ordered a refurbished D7200 from Nikon (sale). I considered the 7100 as the price was a couple hundred bucks less than the 7200. However it was an easy choice for me to pay the difference for a bunch of the technical advances mentioned here and the larger buffer. IMO the small buffer in the D7000 and 7200 was a terrible oversight. It often made me frustrated and occasionally miss a shot. I believe that I should not have to choose between having only a limited number of exposures in a sequence or saving in JPG instead of RAW.

YMMV.

Most of the time I'll keep my wide angle zoom on my 7000 and the telephoto zoom on my new 7200. With crossed shoulder straps like a bandolier I can wear one camera on each hip like an old-west gunslinger :-)

I was expecting the sale to occur near July 4th. Thanks for the heads up.
My D7200 is on the way (at $100 off with free shipping.)

I expect a few busy months of fun learning about the D7200.

Like many others here, I use the Epson V600 for scanning slides. The results exceeded my expectations.

The only issues for me were:
(1) How much dust finds its way to my old slides even though they were stored properly. Cleaning can be tedious, often taking more than one attempt.
(2) How much time scanning takes - I have many thousand slides. While slides are scanning I use a small light box and loupe to preview more slides and choose which to scan. Background music helps.

To me the Epson V600 is a lot of bang for the buck and I'm retired with lots of free time. YMMV

Here's a 40 year-old Ektachrome that my wife took (after I set the camera and handed it to her.) Some dust got past my first attempt to clean.

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I bought the Neewer grip so I could use the shooting controls on it when using the Camera in vertical mode. Those additional controls work well and now I can't image using the camera for vertical shots without them.

The second battery was just a bonus for me. The Neewer grip included both a tray for a Nikon battery and a tray for six AA batteries. While not an important factor in my purchase, the second tray could be important someday as AA batteries are available almost anywhere on earth.

Three years ago I considered buying the Nikon vertical grip for my D7000. I'd never used one and wasn't sure that I'd like it or keep using it. I decided that it was worth $30 to find out so I bought a Neewer brand. (I agree with other commenters about many of the brand-x units appearing to be exactly the same except for the name.)

The thirty buck Neewer is light, but sturdy enough. It fit and works fine and I'm still using it. YMMV

Two years ago I attempted (unsuccessfully) to capture an International Space Station transit of the sun. I bought the "Orion 7785 4.00-Inch ID E-Series Safety Film Solar Filter" for $25 from Amazon. It's made to slip over the lens of a telescope and is dark enough to be safe for eyes. The inside diameter of the tube is 4". I put a 1/4" foam press-on weatherstrip inside. I compressed the foam slightly and the filter fit securely over the lens hood of my Nikon 300mm f/4 lens.

It is VERY dark. The notes say light transmission of 0.001% or less. That's about 16 stops. For this image of the sun I used 1/125 sec, f/5.6 (ISO 1000). I's not the optical glass filter that a serious astronomer would use but the price was good and I was satisfied with the quality/price ratio. I plan to use this filter for the upcoming solar eclipse.

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