Woody1101

Hi everyone, I have been following this discussion for about a year and have really enjoyed it. Now I need some advice. I want to upgrade my D5300. The D500 is my choice but not my pocketbooks. I am debating between D7500 and a D610 full frame. They are more in my range. I have a Nikon 18-200 lens that is my carry around and a 40mm micro and don’t know if they would work on D610. Any advice would be appreciated

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

The D610 is a fine camera, but the technology is 4 years older than the D7500. Also, your 18-200 will only work in crop mode on the D610. If you’re willing to go refurb you can get a D7500 for $600 right now, (both my D7200 and D500 are refurbs). I would also suggest a look at the Z50, but that’s putting you closer to D500 money, albeit with the two excellent kit lenses.
You can’t go wrong with the D7500.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Going full frame will likely impact the cost of your future lens acquisitions.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Your D5300 is a cutting-edge, professional-grade DSLR featuring an industry-standard 24MP sensor. You can buy another camera to spend money, but there won't be any real difference, even in moving to a full frame camera. A D500 may produce excellent images, but are you shooting birds in flight or sports that justify paying a premium for an extreme frames per second burst speed? If the D500 presented budget issues, have you considered the additional cost of FX lenses into a FF idea?

What do you envision happening with a newer camera? Do you have FX lenses that sharply focus in image circle onto a still-higher megapixel sensor? Are you capturing your images in RAW and processing with professional-grade software? Do you have an external flash? Do you have a quality tripod? My point is to try to redirect an urge for a new body onto areas that are more likely to yield improved results with your current body.

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.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Amen!

Cany143 Loc: SE Utah

Saw a posting yesterday (here on UHH) from a person who is selling a 16-80mm DX Nikkor. You should consider buying it rather than spending more $$$ on a different --or FX?-- body. The D5300 is perfectly adequate for almost anything you might want to do (accepting the fact that for all the model's strengths --and weaknesses--, it isn't the 'late$t and greate$t' body Nikon's ever produced).

I own and use a D5300. I also shoot with a D7200, a D610, and a D810 (and a couple of higher end Fuji's, too, but that's another animal). The main downside to the D5xxx series is that you have to have lenses that are compatible (or you're willing to shoot manually focused/metered as would be needed if you used many other legacy and/or other Nikkor AF lenses) with the camera.

Wish my 810 had that 5300's flippy screen....

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

While I’ll agree that the D5300 might not show a real difference in results, although it is 4 years newer technology, the big difference and reason I might upgrade is simply ergonomics. The D7500 puts a lot more control at your fingertips. Things like ISO and release mode that you needed to change through the menus on the D5300 have external controls on the D7500. For me that’s reason enough to upgrade. I do agree that it’s a good idea to think of how things like a tripod or a flash or new glass might have a bigger impact than a new body.

CO

I would forget the D610. The D7500 has a much more recent and superior autofocus than the one in the D610 and D5300. The D610 and D5300 are only rated to work down to -1EV. The D7500 is rated to work down to -3EV.

The D7500 has the same sensor as the the D500. I have a D7500 and two D500's. The image quality is fantastic. It has no anti-aliasing filter which helps produce a slightly sharper image. The D610 has an anti-aliasing filter which softens the image just a little.

It would definitely be a good upgrade going from your D5300 to a D7500. The D5xxx series Nikons have a pentamirror viewfinder. The D7xxx series and above Nikons have a superior pentaprism autofocus system. The glass prism inside gives a larger and slightly brighter view through the viewfinder.

The D7500 will also give you dual command wheels and a virtual horizon.

(Download)

Pentaprism left, Pentamirror right

(Download)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I really LOVE the last paragraph!
It's so easy to spend someone else's money...

SteveR Loc: Michigan

I bought my daughter a D7500 and it's a great camera. The one area it's not quite as good as the D500 is in AF. However, it is smaller and nicer to hold. I bought her a Tamron 100-400mm for shooting soccer and she borrowed my Nikon 28-300 for a 3 week road trip and loved it so much her husband bought her one.

CO

Are you sure it's a professional grade DSLR? The D3xxx and D5xxx series Nikons are entry level cameras.

spraguead Loc: Boston, MA

As others have said, going full frame means upgrades to your collection of lenses, so take that into account. You can get a slightly used D750 for well under $1000 these days, and is my current day to day camera.

If were to stay in the crop sensor realm, the D7200 would be my choice.

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

I use Full Frame Nikon gear because I went from 35mm film-to-digital. That means I had a "collection" of Nikon lenses that work very well with FF. You don't. If you are happy (mostly) with the crop-frame results, then don't switch to FF unless you have a lot of money eating holes in your pockets. D7500 should do a very good job for you.

uhaas2009

I don’t have much money ether but I updated from a 7000 to the 810. I got my 810 used with about 6500 shutter count. This wasn’t an easy decision but today I m happy I waited, save the money and got a good used camera what I love.
Which the 810 I will have some years time till a new body......

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I would suggest that you look carefully how you shoot now and how you would like to shoot differently. All Nikon cameras made in at least the last 6 years have been capable of taking beautiful photographs. Buying a new camera will not magically improve your photographs, but it will make the work of doing so much easier, and it may extend your capabilities (either a little or maybe quite a bit). This can be one of the best reasons for buying a new camera anyway. I am retired from a career as an industrial engineer, which was all abut making choices to make work easier, simpler, or otherwise better, so this is important to me.

What is markedly different among camera models is their "usability," what functions they offer and how the photographer accesses those functions. The design and durability of the higher placed camera models is also markedly better. For example, the D500, which is almostly completely misunderstood by almost everyone on this site, offers maximum usability to the photographer. Functions and adjustments are quickly available, and the camera itself is very rugged and durably constructed

As an example, a few months ago, I worked with several teachers at the local high school where I substitute as they were working to purchase some new cameras. These cameras were to be used by the yearbook staff and also by students learning photography. We had two primary considerations as choosing what to order...good available light performance and proper controls for manual photography (two command dials, not just one). Although the D500 would have been a perfect solution, we decided on the D7500. Unfortunately, folks in the purchasing office decided that they would only authorize the D5300, which really did not meet either of our requirements.

You haven't really told us enough to know what you shoot or how you work, and that's OK. But you need to think about it and think about what you would like to improve.

By the way...the D610 is a good camera. Many here use it. I owned one for about a week, but decided quickly that it wasn't going to work for me. It didn't offer enough of the operational improvements that I was looking for, and the compact camera bodies just "don't do it" for me.

And your lenses will work fine if you decide to get a full frame camera. They will not allow you to reap all the benefits of the larger sensor, but they will allow you to make use of all of the improved "usability" of the full frame body while you are saving for new lenses.

Good luck as you decide.