I bought a third party battery grip for my D5100. Surprisingly it improves the balance especially with the Tamron 18-270mm lens. I don't bother to fit the cable to enable the vertical shutter button to be used on the grip but it does extend the normal grip on the camera body. My grip came with a remote control unit which will operate the shutter via the camera sensors which are better-placed than the one on the grip anyway. Probably the best thing about a battery grip is that with the grip fitted and mounted on a tripod, or monopod, the batteries can be changed without removing the camera, which you would have to do normally.

Brilliant, thanks Blueduck.

How do you find out how many shutter operations have taken place?

I too am 68 and have just upgraded from a D40X to the D5100. Hope I live long enough to warrant at least another upgrade or two.

Have upgraded from a D40X to the D5100. The articulated screen is brilliant. 11 focal points should be enough compared to the D7000's 39. Only need the focus motor in the D7000 body for old lenses. Biggest loss is only 4fps compared to 6fps for the D7000. Will spend the savings on a good speedlite, but which one?

Thanks Caranx. We must now compare lenses on the camera as the numbers do not tell the whole story, as there is also the factor of performance as a zoom lens other than picture quality.

I have just checked both lenses at full zoom at a distance of a few hundred metres (yards) and the Tamron DOES have a longer reach. This is where the extra reach is useful, at distance. At short distances there is a noticeable difference and this will be because of the differences in construction required by the different zoom ratios. In practice I have noticed that the Tamron has a smaller focus tolerance ie. less depth of field and is therefore less forgiving. It should remembered that the reason for buying the Tamron is that it replaces the twin Nikon twin lens combination normally sold with most prosumer cameras, and hence avoids lens-changing. The fact that the zoom extends beyond the twin lens combo is a bonus.

I too have a Tamron 18-270 and yes compared to the Nikon 55-200 the maximum zoom picture is larger for the 55-200.This is at a distance of about 4 metres. Also if you check out the 18 end for the Tamron and a Nikon 18-55 the Tamron gives a wider picture than the Nikon at the same distance of about 4 metres. It is weired but appears to be true.