Is the D5100 worth buying right now?

I have been a amateur photographer for a while now. I blog and report on figurine news off and on and do like taking occasional photos.

My current camera is a little point and shoot, a Panasonic ZS5. It does the job but I was thinking about getting a real camera.

I like the d5100's screen that you can flip out and rotate, a lot of figurine photographers and macro photographers like to use those. Anyways I have seen this camera on amazon for $576.95 Which seems to me like a bloody good deal. Of course the d5200 is supposedly coming out right? Any reason to wait or is it better to buy? I'm newish to this market.

Also are there any other affordable cameras that you might suggest that do excellent macro work? Anyways let me know if you get time, thanks!

I would say get the 60 macro lens and just about any body would work for figurine stuff (most of which I assume you will post to the net) Silent Wave Motor so you can use any body basically including the 5100...

AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G ED: Digital Photography Review

The D5100 is a great camera, the new model has a few more features and more pixels, it really depends on your needs long term. As jeff said the Nikon 60mm is a great lens, a good budget choice would also be the new 40mm micro. I had the D5100 and 40mm micro, they are a great combo.

Yes...

For figurine work, with either of the micro lenses mentioned above - the D5100 will last you a good decade or more if you wanted it to.
Even if you expanded your hobby into other areas (family, friends, holidays etc), the D5100 will still last you a good few years, and you'd learn a lot from it.

I personally wouldn't pay the extra for a D5200 based on what you want to use a DSLR for at the moment.
The D3200 is another option if you're a pixel hunter, but given the price of the D5100 in comparison, it makes sense to go for the better D5100 then the D3200

beach camera has an awesome deal. I found it via bradsdeals. I paid $550 for a case, 32gb card, lense (standard) Pretty good price from what I gathered. You could pay $800+ if you wanted a telephoto lens as well.

The D5100 is a great bang for the buck, and it will probably get even better.

I got mine two weeks ago... refurbished... It's great.

mguffin said:

I got mine two weeks ago... refurbished... It's great.

Click to expand...

Good choice. I got mine as a factory refurb for $429 months ago and it has performed perfectly.

Yes, buy it! If prices in Europe are any indication of what they will be over here in NA, the 5200 will be about $1100 for just the body!! (I think the 5100 was about $800 for the body when it first came out) At this price, we are getting into the price range of what the D7k was when it first came out and it is a pro level DX camera. I am not sure that the pumped up specs warrant a $300-$400 increase in initial price. More to the point - and some people jsut don't know this yet -, the better specs will not get you "better" pictures. You, the photographer, will get the better picture.

I have only had mine 2 months, but i think it's a great camera.

I am a new member here. I have been researching this camera for about two weeks now, and finally made the decision to buy it. I plan on getting it from Best Buy during all the Holiday sales. I want to start a photo blog of city and night life where I live. I think this would be a great choice since I am a fairly new photographer.