Anyone owned both the D7200 and D7100?

Peter7100

Peter7100

Senior Member
I am well familiar with the D7100 and have read that the D7200 has a much better ISO performance. I think there might be a few people on here that have had both and was wondering if there is anything else other than the improved ISO that you would rate with the D7200?

For anyone interested as to why I am asking, keep reading :) , otherwise your comments on the above would be appreciated.

I recently purchased a D800 and have spent a about a week testing it out, in the field, at home, using lens test charts and various lenses. I have tried handheld with fast shutter speeds, solid tripods, adjusted in camera settings, played about in LR etc and the bottom line is the shots are not sharp. I knew before I started that my Tokina11-16 would not perform well as it is a DX crop lens, however I expected my Nikon 85 1.8G to work well as it has always been so sharp on my D500 and D7100. I also tried my Sigma 150-600 and my Tokina 100mm macro and they all delivered the same very poor results. I also got input and opinions from elsewhere including photographers.
So fortunately the place where I purchased it from accepts returns within 14 days. Unfortunately I traded in my D7100 at the same time, therefore I am now in the market for another body. I am now completely put off the idea of looking at another 36mp body with my current group of lenses due to an article I read https://photographylife.com/nikon-dslr-resolution which basically says that the majority of Nikon FX lenses do not have the required resolving power for 36mp and above. It is a very interesting article and well worth a read. If what they claim is true and you add the low pass filter to the equation which the D800 has, then it may make sense why I was having issues. I know there will be people that claim they get good results with lenses not recommended in these lists, but having spent the last week inspecting many D800 photos from various place I can see a trend that IMO the majority don't look sharp.

With me ruling out 36mp FF cameras and also FF cameras the low pass filters, it doesn't leave me with much to choose from hence the reason I am back to crop bodies. Am I correct in thinking that the only FF camera that is under 36mp and doesn't have the said filter is the D780? Given the current price of these I would as well looking at mirrorless but I am not at that stage to consider the financial jump given my current usage or lack of it.
 
Fred Kingston

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
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TwistedThrottle

TwistedThrottle

Senior Member
Hi @Peter7100
If you havent yet, try that Tokina 11-16 on your D800. Just keep your D800 in FX mode and zoom the lens to 16mm. It's a very solid 16mm prime on a full frame camera, (Tokina lenses in general work fantastically well with those high MP sensors). In fact, I almost quit mirrorless once I figured out that any crop lens, (including my beloved 11-16) automatically gets detected as such and there is no way to override the camera to keep the full sensor accessible to the lens. Glad I didn't- that was small potatoes to what mirrorless has offered me in return. I'm with @Fred Kingston , you cant go wrong making the switch to mirrorless. That 85 will work better on any full frame mirrorless camera using the fantastic FTZ adapter than any other DSLR, plus there's the added benefit of IBIS.
If you keep the D800, try shooting at a higher shutter speed than you think is needed. I found that when making the switch to FX from DX with my D800, that made a big difference. Also, I had excellent results with D800/ Sigma 150-600C but not until I spent a few hours doing test shots and making all the adjustments necessary using the lens dock at all the focal lengths and at all the distances, (I think there were like 30 adjustments that had to be made on that lens). It was in fact, necessary. Same with the Tamron 85 f1.8. I chose that one because DXOmark had it ranked very high but didn't give me the results I wanted until I adjusted using the dock, (easier due to just one focal length, I think there were just 5 adjustments near to far). You can do some adjustments in camera, but they're global adjustments. Works OK for primes but not zooms. You have to make your global adjustment for near or far or somewhere in between at the expense of all other scenarios. Thats why I prefer using the docks- especially for zooms.

Good luck on your decision!
 
Woodyg3

Woodyg3

Senior Member
Contributor
I had the D7100 in the past, and still have a D7200 now. I used it for macro, landscapes, and misc. I've never found it lacking in terms of image quality, and pics are just as sharp on it as on my D500. I know the specs show it to be a better camera than the D7100 for image quality, but honestly it just seems like a D7100 with better buffer to me. :)
 
hark

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
I still have my refurbished D7100 and one of my two D7200 bodies. When I first took photos with my D7200, for me there was a noticeable improvement over the D7100. For one thing, the colors straight out of camera were different (I think one as a Toshiba sensor - can't remember what the other one has). My D7100 leaned more towards greens, but my D7200 generates warmer colors which is more pleasing to me. My D7100 was great up to ISO 1600 or so while my D7200 seems to do pretty well up to ISO 5000. Of course with advances in noise reduction, that isn't as problematic as it was years ago.

Being able to shoot at higher ISO's was just such a welcomed change. Otherwise, the bodies are pretty much the same as far as function goes.
 
hark

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Oh ... and will add one more comment: I never tried a D8x0 series body, but I do remember hearing that a person's technique has to be really good. Any little movement when pressing the shutter actuation button will show up as a slight image softness. The larger megapixel bodies are great for enlargements and/or for cropping, but they require a very steady hand.
 
Fred Kingston

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
hark said:
Oh ... and will add one more comment: I never tried a D8x0 series body, but I do remember hearing that a person's technique has to be really good. Any little movement when pressing the shutter actuation button will show up as a slight image softness. The larger megapixel bodies are great for enlargements and/or for cropping, but they require a very steady hand.
Click to expand...
I've never experienced that w/my D810... hand-held softness comes from movement and less expensive glass... shutter speed and good glass resolves any "softness" issues.
 
Peter7100

Peter7100

Senior Member
Needa said:
@Peter7100 Out of curiosity what made you jump to the 800? Interesting article. In the end I just added the 810 and kept the 7100.
Click to expand...
I often follow the local prices of cameras and lenses and in the last few months the prices of the D800 have dropped dramatically. I have a friend that has a D800e that keeps raving about it, so at £400 I thought I would snap one up.

It is worth me reiterating that this D800 that I recently purchased has been put on a tripod for test to eliminate hand shake and still produced unsharp results.
 
Peter7100

Peter7100

Senior Member
TwistedThrottle said:
Hi @Peter7100
If you havent yet, try that Tokina 11-16 on your D800. Just keep your D800 in FX mode and zoom the lens to 16mm. It's a very solid 16mm prime on a full frame camera, (Tokina lenses in general work fantastically well with those high MP sensors). In fact, I almost quit mirrorless once I figured out that any crop lens, (including my beloved 11-16) automatically gets detected as such and there is no way to override the camera to keep the full sensor accessible to the lens. Glad I didn't- that was small potatoes to what mirrorless has offered me in return. I'm with @Fred Kingston , you cant go wrong making the switch to mirrorless. That 85 will work better on any full frame mirrorless camera using the fantastic FTZ adapter than any other DSLR, plus there's the added benefit of IBIS.
If you keep the D800, try shooting at a higher shutter speed than you think is needed. I found that when making the switch to FX from DX with my D800, that made a big difference. Also, I had excellent results with D800/ Sigma 150-600C but not until I spent a few hours doing test shots and making all the adjustments necessary using the lens dock at all the focal lengths and at all the distances, (I think there were like 30 adjustments that had to be made on that lens). It was in fact, necessary. Same with the Tamron 85 f1.8. I chose that one because DXOmark had it ranked very high but didn't give me the results I wanted until I adjusted using the dock, (easier due to just one focal length, I think there were just 5 adjustments near to far). You can do some adjustments in camera, but they're global adjustments. Works OK for primes but not zooms. You have to make your global adjustment for near or far or somewhere in between at the expense of all other scenarios. Thats why I prefer using the docks- especially for zooms.

Good luck on your decision!
Click to expand...
@TwistedThrottle, Thanks for your detailed reply. It is worth noting that I did multiple tests on a sturdy tripod indoors and still got poor results. The focus appears to be spot on by using the ruler tests as well. So this leaves me perplexed as to why all four different lenses didn't achieve any acceptable results.

Given that I really have no time left to investigate further due to the 14 day money back guarantee, I am really left with no option but to return the camera. This is really annoying as I would have loved to get to the bottom of the issue.
 
Peter7100

Peter7100

Senior Member
hark said:
Oh ... and will add one more comment: I never tried a D8x0 series body, but I do remember hearing that a person's technique has to be really good. Any little movement when pressing the shutter actuation button will show up as a slight image softness. The larger megapixel bodies are great for enlargements and/or for cropping, but they require a very steady hand.
Click to expand...
I have heard that as well, however putting this body on a tripod made absolutely no difference to the results :confused:
 
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