Frustrated!

Quick history: 6-9 months ago, I decided to be the last person to make the jump into DSLR. Shot Nikons all my life. Researched as best I could, as I did not want to be limited by something the camera body couldn't do, but at the same time did not need to invest in the High-End Pro level, as I did not need the extra robustness/water-resistance etc. since I'm not a Pro.

Read up on over 34 bodies: Gen 1/Gen 2/High-End Pro/High-End Prosumer/Mid-Range/Upper Entry/Entry...and reviews on specific bodies...couldn't find anywhere that said "this body does this but doesn't do that". Kinda simple info I would have thought, but I'm an old dude any my google-fu is quite limited.

Opted for the 5100 and was very happy with it. Read numerous books in the meantime and decided to pony up for a speedlight...700 was available locally and snapped it up. Then I found out that Nikonians was hosting a Speedlight class nearby! Great, as I wanted to learn how to get the most out of my body/flash combo.

Well.....bummer. The class was super, but I learned the limitations of my camera wrt the Speedlight; no commander mode, limited shutter speed synch, etc...so I left midday, as my camera wouldn't do the things the instructor wanted us to practice.

Hence my question: anybody know of a source of the kind of info I'm looking for...or is it just "buy the most expensive body out there?

The D7000 I have will do it and the new D7100 will also, I dont know about any other DX models that have commander mode. There might be other options available that will use both your 5100 and SB700, like an after market trigger, not sure.

Sounds like the speedlight was an after thought - you were not thinking about commander mode when looking into cameras. I am pretty sure that if you go onto the Nikon site and look at the specs of each camera, it will tell you which one has commander mode.

Nikon | Imaging Products | Specifications - Nikon D7100

Control "f" and you will be able to search the page for "commander mode". D7100 has commander mode.

D90, D7000, D200, D300, D300s, D700, D600, D800 all can use the command mode with flash.

Yeah, I guess I should have been clearer...my frustration is not so much that I don't have commander mode, as there are easy workarounds for that...it's more that I tried to do due diligence and bought the camera thinking that whatever I wanted to do in the future would be available. That was the root of my query...trying to find (or maybe generate myself) that kind of information.

Much like the Lens/Body compatibility charts...at a glance, I can see that if I wanted to use an extensive stash of AF, AF-D lenses and use autofocus, I would need to look at Mid-Range bodies (and up), and would have gladly spent the money, although that still wouldn't give me metering...for that I'd need to go up further to Prosumer or Pro.

It certainly is a daunting task finding the exact camera for all your needs. If you have a bunch of old glass (no motors in the lenses) you have to look for "in-body" focus motor. D7000, 7100, D600, D800.... basically the top end DX and all FX cameras have the "in-body" focus motor. And for metering with older lenses, yes, you do have to go up in the series to more "pro" like bodies. Perhaps if you can build a list, we can suggest the right camera for you?

Thanks for the feedback all...

I guess it boils down to what the confused instructor said when he couldn't adjust the settings on my 5100 for the next exercise and I asked "what body should I look for so this kind of thing doesn't happen again (and not just with the flash)", and he responded, "get the 7100 and you should be fine".

Again, I'm learning as I go here, as I'm new to DSLR and my original premise was: "let's get the body that is highly recommended and learn everything it can do", only to find that there were limitations.

No problem, as it's all part of the learning curve, I had just hoped there was one place you could go and look at the whole picture and decide what features you may be willing to compromise based on price point, rather than having to learn those things as I went along.

Would this help?

Digital SLR Cameras | Nikon D-SLR Cameras & Compact D-SLR Cameras

Check the boxes of the cameras of interest and compare. Then click on the link for additional specs.

Your answer is quite simple. If you had come onto this or any other good forum 9 months ago a stated your desire you would have been told to get a D7000 or D300s by me as I'm biased but the D7000 would have been te right answer for you. If you ask today the answer would be to get the D7100 or D7000.

Please don't take this answer as flippant as I believe it is correct.

The good news is that you are now deep enough into Digital cameras you are unlikely to get caught off guard again. Also, work with google, become a guru... all your questions will be answered. An iPad is great for having all the info in the world at your feet. Digital books through Amazon (usable on iPad, PC, phone), forums, magazines, I subscribe to several digital magazines through Zinio... also accessible through iPad, PC and phone. Looks like you are on the right track now. JD

Whenever you want to know something from google you would enter (for example) "Nikon D90 review" then it's just a matter of picking through the review sites and finding which ones you like. For example - "Nikon D90 review DPreview" would give you DPreview as the top return. The more specific you are, the more specific your answers - but reading through a few reviews, especially thorough ones, will give you an idea what the camera can do - and can't do. Anything you're curious about - simply enter that into google I.E. "Nikon D90 Commander Mode" to learn what it is and probably how to use it effectively. Likewise for speedlites - move from general to specific ... oh, and come to places like this BEFORE you screw yourself

Where do you live, and is there a "real" camera store in the area (i.e. NOT a Best Buy, etc) ?

Thanks again folks...LW, I am in central NC...no real camera stores nearby.
and also thanks for the Google help...soon this "grasshopper" will carry the hot vat and cool his arms in the snow

As an example of what I mean:

Pulled from the D7100 forum here wrt flash: http://nikonites.com/d7100/11384-d7100-vs-d7000.html#ixzz2PUkHtak1

D7100
Auto
Auto FP High-Speed Sync supported
etc.


D7000
Front-curtain sync (normal)
Rear-curtain sync
Red-Eye reduction
Red-Eye reduction with slow sync
Slow sync

(which is identical from the compare function on Nikonusa . com )


Does that mean that the D7000 doesn't have "Auto FP High-Speed Sync supported", a feature I find important? (Yes it does, but it is not intuitive from the info provided)

I know the info is out there, it just seems more difficult to suss out than I would have thought...

FWIW, I just said F-it and ordered the 7100

Again, thanks and a great site you have here!

Rickysa said:

Does that mean that the D7000 doesn't have "Auto FP High-Speed Sync supported", a feature I find important?

Click to expand...

Not to be too funny, I loaded the above sentence into Google and got a bunch of answers, that look right on topic. You can type in whole questions, and it is pretty good at figuring it out. It is much better than the yellow pages. I'm not that great at flash photography, but I am good on the internet... so, thought you would be interested. JD