New to digital SLRs camera and lens advice please

Hi
I am hoping that someone here can give me some advice please.

I have been using a compact digital camera for a number of years now and, having bought a DSLR for my girlfriend, I find myself wanting an SLR myself.

I have a Nikon F60, with a Nikkor AF 28 - 80mm lens and a Tamron 100-300 lens.

I would like to make use of my existing lenses with any new camera. Having done some research it appears that I can't make full use of auto focus with the lenses I have if I buy something like the D3200. To get autofocus I need something like a D90 or a D7100.

So I could purchase a D90 or D7100 body, to use with the old lenses. But will this restrict me on what lenses I can purchase in the future? Will I be better off purchasing another camera body, putting up with having to use manual focus with these lenses given a better choice of further lenses.

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks

Carl

Welcome to Nikonites Carl Oxford UK!
I have the D90 and love it, but am considering getting a D7000 to compliment it. What "other" camera body would
you maybe get? Because if it's not a FX body D600/700/800 I wouldn't even consider anything but the D90/D7100 bodies.

The lenses you have now require a camera body with a built-in focus motor in order to auto-focus because the lenses themselves do *not* have focus motors. You gots to have a motor, somewhere, to drive the AF and if your lens doesn't have one, the camera body needs to. So, in short, you want to buy a camera body with an AF motor.

D70's and above have AF motors. The D3xxx and D5xxx series do *not*. Right now I would suggest either the D7000 or the D7100.

Hope that helps!


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I picked up a D90 a couple of years ago, as I wanted to upgrade from my D70, it's a cracking camera, and can make full use of the lenses you already have, you can pick up a new D90 body for around £480 or £290 for a refurb' body

Thanks, when you say D70 and above, is a D90 "above" a D70 (because 9 >7) or is it the other way around because 7000 > 90?
Sorry for the naive questions.

D90....D7000.....D7100. These are the main bodies I would focus on.

I have a D90 and this camera is a very good workhorse camera. Not a ton of bells and whistles. But more than qualified to do the job.

Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk 2

Carl_Oxford_UK said:

Thanks, when you say D70 and above, is a D90 "above" a D70 (because 9 >7) or is it the other way around because 7000 > 90?
Sorry for the naive questions.

Click to expand...

Good questions, but hard to answer, Nikons numbers are a bit ambiguous.

The numbers are not absolute, but generally, features increase going up:

D70 .. D90 .. D300 (older models)

And increase D3100 .. D5200 .. D7000 (newer models)

D700 .. D600 .. D800 are a different higher yet class.



To know about your lens compatibility, you can go to a Nikon site (the one I know is www.nikonusa.com )

and look up the camera model of interest, and click its Tech Specs tab, and there, find its Compatible Lenses entry.

You need specifics, and this is general, but lower price models probably say

Compatible Lenses
Autofocus is available with AF-S and AF-I lenses.
Autofocus is not available with other type G and D lenses, AF lenses (IX NIKKOR and lenses for the F3AF are not supported), and AI-P lenses.
Electronic Rangefinder can be used if Maximum Aperture is f/5.6 or Faster
Non-CPU: Can be used in mode M, but Exposure Meter does not Function; Electronic Rangefinder can be used if Maximum Aperture is f/5.6 or Faster


Mid to High price models probably say:

Compatible Lenses
AF NIKKOR other than D-/G-type (excluding lenses for F3AF): All Functions Supported Except 3D-Color Matrix Metering II
AI-P NIKKOR: All Functions Supported Except Autofocus and 3D Color Matrix Metering II
D-/G-type AF NIKKOR (excluding IX NIKKOR lenses): All Functions Supported Except PC Micro-NIKKOR
DX AF NIKKOR: All Functions Supported
Non-CPU AI NIKKOR: Can be used in exposure modes A and M; Electronic Rangefinder can be used if Maximum Aperture is f/5.6 or Faster; Color Matrix Metering and Aperture Value Display Supported if User Provides Lens Data

"All functions supported" means the camera body has a lens focusing motor, for the cases that the older D lens does not have a builtin motor.

Your year 2000 era lenses are likely D lenses (has this letter D in its nomenclature on the lens). That means no motor in the lens.

Todays lenses are often AF-S lenses, with a motor... so the lower end bodies omit the motor. Higher end bodies can handle it all.

Thanks Wayne and everyone else for the quick responses. It looks like I could go for the D90, use my existing lenses (including auto focus) and be able to use any of the other current AF-S lenses as well.

Big question now is, whether to spend £463.99 on the D90 and get 12.3MP or to spend £845 on the D7100 and get 24.1MP. Will I notice the difference the extra £400 will make?

Carl_Oxford_UK said:

Thanks Wayne and everyone else for the quick responses. It looks like I could go for the D90, use my existing lenses (including auto focus) and be able to use any of the other current AF-S lenses as well.

Big question now is, whether to spend £463.99 on the D90 and get 12.3MP or to spend £845 on the D7100 and get 24.1MP. Will I notice the difference the extra £400 will make?

Click to expand...

Megapixels, really, have very little to do with image quality. I would say the D90 is a good DSLR for someone who want's the power of a DSLR but doesn't plan on delving into photography in a big way. The D7100 is (currently) Nikon's "Flagship" DX sensor DSLR.

There are very good reasons for the price difference between the two, but not all of those reasons have to do with image quality, a large part of it has to do with features. Here's a direct comparison between the D90 and the D7100.



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welcome aboard and good luck with your camera search.