Saturday, November 29, 2014

Upgrading Nikon D90 to Nikon D7100... worth it?

Just had my upgrade from D90 to D7100. I'm really quite skeptical and afraid of being disappointed about my dslr body upgrade instead of getting a new lens... well guess what... I'm glad I did!!!

As a user of D90 for almost 5yrs, so far here's what I think of a D7100 huge advantages for me:

- Better AF. I have Tamron 17-50/2.8 and the focus fails quite some time on my D90 but with D7100 it's just spot on! Seems like my Tamron @ F/2.8 becomes more usable! I don't know maybe just D7100 focuses better that makes the images looks sharper. My Tamron doesn't focus hunt a lot especially on very dark areas... yey for me :)
- You've probably sick or hearing "better high ISO performance" because it really does. On my real world tests I realized I've been using ISO3200 & ISO6400 quite a lot, unlike my D90 which I'm stuck around ISO1600. Yes, the noise is noticeable in D7100 ISO6400 but a miles away acceptable than on D90 ISO3200. Feels like D90 ISO1600 is equals to D7100 6400 in terms of "acceptable quality". Yes, D90 ISO1600 has less noise but the color starting to degrade with some weird light-colored noise -- whatever you call it.
- More focus point. Minimizes re-composition of subjects... convenience & less chance of blur @ F/2.8!
- Better handling. A bit bigger than D90 yet it fits better on my big hands.
- I've been dreaming about these PRO DSLR features to my D90...
* Virtual horizon on view-finder... THIS! I shoot a lot of landscape out of town with my Tokina 11-16/2.8 and when my first time hearing about this feature on PRO DSLR I was like damn... if ever, these will be my main reasons for upgrading to PRO DSLRs.
* 100% viewing coverage.
* Dual card storage.
* Weather sealed.
- Color is a lot more natural especially lowlight indoors. Default presets picture controls are fine... maybe for now.
- AWB works much better in my Tamron lens which usually produces warmer output on D90.
- The exposure is more accurate. I noticed I haven't use exposure compensation since I bought this camera.
- More external controls.
- Unnoticeable weight difference considering additional pack of features.
- Shutter sound seems softer.

Not so much Plus features:
- Pixel count. I'm thinking of dropping the MP as I don't really need that kind of size and it would be such a waste of space for my server.
- Rarely used video capture, now Full HD video... bleh.

That's all for now and will keep update if anything's comes up.

Don't think just shoot...

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