D800 or D7100 as second body

Many must have thought this was a dumb question since there were no responses. But if anyone cares, I sold the D800 and have not decided whether to buy a D7100 yet.

Except that it was over whether to buy a D800E or D7100 for my tripod work. Since I shoot a 500 f4 AF-S the D7100 won. But my second most used lens is the 300 f2.8 VR. I shot the D7100 on this lens for the first weekend (two weekends ago) and it did very well. I didn't do anything more than test focus with the TC-14E and TC-17E - I often shoot owls and ducks without a TC. Anyway, I'll be using my D300s for this purpose until there's a D400 or it becomes clear that there will be no D400. Here are a couple of the shots:













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Jim

Why not a D4? If you want birds in flight, 10fps and great ISO performance gets you super fast shutter speeds. The way I have my D4 setup allows 92 14bit RAW shots at 10fps before the buffer even hickups a little. Now, I have yet to need more that 10-15 shots at a time but it's nice knowing its there if I need it.

Allan,



I posted something about this when I read about the specs of the new D7100 (before it was release). Just to give you a background, I recently jumped to the Darkside as they say from the Pentax camp last December with the D600. I now have the 20-70, 80-200 and the 85 1.8g + 4 other Pentax 645 lenses with the Nikon adapter (manual focus and exp). Coming from APSC system, I have enjoyed the reach and speed of the system. With my new D600, I am able to realized my need for better IQ, DR and resolution. I am a semi pro mainly shooting events, weddings, families, infants etc...I am also very interested in Landscapes, travel and action (surfing and X games etc) type shoots. I still have 2 Pentax APSC Bodies and 12+ lenses as a back up.



That said, my current plan is to go to a single system - either Nikon or Pentax (if they ever release a FF). The Nikon system for me would be the D600 + D7100. If Pentax does not come through with their FF, I will add the 14-24 + Sigma 50-500OS HSM Plus some TCs. And sell the Pentax system to fund the new Nikon D7100 and lenses.



I think the D7100 complements the D600 better than the d800e, my reasons would be the same batteries, same memory card same or similar ergonomics (buttons ) and will expand (Double focal length ) utilization of my lenses. 24Mp is more than I need at this time and the foreseeable future.



So far, I have not heard or read any negative issue with the d7100 so, I might be acquiring a D7100 as soon as the time is right (price discount?) or before September - I have 2 weddings then. One of the things I am trying to avoid is the steep learning curve when acquiring new equipment. The closer the work flow the better. You may question , why not get another D600? well I would say the D7100 has a longer reach 1.5X , it also has a better AF and faster FPS with the same resolution for those action and nature shoots. D600 for Landscapes, Portraits and weddings and events. D7100 for Airshows, Surfing, Actions shots.... does that make sense to you?? All comments are welcome.



Thanks

I now have a D7100 as my second body. Thanks for suggestions.