rdavy

... - I take it from your love of the articulating screen that you are frequently focusing in live view. Nikon live view focus only uses contrast detect and it is not good . Almost any modern ...

See https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4442379

Performing an AF fine tune on the D7500 may indicate how far out of spec it is...

The D3500 is smaller again than the D3400, isn't it? I too had AF calibration issues with the 35mm DX on the D3300. But ultimately, for lightweight  travel and other casual photos I have come to ...

Good observations. D3300 does not have focus fine tune, so maybe factor in the price of that tap in console. Use of center AF point may require a lot of focus/recompose ... For the price, you could ...

Starting with the D3400, Nikon also took away the ability to meter with "chipped" lenses, e.g. AF-D lenses focused manually, and some notable 3rd party manual focus lenses.

There have been many comparisons between Nikon 500mm PF and 200-500mm, so that should give you some idea. The main attraction of the 500mm PF is the significant saving in size and weight.

You could submit a feature request here: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/5001 to be added to the camera feature search .

Thom Hogan's guide book does a good job of explaining the various autofocus modes. https://dslrbodies.com/books/bythom-complete-guides-/nikon-d600-guide.html The PDF manual is also fairly good.

I understand your need to upgrade from the D3100, particularly for autofocus and video. Whatever camera you get, my feeling is that if you are doing studio photography or portraiture at ISO 1600, ...

D3300 + Sigma 18-200mm Contemporary @ 200mm f8 1/500s, DXO Photolab 4.

Affinity Photo is a tremendous deal at 50% off currently. https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64766104 My days of using those command line tools for occasional stitching and stacking are over. ...

D750 + Nikon 18-35mm AF-S seems the logical 'budget' upgrade for your landscapes, although you would lose ~1mm at the wide end. ( I am only going off specs and reviews here...) Problem with D7xxx ...

I know you expressed doubt about superzooms. But I would think carefully before ruling out the Sony RX10 iv -- see YouTube videos on use with birds.

I have used extension tubes with the kit kens and have got nice results with magnification close to 1:1. I don't know how many MP it could resolve. Perhaps 6 - 8 MP ? Which for my purposes ...

Agree, but like the D3200 and the D5100, the D7000 cannot use AF-P lenses.

Just a foodie photo, in the interests of participation. Vegan burrito bowl D600 with 35mm DX lens, cropped to 4/3

Have a look at Olympus Live Composite mode.

In addition to the X100V, I would get: 1. Nikon 55-200mm VR II lens 2. external TTL flash gun for Nikon The lens would give you focal lengths you don't have, and does not overlap with your iphone ...

Probably better asked on Nikon Pro DX SLR forum. For what it's worth, AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR, or if you have deep pockets, AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR