The Nikon D7100-My First Impression

When I got back into taking pictures three years ago, my last “nice” camera camera was a Nikon N6006 film camera. On our anniversary three years ago my wife got me a Nikon 3100. I started taking pictures again I became “hooked”. Recently I decided to upgrade my camera. I really wanted to upgrade to a full sensor camera, but after reading the dirty sensor problems with the D600 I began looking at the D7100 which had great reviews but was still an APS-C size sensor. After looking at many You Tube videos and websites I decided to go with the D7100. The D7100 came very close in performance with the D600 and in some ways better. The D7100 sensor does not have a low pass filter which gives you a sharper image. The full size sensor cameras offer better performance in low light situations, but I am hoping to counteract that with higher quality; lower f-stop lenses.

Taking the camera out of the box for the first time the first thing I noticed was the larger size (and more buttons) compared to the D3100. Build quality looks good except I do not like the quality of the card reader door. The camera came with a free backpack, 16g card, and extra battery. I also purchased the Vello battery grip which stores an extra battery. The camera feels good in your hands and all of the buttons make sense, especially if you are a Nikon user. I mounted my old film camera 28-200 lens and it worked! The camera has a built in focus motor, so older lenses will also work.

Taking pictures for the first time, the first thing I noticed was the larger view screen, the unbelievable 51 point focusing, and a very fast shutter speed. I do a lot of HDR photography and I quickly tried the auto bracketing feature on the camera. You simply hold down the bracket button and dial in 3 or 5 pictures and set your exposure compensation. Set the camera to timer and push the shutter. Ten seconds later snap, snap, snap, your five pictures are taken without you touching the camera. There are many more features that I will be learning over the days and months ahead.

Below is my first outside image with the camera. Look at how sharp the flag is.