Thinking about the D7500

bfluegie

Is anyone using the D7500? I'm thinking of giving myself a retirement gift and a new camera body could be just the thing. I’m leaning toward the D7500 rather than the D7200. Since I don’t upgrade very often I would rather go with the most recent sensor. I haven’t seen any negative reviews about the sensor, but I thought I would ask here. I’m currently using a nearly 9 year old D90 so either camera would be an upgrade. I only have one card slot and I never got the available grip for my D90 so the most discussed negatives of the D7500 don’t really apply to me. My budget would extend to the D500 if these were really issues or if there are other advantages, but I just don’t know that I really need that much camera.

I mainly do landscape photography, but I have been thinking of trying some night sky photography as well. I may eventually try photographing birds and wildlife, but I don’t do it right now. And I don’t see sports becoming my thing. I don’t really care about video. I had been considering a switch to mirrorless for the weight savings but I am not sure I am ready to commit to a complete system change yet. I had mainly been considering the Fujifilm XT-2 but I just saw the Sony A7-II and was intrigued by the low weight with the full frame sensor. But, maybe next time…

So, if anyone has any experience they would be willing to share with me about the D7500 I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Awais Yaqub

No experience with nikon but if main interest is landscape photography, i would go with full frame camera (may be some deal on Nikon D750). Once i jumped to high end crop body from entry level crop body, and never enjoyed working with it in terms of IQ for landscapes and sold it for full frame which proved very satisfactory move (i had all full frame compatible lenses, no diffraction to bother and great ISO performance).

bfluegie

Thanks Awais. I do have a lot of lenses that would work with full frame, so that is a possibility as well. I would just have to get a new wide angle lens eventually.

I have been admiring your photos on the Journeys board for a while. If only a new camera would give me your eye for an image and the story behind it. I'll just have to keep practicing.

ziggy53

I own both the Nikon D7100 and the D7200. I have no intent to upgrade to the D7500, because:

• I don't shoot sports and I have greatly cut back on events (fully retired). These are the primary photographic applications which would benefit from the D7500's improved AF and deeper shot buffer.

For landscape photography the D7200 is still preferred (IMO), compared to the D7500, because it (D7200) has slightly better resolution (24.2MPix vs 20.9MPix), slightly better dynamic range (14.6 vs 14.0 [DXOMark]) and slightly better color rendering (24.5 vs 24.3 [DXOMark]).

The D7500 also has 2 - SD card slots, vs 1 for the D7500, and the battery life is slightly better (1110 shots vs 950 shots [DPReview]). (I know that you said that doesn't matter to you because you didn't have it in the D90, but, for those times when a memory card loss can be important, it's a very welcome addition. You would like it if you had it. )

Finally, the D7200 supports old, manual focus lenses by providing an 'Ai' indexing tab, to allow better metering support than the D7500.

Adding all of the above together along with the lower retail price of the D7200, and I just don't see a compelling argument to choose the D7500 over the D7200 considering your stated current needs of, "I mainly do landscape photography, but I have been thinking of trying some night sky photography as well.".

bfluegie

Thanks Ziggy. I thought I had decided but this is good information. Awais also has me thinking about full frame again. I went through this 4 years ago (link) and bought a 24-70 f/2.8 Tamron FX lens instead of a new camera body. The weight of that lens is pretty significant but it was a step up in sharpness from the kit lens. But now, thinking I was committing to DX format, I was planning to get the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM to replace the Tamron along with the new DX body. An FX system with the Tamron and a wide angle zoom equivalent to my Tokina 12-24 f/4 would be about 600 g heavier. At my age every gram counts . Getting the D7200 instead of the D7500 actually covers over half of the Sigma cost. I suppose instead of a wide angle zoom for full frame I could go with the prime 20mm f/1.8. That would cut down on the weight a bit.

My plan is to decide by Black Friday. I don't know if there will be any good sales then or not, but it's probably worth waiting at this point.

Thanks again for the input.

ziggy53

The Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM is my standard/normal lens for the Nikon D7100 and D7200 bodies. Sharp at f2.8 it progresses to extremely sharp by f4 and f5.6, which is mostly where I shoot at. The results can be spectacular and certainly professional.

It does miss focus occasionally, but often it's close enough for small and mid-sized prints with post-processing. It does focus better on the D7200 than it does the D7100, but it's not a dramatic difference. I still use the D7100 as backup.

I do believe that the Sigma EX 17-50mm, f2.8 OS is probably fine for some night and sky photography, but I haven't tried it myself.

Yes, Full-Frame (FF) 135 format does make a difference. Generally, for the same sensor type and resolution, and similar year and with the same image processor, FF will yield less noise and better sensitivity by around 1 full stop. For night and astro-photography, and for low available light indoors, this can make a visible difference.

Compared to the Nikon D3X, a very well regarded $8000USD, FF body from 6 1/2 years prior, there is only about a 1/3rd stop difference in favor of the D3X for SNR (High-ISO), but the D7200 beats the D3X in Dynamic Range, and matches or nearly matches for color quality and tonal range. That's a pretty amazing testament and endorsement for the D7200.

Just trying to say that the D7200 is capable enough that you may not need a FF immediately.

bfluegie

I finally took the plunge and ordered the D7200 body on Saturday. I got the holiday special from B&H for $796 (Amazon and Adorama have the same price) and it included some free items: a 16GB memory card, a shoulder bag, and Corel PaintShop Pro 2018 Ultimate. I'm not sure I will use any other than the card, and I will eventually even go for a larger card. But still, free items. Shipping was extra speedy and it arrived this evening. The battery appears to have been fully charged. I just assumed it would be uncharged so I put it in the charger. A couple of hours when I checked on it the light on the charger was indicating the same as when I plugged it in. Oops, I could have been abusing my cat with test shots earlier. It does feel a little different in my hand than the D90, but pretty close. Tomorrow should be a good day for testing it out.

ziggy53

Congratulations! The Nikon D7200 is capable of splendid results.

Please do read this earlier thread discussion on best cards for the D7100/D7200:
https://dgrin.com/discussion/254412/need-to-upgrade-my-bodies

The skinny is that the SanDisk Extreme PRO 32GB UHS-I/U3 SDHC is what I use and recommend for the Nikon D7100/D7200 bodies, with twice the write speeds of the equivalent Lexar cards.

I do not recommend any of the UHS-II cards because the bodies do not support UHS-II technology and generally result in slower write speeds than the SanDisk Extreme PRO 32GB UHS-I/U3 SDHC.

bfluegie

Great info Ziggy. I appreciate you passing on all the results from your research. I was looking at the 64GB SanDisk extreme pro 95 MB/s but hadn't yet purchased. Realistically the 32GB is more than sufficient for my photo quantities even with the larger file size (I use a 32GB card in my 12MP D90). It looks like the one I received free from B&H is pretty good, so I shouldn't have any problems until I get the larger card.

I didn't realize that the UHS-II cards would actually be slower, but I did know that the D7200 doesn't support UHS-II so I wasn't going to spend the extra money for something I couldn't use. I just upgraded for improved performance. I certainly don't want to hinder that performance .

Hopefully one day I will be able to achieve the results the camera is capable of. My photography is definitely a case of operator limitation rather than hardware limitation.

Legit_Wizard

I have the D7500 with the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM & shoot landscapes mainly at 5.6 - very happy with the results to be honest. Great camera, very capable in many situations - imo you get great bang for your buck.

black mamba

I, too, have a D7500. I got it to replace a Nikon D80 which suffered shutter failure after years of use. I shoot mostly landscapes.....however that's a generic term in my opinion as I shoot with the camera in a wide range of situations, including limited sports. I shoot with a wide variety of lenses made by either Nikon or Tokina. Pre-digital work I used either a Nikon F4 or an F5. I intend to drift back to the full-frame format on a limited basis. I love the D7500 and I will continue to use it in a lot of circumstances.