First Time Out with the D7100

 

I had been looking at the Nikon D7000 camera series for the past several months, in particular, for its ability to add an additional 1.3x crop factor onto the already 1.5 crop factor of the sensor.  This effectively turns the 400mm lens into a 780mm focal length.  This additional focal length should speed up the workflow, reduce the need for cropping in post-processing and magnify the images in the back display of the camera.  This camera series can also auto focus more of the old legacy Nikon lenses than my current d5300.  Some of those old legacy lenses have legendary performance which you can pick up for a fraction of the cost of the new lenses today.  Yesterday, I visited Roberts Camera downtown and they happened to have a D7100 in excellent condition so I happily purchased it.

This morning's walk down to the Butler Prairie was the first time using the D7100 outside and I was very impressed with the operation and the images from the camera already.  I really liked the additional 1.3 crop mode.  It's not needed in every shot but it was the camera setting of choice today.  The photo of the Robin eating berries was the best one of the day mostly because the birds were spending their time in the surrounding woods and hiding behind branches.  This photo was taken in the 1.3 crop mode but no further cropping was necessary which saves a lot of time.  I try not to crop in general in post-processing but sometimes it is unavoidable and it takes me forever to do it.  Being able to eliminate or reduce this step is great, improves the photo and saves time.

I still need to mess around and find the best settings but I really enjoyed the first time out with the D7100.  The image capture is snappy and the burst mode is at another level than the other cameras that I have.  I really wanted a camera that could be devoted to my wildlife excursions and I think this D7100 is the perfect one.  I'm glad the local camera store had one as I like to support them whenever I can.


Robin Berries:  1/640s, f7.1, ISO 6400, 400mm,


Prairie East Side this morning

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