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Upgrade path for better low light performance

Apple fanboy said:
I'd be interested to see how much the D610 drops once the D750 is released.

Should be a flood of second hand units on the market after people buy the D750.
That's the way I might go in the new year.
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That's what I'd like to wait for. I don't think the price for a new D610 would drop much but the used market might move some. I've had good luck with rental bodies and buying used lenses from reputable sources. Having a warranty would be nice on an expesive purchase though. Will have to wait and see.
 
Meister said:
thank you very, very much for sharing!
I have the D610 and I am also thinking about the tamron.
Keep us posted about your findings.
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Well if only a D810 and a Nikon 70-200 was an option I wouldn't have to do all this typing...

I liked the D610 though I didn't like holding it without a battery grip. I'm just used to it on my D90. The Tamron was a beefy lens that felt like quality. It was pretty silent like advertised. I kinda wish there was more "turn" to the zoom ring just for feel and my hand kept grabbing the focus ring simply because I'm used to everything being closer to the body. I tried it on a monopod and hand holding and though it was much heavier than my kit it wasn't a problem hand holding it. It focused pretty quickly but I did miss focus a few times. I attribute that to my inexperience with the body and lens over the camera. I got better as I fine tuned the settings and used it more. (these were fast action shots). Certain auto focus settings didn't seem to let it shoot continous frames as fast but I need to read up more on that.

Overall I was impressed. I need to go through the images and do my normal post processing to see what I really think of the keepers. You'll have to take my opinion with a grain of salt because the bulk of my comparison goes against my current kit which was struggling mightly....so I'm easily impressed.
 
JDDavis said:
That's what I'd like to wait for. I don't think the price for a new D610 would drop much but the used market might move some. I've had good luck with rental bodies and buying used lenses from reputable sources. Having a warranty would be nice on an expesive purchase though. Will have to wait and see.
Click to expand...

I'd be buying from a shop, so you get 6 months warranty on pre owned.
Also would be trading in some old lenses and a body, so not to much cash (hopefully).
 
Apple fanboy said:
I'd be buying from a shop, so you get 6 months warranty on pre owned.
Also would be trading in some old lenses and a body, so not to much cash (hopefully).
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Since you are in the UK: http://asgoodasnew.com/collections/nikon-kamera/products/nikon-d600-body-ohne-objektiv-schwarz
They have a D600 for only 1000€ and they give 30 months warranty. It used to be only 900€ a few months ago.
They probably got a wind that nikon is replacing the d600 with d610s if you are persistent enough.
 
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Ok, two images for comparison under relatively similar environments (this is totally not scientific).

p13755061-5.jpg

D90, Nikon 18-300, ISO 1600, 1/100, f5.6, 168mm, cropped

p274052499-5.jpg

D610, Tamron 70-200, ISO 1600, 1/200, f3.2, 200mm, cropped

These shots were not in the same gym but the lighting and distances involved were very similar. I'm confident I am pushing the D90 as far as it can go. I think I could've pushed the D610 further, maybe even a lot. I was still under exposing a bit because I didn't know what to expect with the camera. I think I could have pushed the D610 into the 2k ISO range and been fine.

As I go through the images I shot with the Tamron there is light fall off at the edges for shots that were at 200mm and underexposed. This can probably be expected in the bad light I was shooting in. For some awards stand shots I was able to bring the shutter down to 1/80 and expose correctly and the brightness is much better edge to edge and there is no real fall off.
 
Update (Everyone is eagerly awaiting one right?) I've had enough time with a D7100 to form an opinion.

Lens:

Settled on Tamron 70-200 f2.8. If I find some buried gold coins in the back yard I'd go for the Nikon 70-200 f2.8

Body: Still undecided....

D610...happy with the image quality and low light performance. I don't like the AF system (mainly the focus points) but I guess it's not a showstopper. I like my D90 and the D7100 much better in that regard. A used D610 is still the front runner

D7100...Really like the camera. Like the AF. Happy with the images for everything but my low light gymnastics scenario. It does better than my D90 but it can't hang with the D610 and there are too many scenarios where I can't get the shutter speed high enough to stop fast motion without introducing too much noise.

D750....What? Where'd that come from? Maybe...if it turns out to be a D810 like performer in 24mp. Maybe it's worth a long term investment? Waiting to see how it does in the next few months and if it pushes the price down on the used D610s (I know...I said early I wouldn't spring for the Nikon 70-200)

I wish I could find a nice used D700 for about $500 or so to hold me over for a while. Those bad boys are still holding thier value though and are going for around a $1k here.
 
JDDavis said:
Update (Everyone is eagerly awaiting one right?) I've had enough time with a D7100 to form an opinion.

Lens:

Settled on Tamron 70-200 f2.8. If I find some buried gold coins in the back yard I'd go for the Nikon 70-200 f2.8

Body: Still undecided....

D610...happy with the image quality and low light performance. I don't like the AF system (mainly the focus points) but I guess it's not a showstopper. I like my D90 and the D7100 much better in that regard. A used D610 is still the front runner

D7100...Really like the camera. Like the AF. Happy with the images for everything but my low light gymnastics scenario. It does better than my D90 but it can't hang with the D610 and there are too many scenarios where I can't get the shutter speed high enough to stop fast motion without introducing too much noise.

D750....What? Where'd that come from? Maybe...if it turns out to be a D810 like performer in 24mp. Maybe it's worth a long term investment? Waiting to see how it does in the next few months and if it pushes the price down on the used D610s (I know...I said early I wouldn't spring for the Nikon 70-200)

I wish I could find a nice used D700 for about $500 or so to hold me over for a while. Those bad boys are still holding thier value though and are going for around a $1k here.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the update! Keep'em coming!
You prefere the AF system of your D90 over the D610s?

I noticed that the AF on my D610 heavily depends on the lens.
The new, fast g-lenses have no problem focusing in low light.
Have you considered that it might be the tamron?
 
Meister said:
Thanks for the update! Keep'em coming!
You prefere the AF system of your D90 over the D610s?

I noticed that the AF on my D610 heavily depends on the lens.
The new, fast g-lenses have no problem focusing in low light.
Have you considered that it might be the tamron?
Click to expand...

It could be but the Tamron focuses pretty fast. Mostly I felt the AF points were clustered too tightly in the center. I use single point a lot with the majority being in the center or at the very top of center (horizontal or vertical). I missed more than I usually do with my D90 but a lot of that is due to familiarity. The D90 only has 11 larger focus points. I thought the D7100 had good coverage, was just as fast, and accurate. It's not in the same league as the D610 for low light though.

Even though AF-A isn't great for fast moving action it seemed that the D90 and D7100 made the right choices more often than the D610. Again, that could also be my inexperience with the D610. It also took me a long time to ferret out all the strange settings the guy before me had in the rental camera. I don't have any doubt that given more time I'd get more consistent with the D610. The D610 absolutely focuses better in low light than the D90.
 
Long, long ago I started this thread so I feel I have to post that I finally made a decision, got off my wallet, and ordered the D750. I decided to take advantage of a holiday deal (free accessories) and the fact that we have a trip to Wyoming coming up to make the move.

I ended up going with a Nikon 24-85 f/2.8-4 to go with it because I got a really good deal on a used one and it really fits my needs for outdoor/adventure shots. The 70-200 is going to have to wait and I want to see how far I can push the D750 in low light sports (gymnastics) before I decide. I might go with the 80-200 f/4 instead.

So Merry Christmas to me (and happy several next birthdays)! :D Thanks for all the advice on the forum!
 
JDDavis said:
Long, long ago I started this thread so I feel I have to post that I finally made a decision, got off my wallet, and ordered the D750. I decided to take advantage of a holiday deal (free accessories) and the fact that we have a trip to Wyoming coming up to make the move.

I ended up going with a Nikon 24-85 f/2.8-4 to go with it because I got a really good deal on a used one and it really fits my needs for outdoor/adventure shots. The 70-200 is going to have to wait and I want to see how far I can push the D750 in low light sports (gymnastics) before I decide. I might go with the 80-200 f/4 instead.

So Merry Christmas to me (and happy several next birthdays)! :D Thanks for all the advice on the forum!
Click to expand...

Well done sir. I look forward to seeing your photos. Let us know how the results compare to your previous set up. I'm thinking its the way to go in March next year.
 
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