Nikon D5100 or Sony A57

[fozzybear]

I've had a sudden improvement in my finances so I'll be buying a new DSLR/SLT in the next few weeks.

I'm torn between the Nikon D5100 and Sony A57. I've got around £750 to spend on the body and one lens.

My thoughts:

Buy the Sony A57 (with crappy kit lens) for £560. Sell the kit lens and claim the £30 Sony cashback. Then I'm looking at buying the Tamron 17-50 f2.8 (non-VC) for around £250. The body and lens combo would cost me around £750.

or

Buy the Nikon D5100 for £419 and Sigma 17-70 f2.8-f4 for around £340. Total of £759.

For me, the only huge plus about the D5100 is it's sensor. I'd no doubt be shooting outdoors in lower light so it's high ISO performance would be a bonus. The pluses of the A57 to me are it's larger body size, faster FPS, better auto-focus with video and in body stabilization.

My main use for the camera would be fast paced sports like horse racing.

I've ruled out buying Canon, especially their APS-C bodies.

Any ideas? Should never have sold my Sony A580 really!

 

[fozzybear]

The Sony A57 has just been put up £25 at the place I was looking at so the D5100 is now looking the favourite.

I'm not sure about getting an A65. I'm not too keen on the high ISO performance on that or the A77. The A57 is supposed to be slightly better.

The Nikon D7000 would be ideal for me really. My head is telling me to save a bit more cash and get that instead although I'm paranoid it will drop £50 in price as soon as I get it!

I'd gladly pay the extra £150 to get a D7000 rather than the A57. Not certain I'd pay the extra £300 to get the D7000 over the D5100 though.

 

[fozzybear]

Well in terms of image quality there's nothing in it.

If the viewfinder, AF points, mag alloy body, top lcd, larger grip and in body motor don't add anything for you then the 5100 is the way to go imo.

Body size and AF points are probably the only 2 things that would bother me. Worth paying £300 more? I think I've answered my own question.

 

[fozzybear]

I can't recommend the D5100 for fast-paced sports as I don't think the AF is up to it. I used mine for some motorcross and I have a lot of fuzzy pics where the AF hasn't panned with me.

What lens is that with? AF with the D5100 is lens dependent surely?

 

[fozzybear]

I'll be ordering soon but still haven't decided what to get.

The D7000 is favourite but I still haven't ruled out the D5100 and Sony A57.

I've also had a crazy idea to get a 2nd hand Canon 50D (or 40D) and a new 70-200L F4 lens. I remember a previous thread elsewhere advising that combo. I wasn't too sure at the time but I've seen seen a few examples of what the combo can produce. I was impressed.

I'm sure I'll end up ordering something tonight when the wine starts to take effect.

 

[fozzybear]

i was the same i couldn't justify the extra to get the d7000 so as the d5100 has the same sensor as the d7000 i went for that

I'm liking the D7000 for the bigger body size, better build, weather sealing, better battery life and 2 card slot.

Just trying to weigh up if it's worth paying £310 more for the D7000. After all, it won't give me better photos than the D5100 will it?

 

[fozzybear]

Definitely ordering tonight but I'd like your thoughts on the following combos. Main use will be for horse racing and portraits.

Sony A57 + Tamron 17-50 f2.8 and Tamron 70-300 USD. (approx £1030)

Nikon D7000 + Tamron 70-300 f4-5.6 VC USD (approx £1030)

Nikon D5100 + Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4 OS HSM and Tamron 70-300 f4-5.6 VC USD (approx £1030)

Canon 40D or 50D (2nd hand) + 50mm f1.8 II and Canon 70-200L f4. (approx £900 with 40D and £1030 with 50D).

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[fozzybear]

I've just pressed the button on the D7000 and got a Nikon 70-300 on the way as well...

Why are you thinking of the Tamron over the Nikon out of interest?

If you did buy the D7000 you could always get a used 35 f/1.8 for about £130 a short while after.

In fact, get onto Talk Photography and you can get a D7000 at £650, the 70-300 at ~£280-300 and the 35 f/1.8 for around £130

(I assume you are getting the D7000 from the rainforest (cheapest place AFAIK).

The Tamron 70-300 VC USD is recognised as at least being the equal of the Nikon. It's also around £120 cheaper!

I actually almost bought a 2nd hand Tamron 17-50 f2.8 yesterday until I thought (wrongly) thought that it wouldn't be compatible with the D5100. Buying that would have reduced my body options.

I think I'd rather buy a new D7000 (with 2 year warranty) rather than a 2nd hand one for £70 less. Currently keeping my eye on a Canon 50D elsewhere.

 

[fozzybear]

I thought that may be the reason.

I had that same question (although was trying for £600 instead) but decided the two year warranty was a good bet.

The two year warranty for what? The Nikon 70-300?

Can anyone confirm the warranty on new Canon and Nikon lenses/bodies? Am I right in that you get 1 year with Canon and 2 year with Nikon after registering?

 

[fozzybear]

The D7000.

https://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/23727

Is what i'm going from.

Right. Yes, the 2 year warranty on the Nikon body is an added bonus.

That's another reason for me to get the Tamron 70-300 over the Nikon. As well as being cheaper, you also get a 6 year warranty in total (1 year + 5 year extended).

 

[fozzybear]

Ahh, I see, not getting the lens second hand then?

No, it's a no brainer brand new at £300 really.

Well, I've just clicked the buy button on the Nikon D7000 along with 2 x 16GB Extreme Pro cards. Also bought a cheap Transcend RDF8 USB3 card reader. Will be with me sometime on Tuesday. I've been meaning to buy something for the last 6 months so it can't come quick enough!

Amp34, we'll have a to start a thread comparing the merits of the Nikon 70-300 and the Tamron 70-300. Could be useful to others.

 

[fozzybear]

TBH even at that price I'd go used. Just because lens prices only really drop with 3 things, new price to used price, damage and a replacement lens coming out (generally once in a blue moon). Used means I feel more like in renting the lens for the price of postage! And I swap lenses quite often...

Definitely. I'll also compare it to my experience of the 70-200 f/4 and 75-300 IS canon lenses. Should be interesting.

I'd much rather pay £300 for a brand new lens than £260 for the same lens 2nd hand. It's just not worth the risk if something happens with the lens in the future. Too much messing about.

How about something different?

Nikon 1 V1 Black Digital Camera with 10-30mm and 30-110mm Lenses for £735.00...

Just to add something else into the mix.

Already ordered the Nikon D7000.

 

[fozzybear]

My D7000 has just arrived and the first bit of good news is that the battery is not one of those that has been recalled. Apparently it's just batteries with 'E' or 'F' as the 9th digit. Mine is 'J'.

All I need now is to have no front or back focusing issues with either camera or lens.

First shock was the size of the users manual. It's more like a book than a manual (326 pages).

It's a bit daunting at the moment as I've never had a DSLR with so many features. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

 

[fozzybear]

enjoy

I will.

It looks like I've been lucky and got a body and lens that are spot on. Focus seems sharp and accurate.

This video saved me a lot of hassle. It's a really good watch if you're stuck on what settings to use for your D7000.

Hopefully I can test the camera and lens a bit more tomorrow. The forecast doesn't look too bad so I may get out and snap a few birds!

 

[fozzybear]

A day to forget. 400 photos and not one keeper.

I can't quite understand what I've done wrong. I was shooting in manual but had auto ISO on. Most of the photos ended up under-exposed and lacking any sort of detail.

The area where I was shooting was lacking natural light so I'm guessing (hoping) that's the reason. Saying that, I've shot in the same place with my old Sony A580 and 70-300 SSM (similar kit to D7000 and Tamron 70-300) and got better results than I have today.

Frustrating.

I think I'll turn auto-ISO off and start afresh.

 

[fozzybear]

^^^
I think you need to look into your settings tbh, all sounds very strange.
What was the maximum ISO set to etc.

Maximum ISO was set to 3200. I've deleted all my files now so couldn't tell you what type of shutter speed and aperture I was using.

Just wondering what setting you use under 'AF-C priority selection'? 'Release' or 'focus'?

 

[fozzybear]

It's getting frustrating opening my RAW files in Photoshop Elements and Adobe Camera Raw only to find they look massively underexposed.

Even RAW taken in AUTO mode look underexposed. I was led to believe that the D7000 actually had issues overexposing images, not the other way round!

 

[fozzybear]

Seriously, have you got some negative exposure dialled in without realising

Are you using Spot metering or Matrix?

Are scenes consistently underexposed?

Is the body used or new? You may want to go into the Exposure Fine tune option and see if someone has dialled in some negative exposure.

Lastly, maybe you have a duff unit.

If you don't want any help just let me know and I'll save my energy.

No.

Matrix.

New.

Possibly.

I just took a photo of something in AUTO mode and using flash. It looked fine in camera but when I opened it in PE/ACR, it was underexposed.

However, I am just reading threads on the Tamron 70-300 VC USD having underexposure issues. I've no other lens to try it with at the moment.

 

[fozzybear]

You didn't say if the exposures were consistently (under) exposed, i.e. if you take a pictures of the same scene, do the exposures look similar?

Yes, every photo I have taken so far has been underexposed.

I'm fearing (and hoping) it's the lens itself. There's plenty of people with similar issues online.

I'll just take it back to the shop I bought it from on Monday and ask them to try it out. I can't afford to send the lens back to Tamron (need lens for Wednesday) for repair so I'll probably get a refund and get something else.

I don't want to mess with in camera exposure settings at this stage. I shouldn't have to really. The lens has a 5 year warranty so I'll either get a refund or send it back to Tamron.

 

[fozzybear]

For example, this was taken in AUTO mode with a flash.

This is what it looks like when open in PE/ACR.

The next thing I have to do is try and test my body with a different lens. Pretty sure this will end up being lens related and not body related.