Upgrading my body: mirrorless or not?

Before you jump on the “mirrorless, no other way to go!” bandwagon, hear me out…

I have been shooting on a D7100 for quite a few years. I’m just a hobbyist, nothing fancy. I have a Nikkor 18-200 (not kit), and a Sigma 150-600 which I use to shoot birds when I have the time. Both big investments for me when I bought them. A friend just offered me a brand new, never-used Sigma 105 macro for $400.

My camera body is getting beat up and I’m thinking by the end of this year or next, I want to get a new D7500 body. My budget is really not more than $1k.

I know there are lens adapters for mirrorless that have a small effect on shutter speed (kinda important for birds) and I’m not keen on having to upgrade/invest my lenses. In fact, I don’t have the funds to. But everyone I talk with says “mirrorless, mirrorless, mirrorless.” Would I be a complete idiot to go with the D7500 for the next 5-6 years? Or for my purposes, would it be fine?

Great question.

It seems like the issues with the early mirrorless cameras have been overcome at this point, and there’s no doubt that the industry is going mirrorless.

I used to pay attention to reviews and “influencers,” and, to be honest, they were doing their job well. They made me left out for not having a mirrorless body. Then I stopped paying attention and giving a flying flip, and I am a lot happier and more content with my current body, which is an almost 10-year-old D610.

So I say figure out what is best for you personally — that could be a DSLR or it could be mirrorless —and be happy. If you were to hop over to Nikon’s Z platform (or any other mirrorless body), you’d get some great shots. But you can also get some great shots with a D7500.

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I’ve been considering a camera upgrade as well, after discovering a heretofore unknown by myself defect with the 7100 in some shots; shadow / dark, flat or blurry areas when ISO is high(ish) - horizontal sensor banding. About made me sick when I saw it on some photos I took recently in Northern Ireland on my honeymoon, so I started looking at what a suitable, relatively inexpensive upgrade would be that would also work with most of my current kit.

Considerations were D7500 or D7200.

After some extensive reading on the differences, I settled on the D7200. There just isn’t enough difference to justify the additional cost of the D7500, considering it loses a card slot for some reason and it isn’t compatible with my existing vertical grip for the D7100.

If the lack of a 2nd card slot is not a problem for you, and you don’t want/need/already have a vertical grip on your 7100, and you really like the tilt-out screen on the D7500, then the extra cost may be worth while.

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Yeah, I kinda love having two slots. More convenience, I’ve never taken enough to overflow, but interesting. Did not know they killed a slot in the D7500. Boo.

So I looked at the specs of the 7200 vs 7500. I don’t care about the tilt screen and I hate that they took away a memory card slot (seriously?). I do, however, like that the 7500 has a faster frame rate (8.0 vs 6.0 fps) and anti-flicker video capability. Gotta think on this…

To a superficial person (like myself), a book is judged by its covers. When I first looked at the thread title, I said to myself, “This must be a lifestyle topic.”

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If that were the case … Mirrorless it is for me! :grin: :rofl:

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@LadyJemima I don’t do any video at all via DSLR, so the anti-flicker video thing means nothing to me.
Video-specific features are something I’d almost pay to have removed rather than added. I’d much prefer to have a specialized camera for still photos only rather than a compromise.