Nikon D5100 - the Bees Knees?

depends

depends

With Nikon, typically the pro models have 4 year lifecycles, mid-level 2 years, and lower end 1 year.

6 months after launch and ship for a dslr, coupled with the holiday season will typically result in a 30+ % USD discount off the original MSRP/MAP price, which has, in the past, trumped yen/dollar exchange rates.

Competition, gross revenue targets, and retailer pressure drive this.

Same thing with Sony NEX family. If you look at an old thread there, with a poll, many thought the price wouldn't drop from MSRP/MAP in 2010, but towards the holiday season a NEX 5 could be purchased for $200 off MAP from an authorized dealer, if you looked.

Of course, the D5100 will be old news later this year, with new hot models from all the dslr vendors out or in the pipeline by then.

PKR said:
When the D7000 was announced it was $1,100. The price would have dropped about $100 by now. The value of the dollar continues to decline; look at the increasing price of Au. So, there may not be a price drop, and if you look at Zeiss and some other products, (cost of used Leica gear) the prices have gone up due to a poor exchange rate. Just my thinking.
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Stop starting these threads, Ted! :D:bang::D

Must...resist...GAS....:)

Okay, I admit it, I've been eyeing the D7000 lately as an upgrade to my multi-generations old Nikon D100.

The 5100 looks nice. Even though it's easy to manual focus my old Nikkor AF lenses on the D5100, I have enough of the old glass to make me prefer a body with a drive motor inside (D7000).

--Warren
 
Hi Warren

Hi Warren

Well keep your D100, that has a great 6MP CCD sensor, like the RD1 in there.

Yes, for the in-body focus motor, you'll need the D7000, and will also get some weather proofing, brighter larger VF (pentaprism vs pentamirror), more focus points, faster fps, longer battery life, but no in-camera HDR or swivel screen ;)

Warren T. said:
Stop starting these threads, Ted! :D:bang::D

Must...resist...GAS....:)

Okay, I admit it, I've been eyeing the D7000 lately as an upgrade to my multi-generations old Nikon D100.

The 5100 looks nice. Even though it's easy to manual focus my old Nikkor AF lenses on the D5100, I have enough of the old glass to make me prefer a body with a drive motor inside (D7000).

--Warren
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yeah

yeah

There is live view, but no live histogram like on the nex, so chimping or bracketing might be a good idea.

L. M. Tu said:
Great, I just found out that this camera can mount non-AI lenses! This is one of the attractions of low-end Nikons like my D40. No metering or auto-focus (obviously) but this "feature" allows me to use old Nikkors like the 20mm F4. Now I just need a 16mm DX lens.
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It's probably

It's probably

because all the BH employees are buying them up, or because it's Friday. :angel:

40 some other online/b&m places have them, you can get them at your local walmart or best buy (D7000, not sure about the D700), or adorama or roberts imaging (they also have refurbs for $1095). BTW, Costco online is OOS, but the local warehouse has them stacked to the ceiling (but in lens combo kits, not body alone versions).

I'm not saying there is a glut of them, but there often is excess/sufficient inventory, when big promotions with bodies and lens combos like the one Nikon has/had going on for several weeks occur.

PKR said:
I don't follow the camera market as a whole, just the products I use. NPS gives pro gear a 5 year credit cycle. Normally the D7000 would have dropped by a $100 by now - I think.

Nikon now has a FAB producing it's FX Sensors. The cost to them (from my reading) was $400 ea. from their previous supplier. This cost may have gone down given a good Wafer Yield. The DX sensor in the D7000 is a Sony product and is not being produced by Nikon. So, maybe the FX cameras will see a price reduction. Also, Nikon has (again from reading) two plants under stress from the Quake. This has limited some parts production. My favorite NY vendor has had trouble keeping many of the Nikon products in stock, the D7000 among them. The D5100 is a new camera. My thinking is that it's price history will be similar to the D7000 which uses the same sensor and image processor.

With a shortage of inventory and a good number of buyers waiting for cameras, I don't see a price drop until there is a good inventory and a strong dollar. But I'm not an economist, just a customer.

I just checked B+H. They show a D7000 body at $1,199 and out of stock. I think the D700 was also out of stock. Maybe things will be different in a few months. Different - good, or different bad?
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I am going to swap my D7000 for a good old D300 actually. I don't see that much improvement in the pictures and the build quality of the 7000 isn't that great, it is metal but more like a D80-D90 otherwise. Plus I like the metering and AF on the D300 better, the 7000 is fine but different and harder to get used to.

It's funny, they are all so good now that picture quality is a secondary concern to how it feels in your hand and just how you bond with the camera.

It's heavier. So what? I am a man. Rwrrrr
 
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Hi Frank;

My close friend has a D300 (dead mint, light use) He might be thinking about selling it and getting a D7000. (The OM1 I bought from you about a year ago or so was for him, he loves it) I might be speaking out of turn but maybe he would be interested trading cameras with you. Not sure what the 300 is worth these days but probably worth less than the 7000 so he would probably have to kick in some money along with his 300.

Just a thought..

Best
Paul
 
Paolo Bonello said:
Buying a complete selection of lenses for a DX camera is like searching for pirates treasure. It takes a lot of searching.

Sometimes you see a glimmer of hope though. The main assumption though is that if you have a DX body, I assume, like myself, you're also trying to keep costs down on the lens selection.

D7000 body (for the motor drive AF will give a few more options)
1 Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 (requires body AF motor - sorry d5100 can't AF but do you really need AF for a lens this wide?)
2. Nikkor 35mm AF-s f1.8G (This is my most used lens)
3. Fast fifty for fun portraits (take your pick....I use an old MF 50mm 1.8e series)
4. 55-200 VR (cheap and pretty good to have around unless you like indoor sports and then you have no choice but to use a BIG GUN.
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Totally agree. The 35/1.8 is on the camera 90% of the time. I have a cheap 55-200 "to have". Don't use it much. And I'm using either my 50/1.4 Tak or Jupiter 9 for portraits.

Don't forget those Korean Samyang (and various other names) lenses! I don't own but they're getting raves both the 14mm fixed and the 85/1.4 portrait. - Reasonably priced too.
 
maddoc said:
Dynamic range ! ...
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*Pardon digression off thread intent*

If you look at a scanned color film vs. a good quality RAW on a nice screen, you may well see the limitations of the scanner, film processing, etc, stacking up (just as reprocessing a digital image can degrade it).

If you print the RAW to paper in grayscale and compare with a nice silver print, well, the home field advantage may well have changed.

I agree, however, that one should never buy new, regardless of the discount, (possibly excepting hexanon lenses). And it's nice, when you're using digital, to have something that is still being serviced.
 
Hi PKR

Hi PKR

I am not sure either of the effect of the quake on Nikon production or inventory.

However, the D7000 *may* be below the pro level issues of gray market, since these models are probably not mfg. in Japan, and are sold in the box stores, where the D3x, maybe D700 are probably made in Japan?

Perhaps someone else who knows for sure can comment.

On refurbs. Nikon released many thousands of refurbed product last week or so. BH got 7 pages worth. Thom Hogan has a good article on his site, and even mentions he'll try to find his readers a refurb D700 if they need one.

His page is here - see his June 17 blog post:

http://www.bythom.com/

PKR said:
I'm sure you're correct, but I look for Nikon USA products. Most of the stuff that I've seen, (I'll look around again) that is easy to find is gray market. The referb thing is interesting. I don't generally see those until a camera is close to the end of it's production cycle. I wonder if it reflects the low inventory? I understand that one of the Nikon Lens plants, that's close to the quake zone (It suffered serious after shock damage) is closed or has little output. There was talk of moving the production to Thailand or maybe China. I don't know enough about Nikon to know which plants make which camera parts. I know all the companies rely on small outside shops for some parts (CNC production and electronics). Keep your repair guy happy. Nikon in Torrance, CA usually stocks lots of parts for dropped lenses. I don't know about camera bodies.
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