Back in September, when we were visiting Rocky Mountain National Park, I was photographing some elk. It was Rut season and they were all over the place. Long story, short – I fell and bonked the camera hard on the pavement. I am usually able to keep my camera arm up, no matter how I fall, but this time I wound up face-first, sprawled out like Bambi on ice. From that day forward my Nikon D7200 started giving me problems with auto-focusing, which, if you’re photographing wildlife, especially birds and small animals, it’s a big problem.
Today I finally tested the camera using a tripod along with my two primary lenses; a 18-300mm, a 11-16mm wide angle, and my longer lens, the 80-400mm. The performance was erradic. A few photos were in focus and others were not. I tried different focal lengths, and got the same results. The wide angle, which is not a native Nikon lens (it’s a Tamron), wouldn’t focus at all. I switched that same lens onto my older Nikon and it focused perfectly.
So, my sweet husband told me to pick a new camera and he’d get it for me as a Valentine/birthday/anniversary present (all three of those events fall within a six-week period).
I have spent the better part of four days researching, comparing and finally looking to trusted folks in my photography community for input, and I have finally decided on the crop-sensor D500. It will keep me with my current DX lens set, but start me on my way to the layout and feel of a full-frame.