Nikon has announced the D7200, a replacement for the D7100 which was announced two years ago on February 21, 2013. The D7xxx camera series is a very popular one among enthusiast photographer. The D7000 brought superb performance and image quality, and in each generation Nikon continues to improve upon the older models. No doubt that the expectations are high, and in this article we’ll take a closer look at the new features and compare the D7200 versus the D7100 and D7000. Hopefully by the end of this comparison review, you’ll be able to make up your mind whether to purchase the new Nikon D7200 and whether its worth upgrading from earlier models.
We’ll start with an introduction to the D7200 and continue to the comparison after that.
Nikon D7200
Let’s start talking about the pricing before we continue on. The Nikon D7200 is being sold for around $1200 on B&H Photo Video store. The D7100 (body only) is being sold for around $1000 and D7000 for around $500 on amazon.com. No doubt that the D7000 is very tempting to buy because it costs half the price of the D7100 and almost two and a half times less than the D7200. Understanding the differences between those three cameras will help you make a smarter buying decision, so you won’t just go with the most expensive one and later find out that you won’t be taking any advantage of its extra features.
The Nikon D7200 looks exactly the same as its predecessor, the D7100. It has the same exact dimensions as well. The main differences are waiting for you inside. I actually was expecting a little change, but that’s not a bad thing, after all, the D7100 was very comfortable to handle and the button layout is just right in my opinion.
The D7200 is a DX cropped-sensor APS-C camera. It features a 24.2MP APS-C CMOS sensor, some suggests it’s the same excellent sensor that the D5300 has. The D7200 was designed from the ground up to produce high resolution images, at very low cost of low-light performance. Both the D5300 and D7200 utilizing the same Expeed 4 image processor, but the D7200 has a native 100-25600 ISO (expandable to 102400), whether the D5300 has ISO 100-12800 (expandable to 256000), which leads me to assume that the D7200 has a new sensor in it, not the same has the D5300 one. The D7200 sensor also lacks the optical low-pass filter, which allows it to produce even sharper images.
The D7200 is coupled with a new Multi-CAM 3500 II 51-point AF system with -3EV to +19EV detection range and 15 cross-type sensors. In comparison, the D7100 uses the Multi-CAM 3500DX autofocus sensor module with -2 to 19EV detection range. This allows the camera to focus better in low-light conditions, which is essential for low-light photography, especially when shooting fast-moving subjects under really low lighting conditions without a flash.
Among the performance improvements are 6 fps burst and up to 7 fps in 1.3x crop. The camera incorporates a larger buffer which allow photographers to capture up to 100 high-quality JPEG images in a single high-speed burst and up to 27 12-bit RAW captures for a single burst. This makes the D7200 an exceptional camera for shooting fast-moving subjects, even under low-light conditions.
Nikon also added 1080p60 (progressive) video recording mode, which is unlike the D7100 that captures Full HD in 1080i60 (interlaced), so if you shoot in 60 fps, you get even better quality, which is great if you intend to edit your videos later on. Unfortunately, 1080p60 is only available in 1.3x crop mode. Nikon made it possible by utilizing a smaller part of the sensor, so there is less data to be transferred, hence the performance boost in frame rate recording. For those of you who don’t know, in progressive recording, the entire frame is being recorded. In interlaced, the entire frame is being recorded as well but in 30p, and the camera splits the frame to two, one frame with the odd fields and the other frame with the even fields.
Among its other features are: 2016-pixel RGB metering sensor with scene recognition, Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity, unlimited continuous shooting mode (shutter up to 4 seconds, record as much images as the memory card’s capacity), time-lapse video recording, the body is made of magnesium-alloy and its’s weather-sealed (Water and dust resistant), shutter tested for 150,000 captures, it has a built-in Flash, 1/8000 sec max shutter speed, 3.2″ 1228K-dots fixed LCD, a 0.94x pentaprism viewfinder and an improved battery life of 1110 shots (CIPA). Unlike the D5300, the D7200 doesn’t come with a built-in GPS receiver.
So the D7200 is an interesting camera, but it’s not a prominent update if you ask me. And I even hoped for a USB 3.0, maybe next time. I think that Nikon D7100 will find it hard to justify an upgrade. The built-in wireless, improved low-light performance and bigger buffer might not justify the extra price, but it certainly looks good for those who have the D3200, D5200 and D7000 and are looking to upgrade to a more advanced APS-C camera. That said, it’s still an excellent camera, no doubt about it.
D7200 vs D7100 vs D7000
Now let’s take a look at the differences between those three excellent cameras.
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Conclusion
As you can see from the above specs comparison table, The D7200 isn’t a huge update, although Nikon did improved the camera by using a more advanced AF module, new sensor, can shoot in 1080p60*, built-in wireless connectivity, better battery life and other improvements. That said, many of you probably wondering whether this new camera worth upgrading from the D7100, and I think that it’s hard to justify the upgrade unless you really need better low-light performance, will take advantages of the bigger buffer and/or need the wireless connectivity and 1080p60.
The D7000 still remains an all-around superb performer and you can grab it for much less. Indeed, the D7100 did improve upon the D7000 and I recommended to people to upgrade to the D7100 over the D7000. I hoped that Nikon would make the same big leap in the D7200 and I was disappointed with what I’ve seen.
That said, it doesn’t make the D7200 a bad camera, it’s a SUPERB all-around DSLR camera. It shoots fast, focus incredibly fast, it has excellent low-light performance and it’s now very easy to share your precious moments online with others using the built-in wireless module. If you are upgrading from D7000 or lower-end model, I highly recommend getting the D72000 if you have the budget. If you are financially short, I recommend getting the D7000, as it sells in a remarkably low price. For many of you, the D7000 is all that you need to capture gorgeous photos and release your creativity.
All in all, three excellent cameras, you won’t regret buying any of those three – Happy shooting!