I know, another one of those threads! I currently have a d40x that we have had for 4 years now and it has had a rough year. To start, if was on a tripod and somehow fell over directly on the lens. Luckily, I had an extra 18-55 kit lens we could use. Then, out of nowhere that lens actually just fell off the camera body and landed on it's side in the rocks. It was the wierdest thing ever, we had been shooting pictures all day and when we were just stading there the camera was around my wifes neck and the lens just fell off. Popped it back on it seemed to function ok. It still takes good pictures but the autofocus is painstakingly slow and occasionally it won't focus at all. One other factor that it driving replacing it is the fact that my second child is due any day now and we seem to have lost our video camera in the bustle of pregnancy, graduating grad school and rehabing a house! This is where my questions come in. I have a 75-200 Nikkor lens that has not hit the dirt and is still a good lens. The 18-55 kit lens I have works but needs to be replaced with something else.
From my research, I see my options as: getting the D3100 with kit lens, D5100 with kit or just the body and get either a primary lens or a nicer 18-55 type lens to go with it. I briefly considered the 7000 due to the nicer features and the introduction of weather sealing but not sure it's worth twice the cost of the 5100. I should also note that 90% of our photos are shot in the auto setting. I know how to manually set the camera but lack of practice makes me slow and I end up missing the shots so it typically stays in auto. My wife shots exclusivly in auto but has a desire to learn how to manually set the camera and I can see her picking that up now that she is no longer in school. As she learns I would also most likely increase my manual usage. The camera gets used for general family photos, travelling, occasional portrait "photo shoots" and if I could find the time I would really like to make more landscape shots.
Basically we have been pretty happy with the results from the d40x but at times found it slow to focus and we have had issues with low light photos on occasion too. The low light would probably be fixed with manual settings but those instances were actually pretty rare. So; 3100 kit, 5100 kit, 5100 body with different lens, or other option I'm not seeing?
I appreciate any thoughts. Researching these things blows my mind sometimes...
From my research, I see my options as: getting the D3100 with kit lens, D5100 with kit or just the body and get either a primary lens or a nicer 18-55 type lens to go with it. I briefly considered the 7000 due to the nicer features and the introduction of weather sealing but not sure it's worth twice the cost of the 5100. I should also note that 90% of our photos are shot in the auto setting. I know how to manually set the camera but lack of practice makes me slow and I end up missing the shots so it typically stays in auto. My wife shots exclusivly in auto but has a desire to learn how to manually set the camera and I can see her picking that up now that she is no longer in school. As she learns I would also most likely increase my manual usage. The camera gets used for general family photos, travelling, occasional portrait "photo shoots" and if I could find the time I would really like to make more landscape shots.
Basically we have been pretty happy with the results from the d40x but at times found it slow to focus and we have had issues with low light photos on occasion too. The low light would probably be fixed with manual settings but those instances were actually pretty rare. So; 3100 kit, 5100 kit, 5100 body with different lens, or other option I'm not seeing?
I appreciate any thoughts. Researching these things blows my mind sometimes...
