Upgrade Body to D7100-Refurb OK?

[Gig 'Em Mickey]

I currently have a d3200 two lens kit that I bought new. Someone has offered me $400 for everything. I think I'm going to take that and put it towards a D7100. Have a few questions:

1) Buffer size on D7100. I shoot raw and I can shoot 10-15 frame bursts at my son's soccer games with no problem. I've heard the D7100 has a much smaller buffer. I use fast cards, but will this cause an issue?

2) Are refurbed bodies good? Have a lens refurbed by Nikon and it has been great.

3) The things I don't like about the D3200 are small view finder, no exposure bracketing, not thrilled with high ISO performance, auto-focus seems inconsistent. The D7100 seems like it would address all of these.

I know a lot of y'all have used the D7100 so looking for opinions.

Thanks!

 

[NowInc]

I currently have a d3200 two lens kit that I bought new. Someone has offered me $400 for everything. I think I'm going to take that and put it towards a D7100. Have a few questions:

1) Buffer size on D7100. I shoot raw and I can shoot 10-15 frame bursts at my son's soccer games with no problem. I've heard the D7100 has a much smaller buffer. I use fast cards, but will this cause an issue?

2) Are refurbed bodies good? Have a lens refurbed by Nikon and it has been great.

3) The things I don't like about the D3200 are small view finder, no exposure bracketing, not thrilled with high ISO performance, auto-focus seems inconsistent. The D7100 seems like it would address all of these.

I know a lot of y'all have used the D7100 so looking for opinions.

Thanks!

First off..I LOVED my D7100. It was a great performer the 2+ years that I used mine. That being said:

1.) The buffer sucks. If you are shooting raw, you are going to hit a wall FAST even with high speed SD cards, generally after about 6 shots. Generally, sports shooters will do JPEG to be able to do a large burst of shots to get around this. The D7200 fixed this, kinda. Its still not GREAT, but better.

2.) If its an official Nikon refurb, I am 90% sure that it has a warranty. I wouldn't worry too much about that.

3.) D7100 has fairly good ISO performance (for a crop sensor) with noise being a non issue at 1600, and very manageable up to about 3200. Anything above that and it starts to fall apart. Auto focus wasn't BAD, it really depends on the lens on this body. Bracketing works as it should, with 5 stops max and the ability to go adjust the stops to taste....just be sure to get a trigger (or use the "timer" technique).

 

[Gig 'Em Mickey]

On the auto focus you said it wasn't bad. Did you have issues with it? I figured going from the 11 points I've got on the D3200 to the 51 points would be a huge upgrade.

 

[htx]

The D7100 is a great camera! If it's refurbished from Nikon you get a 90 day warranty. I bought a Nikon D5100 a few years back refurbished from Nikon and it was basically like new. If you shoot sports the big advantage with the 7100 are the cross type autofocus points. The 3200 has 1 cross type and the 7100 having 15!

 

[NowInc]

On the auto focus you said it wasn't bad. Did you have issues with it? I figured going from the 11 points I've got on the D3200 to the 51 points would be a huge upgrade.

Its way better than what you have, but I am unfairly comparing it to newer cameras. It won't let you down by far, but won't be as fast as a model released this year.

 

[thomas998]

How much of a discount are you getting by doing a refurb... Because I would really shy away from that unless it is a very good deal... Not that I wont buy used and refurbed lenses, I do that and will continue to... but I've had less than stellar luck when it comes to refurbed electronics which the camera would fall into. The last cameral refurb I purchased was a Nikon SB600 which was done by the factory and had a warranty (though it was a lot shorter than if I had gotten it new) and the flash didn't last much longer than the 90 days it was under warranty before it started going wonky on me. Frankly there are just too many things in something as complicated as a camera for me to put faith in a refurb... I can imagine the camera tech gets a returned camera and fixes the problem, only it wasn't the underlying problem it was a symptom caused by something else he didn't catch... now the camera passes their test and is put back out but if you don't use it enough to get that underlying problem to rear its head again you'll be out of luck on getting it fixed later... I kind of think that was what happened with my flash because I didn't use it that often so I certainly didn't stress it much.

That's just my thoughts on a refurb... if you go that route consider an add on warranty for piece of mind.

 

[Gig 'Em Mickey]

Well if I can actually sell my camera and current gear I will probably buy new. You can get the D7100 for a decent price right now since the D7200 came out.