D7200...Good and bad

[daveja]

After testing the D7200 a bit using a 300mm 2.8 AF-I, I have come to the conclusion that it is not quite the D400 replacement we were hoping for, at least in regards to using it with this lens... I am comparing it to my gripped D700 and a recent test I did with the new D750 as well. Focus acquisition is certainly better than the D7100's I have tried but not quite up to par with the Pro bodies I have tested it with. I have not tried it with a long AF-S lens yet but I am assuming it is better with those from what I have seen posted so far...

With the 300mm 2.8 AF-I, I have had results that are generally very good like the example below...

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But have also had a lot of frames that have been underwhelming like the one below that can not be explained where they come in a sequence where many frames look good but too many look like this...
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This does not happen nearly as frequently with my D700 or the D750 I tested recently...

So my summary is that the mythical D400 can still get us closer to what we really want in this segment of the DSLR market... Hopefully we will get it... Of course this can be taken with a grain a salt if the performance is that much better with newer AF-S lenses!... But I think the older AF-I lenses are a good test of focus power in the current DSLR crop of camera's IMO...

 

[daveja]

Update: After about 3000 shots I have not been that impressed with the auto-focus when it comes to sports shooting... My gripped D700 still blows the D7200 away in regards to overall focus accuracy. Maybe I have a bad copy but I have shot a lot with it using 9 point AF-C with both AF-ON and the shutter button for quick focus acquisition the way I shoot the D700 and it does not come close in terms of the % of keepers I get with the D700... Could be a bad copy or something I am doing wrong but so far I have been disappointed overall... Today in the rain I left the D7200 in the bag and the D700 was up to the task!

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[vindex1963]

The D700, one of the best.

The first shot and the last shot look good.

 

[daveja]

Yeah that was the point, the first one is a good example of when the D7200 get's it rights but there are just way too many that are just slightly off for me to have the trust I need in it to use in the field for a paid assignment.. The last is an example of what I get about 90% of the time with the d700... I really would like the extra reach I get with the D7200 but not at the expense of the accuracy and trust I have with the D700... The D750 I had for a bit was very close to the D700 in accuracy as well so not sure if Nikon is holding something back for the rumored D400... Who knows at this point...