Here's one out of my office window ... I don't know the name of this bird ... can anyone help identify? (its the same size of a sparrow)
Image made with Nikon D7100 + 18-300mm VR at 300mm, f/8, 1/640 sec, ISO 800 ... and cropped to death.
Edit: I just found out from a book (which I bought a few years but did not bother to read
) that its the Indian Silverbill (apparently it is also know as White-throated Munia)
Very impressive - but I wouldn't call that cropped to death. Seeing the quality you got out of the D7100 led me to the excellent thread on the 70D D7100 shoot out in which you contributed. The D7100 came out better on IQ, but the 70D on AF. How consistent is the AF on the D7100 - the biggest drawback on the 7D and the reason I upgraded to the 5DIII is the poor reproducibility of its autofocus. After the review by Michaelthemaven I am tempted in two directions as I want a crop for bird photography and have given up waiting for the 7DII, the IQ of the D7100 against an improved autofocus in the 70D. What do you reckon Rienz?
That's a very difficult question to answer, coz I myself struggle with such questions and buying the D7100 was not an easy decision to make ... I too had the 7D (which I really like and miss), which was sold early last year to fund the 5D MK III ... the problem with full frame is that once you start using it, it is hard to go back to APS-C ... but despite the 5D MK III's magnificent IQ, I was missing the reach, especially for wildlife/bird photography ... I can crop the image from 5D MK III to match the same FOV of a crop sensor, but the resulting image loses far too many pixels for my liking. My reason for choosing D7100 over another Canon crop camera was:
1. I did not want to wait forever for 7D MK II (if/when that comes out)
2. D7100 has an additional crop factor of 1.3 (that's almost 2 times the reach of full frame) that too at 16MP
3. Canon 70D had not come out yet (I bought the D7100 in April 2013)
So those were the reasons, I chose D7100 ... if/when the D400 comes out and if it also has the extra 1.3 crop factor, I'll definitely buy it. As of now I am very happy with D7100, it gives me the reach and sharpness I need ... mind you, I only use it for bird photography (because I don't really like the Nikon colors), for everything else I use 5D MK III and EOS-M.
So far I've only been using iD7100 with the Nikkor 18-300mm VR lens, but I just bought a Sigma 150-500 OS (Nikon mount) last week and am really looking forward to take some photos with it ... I'll post some pics of a few bird pics I made with D7100 + Sigma 150-500 OS.
Coming back to your question about the AF consistency on the D7100 ... I do not use burst mode for more than 2 or 3 shots and the AF is spot on ... last saturday I took 83 photos of flying birds and only 5 images were out of focus (but that is most likely due to my lack of skill).
If Canon 70D has additional crop factor (the 1.3 crop like the D7100), I'd buy the 70D anyway over D7100 ... for me that is the
only reason stopping me from getting the 70D.
I suppose if you don't need the additional 1.3 crop factor, you are probably better off with 70D ... but in my limited experience I can confidently say that the additional 1.3 crop factor (that too at 16MP) makes a big difference in bird photography.
I hope you have less of a difficult time making up your mind about which one to buy than I did ... Happy shopping
