Camera Review:The tiny but mighty Nikon D7100

Intro:The D7100 is a perfect forgotten champion from the days past.  A great frame to jump from either casual cell phone photography/point and shoot to something with a little more bang under the hood.

D7100 shown with an optional silicone case.

Initial Thoughts/Build:It's not a terribly large or heavy camera frame so its a nice evolution from a smaller camera into the world of DSLR camera shooting.  I've always been a fan of Nikon's design style, the grip is easy to hang onto with out inducing crampy hands, the over all look is classically "camera-ey" with out feeling boring.  Dual memory card slots is a great option and you have your choice if you want to use slot two as an over flow or have a double redundancy port in case the worst happens to the card in slot 1.  The LCD in the back is clean and crisp but does not swivel or pivot so if you're a big selfie fan you're gonna have to click those blind and hope for the best.  It's not touch screen either but I've never been a huge fan of touch screens on DSLRs. 

Wrapped up and sexy in its protective cover.

Battery Life:Solid.  If you pack 1-3 extra bats.(depending on how long you'll be shooting) you should be totally fine.

The Bad:Not really much at all, I'd highly recommend this frame to someone thinking of geting into higher level photography.  It's fairly straight forward but can be devilishly complex if you want to really dive into the menus.  There are a massive amount of various run downs and tutorials on Youtube for this model so it's an easy one to self educate on.

The Good:This is an easy camera to get lost into.  For the most part it doesn't need to be babied, won't bug you with constant battery swaps, is solidly built. It is a cropped frame so you're not going to get the tone and color depth you see in a full frame but that's not necessarily a bad think for every photographer.  Which brings me to....

Straight forward button lay out, easy to access. She may not have the latest bells and whistles but she's got it where it counts.

Who would I recommend this too:Anyone looking to branch out into a medium level capability DSLR.  It's a dependable and capable platform, that will give you a comfortable feeling as you walk through the woods, city streets or just the home studio snapping pics.  If you do some poking around on ebay you and find one with around 35-45k shutter count for around $275-300 bucks, in my personal opinion a bargain for a time proven war horse that may not have the flash of newer models but definitely has what it takes to get a solid shot as well as be a fantastic learning experience for a new photographer.

-Dave