About

A little more than a year ago I bought a Nikon D7100 DSLR. It is the most complicated piece of equipment, machine, electronic device, or whatever that I have ever worked with. It’s complicated.

The Nikon D7100 user’s manual has 4 line drawings of the camera body with 51 different items labeled. Many of these items have dual functions depending on the mode the camera is in. Additionally there are multiple menu and sub menu items to scroll through for setting up the camera’s operations and various features. It’s complicated.

My Minolta SR-T 101 Owner’s Manual from 1971 has just two pictures of the camera to show its various buttons, controls, and features. In total, only 27 different items are labeled on these two pictures and obviously here are no software menus to wade through. Of the 27 items, if you exclude changing the lens or film and shooting with flash, there are only 4 items that are use for taking pictures. It’s not complicated.

When I bought the D7100 I knew it was more camera than I needed, I just didn’t realize how complicated it was going to be. I figured that since I’m not a professional and don’t shoot pictures almost every day or have assignments were I crank out hundreds of photos at a time, it would take me a couple years to become proficient with all its functions and features. But that was before I actually had the D7100. I’ve discovered it’s complicated and it’s going to take me more than a couple of years. That’s okay; I’d rather have a camera that I’m going to be growing into than one that I’d shortly be growing out of.

I plan for this blog to be about the pictures I take with my D7100. I really love taking pictures with my D7100 and the things that I can do with it that I couldn’t do with my compact digital cameras or my Minolta SRT-101. The one drawback to the D7100 that I’ve noticed so far is that it’s complicated.

David Bonham
Webster Groves, Missouri
May 2014

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Update: September 2015

Sometimes I don’t take my Nikon D7100 with me when I know there are going to be photo opportunities because I’m afraid it might get damaged (e.g., out on a small boat) or its just too bulky and I figure I’m just going to be taking snapshots of friends and family.  For awhile under these conditions I would use my Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7.  Now I normally just use smartphone. Photos from DMC-ZS7 (rarely) and the smartphone will start showing up in this blog but the vast majority will still be from my still complicated, and underutilized, Nikon D7100.

David

September 22, 2015