So I've been research about how to manage my transition from m43 to Sony E mount. This quickly identified a significant issue, like all m43 bodies the E-M5 is in resale free-fall now that a replacement body is available (the E-M1). Essentially this means that if I want to maintain my value I need to convert it to something which will better maintain its value until I'm ready to buy an A7, likely sometime in March.
I could sell off the m43 kit and bank the money. That's the best way to preserve value but it leaves me lacking a primary body in the meantime (the NEX-5R is great as a light-carry camera, but I'd need to invest in wide lens options and the EVF to replace the E-M5, neither of which would realistically maintain value). I could invest in an interim option, either something which has plateaued in its value, something new enough to be maintaining a solid value or the third option, just buy the glass I need for the A7 and suffer for a while.
The constraints on either variant of option two are essentially that the options would have to be E mount or Nikon F mount, to maintain a modicum of compatibility with my current system options. And there are no good E mount options which meet my criteria (the NEX-7 is hitting the freefall value point and the NEX-6 is basically the 5R with a built-in EVF anyways, so not much of a difference). F mount gives more options, particularly the D7000 and D7100 with the former pretty much solidly plateaued at the $5-600 pricepoint and the latter floating around at like-new pricing.
The third option, just by glass, pretty much means I'd be doing only occasional shooting for the next 4 months, which I'd prefer not to be the case.
So I headed into the Henry's Outlet Centre on my day off today to see what my options would realistically be. As it turns out they were a D7000 and 2-3 lenses or a D7100 with either the 18-70 or the 18-55VR. Just buy glass was off the table, nothing I wanted was available (I prefer to buy used gear via the HOC due to their excellent support, I've been dealing with my sales rep for 10+ years and Marc's great). So option 2 it was.
The next option is which of the two packages to get. There were some great deals on 18-70's, so that was obviously lens #1. And then there was nothing. All the interesting lenses were well out of my pricerange and anything I could afford and also wanted was not in stock (the HOC only carries used, refurb and open box, so no full lens line). If I'm just getting the 18-70, the D7100 is the choice to go, and is conveniently on sale for pretty much exactly the discount of what I'd lose from a trade-in instead of a private sale (the freefall in m43 pricing and qualifying for half-back almost balanced out, the trade-in value being applied pre-tax covered the rest of the difference).
So now I find my kit is the D7100 and NEX-5R, with 18-70G, 28E, 35/2.8AI, 50E, 100E and 300/4.5AI'D. Should be interesting for the winter.
Oh and why the D7x00 series? Well they're exactly the camera I wanted when I bought the D300 (the D300 was always too much camera for me, in size/weight and un-needed performance, while the D90 lacked the non-CPU lens support I consider critical in an F mount camera). The D7100 also gets a best in class sensor and the ability to crop down to a 15MP m43 crop mode for speed/reach. Pretty sweet all told. And of course I get good battery life. We'll see what I'm thinking of the mirrorless tradeoffs in a couple months after shooting with my first DSLR in almost 2 years. Who knows, maybe I'll go D800E instead of A7. I'm not a D6x0 fan, don't like the handling which is just enough different from the D7x00's to go from great to lousy, and I find the shutter and lack of interchangeable focusing screens to be a poor tradeoff on a $1500+ camera. But the right price could sway me anyways (a $1200 D600 would offset a LOT of tradeoffs).
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