Best Nikon Camera For Portraits

Though competition's increasing for low-end full-frame cameras, the Nikon D610 holds its own; that said, while slightly faster than its predecessor it's not a whole lot different.

That the D610 is lighter than any other Nikon FX digital SLR camera is a real boon to anyone planning to use it for extended periods of time, though be prepared that it's still quite a handful and noticeably heavier than the cheapest auto focus SLRs of the film era (then again, it's a much higher specified model than any of those). The Nikon D610's mirror is surprisingly quiet for a full-frame SLR camera and in normal use it produces only minimal viewfinder blackout.

While the Nikon D610 is an excellent camera that's capable of recording plenty of detail in images with rich tones, good exposure and pleasant colours it is considerably more expensive the Canon 6D.

So while the Nikon D5300 doesn't add that many new features to the year-old D5200, what it does add makes it a unique product at the mid-range price-point, offering something genuinely different to the likes of the Canon EOS 650D, Pentax K-5 II and the Sony A65. The combination of a free-angle screen, great video mode, high-quality stills and new connectivity options mean that the Nikon D5300 is a worthy winner of our Highly Recommended award.

The Nikon D5300 is what's often referred to in the technology world as an 'evolutionary' upgrade. Nikon has abandoned the D5200's optical low pass filter, which might have been considered revolutonary a year ago, but now looks, to borrow a fashion industry term, 'on trend'. That's not to say it's frivolous or unwarranted, given that it improves the D5300's image quality with no apparent drawbacks (Moire wasn't an issue in any of my test shots) it's absolutely the right move.

Although the upgrades made to the D5200 by the D5300 are solid, they are unlikely to attract D5200 users to upgrade.
They may make the camera more attractive to photographers without a brand commitment, but they aren't especially forward-looking or novel. The variangle screen and Effect modes encourage the user to shoot in live view mode (and compose the image on screen), but the live view AF system's performance lags behind that of many compact system cameras, and the screen isn't touch-sensitive.

While it's still a great prosumer dSLR, the D7100 may only be worth the extra cash if you need a faster Nikon right now.

If you're in the market for a serious D-SLR, but don't want to go full-frame, the Nikon D7100 is the way to go; it's our Editors' Choice camera in its category.

Aside from white balance, the D7100 leaves us with little to complain about. Videography is definitely improved over previous models, but there are some strange control quirks, and plenty of better video-oriented SLRs already exist on the market. Nikon could also do a much better job communicating its "unique" control techniques to new users.

The Nikon D5200 makes a great choice for family and vacation photographers.

The under-$1,000 Nikon D5200 is a capable D-SLR that delivers impressive image quality and continuous shooting at 4 frames per second, earning it our Editors' Choice.

The ultimate irony of these cameras is this: when the D5100 first came to market we awarded it both Camera of the Year, and Budget DSLR of the Year. It was just such an amazing deal, with rare levels of performance at the price point. But after two years and little improvement for the D5200, this great camera didn't hit us with the same impact its predecessor did. Like we've said countless times in the review, the D5200 is a fine camera, but it's not $300 finer than the old one.

The Nikon D600 is essentially a D7000 with an FX sensor, but lacks some of the extra features found in the Canon EOS 6D.

The Nikon D600 was one of the worst-kept secrets in the industry this year, and the enthusiast and prosumer crowd has been foaming at the mouth to see what an affordable full-frame camera from Nikon would look like. The Nikon D600 does not disappoint, offering nearly every bit of control that the impressive D800 offers, with comparable features.

The D600 is an odd camera to write first impressions about, because it's clearly ready for public consumption, having already hit the labs of the folks at DXOMark.

If you think you can live with that and a few other limitations / omissions versus the D800; the smaller, lighter and cheaper Nikon D600 will serve you just as well as the more expensive model - and even give you faster frame rates and more manageable raw file sizes as an added bonus.