Nikon D7200 review

One of the best enthusiast DSLRs out there

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Performance

  • 6fps burst shooting (7fps with 1.3x crop-mode)
  • Up to a 100 frame buffer (JPEG)
  • 1100-shot battery life

The Matrix (all-purpose) metering system delivers well-exposed images in the majority of conditions, and it even copes well with some high contrast scenes.

The automatic white balance system also copes well with different lighting conditions too, and is pretty much faultless in daylight or cloudy conditions. Under artificial lighting, it delivers slightly warm results, so for maximum accuracy we'd recommend switching to a more appropriate WB setting (such as Tungsten), or taking a custom white balance setting.

As already mentioned, the camera's burst depth is much improved over the D7100. Whereas its predecessor was only capable of capturing a couple of seconds' worth of JPEGs before the buffer became full, the D7200's EXPEED 4 processor facilitates much better performance. Shooting in Fine JPEG-only quality mode, you can capture around 50 shots before the buffer fills, which equals to around 9 seconds of shooting time, giving you plenty of opportunities to catch the action. If you need more flexible RAW images, shooting at 14-bit quality gives you roughly 2-3 seconds shooting time, or 4-5 seconds at the lower quality 12-bit setting.

Nikon has also managed to improve the already impressive battery life, which is increased from 950 shots (CIPA standard) to 1,100 shots - or 80 minutes of video recording.

Image quality

  • ISO100-25,600
  • No low-pass filter
  • Pleasing Picture Effects

We've seen the 24.2-million pixel sensor and Expeed 4 processor combination before in the D5500, and know it to be a great partnership. So I was expecting pretty good things from the D7200 – and I wasn't disappointed.

Like the D7100 before it, this camera is aimed at enthusiast photographers who are likely to want to shoot all manner of different subjects, so it needs to be an all-rounder capable of dealing with different handling demands and shooting conditions.

The D7200 delivers bright colours that really pop, especially in good outdoor lighting.

Looking at JPEG images directly from the camera, colours have a nice level of vibrancy, with a bright but natural appearance. In good light the colours are vivid and bold, but even under less than optimal lighting conditions they still exhibit attractive warmth and saturation.

If you examine an image like this at 100%, you can see that the amount of fine detail captured by the D7200's sensor is fantastic.

Detail is also very well resolved, with virtually no smoothing visible in images shot at lower sensitivities (such as ISO 100 or 200) when viewed at 100 per cent magnification

Detail continues to be resolved well throughout the sensitivity range, and even at ISO 12,800 or 25,600 you can still see a reasonable amount of detail (again, looking at JPEG images). Even the monochrome only, JPEG-only setting of Hi1 is usable, and the grain which is present arguably adds to the "feel" of a black-and-white shot.

A huge number of different lenses are available for the D7200, including the 10-24mm wide angle used for this picture, which gives you an equivalent focal length of 15-36mm.

To process the D7200's RAW images you'll need to use the software supplied with the camera or download Nikon's free Capture NX-D software from its website – at the time of writing Adobe Camera Raw hasn't been updated to be compatible with the camera. Looking at the RAW images it's obvious a fair amount of noise reduction is being applied to JPEGs in-camera, and you have plenty of scope to apply tailored noise reduction to your RAWs, balancing out noise removal and detail retention.

Thanks to its natural tones and colours, the D7200 is a good camera for capturing portrait images.

You can capture Monochrome images in camera by using the Picture Control settings. You can revert back to color later as long as you shoot in raw format.
Amy Davies

Amy has been writing about cameras, photography and associated tech since 2009. Amy was once part of the photography testing team for Future Publishing working across TechRadar, Digital Camera, PhotoPlus, N Photo and Photography Week. For her photography, she has won awards and has been exhibited. She often partakes in unusual projects - including one intense year where she used a different camera every single day. Amy is currently the Features Editor at Amateur Photographer magazine, and in her increasingly little spare time works across a number of high-profile publications including Wired, Stuff, Digital Camera World, Expert Reviews, and just a little off-tangent, PetsRadar.