Nikon D7100 (2013)
The enthusiast DX body that dropped the low-pass filter and dared to call itself a flagship.
Overview
Announced February 20, 2013, with shipments following around March 21st, the Nikon D7100 arrived with a $1,199.95 MSRP. Nikon was taking aim at Canon's APS-C crown. Nikon's own press materials called it "the HD-SLR that ushers in a new era of DX-format image quality," and Bob Atkins, covering the launch, put it more bluntly - Nikon "fired a shot across Canon's bow." The Canon EOS 7D was then selling for around $1,450, so the D7100 was priced aggressively before you even looked at the spec sheet.
Nikon USA officially referred to the D7100 as their "flagship" DX-format camera. That raised eyebrows, given the body's enthusiast positioning. As Bob Atkins noted at the time, "That seems a little odd for a $1200 body" - especially since the label implied the venerable D300s was being retired from the top of the DX lineup. Marketing spin or real repositioning, the D7100's actual job was clear. It sat above the entry-level D3000/D5000 series and below full-frame, and it gave serious DX shooters a body that didn't feel like a compromise.
The D7100 replaced the D7000 as Nikon's top DX-format camera, and the spec sheet read like a wishlist for enthusiasts who'd been waiting for a real upgrade. It had a 24.1MP APS-C CMOS sensor with no optical low-pass filter, a 51-point autofocus system borrowed from pro bodies, 6 fps continuous shooting, and a 100% viewfinder. The body was sealed to the same moisture and dust resistance specifications as the D300s. On paper, it was exactly what Nikon's DX loyalists had been asking for.
Key Features
24.1MP Sensor with No Low-Pass Filter
The headline feature of the D7100 was its all-new 24.1MP APS-C sized CMOS sensor - and what Nikon left off of it. The optical low-pass filter (OLPF), long considered a necessary evil in digital cameras to suppress moiré and color aliasing, was simply omitted. This wasn't Nikon's first try at the idea. The 36MP full-frame D800E used a secondary "anti-low pass" filter to cancel out the OLPF's effect. The D7100 went further and left the filter out altogether.
The trade-off was immediate and well understood. Removing the OLPF delivers increased sharpness, because the sensor resolves fine detail that would otherwise be smeared by the filter's anti-aliasing action. The cost is moiré fringing. These are colored patterns that appear on fine, repeating detail like fabric weaves or architectural grids, caused by aliasing of high-frequency image components. As Bob Atkins noted, this "can partly be dealt with in software," but it's a real problem for anyone shooting textiles or other regularly patterned subjects. For landscape, nature, and general photography, the sharpness gain was generally worth the risk.
51-Point Multi-CAM 3500DX Autofocus
Nikon equipped the D7100 with a new Multi-CAM 3500DX AF module, offering 51 focus points with 15 cross-type sensors. The system was rated for -2EV AF sensitivity, so it could lock focus in light levels where the human eye struggles to see at all. The center AF zone also remained functional at f/8. That mattered to wildlife and sports shooters using a teleconverter on a slower lens, where the effective aperture drops below the f/5.6 that many AF systems require.
100% Viewfinder with OLED Data Display
The D7100's optical viewfinder showed 100% of the frame. That spec is usually reserved for professional bodies, and it eliminated the guesswork of composing shots that would later need cropping.
6 fps Shooting and 1.3x Crop Mode
Continuous shooting ran at 6 fps at full frame resolution. Switch to 1.3x crop mode and the frame rate climbed to 7 fps, with resolution dropping to 15.4MP. The crop mode effectively changed the lens multiplier from Nikon's standard 1.5x to 2x relative to full frame - the same field of view relationship as the micro four-thirds format. This gave sports and wildlife shooters extra reach from their existing lenses while keeping a very usable 15.4MP resolution.
Shutter lag measured a claimed 53ms, and the shutter mechanism was rated for 150,000 cycles with a top speed of 1/8000s and a 1/250s flash sync. Those numbers put the D7100 in territory that professionals actually used.
Video and Processing
Video capture ran to 1080 HD at 24/25/30/50/60 fps, which gave videographers the frame rate flexibility that was becoming standard for hybrid shooters. The camera was driven by Nikon's EXPEED 3 image processing engine, the same generation of processor used across Nikon's lineup at the time. ISO ranged from 100 to 6400 natively, expandable to 25,600.
Build and Handling
Nikon built the D7100 to the same moisture and dust resistance specifications as the D300s, which was high praise for a body at this price point. Nikon's own press materials described the construction as "lightweight," and the camera's dimensions and weight were almost similar to its predecessor, the D7000. The rear of the camera was dominated by a 1,228,800-dot high-resolution 3.2" LCD. Storage came via dual SD card slots that were UHS-1 and SDXC compatible, which working photographers appreciated for overflow and backup shooting.
Metering was handled by Nikon's 3D Color Matrix Metering II system with a 2,016-pixel sensor. The camera also included spot white balance, which let you set white balance from a specific area of the frame rather than the whole scene.
Historical Context
The D7100 launched at a moment when the DX format was under pressure from both sides. Full-frame cameras were getting cheaper, and mirrorless was starting to nibble at the edges of the enthusiast market. Nikon's response was to double down on DX, positioning the D7100 as the new flagship of its DX-format HD-SLR lineup. As of February 25, 2013, the Nikon USA website still carried that "flagship" language, and Nikon's Vice President of Marketing, Bo Kajiwara, framed the camera as "solidifying Nikon's ongoing commitment to the DX-format D-SLR customer."
Bob Atkins, covering the launch for his photography site, saw the competitive landscape clearly: the D7100 was going to be the competition for either the long-expected Canon EOS 7D MkII or an EOS 70D. At $1,199.95 MSRP, it undercut the current Canon 7D by roughly $250. Nikon's move also signaled the end of the D300s line, which had served as the company's DX flagship for years.
The D7100 joined the D3200 and D5200 - both announced in 2012 - in offering 24MP APS-C sensors, but it was clearly the most capable of the three. Nikon Norway even sent out invitations for an advanced Nikon school that listed the D7100, which suggests the camera was being positioned for serious education and workshop use from day one.
Collectibility & Value
The D7100 has settled into the used market as a dependable workhorse body. European listings on MPB show used examples ranging from €98 to €289, though condition and shutter count vary widely at those price points. In Bangladesh, the camera was listed at ৳32,000, and eBay typically shows a steady stream of D7100 bodies and kits from sellers around the world.
For buyers looking at a D7100 today, the main considerations are the usual ones for a camera of this era: shutter count, cosmetic condition, and whether the autofocus system is functioning correctly. The 150,000-cycle shutter rating means most examples should still have plenty of life left, but ask about the count on any body you're considering.
As a collector's item, the D7100 isn't rare or particularly valuable yet. It was the first enthusiast body to ship without an OLPF, and the last true "flagship" DX camera before Nikon's attention shifted. The dual SD slots, 100% viewfinder, and weather sealing give it a feature set that still holds up well over a decade later.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.