New to aviation photography - recommendations?

Hey All,
Long time reader of NYCA and thinking about buying a DSLR.
I'm looking at the Canon 7DII and the Nikon D7200.
Any pros or cons for either?
Which brand seems to be better?

Both brands are terrific. It will come down to ergonomics and features if you don't have anything invested yet on either system.

The 7DII has much better specifications than the D7200 when it comes to Buffer Depth and FPS. But specs don't always tell the whole story.

I suggest you walk into B&H if you're in NYC and play with both. Nikon and Canon both have booths with cameras you can play with. So do Sony and Pani and Samsung etc.

What Manny said. If you're really on the fence you can rent as well. Not sure what the best rental places are in that region though. Really you'll likely be happy with either body. I hear good things about both!

Whatever your decision, make sure to post some photos!

dreamingpilot,

First off, welcome to NYCA.

Second, I back what Manny and Jeremy said about getting your hands on the bodies. I've shot with the D7100 and the 7DM2 and there's definite merits for both of them. The 7DM2 shoots faster and has a deeper buffer, though, in my opinion, the image quality isn't quite up there with the Nikon. The D7200 has a better sensor, but shoots way slower and you'll have a tougher time with the spray and pray method.

The 7DM2 has a bit better build quality overall and feels a bit more solid in the hands.

Getting your hands on them will help for sure, as honestly, the biggest differentiation between the cameras will be how they feel in your hands and how you like the controls. You really can't go wrong either way.

It may also be worth looking into what sort of lenses you're planning on buying now and in the future. For the most part Canon and Nikon have similar lenses, but there's some unique ones to each system that may sway you one way or the other.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the input! I got to try the 7Dii and the D7200 and both feel like great cameras.
Based on the people in the forum - does it seem like one brand is more popular than the other?
The canon lenses seem to be a bit cheaper than Nikon's.

I'm not sure if one brand is more popular honestly, I've seen a pretty even mix of Canon and Nikon overall. As for lens prices, it depends on the lens, and the 3rd party lenses will be the same price regardless of mount. Both Nikon and Canon have their fair share of lenses that blow the other's price out of the water. If lens price is a significant factor I'd suggest looking at the pricing of the specific lenses you plan on buying and going from there .

Welcome aboard and looking forward to your future images.

First off welcome to the board!

I can pretty much only echo what everyone else said in comparison between the D7200 and 7D2. I personally do own a 7D2 along with a 6D and am a huge Canon fan. It also helps that I live in NJ about 25 minutes away from the Canon factory service facility :D If you have any specific questions about the 7D2 I'll be happy to answer them.

My personal feeling about photography is that it isn't always about the body (especially with the stuff out currently) but more so the glass. A great lens will allow you to get great pictures on any body while a bad lens will get you poor pictures, no matter what body you use.

Welcome! When I was first switching from film to digital I stayed with Nikon because I had Nikon lenses and thought that made it so I only had to buy a body (never mind that I only had 2 lenses, neither of which's autofocus worked on the D40x body I had just bought) so I ended up having to buy AF-S lenses anyway. Wish I had given Canon a look, cause the new 7D2 and 100-400mmII looks like an amazing combination! Now I have a bunch of Nikon stuff and am too lazy to consider switching :)

Like others have said I would just go with whatever feels right in the hands(that's how I picked the D40x over the D80), you won't regret either choice