My Nikon D7100 arrived last night along with an Nikon 18-300 Lens.

There is an overwhelming vibe that this is a 1.5x Sensor in a Nikon D600 body. Side by side, the D7100 and the D600 are very difficult to tell apart, a couple of the buttons are laid out differently, and a few of the menu items are different, but in a camera bag, most shooters will not be able to glance at them and tell the difference without the screen cover on the D600.

Aside from the sensor size (D600 is full frame), the D7100 has s much improved focusing system:

– The number of focusing squares (D7100 has 51 Focus Squares, 15 are cross type vs 39 Focus Squares, 9 Cross type in D600) and the actual spread of the squares is impressive.

Other important notes:

– D7100 has a max flash sync speed of 1/250 (D600 is 1/200)
– D7100 has a max shutter speed of 1/8000
– D7100 is about 40% more affordable
– D600 has a few more menu items, like the time lapse feature
– D7100 has an intriguing 1.3x Crop Mode for 1.5X Sensor, thereby making it a 2x factor on lenses in that mode. (great for sports shooting). You will only have 15 MP of the 24 available, but it also increases the FPS to 7 (from 6). Should theoretically allow you to completely fill the fame edge to edge with focus squares. Nice for sports and wildlife shooting.

There are a few other minor details here and there, but suffice it to say the D7100 is a D600 with a crop sensor and better focusing systems.

We will be getting the D7100 Crash Course Training Tutorial Video started very soon, and should have something ready in the next 4-6 weeks as far as download and the DVD should be ready the following month.