I have a D5600 that I’d like to give to my girlfriend for her to use. I bought it with that in mind, having the lighter & more compact body. I’ve got the kit lenses and the 35mm prime.

I was really anticipating the Z6 mirrorless camera, but the limited selection of Z Mount lenses is kind of disappointing. And it doesn’t make sense to me to start investing into F Mount lenses if I end up with a Z6.

The question is, which body do I want? The D7200/7500 would allow my girlfriend and I to share lenses. As would the D500 if I thought I needed the extra horsepower. I think that I’d be happy with the 16-80mm for the vast majority of the pictures I like to take, with maybe the 200-500mm for wildlife.

The Z6 with the 24-70mm would leave me wanting more reach, and 3 lens systems to juggle. The A7iii with the 24-105 is pretty tempting too. My girlfriend will be happy shooting DX due to size and weight and I’m by no means an expert and still have lots of learning through experience to do. Thanks in advance!

The DSLR will be dead in a few years.  Buy a mirror-less Sony.  They are light years ahead of the crap Canon and Nikon just released.  Their native lens lineups are also excellent.

I was a die hard Canon guy for decades....  Not anymore.

Awesome, I was hoping that one of the resident experts would weigh in!

I was kind of thinking the same thing with the 7500, in that it’s obviously newer and has some better specs, but it’s not necessarily better than the 7200. The battery grip being something I would probably use frequently. I do like an articulating screen but it’s not a deal breaker. And built in flash would be more convenient?

I took quite a few pictures in Yellowstone I can see where I was limited with a 70- 300mm kit lens for distant wildlife. We were lucky enough to see a wolf eating a nice branch bull elk in the Yellowstone River in Hayden Valley. I can also see the benefit in shooting speed. Trying to capture the Fountain Paint Pots bursting at perfect moment was limited to 4 frames per second, 8 or 10 would be better. And it’s nice that the D500 is offered in kit form with the 16-80mm lens.

Now if Geissele hasn’t of taken all my money over Black Friday!

I'm with Zack on a D7200 or D500.  Lens compatibility with your GF, if you buy FX lenses you can run them on a DX or FX body should you decide to get a full frame sometime, etc.  Plus both will give you buttons to control all the settings vs having to dink around in the menu.  All in all, super intuitive to use compared to having to fiddle to change ISO or something.

I still miss my D7200 sometime, but will eventually get a D500.

Until they solve the battery issue DSLRs will be around for a while.

I can leave my D500 running all night taking star shots and still have lots of juice left in the morning.  Can your typical mirrorless do that?

In short, for maximum in simplicity between His & Her camera kits, stick with a crop sensor. The D7200 has good pro-level features that I think would allow you to expand your skills faster than the D5xxx series (based on my own experience). However, if you have the budget, I think the D500 will give you more service life.

Camera selection, in my opinion, really boils down to two major factors: budget and type of photography (or intended use). Of these, I think your intended use is more important when deciding between sensor sizes (because you can spend a range of budget on each sensor class) and I think Zack is on the right track with, in essence, zeroing in on the type of photography you expect to do. If you're like me (a generalist, but mostly landscapes), full frame provides greater flexibility. If you prefer wildlife, it's hard to beat a quality crop sensor camera. Based on your comment about the 16-80mm, a full frame with the 24-120mm would work well (comparable field of view to the 16-80mm on a crop sensor) - and the 24-120 would function just fine on the D5600 (with a different field of view when mounted on the crop body).

Ogive provided a bit of a GD-style response, but he's right in one regard: Mirrorless is the future. However, the future is not quite now (with apologies to Nam June Paik). It will be several more years before mirrorless closes the various performance gaps with DSLRs and if you're the least bit annoyed with having multiple camera systems to track, adding Sony to your current Nikon mix will complicate life more than help. That said, I've played with a Z7 (at a photo conference, not a photo trip) and it is impressive. If you're seriously considering the Z6 but are concerned about the lens options, the D750 is still a very viable choice with a bit lower price.

Re: Z-mount lens selection - Remember that Sony's native lens selection for their FF mirrorless bodies was very slim when they introduced the lineup and Nikon have published their roadmap showing a plan to have 12 Z-mount lenses within 2 to 2.5 years. I think Nikon will have at least one more mirrorless body released in that timeframe, too. My point is that adding a Z-mount body to one's kit today is definitely setting up for the future and most F-mount lenses are fully functional via the FTZ adapter. If I had not acquired my D850 just a year ago, I would most definitely be looking at that Z7. It's a sweet bit of kit.

I’m super excited to start playing with my new D500! I should have it in a couple of days, ordered directly from Nikon. I went with the D500 & 16-80mm kit, and Nikon is offering a free battery grip.

It’s more camera than I need, but I’ll be able to use it for many years, and my girlfriend and I will have a good his & hers cameras. Now I just need to save up for the 200-500!

This.  Have you seen that Google phone 'Flash" commercial?  That's what you get with your typical on-camera flash and the Prosumer bodies don't make much difference.

Don't overlook Tamron's 150-600.  The 1st gen is good and I hear the G2 is even better.