I want to upgrade my camera in a couple of months?

I currently have a Nikon D3000. I'm going to set up a studio in my house so I can start taking portraits and I'm thinking of upgrading to a 7000.Is this a good idea? Any suggestions? I don't have a ton of money but I want a better camera and I want to stay with Nikon since I have already purchased 3 lenses.

Upgrading will give you:

-The possibility to use multiple sb units.

- It will give you a better and a faster access to your setting (just this is enough for me lol)

- If you stick a grip on the body it will also give you a better handling when shooting portrait, instead of twisting your hands you'll gain a more comfortable grip.

- Image quality will be a little better with the high iso.

And of course all the other feature that the D3000 doesn't have.

It's a good upgrade but your lens will be the final words on the image quality.

If you are setting up a studio for portraiture, conrolled lighting is going to be critical. You will probably want to invest money in a good lighting setup before buying a new camera.

The classic studio setup is 3 lights; whether they be strobes, speedlights, or constant lighting. The three lights are usually positioned as a main (key) light from one side, a highlight or fill light from the opposite side, and a backlight.

For this reason, you will want to have the ability to vary the intensity of the outputs of each light source independently. This means probably the use of strobes or speedlights rather than constant lighting, but you can vary some of those as well.

At any rate, you will need some kind of triggering mechanism to remotely fire your lighting. You will want a SU-800 if you use Nikon speedlights, or a set of pocket wizards or Yongnuo RF603s for strobes. The SU-800 fits on the hot-shoe, as does the other triggers.

If you want to use Nikon speedlights, you could upgrade to a D7000 rather than buying a SU-800, but the SU-800 gives you three groups for adjustments (that you could use for key, fill, background), while the D7000 only gives you two. In either case, the SU800 or D7000 will allow you to independently adjust the output of the two or three speedlight groups from the camera.

And when you add up umbrellas/diffusers, stands, and background, you are looking at the cost of a D7000 or more.

I think in the beginning, lighting will be more important than a new camera.