Nikon 7000

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Larry Van Valkenburgh on May 14, 2011 at 8:20am

Excellent choice! Get it!

Permalink Reply by Mark Corder on May 14, 2011 at 9:01am

That's exactly what I've done...  I've owned a D80 since 2008 and have almost 75,000 shots on it - and just bought a D7000 as a replacement, though I plan to keep the D80 "in-service", so to speak.

You can't go wrong with the D7000!  If you're familiar with your D80, you should find the D7000 even better thought-out and easier to use.  You may be tempted to think that having two cameras set differently - like one for action and one for close-ups or one just for HDR, JPGs, etc would be handy - but the D7000 can easily record entire banks of custom settings and assign them to the U1and U2 settings on the dial.  So I can switch from my "walking around" settings to my "HDR" settings with just a flick of the dial - and further tweeking these settings for individual situations is easy.

 

Since I shoot exclusively in Raw format, I don't have any need for a second camera for JPGs (though maybe at a party or something) - but since the D7000 has twin SD-cards, you can have one card record the Raw and put the JPGs on the other, or send Video you shoot the second card, or configure it as backup/overflow.

 

Unless I'm in a situation where I wanted to use two lenses without having to swap them on a single camera, I don't have any use for hauling both of them!  So now my faithful D80 can have a well-deserved rest for a while, because the D7000 will be what's around my neck 90% of the time for at least the next few years!

 

The D7000 has received an almost ridiculous amount of praise, but I'll dare say it deserves almost all of it.  To date, it is probably the best DX-format DSLR on the market.  If you have an infrared remote for your D80 it will work with the D7000 (and of course your lenses will), but the battery is a little different.  (As I understand it, Nikon had to redesign them so the contacts were more covered or face export restrictions.)  The good news is that it's crazy-efficient with this battery - more so than the D80 (though remember you now have "Live View", video recording and other battery-draining options - but I'm still getting impressive mileage out of them!)  The remote-release cable for the D80 won't work with the D7000 - but you can use it's one-second exposure delay (possibly in combination with Mirror-Up and Self-Timer shooting) to eliminate the need to carry a cable-release, and that's a blessing to this old hiker and landscape photographer!

 

Oh, and it takes incredible photos!  The D80 is great, but you will notice a difference!

 

So count me among the thousands who highly recommend the D7000.  I recently told a friend that I wouldn't even trade it for the old Hasselblad film cameras I used to use - and I'm serious about that!

Permalink Reply by Tiberman Sajiwan Ramyead on May 14, 2011 at 11:32am

Linda - Mark has summed it up well. I bought my D7000  three months ago. I would say the D7000 is 75% pro. I reckon my next upgrade will be in about 3 to 4 years.

Permalink Reply by Warren Causer on May 14, 2011 at 3:03pm

Thank you Linda for posting this discussion, I to have bin looking at the 7000 as a upgrad. And Mark reply has sold me on it 

Permalink Reply by Mark Corder on May 14, 2011 at 3:18pm

I'm glad a few of you found my quick post helpful, but I barely scratched the surface on the D7000's features.  For a full-shakedown of it here are links to two of the most-trusted reviewers and their takes on it :

Thom Hogan : http://www.bythom.com/nikond7000review.htm

Ken Rockwell : http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d7000.htm

Also remember that you can download (non-printing) copies of the user's manual for any Nikon camera from their website, and many products offer the same.  Reading the manual can often tell you more about the product than anything else!

But again, the D7000 deserves all it's kudos.  At US $1,200 for the body, you can't go wrong.

Permalink Reply by Linda Schendel on May 14, 2011 at 3:38pm

Well, Mark, Larry and Tiberman, I took the leap and just purchased the 7000.  Can't wait until it gets here -- I'm so excited.  You have confirmed what I had already determined from reading a couple of reviews by "trusted" sources.  I think we probably need to start a Group for the 7000 on PS. 

Permalink Reply by Tiberman Sajiwan Ramyead on May 15, 2011 at 1:27pm

Congrats Linda! Actually I am a DSLR beginner but I have been rather assiduous about it over the past 18 months. I have one unsolicited advice: READ, RE-READ AND RE-RE-READ the manual.

Permalink Reply by Mark Corder on May 16, 2011 at 8:29am

Congratulations on getting one, Linda - they can actually be hard to find!  They sell-out at most places in just a matter of hours.

I second the notion of a D7000 group - this is proving to be Nikon's most popular camera since the D90, and it will be gaining a larger user-base by the day.  (They are literally selling faster than they can make them - and regardless of what they're saying, it IS a replacement for the D90 ... I think they jumped the gun and introduced the D7000 while they still had warehouses full of D90s to sell, and they don't want to give folks the idea that the D90 will soon be "discontinued" ... but the truth is that it's bound to be sooner or later.)

And yeah - when it comes to reading the manuals, since you can download them from the site, I already have the things memorized by the time the camera arrives!  They can still be a little confusing though, so a discussion group dedicated to it here at PS would be nice.  For instance, there's been some confusion about how the Auto-ISO can work in Aperture-Priority Mode, and how you can set a "shutter speed floor and an ISO ceiling" that will be used to calculate the exposure trying to keep the shutter speed above a certain minimum and the ISO below a certain maximum - if it can.  The manual is a little fuzzy about this, but a better explanation of it is here : http://www.ehow.com/how_7559382_use-control-nikon-d7000-camera.html

 

So if someone starts a D7000 group here - count me in!

Permalink Reply by Linda Schendel on May 16, 2011 at 8:44am

Mark, feel free to start the group, I don't think there are any restrictions on who can start a new group -- I'll be your first member. 

I ordered mine from Adorama and it should be here this week.  I have a D80 that I got at the very end of the time, they were pushing the 90 when I got mine, but the fellow that I worked with said he couldn't see the advantage to me at the time to spend that kind of money, I already had lenses from my N65 (shutter button on this wore out and cost more to fix that I wanted to spend) that I was going to use until I got familiar with the camera.  I have looked at the 90 a couple of times and still couldn't justify the money they wanted for it -- then when I started to read about the 7000, I thought it was time to take the big plunge.  This will probably be my last camera, and that's fine -- it will last me a long time. 

Permalink Reply by Tiberman Sajiwan Ramyead on May 16, 2011 at 11:48am

Mark - about the D7000 group - count me in too.

Permalink Reply by Linda Schendel on May 16, 2011 at 12:07pm

Mark, I think you have been elected to start the 7000 group!

Permalink Reply by Mark Corder on May 16, 2011 at 12:34pm

... and I think I just did! The address should be :

http://www.picturesocial.com/group/nikond7000

See ya there!