Nikon D7000 Impressions.
Disclaimer: I am not a pixel peeper and these are just my observations from practical use.
So I finally upgraded from my old Nikon D200. With the Nikon D7000, Nikon has (finally) put out a camera with a few features that I’ve been aching for: namely 1080p 24fps video w/ external mic input and manual controls (I know…not a feature for all but it’s a big deal for me). The high ISO performance, higher megapixels, and dual memory card slots are nice upgrades from my older body too. I’m liking that they managed to pack it all into a DX body as well - this lets me save a bit of money that would have necessarily been spent upgrading lenses if I switched to FX. It’s actually pretty amazing the features they packed into this little body.
I’ve had the camera for about two weeks now, but have to say I haven’t used the camera enough to give a proper review yet. Initially I was very underwhelmed, but as I’ve started putting it through some difficult situations I’m growing fond of it. A couple of first impressions:
-Everyone on the net was raving about the awesome quality of jpgs this camera pushed out and how the in camera noise reduction was so advanced it was better than anything you could do in post. Not true at all - the SOOC jpgs are probably the reason I was initially so underwhelmed. Once I updated to the Lightroom 3.3 release candidate so I could pull in the raw files to work with I was a lot happier.
-The dynamic range that is captured in a 14 bit RAW file is oh so nice. Also nice that it doesn’t drop your max fps like some other Nikon bodies do if you shoot in 14 bit (Expeed II processor win!)
-With proper processing ISO6400 shots are very usable, ISO3200 shots are clean but lacking a little dynamic range compartment, and ISO1600 shots are perfect to work with (I would NOT hesitate to shoot anything at ISO1600 anymore)
-Yes high ISO performance is better than we’ve previously seen before in DX bodies, but that’s to be expected. More importantly low ISO performance is spectacular. One of the reasons I didn’t move from the D200 to the newer D300/D300s was because the low ISO performance was a step back. For every day shooting this is way more important to me than high ISO performance.
-16mp files are very nice for studio work. With good lenses 16mp does make a noticeable difference.
-Dual card slots are great - the backup option sure gives me peace of mind when shooting important stuff. I also like being able to write photos to one and video to the other.
-I love that the viewfinder is 100%
-AF speed is very good. The motor in the body (for screw drive lenses) is very fast and a lot quieter than my D200’s was. The camera also does very well focusing in low light - takes a second to lock on but once it’s locked it’s really good. Next to no searching.
-The camera tends to meter more to the right than my old D200 - by about a stop. Not a big deal, just something different that I have to adjust to. A nice feature is you can set the default metering to have a bias of an amount (say -0.7 stops in my case). This is separate from your normal exposure compensation..
-The LED info screen on top of the body does not show you where your focus point is! If you’re using single point focus it just displays a grid with the center point rather than where the point currently is within that grid.
-The trigger is very sensitive. If it’s cold out and you’re wearing mittens, expect some misfires at first. Rather annoying when your like me and tend to center focus and recompose - I may try to use the AF-ON method in the future.
-The body is much smaller than I’m used to and I can’t wait to pair it with a grip for some shooting situations. This is both a pro and con though because for travel the smaller footprint is going to be really nice..
-Mine shipped with stuck pixels. Not a big issue if you’re just shooting photos because it’s easy to fix in post, but it really is an issue if you’re like me and are planning to use the camera for serious video projects as well. It’s a lot harder to fix in video post production than photo post production. I’m actually waiting to swap the body out for a new one right now.
-Video output is gorgeous when captured with a few add-ons. A simple shotgun mic, good LCD viewfinder, and some sort of stabilization turn this into a very capable video camera. Without add-ons and out of the box though, it’s still going to look like a home video - maybe an artsy one, but a home video nonetheless.
-The battery life out of the new battery type is really really good. Con: a spare battery now costs $100 :/
So yeah, there’s a quick ramble on my first impressions of the Nikon D7000. It’s a nice little camera that I’m going to get a lot of use out of. It really is an upgrade in every way from my D200 except, arguably, ergonomics. I was so used to my old camera that I was resistant to change at first but I’m starting to embrace it. :P
Anyone else shooting one of these yet?
