Three views: One...

This is not a review site – RagSnapper doesn’t do those, so there’s no test charts, MTF graphs or marks out of 10.

What this is, is my opinion that I’ve built up of some new bits of gear after using them in the field for work and for my own pictures. They are just that; my opinion based on the way I work and use them, so feel free to disagree if you’ve used these and come to a different conclusion…

First up, Nikon's D7000:

I’ve mentioned this in a few blogs previously, as I have one issued to me by work. The idea is that it lets the photographers begin shooting video for the website, so this is a pilot trial. The downside is, as it always has been since the idea was broached, that we’ve got no way of sending files of any size to the recipients. We only need VGA for the website, but because of the thought that we might pass on newsworthy footage to TV media, the material is shot at 1080p HD. Even a 10 second clip is 10mb+, so a handful of those can add up to 100mb. That needs an office to send them from, even then it won’t be quick and you’ve got to get to an office. At the moment, sending on the road is possible but only by resizing and compressing the original material using software (Apple’s iMovie or Quicktime X) that’s on MY laptop, not the company’s. So really, apart froma few test clips to see if it works, we are no further forward with video.

As a camera, I broadly like what I see off the sensor, but...

Nikon's D7000. Nice images, but not feeling the love...

More after the break

Noise-wise, it is better than the D300 by about a stop. ISO 1600 is nice, 3200 useable, where 3200 on the D300 is “OK if you really need to”. It was speculated by some pre-launch that this would somehow be a D3-beater, but take it from me, it’s not. It’s the best DX camera, but the D3/D700 sensor (let alone D3S) is still better. 

Unfortunately, the extra resolution barely shows, day to day. Yet it is causing problems in turn - OK, I'm not the steadiest of handholders as I've got older but I've found the extra acuity (16mp crammed onto a DX format sensor) and the lightness of the body, even with the vertical grip, means that I'm getting more slightly "soft" images through camera shake. I end up having to ramp up the shutter speed, which rather negates the better high ISO performance. I'm using my D3 a lot more lately because of the disappointment, and I'm not seeing the same problem at all....

Ultimately, it's the body itself that colours my view; it's well made and nice to just carry because of its size and weight, but in use away from a tripod, with heavy high-end lenses, it seems unbalanced and the bigger D300/D3 bodies damp out movement much better. It broadly operates as all current Nikons do, but shows its consumer roots as it cannot be set to replicate the D300/D3 bodies at the level of the custom functions (e.g. I have the thumb pad set when "clicked" to zoom into images on the rear lcd to check for sharpness. The D7000 cannot be set to do this - you get the EDIT menu instead!).  The metering also frustrates  - Nikon's Matrix metering is programmed to take note of the tones under the active AF sensor, but like consumer Nikons before, the D7000 assigns too much weight to this. The result is that exposure appears inconsistent, sometimes wildly so compared to the D300 and, particularly, the D3. In the end I went to centre-weighted, which rather defeats the object.


If you're coming to this body from, say the D3000/5000 end of the Nikon range, I would imagine you'll be doing cartwheels - it's a real step up from these (already decent) cameras. If you're thinking of getting one as an extra or backup body to a D300 or higher, or exchanging for one... Weeeell, you might just want to try it thoroughly first - it's not so clear-cut a choice.

Oh, well. Perhaps this sensor, with the high-end type of firmware programming, in the forthcoming "D400" body?

Next up: The Nikon 24 - 120mm f4G AFS