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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Nikon D7000 One Month Review



I've been shooting the Nikon D7000 for a month now. Everything from weddings to portraits, landscapes to wildlife, macro, and walk-abouts, so I thought it was time to post a D7000 One Month Review.

Here's my thoughts and observations on the D7000 after shooting it for a month.

Video is awesome. The 1080HD video on the D7000 is top notch. I thought I might miss the 30fps and 60i settings that my Canon T2i 550D has, but I don't. The 24fps 1080HD setting on the Nikon D7000 is great.

The D7000's LiveView switch is killer! I love it! So much so that when I was switching between T2i and the D7000 to shoot video, I found myself really missing the D7000 switch when using the T2i. It's just so convenient and easy to use. One of those things that just works great, and once you start using it, you don't want to be without it.

The D7000 video quality is excellent. I've found it to be even better than the video from the T2i (and by inference the Canon 60D and Canon 7D which all have the same video quality). The D7000 video has greater dynamic range than the Canon video and doesn't bunch up the blacks the way the Canons tend to.

The D7000 video is so good that I've since sold my Canon T2i. I'd originally bought the T2i solely for video use, and I was very pleased with it. The D7000 is just that little bit better, and I found I no longer needed the T2i.

Photo image quality on the Nikon D7000 is superb. The extra 4 megapixels on the new 16 megapixel sensor are great. The extra resolution translates into finer detail, more ability to crop tighter, and a better file over-all. The beauty is that it comes at no loss of image quality.

The D7000 high ISO is excellent. The D7000 is now the TOP crop sensor DSLR for high ISO image quality. It beats the Nikon D300s, the Nikon D90, the Canon T2i, the Canon 60D, the Canon 7D, the Pentax K5, and all the Sony DSLR's for high ISO image quality. Check out the rankings at www.DXOMark.com.

My observations are that my D7000 is within a stop to a stop and a half of my Nikon D700 for high ISO image quality. Simply incredible for a DX sensor with 16 megapixels!

Color is beautiful on the D7000. It renders accurate, pleasing tones.

White balance is the best I've seen of any Nikon DSLR to date. Auto white balance works great, and the colors are pleasing.

Focus is fast and accurate. The D7000 locks on quickly and is super sharp. From my observations, the D7000's auto focus is on par with my Nikon D700. The new 39 point auto focus system delivers in spades.

After shooting with the Nikon D7000 for a month, I'm VERY impressed. It delivers on everything it promised and then some.

In fact, the D7000 is SO GOOD that I'm considering selling my Nikon D700 and adding a 2nd D7000 so that I'm shooting with a pair of D7000 bodies. For those of you that know how good the D700 is, that's high praise for the D7000.

I give the Nikon D7000 a hearty 2 Thumbs Up for the D7000 One Month Review. Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted as I continue to put the D7000 through it's paces.

Related posts...

Nikon D7000 vs Nikon D700 High ISO Shoot-Out

Nikon D7000 Unboxed Video

Nikon D7000 - The New Crop Sensor DSLR King!

Is the Nikon D7000 replacing the Nikon D300s / D400?

Nikon D7000 Spec Rundown

3 comments:

Cindi said...

Hi ~ thanks so much for your great site and for the informative posts about the Nikon D7000. I have one question. I watched a few CNet reviews of the Nikon DSLRs and they suggest that the 7000 is not the best choice for someone's first DSLR. Do you agree with this? This will be my first DSLR, but I had felt that I'd rather grow into something than quickly grow out of it. That said - saving money would be great too. Was hoping you might have some feedback. Thanks!

Jason said...

Informative video. Thanks!

Unknown said...

@Cindi - No, couldn't disagree more. The D7000 gives you plenty of room to grow into, while still being a great camera to learn on. If you can afford it over, say, the Nikon D3100, go for it!