So I have had the D7000 for about a day and have not had a real shoot with it yet (I do have a Christmas party tonight and tomorrow night at Joe T’s though so we will give it a real test in low light), but I must say that initial test prove to be nothing short of astonishing. I really hope that I am not jumping all in too fast but here is what I have found so far to be true… and remember that I have probably shot all the Nikons but the D3 and above (the D700 has the same censor) and most of the Canons including the 5d MarkII.

First a complaint- As with any brand new camera, there is not much out right now that supports it (I am now patiently waiting for an Adobe Lightroom update so that I can continue to shoot RAW). So for now I am a Jpeg man until the updates.

Now on to bigger and better things, just some highlights until I can get some real shoots under its belt. Without even turning on the camera you can tell that this camera is trying to separate itself from the D90 family and lower (soccer moms with an extra $1500 that want this camera because you hear it is great better sign up for one of my classes because this camera is way out of your league, no offense.) At a quick glance there is only one auto feature, auto. There is not runner man for sports or face icon for portraits. These options are there, but not in a quick auto mode, you have to dig into the menus to find them. Your choices are A,S,M,P, and auto… glorious simplification like the D300 and higher Nikons have.

There are 2 SD card slots. If you are a pro or just need tons of storage without buying a 32gb card this is a big deal. You can set these cards to back up mode or once one fills ups it goes to another. I have never had a card fail on me (knock on wood), but mine will always be on backup mode, I may sleep better tonight because of this feature alone:) If you are Nikon user now, then you will be able to find your way around the menus incredibly easy. I really like how they have kept this consistent (look and feel wise).

Now for the two things that have just blown me away with as little as I have used this camera… High ISO noise reduction and the sharpness of the auto-focus. First the high ISO noise reduction. Before I start just a mention of what ISO is (if you know you can skip this part:). ISO is how sensitive your cameras sensor or film (yes I said the “f” word) is to light. The higher the number the more sensitive which allows you to shoot at faster shutter speeds and/or higher f/stops. The tradeoff has always been the higher the ISO number the more noise you have in your pictures, until now that is… within reason. With the couple of test shots I have taken, I have shot at 100 ISO and 1000 ISO. On other cameras that I have used 400 was still considered very good in most cases but quickly fell into the unacceptable category, other than being the only way to get a shot i.e. at a low lit wedding without a flash, 640 and higher was never OK. I have to say that first impressions are that 1000 ISO is still in the good/very good category of acceptable noise (I will still shoot as low as I can, but now if needed I do not feel bad going that high and maybe higher!!! I will be able to tell for sure tonight at an outside Xmas party).

The next is the sharpness of the auto focus. The ironic thing about professional lenses are that typically when you get to 2.8 on your zooms or 1.4 on your primes (which is why we pay the big bucks for that extra light), the focus gets soft, very very soft. So far I have never seen as sharp of pictures come out of my Nikon 50 1.4d or my Sigma 24-70 2.8 HSM, and very snappy. I was honestly considering getting rid of my 50mm because it was so soft at 2.8 and below, but now it deserves another chance:) I am sure there will be more to come after tonight’s shoot which will be a mixture of formals and candid’s with a mix of flash and ambient lighting, so check back often if you are curious. Check out the sample pictures posted below. Remember that I have this shot is here in the office at the studio with crappy window light. The first two are the same untouched jpeg (one VERY zoomed in) and the next is after using some NIK filters on it. The camera settings are at f/2.8 @ 1/100 @ 1000 ISO.

Please feel free to leave your comments and questions, I am a camera nerd.

Origional

Way Cropped

NIK Filters Applied