Nikon D7000 16.2MP DX-Format CMOS Digital SLR with 3.0-Inch LCD and 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR ED Nikkor Lens
by
Nikon
List Price:$1,499.95
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Technical Details
Style: With 18-105mm Lens
- High Resolution 16.2 MP DX-format CMOS sensor
- High Speed 6 frames per second continuous shooting up to 100 shots
- Breathtaking Full 1080p HD Movies with Full Time Autofocus
- Dynamic ISO range from 100 to 6400
- Ground-breaking 2,016-pixel RGB (3D Color Matrix) exposure sensor
Nikon has released the D7000 mid-level digital SLR. Housed in a magnesium alloy body, the feature-rich camera incorporates a 16.2Mp CMOS sensor, faster 'Expeed 2'-branded processor, 921k dot 3.0" LCD and can record 1080p full HD movies. It features the company's latest 39-point AF system with 3D tracking and 2,016 pixel RGB metering sensor. It will start shipping with the 18-105mm VR kit lens from October 2010 at a retail price of $1499.95. We've had a pre-production D7000 in the office for long enough for us to prepare an full hands-on preview looking at the camera, its features and where it'll sit in the range.
Product Description
Style: With 18-105mm Lens
From the Manufacturer
Meet the new Nikon D7000, a camera ready to go wherever your photography or cinematography takes you. Experience stunning images with sharp resolution and smooth tonal gradation, thanks to the 16-megapixel DX-format CMOS image sensor and a powerful EXPEED 2 image processing engine. Take advantage of its wide ISO range of 100 to 6400 (expandable to 25,600) and its incredibly low levels of noise. Expect your images tack-sharp and accurately exposed, thanks to the camera’s 39-point AF and Scene Recognition System using a 2,016-pixel RGB matrix metering sensor. And with an approx. 0.052-second release time lag and approx. 6 frames-per-second shooting, you won’t miss a moment.
You’ll see exactly what you’re capturing with the approx. 100% frame coverage viewfinder, and for those who want to shoot both stills and movies, the D7000’s D-Movie capabilities now include Full HD 1080p capture with full-time autofocus and manual exposure. All of this advanced imaging technology is kept safe beneath the magnesium alloy covering the top and rear chassis of a compact body, whose sealing has been severely tested against moisture and dust. The D7000 is ready to shoot indoors and out, and at 150,000 cycles tested, the camera’s durable shutter unit helps you keep shooting. Combine all this with the unmatched NIKKOR lens lineup and Creative Lighting System and you have everything you need to explore your imagination to its fullest. Where can creative freedom like this take you? Find out, with the D7000.
Improved quality in highlight and shadow: Active D-Lighting
Nikon’s exclusive Active D-Lighting offers the ability to preserve details in the highlights and shadowy areas of images shot in high-contrast scenes.
Whether you’re dealing with bright skies and a dark foreground or deep shadows where you can’t use a flash, the EXPEED 2 image processing engine renders those scenes with smoother tones — even at its highest settings. Simply select Auto in Active D-Lighting mode and the camera can adjust to the scene’s contrast levels or bracket them into three frames of varying strength levels. Even when Active D-Lighting is activated, you can still maintain the continuous shooting rate.
Now even more precise: The Scene Recognition System
The D7000 incorporates a built-in exposure-metering sensor with a far larger pixel count than any other D-SLR camera before it. The 2,016-pixel RGB sensor reads the scene’s brightness and colors more accurately, and then applies this reading to optimize not only exposure, but also autofocus, white balance and i-TTL flash calculations — all in mere milliseconds prior to the actual exposure. With more pixels, the D7000 can recognize even smaller subjects — both moving and stationary. The newly improved Scene Recognition System delivers better photographs in every way.
Wide-area coverage, powerful 39-point AF
The D7000’s strategically positioned 39 AF points cover a significantly wide area of the frame, giving you flexible compositional possibilities. The nine AF points in the center utilize powerful cross-type sensors — especially useful when you need tack-sharp focus such as with portraits and macro work. And unlike other manufacturers’ systems, the D7000’s nine cross-type sensors work with all AF NIKKOR lenses f/5.6 or faster. The D7000 offers a variety of AF area modes, including dynamic-area AF using 9, 21, 39 points. Switch between the three, depending on the predictability of your subjects’ movement, and the selected AF point and surrounding points will track your intended subject automatically.
There is also 3D tracking, which continuously follows moving subjects within the 39 AF points, indicating the activated AF point in the viewfinder. Utilizing Nikon’s Scene Recognition System, Auto-area AF properly judges the main subject within 39 AF points and focuses on it. Therefore, no matter what the situation or composition calls for, the D7000’s autofocus system will be ready to meet your focus needs.
39-point AF & 2,016-pixel RGB sensor
Stay focused on what matters most.
Sophisticated AE with highlight analysis
After the incredibly accurate 2016-pixel RGB sensor reads a scene’s lighting information such as brightness and colors, the D7000 cross-references what it sees with imaging data from 30,000 real-world shooting situations. This way, the renowned 3D Color Matrix Metering II delivers exposure results that are faithful to how you see light and shadow interplay, even in difficult lighting situations. This intelligent metering technique also delivers exceptionally accurate i-TTL flash exposures, and it all happens within milliseconds for both speed and precision.
Informed auto white balance (AWB)
Based on its massive collection of shooting data compiled from various light sources, the D7000’s intelligent AWB algorithm renders white as truly white — even when shot under a wide range of light sources, including the difficult mercury vapor lighting. The D7000 also carries another AWB mode that maintains incandescent warmth in your images.
Contrast AF for live view and D-Movie
Live View and D-Movie users can rejoice, because with the D7000, face-priority AF is now faster and more powerful than ever. Up to 35 people can be. For moving subjects such as pets, subject-tracking AF keeps them in focus. Normal-area AF is recommended for pinpoint focus and wide-area AF for handheld shooting. All are effective both for Live View shooting and movie recording.
6 Frames Per Second Shooting up to 100 Images
Say farewell to missed opportunities. The D7000 incorporates a new driving mechanism to conduct its remarkably fast and precise mirror movements, giving you an approx. 0.052 second release time lag and an approx. 0.13 second start-up time. What’s more, you can continuously shoot at approx. 6 frames per second at both 14-bit and 12-bit A/D conversion for RAW shooting.
Rugged and protected: compact magnesium alloy body and sealing against dust and moisture
With a top and rear cover of durable magnesium alloy, the D7000 is ready for the outdoors. Nikon engineers paid meticulous attention to where exterior parts join by employing durable sealing against moisture and dust. The compact body has also undergone severe environmental tests to prove its rugged reliability.
Approx. 100% frame coverage viewfinder
With approximately 100% frame coverage in the viewfinder, what you see is what you exactly capture. The specially coated glass pentagonal prism and precision-crafted finder screen offer not only a bright viewfinder image, but also enable you to easily confirm when a subject is in focus.
Precision and durability: 150,000 cycles tested shutter unit
The D7000 has a shutter speed range of 1/8000 to 30 seconds, with a top flash synchronization speed of 1/250 second. And just like with professional models, the shutter unit is tested for 150,000 cycles in severe conditions, proving precision and durability.
Intuitive operation: strategically located dials, buttons and switches
Each and every control on the D7000 has been strategically placed for streamlined operation. The exposure mode dial and release mode dial are stacked on the same axis for easier access. Two new user settings can be assigned to the exposure mode dial. The release mode dial now offers a quiet shutter release mode for near-silent operation and one-touch Live View and movie recording are now possible, thanks to a newly designed switch and button structure.
921k-dots, 170-degree viewing angle, 3-inch LCD monitor
The D7000 features an expansive 3-inch VGA LCD monitor with reinforced glass. Its approx. 921k-dot resolution assures clear, detailed display of images, which proves invaluable when confirming focus or assessing image sharpness. The wide 170° viewing angle and bright display make it easy to review images or confirm menu settings when shooting outdoors.
Electronic Virtual Horizon
Especially useful for landscape shooting, the virtual horizon indicated in the LCD lets you know when the camera is level. The virtual horizon can also be displayed during Live View shooting.
Twin SD card slots (cards not included)
Two memory card slots offer a number of advantages: sequential recording; recording the same images simultaneously on two cards; recording RAW and JPEG separately onto two different cards; and duplicating images from one card to another. It’s also possible to designate a specific card with more memory for use at the time of movie recording.
Intelligent power management
After carefully scrutinizing every aspect of the camera’s circuitry, Nikon engineers have designed the D7000 for maximum performance with minimized power usage. With the newly designed Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL15, 1,050 frames* can be taken on a single charge.
*With EN-EL15, based on CIPA standards.
Nikon Creative Lighting System
The D7000 has a built-in pop-up flash that covers a 16mm lens perspective without vignetting. The flash is fully compatible with the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) and delivers well-balanced flash exposures thanks to the innovative i-TTL flash control. The built-in flash also offers Commander mode to trigger remote flash units when using Advanced Wireless Lighting. The dual advantages for i-TTL technology and wireless capability make sophisticated remote flash control simple and inspiring. One simple remote flash from the side using the SB-900, SB-700 or SB-600 creates more texture, dimension and mood in ways that available light cannot. For more sophisticated creative effects, the small and intelligent SB-700 has been designed to make the control of remote multiple flashes even easier.
Picture Control: Portrait
You can transform the look of an image simply by selecting from the camera’s Picture Control menu. Choose from the following settings: Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Landscape, and Portrait. You can even adjust parameters such as sharpness and saturation and then save them as Custom Picture Controls.
Optional Multi-Power Battery Pack MB-D11
The dedicated battery pack MB-D11 ensures longer battery power. You can expect more than 2,010 shots*. The MB-D11 is equipped with a shutter release button, command dials and a multi-selector useful for vertical composition shooting. It also provides better camera balance when a long telephoto lens is used.
*With two EN-EL15 (one in camera and one in MB-D11), based on CIPA standards
ViewNX 2 — Your imaging toolbox
Browse and organize images easily and efficiently with ViewNX 2. This bundled, all-in-one software helps you view, edit, store, and share both photos and movies. Attach labels to your images for simpler searching and browsing, or choose from an array of editing functions such as resize, crop, rotate, straighten and auto red-eye correction. You can even delete scenes from movies taken with your D7000. ViewNX 2 also works effortlessly with Nikon’s photo-sharing website, my Picturetown, making uploading and viewing your images more enjoyable than ever.
Product Description
Nikon D7000 16.2MP DX-Format CMOS Digital SLR with 3.0-Inch LCD and 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR ED Nikkor Lens
Great Camera -- A perspective from a D300/700 Owner,October 24, 2010
By
B. Fuller (United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Nikon D7000 16.2MP DX-Format CMOS Digital SLR with 3.0-Inch LCD and 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR ED Nikkor Lens (Electronics)
This is very simple, if you are a Nikon shooter looking for a new camera then stop reading and buy this camera. It's that good.
Handling
This camera is brilliant to hold and use. Nikon has done it again and has made the user interface more usable and streamlined. What to change flash modes. Press the flash pop-up button and rotate the control wheel. Sweet. Want to change create and use a User defined mode? There are two. Set your mode up. Go to the menu and save it. To use it rotate the shooting mode dial to U1 or U2. Presto you are there. In the D300 and D700 you to have to setup things in the menu and switch in the menu. Also, there were 2 sets of things you could change and they were not all inclusive. It was all horribly confusing and I never used it. Speaking of shooting modes. There is now one position on the shooting mode dial for scene mode shooting. You change through the different scene modes with the control wheel and the type scene shows up on the back screen. Sweet. I can go on and on but needless to say Nikon have really improved their interface. One caveat, I don't think it is quite up to par with the GH1 to change exposure compensation (IMO the most important control) but still a huge step in the correct direction in handling. I like the handling of the D7000 better than either the D700/300.
Low Light Shooting
The D300 wasn't that great for Hi ISO. It shoots clean at 400 ISO and usable up to 1600. (The D90 and D300s were better) The D700 was fantastic. Clean at 1600 ISO and usable up to 6400. It opened up new worlds. The D7000 is close to the equal of the D700. Enough said. Just to give you an example. The bouquet toss at a reception is often done in poor light. By using 1600 instead of 400 you get the equivalent of 4 times more light. At ISO400 you flash may need to use 1/4 power and you can get 1 maybe 2 shots of the toss and catch before the flash needs to recharge. At ISO1600 your flash would only need to use 1/16th power and now you can get 5-6 shots. This is huge.
Picture Quality
Like all modern DSLRs it takes great pictures. I don't pixel peep so I can't really say that I notice a difference between the pictures from the D7000 and any of my 12mp cameras. It makes really nice pictures and that is all I care about.
Useful Photography Features (Not Marketing Features)
--100% view finder! Big bright with 100% coverage. No more guessing of your framing. (It is not as bright as the D700. However, it is 100% vice 95%)
--2 SD slots - When your getting paid to shoot a wedding or any gig, my card broke is not an excuse. Very useful feature. For the home user put two smaller cards rather than one big card and save some money.
--Smaller and lighter than D300, D700, D3s, D3x- When you stand on your feet for 9 hours shooting the wedding and reception, you start to feel every ounce you are carrying. Often you will be carrying two bodies with a fast tele zoom and fast wide zoom. That starts to get heavy. Light weight here we come.
--2016-Segment RGB Meter- for spot on exposure and white balance--No one touches Nikon on this and this one is fantastic.
--1/8000th -- Very useful for shooting into the sun wide open with a bright lens
--1/250 -- Could be better (1/500th for D40) but could be much worse. Auto FP helps.
--Magnesium body and better sealing -- Shoot in dusty environments without messing up the inside your camera.
--Uses the ML-L3 infra red remote -- Small and cheap. IR sensor on the front and back of the camera.
--Autofocus focus motor for non-AF-S lenses
Marketing Features that will sometimes be Useful
--16Mp -- Nikon was obviously getting creamed in the marketing wars on this. This is going to lead to bigger files requiring larger hard drives and faster computers. Occasionally it will be useful if you can't frame as close as you would like and you need to crop or you need to print big. Alien Skin Blow Up 2, Image Resizing Plug-in Software for Photoshop, Macintosh & Windows and Genuine Fractals 6 Professional Edition 1-user Full are two very nice programs that can increase the size of your photos for printing large. 16 MP is nice by not necessary.
--39 Point Auto Focus -- To me in some ways this is better than the 51 point of the D300 and D700 as that gets too unwieldy. However, you really don't even need 39. However, still useful on occasion.
--6 frames per second-- I very rarely ever put my camera in 3 frames per second. When I do so it fills the card quickly. If you are shooting the big game then 6 is nice. Or it is nice for some cool special effects shots. Other than that you won't really find yourself using it that much.
Video
The other thing I am not really going to dwell on is the video capabilities. In my opinion all the various video options are mostly marketing hype really targeted at a niche market. Shallow depth of field video is difficult and time consuming to shoot and edit properly. The average family home user has neither the time nor inclination to do this. With that said, it is nice to only have to carry one device to take still pictures and video. So I do enjoy that feature, however 1080 is not really necessary. In fact with up converting DVD players standard def is still very usable and takes up far less space. Suffice it to say that the video capabilities are very good and should do anything a home user would need it to do. Can be used for pro Videos as demonstrated by Chase Jarvis.
Intangibles
This is a very nice camera and it feels very solid in your hands. It feels far more substantial than the D40/D90 without feeling like a brick the way the D300/D700 do. I am sure the D300 has more marketing features than the D7000 but I would have to research them to figure out what they are. As for the lens, I am not really that hot on this lens. It will do fine but the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S ED VR II Telephoto Zoom Lens for Nikon DX-Format Digital SLR Cameras is far more useful. Also, you can buy the Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens and Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR [Vibration Reduction] Zoom Nikkor Lens for about the same price as the difference between this and the body only.
Conclusion
In the end it all comes down to what is important to you. Smaller weight and size is becoming much more important to me and this camera is a very good trade off of features for size and weight. Anything that is missing I don't even use so I am not sure what it may be. My D700 was recently stolen and while I miss it, the D7000 is a worthy replacement for it. I opted to get the D7000 and Panasonic GH2 and save the $300 difference for a lens.
Pros
--100% view finder!
--6 fps (7D is 8. However, I think this number is overhyped in most cases. Even shooting at 3 FPS will fill up you card with photos that look remarkably similar) 8+ is needed for professionals shooting professional sports. Not enthusiast shooting High School etc.
--16mp sensor (a marketing increase but still nice to allow some room for cropping)
--14 bit photos
--39 point auto focus sensors (19 cross point) this is a bit of a marketing thing but it is still nice and it does not matter about the 51 on D300s and above. Still very nice.
--2016 scene meter - compares against data base for WB setting and color settings
--Excellent battery life
--MD-11 Optional Battery Grip
--2 SD card slots for back up redundancy or double the card space! Outstanding
--Magnesium used to make camera stronger
Cons
--16mp senor (takes up more storage on your hard drive) (12mp JPG 3mb 12 mp RAW = 12 mb 16mp JPEG = 5 mb 16 mp RAW = 16 mb. This is for 12 bit. 14 bit would require more)
--Camera heavier than it used to be
--No swivel screen - after using the GH1 extensively you really miss this when shooting at weird angles. You especially miss it for macro photography.
--No full time live view - Ditto from above. Live view is what you see is what you get. Forgot to change white balance-- you will see that when people are yellow, blue or green. Have it set in manual and blowing everything out-- you'll see that as a white screen.
Decision Matrix
Nikon
For the Nikon shooter this is a no brainer. If you are in the market for a camera, then skip the D300s. The D700 is getting long in the tooth and many people are buying the D7000 while waiting for D800. If you already own a D700 then this camera is a very good complement to it. Use the money you saved over the more expensive camera to buy a nice lens.
Here is a breakdown vs other Nikon DSLRs
D3100-- Two completely different classes with the D7000 being worth the difference in many. However at the end of the day they will both make nice pictures. Also, the lenses are more important than the camera. You can get the D3100 and 18-200mm for the same price. Something to think about.
D5000-- Good sensor and nice camera. D3100 comments also apply here.
D90--Tough choice. The best DX sensor of its generation and still better than most. If you can't quite stretch to the D7000, this is a very tempting proposition.
D300S-- Irrelevant. The D7000 has a much better sensor, is smaller, lighter, cheaper, and better metering.
Nikon D700-- Would be a good complement to the D7000. Use D7000 when you need the 1.5x crop on the long end and a deeper depth of field due to... Read more ›
