FTP: Should I get a D7000?

With the release of the newer Nikon D7100, the retail prices for a new D7000 has made the camera so much more affordable. On my first For the Pros (FTP) review, I will be sharing my thoughts on the D7000 on many, many things that had plagued my mind over the months. Would this fit the working pro?

Does the Nikon D7000 belongs in your bag? Should it be high time you abandon the DX line up? Where does the D7000 comes fits in? Read more on this “For the Pros” article.

Quick intro: The Nikon D7000 has a 16mp DX sensor. It shoots 6 frames per second. It is more than half the size of a Nikon D4 and is somewhat weatherproof. You can shoot 1080p with 24fps with it and it takes two SD card slots. It is supposed to be an enthusiast level dslr but has some pretty neat tricks that raises the eyebrows of working pros.

Weight: The Nikon D7000 is light, and makes for a pleasant change from lugging around a D3 body with a flash gun and a telephoto lens attached. But the disadvantages to the weight is found when I attach my 80-200mm AFS lens to it. But other shorter lenses like the 17-35mm and 14-24mm lenses makes the camera feel light-ish and fun to use. When I said fun to use, I meant that is feels like a toy that can be used for all seriousness also.

Ergonomics: The D7000 feels somewhat nice in the hands. I would say that the nicest cameras I’ve ever hold was a Canon 60D and 6D and the D7000 is no where near as nice if I’m honest. It did take a toll on me when I was shooting for just 3 hours with my old 80-200mm AFS lens. I previously used the D7000 with a battery grip and this does remedy the issue slightly. More on this later.

Image taken with the Nikon D7000 at ISO1600. Original unedited JPG file with noise reduction set to standard in camera and no other settings done to the image. Click for larger image.

At ISO 1600, the D7000 has a more botched watercolour effect while the D700 looks more like film grain, which looks nicer at 100%. Click for larger image.

ISO performance: The D7000 has some pretty decent ISO performance. I’ve also heard people saying that it can match and even beat a D700 in terms of ISO performance. In this picture it seems like they are pretty similar. However I would like to point out that the D7000 was shot with F4 which makes the image sharper, while the D700 was shot with an F2.8 which makes the image softer, and has more bokeh, being it an FX sensor so it looked pretty soft. So, the D7000 does look noisier than it should, and gets even worst at higher ISO. In addition, details start to have a more watercoloured effect on the D7000 than on the D700. So, does this actually bother me? In a way, it does when I start to shoot at higher ISOs. Here’s another image shot with the 5DM3 at ISO25,600. As you can see, I like shooting at high ISO. With the 1Dx I don’t even hesitate to use ISO51,200.

Image shot with the Canon 5D Mark 3 at ISO 25,600. Click on the image to see a slightly larger image, resized in Lightroom at 2 megapixels at 250dpi. The actual photo should look 10 times darker because the venue actually was actually only lit up by some stage lights and everyone else were in total darkness.

Buffer size: The buffer size is pretty decent, but I wouldn’t say it is groundbreakingly good. Using the Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s SD cards, I was able to shoot more or less 10 frames at full burst in RAW only before stopping to 1fps. Of course, it lasted longer when shooting JPG only. It seem to top after 15 or so JPG shots before going into 1fps mode again. Sometimes, for me, this CAN be somewhat of an annoyance and can also be a nuisance! The notion of what-ifs comes to mind during certain assignments. What if…the buffer ran out and all my photos were photos of VVIPs in an awkward blink? What if…I was shooting a wedding and the buffer ran out while a precious little moment/expression is happening right in front of my lens? Don’t get me wrong, the D7000 buffer is quite adequate. But because I own and use other dslrs with much better buffer than the D7000, I would only use the D7000 as a primary camera strictly for gigs that aren’t at high stake. Also, I tend to shoot RAW + JPG more often than not. Only when the stakes are high do I shoot JPGs only.

Bokeh: Doesn’t look anywhere as good as an FX camera. Bokeh looks messier, depth of field doesn’t look as pleasant or as smooth. No contest. Want Bokeh? The sweet spot is in FX cameras. For me, DX too little. Medium formats too much. FX, just nice.

Battery life: Very good indeed. Took a whole dinner with approximately 800 pictures and a couple of video clips. Battery warning lights are up but I could still take a few hundred shots afterwards.

Video: Very good indeed. Love it lots. Smaller compressed files compare to the 5DM3, but it works fine to me. In fact, it is more than enough for me. But for serious documenting such as speeches and stuff, something like the Sony VG30 is more like it. But it’s pretty close already. Good job Nikon. Settings were a bit confusing at first and you NEED to set the video frame rate in the MENU instead of directly in the LCD. Other than that, just peachy. Not a big deal because I shoot more at 1080p at 24fps anyway. Also you can plug in an external mic.

Focus system: I like the 39 AF points because its just nice. 51 AF points is also good. But 61 AF points is just being too much. Also, this being a DX camera, it isn’t like a FX camera where all the focus points are all cluttered at the center of the frame. The 39 AF points on the D7000 is quite close from corner to corner, which can come in handy when you need it.

Focus accuracy: I wish I could say something nice about this but…no. I can’t. While focus speed is fast and all, I can’t help but be frustrated by how often you get back focused shots! While it may not be visible at the 3 inch LCD screen, but it certainly is when you look at it in a screen as small as an iPad. Big issues here: A friend of mine bought the first batch of D7000 that came to shore and had this issue. Another friend had this issue with his D7000 too and found out when he was playing around with his brand spanking new 24-70mm. Another guy whom I sold my old Tokina 11-16mm had this problem with his D7000 too. And now, after years of release and this D7000 I am reviewing, one of the newest batch of D7000, still had the same issue. That’s 4 different D7000s at 4 different time of the D7000’s production life.

VERDICT:

If you are looking to stick to DX and want pro features, great image quality and videos, and the stakes aren’t as high? Sure, why not? If you are looking for a B angle video camera this camera does the job well too. But, if you need better performance at higher ISO, and the stakes are high, and you want to have piece of mind especially when it comes to buffer size and focus accuracy, the D7000 is hardly a camera for the pro.