So, you wanted to know about Nikon D7000?

Started Jan 7, 2012 | Discussions thread
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So, you wanted to know about Nikon D7000?
Jan 7, 2012

I saw few people here mention how Nikon D7k was a much better value/choice than the E-5 and how E-5 was very overpriced in comparison.

Today, I had an opportunity to use it for a while and to get some insight from it's owner.

I won't be talking about the sensor here, because it's been done to death, but about how it works in real life as far as the operation and ergonomics go.

First thing I noticed is that it's grip is a lot worse than the one on the E-5.

There's not enough "clearance" between the grip and the lens for my hand to be comfortable (and I have average sized hands). The owner is quite unhappy with that as well.

Grip material is also quite "plasticky", not soft and grippy like the one on E-5 (or higher end Nikons).

He's got Tamron 17-50mm VC attached which has that annoying focus ring which moves around as it focuses, but that lens is one of the most popular choice in Canikon APS cameras since it's a lot cheaper than CaNikon f2.8 zooms while being equally good optically.

He was quite unhappy with the bracketing too, allowing only 2 or 3 frames.

The LCD got dust behind it as well.

I wondered about autofocus performance, so we attached a friend's Sigma 70-200mm OS HSM and tried shooting a friend moving towards me in relatively dim light (ISO1000, f2.8, 1/50s conditions).

AF-C performed quite poorly racking through the range quite a bit (I only used single center AF point).
AF was generally unimpressive as it failed to lock focus through the glass.

It's not the lens issue as that lens performs rather well on a D300 and my other friend got Canon version which works well on a 5Dmk2 and 60D.

Viewfinder is similar to Nikon D300 in layout type, not really bigger than the one on the E-5, it's less bright than the E-5's.

The pictures we were getting indoors were generally very saturated and with strong yellow cast as AWB was doing a very poor job of it, E-5 was much, but really - much better.

I liked the shutter sound (as all/most Nikons - it's nicely damped).

A lot of functions need completely strange ways of operating them, for instance changing between focus groups or switching from AF-S to AF-C takes way too many button pushes.

As far the size and weight goes, yes it might be slighly smaller and lighter than the E-5, but it doesn't feel like that at all thanks to a poor grip making it feel cumbersome and not easy to handle at all.

While I only need 1 hand to operate 99% functions on my E-5, on D7k you need both hands for most things.

Overall, I was quite disapointed, I had used D300 and D700 before (which I think are quite good), but D7k feels like low end camera in comparison (despite partially metal build).

Canon EOS 5D Canon EOS 60D Nikon D300 Nikon D700 Nikon D7000 Olympus E-5
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