Print

Nikon D7000

Written by Will Cheung. TPL_WARP_POSTED_IN Cameras

Page 1 of 3


For the price conscious there are models like the D3100 and D5000, while at the top-end the D700 and D3s have the performance to please the most critical users. Add models such as the D90 and D300s and you can appreciate that the company’s range is a formidable one.


Its lineup has recently been bolstered by the arrival of the D7000, a DSLR with a guide price of £1100 body only. However, you don’t have to shop around too hard to find it at £999 body only.


At this price level, you would expect a camera rich with features and the D7000 is certainly no disappointment in this regard. Interestingly, one of its competitors is Nikon’s own D300s that you can also find at £999 body only. However, in terms of specification, apart from a few features the D7000 has a better set of statistics including a higher resolution.


Its main features include an APS-C-sized sensor with a resolution of 16.2-megapixels, a 39-point AF system, twin SD slots and an ISO performance of 6400 expandable to 25,600. And that’s just the start of it. Add a viewfinder with 100 per cent coverage, six fps shooting speed, robust with environmental seals and a full HD D-movie function, and you have a camera with an impressive features list.


Long and competitive the D7000’s features list might be, but it is also true that there is no single stand out feature. Close rival Canon EOS 60D has a similar feature set, but also has a vari-angle monitor that gives it an extra appeal.


Anyway, enough of the preamble: let’s get on with the review.

The Nikon D7000 on exposure

Consistency is the first word that immediately came to my mind when I looked through the Lightroom catalogue created with my D7000 test images. I had adopted my usual process when trying a new camera and left it in its multi-zone metering mode and mostly used program and aperture-priority AE settings. Looking through the many images (JPEGs and Raws), taken in all sorts of lighting and weather conditions, I had a job spotting any obvious, terminal failures. I found a few instances where a dominant dark subject, a tree for example, caused the Matrix system to overexpose the edges of the image – all TTL meters would probably do the same – but this was only slight, say about 0.5EV.


Shooting into the light caused a few minor problems too, but nothing too serious and often even the JPEGs could be corrected to give more acceptable shadows.


Unusually I seemed to have more underexposure issues with comparatively low contrast high contrast situations, if that makes any sense. Put another way, shooting towards a full sun was less of a headache that shooting towards a bright cloudy sky.


In summary, the D7000 produced a fine set of well exposed images and it didn’t appear to be too fazed by awkward lighting situation. Its success rate seemed very high so an impressive performance from the 2016-pixel RGB metering sensor and the camera’s Scene Recognition System.