I was first introduced to SLR photography in the year 1997 when I brought my first SLR. The Nikon F70 (N70 in the US). Ever since i've been permanently learning the art of photography. The pace was feverish during my bachelor days and it slowed down post marriage. I could no longer be careless about burning cash on film and processing and had to tone down on experimenting.
It only improved my keeper rate. Year 2006 we had our first baby and it was time for photographs again. Like all new parents I ended up being trigger happy and ate several rolls of film in a matter of days. It started biting my wallet soon enough. It was then I decided to look at the option of DSLR. The signs were clear.
Soon, I found myself in possession of a spanking new Grey Market Nikon D50 SLR. It was on its sunset phase at that time and was not readily available in the market. But that was the only Nikon budget rig at that time. The D40 was still under the wraps. Thank god for the D50, I was able to use my old Nikon lenses (it was perhaps the only budget SLR that supported the screw drive lenses of the yore). The workhorse D50 quickly paid me back the capital and I was soon back to careless trigger happy ways.
Once the new parents syndrome subsided, I found myself yearning for my learning days now that I don't have to fear film and processing costs. I realized that in the years I had been away from serious learning the market had been transformed. Well, in short Scott Kelby and Strobist had arrived!
Another five years of blissful shooting, I learned so much that I was constantly hitting the boundaries of what my trusty five year old D50 could do.
I had been following the D7000 launch and been harbouring a secret lust for the gear since before its launch in Photokina '10. Soon I started reading review after review and analysis after analysis on how much of a difference the D7000 would make to my photography learning cruise. DXOmarks.com, image-resource.com, DPReview.com, Ken Rockwell and all others' inputs were assessed.
But the question still remained. Would it really make that big a difference? My main problem with the D50 was its high levels of noise in anything above ISO 200 which was really not helpful. So, the main question for me was, would it really make that big a difference?
After reassessing all the expert reviews, I finally put my money down for own and am a happy owner of a spanking new D7000 rig. Unfortunately, I could not get it in a body only configuration as they were short in supply. Also, the 35mm Dx F1.4 was strangely out of stock as well So, the kit lens does duty for now.
So, do I have my answer on worthiness. The short answer is a big resounding YES!
Here are the reasons why
High ISO noise
The camera really produces some jawdropping clean images at 3200 ISO! Imagine shooting a handheld image in a dim-lit restaurant at 1/30th of a sec at f 5.6 (kit lens) and the camera decides to choose 3200 ISO and its sharp and not to forget clean!
There , that single point has given me such a big level of happiness! I used to trash so many wasted pictures from flash less shots in my D50. D7000 has simply given me more options to select my keepers!
For now, I really don't care about higher ISOs as i believe 3200 pretty much covers my handheld shots more than adequately.
CLS System support
This is the second feature that made me smile the biggest. Earlier I had to rely on Cactus triggers and wire them up to my SB-600 with a complicated hot shoe,cold shoe setup and spend a good deal of time calibrating my manual flash levels. I don't have a studio and i mostly operate on my family for learning purposes. This means that the time spent on fiddling with the flashes fuels my subjects(family member(s)) impatience. With the d7000, i can just go TTL! I just make my D7000 flash the commander and setup my Sb600 in CLS mode and bam I'm good to go! I can remotely control my flash behavior by dialing in compensation without moving a foot! I can wrap in five minutes what I used to spend 30 minutes for! This feature is truly a boon for fast strobe work! The best thing is I don't need radio transmitters any longer! i'll probably have to invest in more expensive Speedlite systems in place of el-cheapo Yashica flashes. But I'll take the cost for the joy of going TTL! I can't believe I'm agreeing with Mr.McNally on this one. I've been on the strobist bandwagon for the last year or so!!! CLS has its own limitations. But thats for another day.
Customizability
The camera features a tremendous amount of customizability! I'm not sure if all the dxx00 series have similar levels of customizability as I come from d50. So, spare me If i'm sounding as if i've crawled out from under a rock. The camera has a plethora of buttons that first allow direct access to most important features. Want to change to spot metering ? We've got a button for that! If you want a one touch button for spot metering? you can customize a button for that! Would you like to change ISO with a dial instead of buttons? We can customize that! The list of customization options is almost endless to the point of tiring the user! But it ends up being of tremendous value to be able to change metering modes, ISO, exposure locks without taking our eyes away from the view finder! We can take quick decisions milliseconds before shooting! Coming from the d50, its akin to driving a Ferrari 458 after Ford Model T. It just blows you away!
I agree with folks that U1, U2 are a boon in customizing your settings. For instance, I turn off Auto ISO by default and in U1 I have a configuration for quick family portraits where i leave it at Auto ISO and narrow down the focus points and select Center weighted metering system and flash to off. I can fiddle all day in my A,M modes and when my nephew shows up for a quick pic, I don't have to fiddle with my camera to get it tuned for that shot. Just turn to U1 and am good to go!!!!
LCD
The larger LCD truly is helpful in checking for that small blurs that go unnoticeable in D50 LCD even when zoomed to 100%. So, it helps us quickly trash a pic and try out some alternatives. This is mostly helpful in identifying human errors (shakes)
Movie Mode!
Yippee! I don't have to carry my Handycam anywhere anymore! The movies that come out of the D7000 are very clean and truly 1080p! Nuf said. I'm not a movie expert. So, am not going to go into a long talk on that.
Live View
Can sometimes and the operative word is sometimes. Sometimes, the Live view is helpful. Here is a scenario. I was walking around the house yesterday to shoot something interesting and I found this sleepy cat perched on the wall that separates my house from my neighbors. It woke up to see me shooting it and It became wary. But after 20, 30 shots, It settled down a bit and I got bolder. I wanted a close up even with my 55-200 at its tele end. I had to get within a meter's distance without startling the cat. I turned the live view on, quietly slid the D7000 on the wall while the cat was watching my move. I slowly slid the camera up to as close as possible to get the cat in the full frame . Thanks to live view and face tracking focus, i was able to get it to focus while keeping the rig at arms length! I clicked and the cat obliged! Suprisingly it turned out to be one of my keepers. Its another matter that I cursed myself for having my 55-200 on with its long min. focusing distance. So, there you have it. Live view saving the day :)
I have deliberately left out a plethora of D7000 strong points as they have been discussed enough by various experts in the many URLs i've mentioned earlier. This post is about what mattered to me most in the D7000 coming from the D50. This is just an initial assessment. There is a lot of learning yet to be had.
I'm going to post some sample pics in part 2 of this comparing the two rigs.
It only improved my keeper rate. Year 2006 we had our first baby and it was time for photographs again. Like all new parents I ended up being trigger happy and ate several rolls of film in a matter of days. It started biting my wallet soon enough. It was then I decided to look at the option of DSLR. The signs were clear.
Soon, I found myself in possession of a spanking new Grey Market Nikon D50 SLR. It was on its sunset phase at that time and was not readily available in the market. But that was the only Nikon budget rig at that time. The D40 was still under the wraps. Thank god for the D50, I was able to use my old Nikon lenses (it was perhaps the only budget SLR that supported the screw drive lenses of the yore). The workhorse D50 quickly paid me back the capital and I was soon back to careless trigger happy ways.
Once the new parents syndrome subsided, I found myself yearning for my learning days now that I don't have to fear film and processing costs. I realized that in the years I had been away from serious learning the market had been transformed. Well, in short Scott Kelby and Strobist had arrived!
Another five years of blissful shooting, I learned so much that I was constantly hitting the boundaries of what my trusty five year old D50 could do.
I had been following the D7000 launch and been harbouring a secret lust for the gear since before its launch in Photokina '10. Soon I started reading review after review and analysis after analysis on how much of a difference the D7000 would make to my photography learning cruise. DXOmarks.com, image-resource.com, DPReview.com, Ken Rockwell and all others' inputs were assessed.
But the question still remained. Would it really make that big a difference? My main problem with the D50 was its high levels of noise in anything above ISO 200 which was really not helpful. So, the main question for me was, would it really make that big a difference?
After reassessing all the expert reviews, I finally put my money down for own and am a happy owner of a spanking new D7000 rig. Unfortunately, I could not get it in a body only configuration as they were short in supply. Also, the 35mm Dx F1.4 was strangely out of stock as well So, the kit lens does duty for now.
So, do I have my answer on worthiness. The short answer is a big resounding YES!
Here are the reasons why
High ISO noise
The camera really produces some jawdropping clean images at 3200 ISO! Imagine shooting a handheld image in a dim-lit restaurant at 1/30th of a sec at f 5.6 (kit lens) and the camera decides to choose 3200 ISO and its sharp and not to forget clean!
There , that single point has given me such a big level of happiness! I used to trash so many wasted pictures from flash less shots in my D50. D7000 has simply given me more options to select my keepers!
For now, I really don't care about higher ISOs as i believe 3200 pretty much covers my handheld shots more than adequately.
CLS System support
This is the second feature that made me smile the biggest. Earlier I had to rely on Cactus triggers and wire them up to my SB-600 with a complicated hot shoe,cold shoe setup and spend a good deal of time calibrating my manual flash levels. I don't have a studio and i mostly operate on my family for learning purposes. This means that the time spent on fiddling with the flashes fuels my subjects(family member(s)) impatience. With the d7000, i can just go TTL! I just make my D7000 flash the commander and setup my Sb600 in CLS mode and bam I'm good to go! I can remotely control my flash behavior by dialing in compensation without moving a foot! I can wrap in five minutes what I used to spend 30 minutes for! This feature is truly a boon for fast strobe work! The best thing is I don't need radio transmitters any longer! i'll probably have to invest in more expensive Speedlite systems in place of el-cheapo Yashica flashes. But I'll take the cost for the joy of going TTL! I can't believe I'm agreeing with Mr.McNally on this one. I've been on the strobist bandwagon for the last year or so!!! CLS has its own limitations. But thats for another day.
Customizability
The camera features a tremendous amount of customizability! I'm not sure if all the dxx00 series have similar levels of customizability as I come from d50. So, spare me If i'm sounding as if i've crawled out from under a rock. The camera has a plethora of buttons that first allow direct access to most important features. Want to change to spot metering ? We've got a button for that! If you want a one touch button for spot metering? you can customize a button for that! Would you like to change ISO with a dial instead of buttons? We can customize that! The list of customization options is almost endless to the point of tiring the user! But it ends up being of tremendous value to be able to change metering modes, ISO, exposure locks without taking our eyes away from the view finder! We can take quick decisions milliseconds before shooting! Coming from the d50, its akin to driving a Ferrari 458 after Ford Model T. It just blows you away!
I agree with folks that U1, U2 are a boon in customizing your settings. For instance, I turn off Auto ISO by default and in U1 I have a configuration for quick family portraits where i leave it at Auto ISO and narrow down the focus points and select Center weighted metering system and flash to off. I can fiddle all day in my A,M modes and when my nephew shows up for a quick pic, I don't have to fiddle with my camera to get it tuned for that shot. Just turn to U1 and am good to go!!!!
LCD
The larger LCD truly is helpful in checking for that small blurs that go unnoticeable in D50 LCD even when zoomed to 100%. So, it helps us quickly trash a pic and try out some alternatives. This is mostly helpful in identifying human errors (shakes)
Movie Mode!
Yippee! I don't have to carry my Handycam anywhere anymore! The movies that come out of the D7000 are very clean and truly 1080p! Nuf said. I'm not a movie expert. So, am not going to go into a long talk on that.
Live View
Can sometimes and the operative word is sometimes. Sometimes, the Live view is helpful. Here is a scenario. I was walking around the house yesterday to shoot something interesting and I found this sleepy cat perched on the wall that separates my house from my neighbors. It woke up to see me shooting it and It became wary. But after 20, 30 shots, It settled down a bit and I got bolder. I wanted a close up even with my 55-200 at its tele end. I had to get within a meter's distance without startling the cat. I turned the live view on, quietly slid the D7000 on the wall while the cat was watching my move. I slowly slid the camera up to as close as possible to get the cat in the full frame . Thanks to live view and face tracking focus, i was able to get it to focus while keeping the rig at arms length! I clicked and the cat obliged! Suprisingly it turned out to be one of my keepers. Its another matter that I cursed myself for having my 55-200 on with its long min. focusing distance. So, there you have it. Live view saving the day :)
I have deliberately left out a plethora of D7000 strong points as they have been discussed enough by various experts in the many URLs i've mentioned earlier. This post is about what mattered to me most in the D7000 coming from the D50. This is just an initial assessment. There is a lot of learning yet to be had.
I'm going to post some sample pics in part 2 of this comparing the two rigs.
