Nikon's hot new video-shooting D7000 is – on paper - a replacement for the D90. In reality, it puts pretty much every other Nikon crop-frame SLR to shame, and will sit bang in-between the still strong D90 and the top-end D300s.
To show you just how good this $1,200 camera is, let's compare it to Nikon's flagship APS-sensor model, the $1,500 D300s. I'll put the more expensive camera's specs in brackets. The D700 has 16.2 megapixels (12.3), shoots at up to ISO 6400 (3200) in regular mode, captures 1080p video (720p) at 24fps. More surprisingly, both have magnesium alloy bodies and 100% coverage in the viewfinder (both pentaprisms, not dimmer mirrors). The D7000 even beats the D300s with its exposure-meter, using a 2016-pixel sensor (1005 pixels).
In fact, the only places the D300s clearly wins are in autofocus, with 51 focus points against "just" 39, and memory card format. The D7000 has a pair of SD slots, and the D300s uses the faster and harder-to-lose Compact Flash.
So how does it perform? Handsome, bestubbled photographer and friend of Gadget Lab Chase Jarvis has had a bagful of D7000s for a few months now, and Nikon gave him a another bag full of cash to shoot a movie. The results are pretty great, as you can see for yourself:
Chase actually strapped one of the cameras to a toy, remote-control helicopter to get some of the shots (without telling Nikon, of course), which shows another advantage of the D7000: at just 1.7-pounds (780g) it is smaller and lighter than the 2.2-pound (918g) D300, and almost identical to the D90.
This camera shows us one other thing: that competition is good. Nikon and Canon are locked into a battle that keeps producing more and more amazing kit. Nikon's D3 took high-ISO shooting to a whole new level, while Canon was concentrating on cameras that shoot great video. Now, both manufacturers are catching up to each other, and we have this new D7000 and Canon's fantastic EOS 550D (Rebel T2i) to show for it.
And wait, there's more. Nikon has also launched a new speedlight, the SB700, and a couple of lenses: a 35mm AFS ƒ1.4G (the S means it has its own motor inside, the G means no aperture ring) for $1,800 and a 200mm ƒ2G for $6,000. If you're a Nikon shooter with some cash to spend, today is probably a very good day for you. And all this before the Photokina show kicks off next week.
D7000 product page [Nikon. Thanks, Geoffrey!]
Nikon D7000: Camera Road Test With Chase Jarvis [Chase Jarvis]
See Also:
- Canon Rebel T2i
- Nikon D300s: Next-Gen Camera Specs and Screen-Shot Leaked
- Nikon Announces Video-Shooting D300s and More
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