Hey, this is Scott of PhotographyBanzai.com. Today I'm going to talk about the Nikon D7000.
It's a mid-level camera in Nikon's lineup. It has an APS-C sized sensor, but still has
a lot of the semi-professional controls and functionality inside. 16 mega-pixel
APS-C sized sensor. It's the similar or same one to the K-5, Pentax K-5... Really nice sensor
inside. High dynamic range. Does have 6 frames a second burst rate on the camera.
Nice auto-focus system 39 points and you've got 9 cross-type sensors in
the middle of the grouping. So it's a really good camera for pretty much any
type of.. any style of photography. From action to still life and all that.
ISO range 100 to 25,600. It's a nice big range. I always preferred to see lower
than ISO 100, but in this case it does not have that. 1/8,000 of a second
maximum shutter speed, and 1/250th of a second maximum flash sync speed, which is
in line with professional.. semi-professional cameras.
It does have a 100% viewfinder.. 100% coverage I mean.. and it is a pentaprism.
So that means it's a little brighter, better, than the mirrored versions of the
cheaper cameras. Fully weather resistant. I wouldn't say it's the best out there
of other cameras of this, you know, semi professional range. What I don't like
about this and the D600, which I didn't mention in the review of that is the
battery door. It seems kind of flimsy. It does have a seal right here, but if look
down here there is a rubber piece that easily comes open. So that seems like a
flaw, in my opinion. If water were to get in there as you're shooting. But besides
that it's a solid camera. Does have some magnesium alloy, but there is a lot of
plastic as well. Should be good enough for most situations. Video is decent. It
has 1080p, but it at only 24 frames a second. However if you go to 720p
you'll get the 30 frames a second and 24. So not the best camera for video, but
it does have the MIC port. So I'm going to go into some details up close on camera
give you an overview of how it works and all that. So on the side here is the main
difference of this camera and the D600 from other Nikons that are more advanced.
Usually they have ISO up top. You hold that down and then you use the dials, but
in this case ISO is down here. You hold that button down and then you can cycle
with the dial on the back. Maybe it's a little bit more inconvenient. It really
depends on your style. Same thing with white balance and quality.
However with things like quality, you have two functions here. One changes quality
level of the image and one changes this size. And over here it does not have an AF
button. Again, with the more advanced Nikons, they have a second button here to
let you use auto-focus with that button. You can change the function of this to
mimic that. On here is the live view control. Actually prefer the D600 now
that I have that. In this case you just pull that switch back and it turns on live
view. Both the D7000 here and the 600 are not that great with live view, but
they're good enough. So if you want to run a video you just press this button
in the center and it starts recording. As I mentioned before, this camera does not
have 1080p with 30 frames a second or faster. It only goes to 24 frames a
second and 720p is only up to 30 frames a second. So it is a bit older camera.
Down here is the switch to lock your focus points. I usually use the center
point and leave it locked to that. Does have two dials, which you know it is
expected in this level camera. Definitely helpful in situations where you want to
control aperture and shutter speed at the same time. Up top, metering.. pretty simple. You just
have to know what the symbols mean, and then again with the exposure
compensation. Most buttons work the same or similar in how they function. On the
side here.. We've got your different ports. AV-out, HDMI, that's a USB actually. But I
think it's multiple functions. In the bottom you've got your mic port and then one
for external shutter release or GPS, or something like that. There is no button
to lock down the dial, so could potentially move this accidentally.
But it's pretty firm. Let's say it's unlikely that'll happen, So U1
and U2 are the user modes for this style of camera. Same thing with the
D600, again. I like this layout. It's simple and 2 user modes.. usually good
enough for most situations. I have U1 set to full manual for flash use, and
I have U2 set to a custom aperture priority mode. It saves all the settings.
Pretty much everything you would want in the camera. does have scene modes and things,
but I don't use those. And then down a little bit more... Here is a button you
hold down to cycle this grouping here, so 's' is single shot and then you get your
two continuous modes. 6 frames a second maximum and the quiet mode, which I'm
going to demonstrate. Because I found it interesting with Nikon. I was using
Pentax for a long time. First I'll put into standard single shot mode.
They can hear the full smack of the shutter and mirror, and you put it into
quiet mode...
And you let the button-down. Get those two distinct sounds. So it is a bit
quieter. It has a few more like mirror lock-up, timed, and also the remote.
Does have an info button. I don't use that often, but good for tripod use.
Auto-focus-manual switch, then there's a button you hold down like most of these
buttons. And you can see this layout changes. You can cycle through single
auto-focus, continuous, and automatic. And then you can also cycle the points. There
are few more buttons. Bracket button. You will be able to hold that button down again
and then do a bracket of 1 to 3 I think it goes up to. And then the flash.
That's dedicated button for flash. You can also control compensation when the
flash is up. One thing I do like about the Nikons,
especially this range is the two SD card slots that gives you a lot of options
with backup and control of where you want to put image files. You can copy files
to the second card. Really nice. It's a great feature of these cameras. Does have
a few extra buttons for custom. There's a custom button here and then one down
here. Initially set to aperture preview, or depth of field preview.
You can see the aperture changing if you hold that down. So that's about it of the
external on camera. I'm going to go into some details on the menu here. First off
you have the "my menu" section where you can add items that you want quick access
to. Another extra feature is that in the top my menu item, you can set that to the
button. I have this set to the front button, and I press that right here. You
see the ISO comes up, which is nice quick access method. Go down here is a
retouch menu. I personally don't use this that often, or at all, because I use...
I shoot in RAW most time. Setup menu. Lots of things, you can format your card
easily. You can also do mirror lock-up, which is good for cleaning your sensor
of course, but make sure your battery is fully charged. If you see that grayed out.
That means you should charge your battery, and then try it again. It's also
nice to have the copyright information on here. I always set that and just embed
some extra data into your image files. This camera of course also has a lot of
custom settings. Similar to more advanced cameras. A ton of different controls. This
is very similar to the D600 that I also use, but not quite.. not as many options
in this case. It is a little bit older camera, and also doesn't have all of the
features of a full-frame. We can set a lot of different settings, and then you
can use the U1/U2 custom settings to save that. Then you'll have a full mode
dedicated to what you shoot as. And one of the main ones, a shooting menu. You can
define your memory cards to.. what I do here is I put my JPEGs on the second
card, and that allows me to have a nice backup just in case one of the memory
cards goes bad. As I mentioned previously, I didn't put this in the D600 review, but
it's the same exact setup. I don't really like the battery door. Seems kind of
flimsy-ish. It does have a seal, but this is the main thing here is is this little
gasket. That's used for the external power source if you buy that as an
add-on. I guess this is how the cord comes out. But I can easily open this
thing. I could accidentally, if I'm using the camera.. If it were raining
outside, you know, that seems like a bad.. a potential entry point for water. I was
thinking about actually gluing those, but ahh, kind of strange their setup like that.
I've been shooting with it. Even before the D600. Had this for at least a few months
before that. Picked this up from a friend, used, good price. Currently these still go
new for around nine hundred dollars online. I still think that's a reasonable
price for these. Image quality is great because it does have that high performance
sensor inside. So that was the Nikon D7000. Thanks!