Отзывы о Цифровой Фотоаппарат Nikon D7000

I have had this camera for a while, and it was the natural upgrade to my baby dslr - the nikon d60. This camera has been solid and continues to deliver some of my best work. Definitely one of the best Mid range dslr's out there. Though I got it close to its release date, the camera for me continues to perform and I have not serviced it even once yet!

I had a D5100 and exchanged it for the D7000, which was back focusing, making many images (especially those at close range) soft. If the D7000 focused precisely out of the box, as it's supposed to, I would have kept it, since I liked all of the other features it has. All of my photos from the D5100 were sharp using the same lenses, so the lenses weren't the problem. I tried AF fine tuning and it helped a little, but not enough, even after reaching the maximum adjustment factor. A camera at this price level should have better quality control. Sure there are manufacturing tolerances, but they should be able to get the most critical assemblies close enough so the camera at least focuses properly, rather than hoping that customers won't notice or requiring them to spend hours fine tuning the AF, sometimes to no avail. It seems like getting a good D7000 depends quite a bit on luck. I've yet to decide if I'll try another D7000 or if I'll just go back to a D5100.The D7000 also overexposes in bright/high contrast situations when using matrix metering, causing highlights to be clipped and detail to be lost. Some say that this is just the advanced metering system working as intended. Perhaps, but it requires the user to use negative exposure compensation whenever a shot like this is taken (or to program it into one of the "U" settings). You don't always have time to do this when a a good photo op comes around. IMHO, this is a significant flaw that should be corrected via a firmware update.BTW, some have stated that the D7000 has better IQ than the D5100. All reviews I've read state that they are exactly the same in IQ, or that the diff is so small that it's negligible. This is consistent with my experience. In certain situations, like sports and low-light fast motion shots, the D7000's better AF and metering might help produce better photos, but for everything else, they're pretty much the same.UPDATE: I decided to give the D7000 another chance and ordered a second one. Same backfocusing problem. This time, adjusting the AF fine tuning by a factor of -4 for all of my lenses results in sharp focus, but using AF fine tuning isn't an ideal solution, since it causes the camera to not focus properly at infinity or at minimum focusing distance. Depending on the degree of AF tuning required, this could then require the user to manually adjust the focus ring after the AF has "reached its limit" (the limit which has changed due to the use of AF fine tuning). Another unnecessary hassle you need to remember to take care of. The AF fine tuning feature is nice to have, but its purpose is to dial-in lenses that are a bit off due to manufacturing tolerance. I don't think it was intended to adjust a faulty body to work with lenses that are in spec, but that's the way it's often being used.For anyone who buys a D7000, I'd recommend doing a focus test as soon as you get it, to ensure that you're getting the IQ you paid for. The best way to do this is with a focus test chart, but a quick and dirty method is to tape a page of text on the wall (make sure it's totally flat against the wall). Then, mount your camera on a tripod perpindicular to the wall, with lens (set at the largest aperture) at the same height as the page. Take a shot or two using autofocus through the viewfinder. Use the remote or self timer, with mirror lockup. Then take some shots using live view. If the AF photos are not as sharp as the LV shots (or at least very close to them in sharpness), your AF is off (most likely back focusing).

Recently I bought a Nikon D7000 for Nikon's name and returned it for its bad quality.Before last Thanksgiving my friend helped me to order a Nikon D7000 with 18-200mm zoom from Costco. We had good price - $1699.99 ($2049.99 - $350 rebate) from Costco.At first I loved it and I even bought a Nikkor 10-24mm, filters and remote control for it. The camera is less three months old and only took 115 pictures. And I found problem about this D7000.According to D7000 manual, after a full charge it can take 1050 photoes (Nikon's standard is much higher - 4500 photoes each charge). But In my D7000's first run it only took 115 photoes after the initial full charge. Battery meter said the battery's age is 0 (means barrery is brand new) and battery meter is only 1% with 115 pictures taken . This is a brand new D7000 with brand new battery, the battery life is only 10% of D7000 manual specified. I do not know this is a camera's problem or a battery's problem.In order to solve this problem. I searched manual and could not find a phone number. Late I found a 800 number from web and called, the service person could not advise what I should do - seems he do not know D7000 at all. I posted questions in Nikon's web site but they send me a mail talking about somethings else - seems they even have not read my questions at all. I updated my question several times but no further response.Today (Feb 13, 2012) is the last day I can return my D7000 in Costco, so I went to Costco. At first I just wanted to exchange the questionable D7000 but they told me I cannot exchange it. Then the service gay said Costco could return me a full price of $2049.99 that makes I can buy a same camera with today's market price. Late Costco guys took their words back (so bad for Costco because they can eat their word just in a few minutes ) and only agree to return me $1699,99- that is not enough to buy another D7000 with lens today. Because today is last day I can return, I asked if Costco can extend the return period for a few days that makes me can call Nikon again. Costco guy did not agree to give me a few more days. So I returned this bad Nikon D7000 with lens immediately. Next I need to returm my Nikkor 10-24mm lens and filter because it is uselee without D7000.NIkon is a well known company. I do not know why they allow this kind of expensive camera to go to market with problem and do not provide good customer service. Or Nikon do know the Nikon D7000 sold in Costco has quality problem so Nikon gave $350 rebate to lure customers to order. Or Nikon' Thaland factory does not has ISO qualily control system.By the way this camera and lens are made in Thaland. And I have a 18-105mm lens made in Thaland which coating is very bad. Does Nikon Thaland provides qualfied products?

I ended up buying a slightly used but almost new one on e-Bay because they were not available at Amazon at the time and since I live abroad I saved quite a bit on duty on a used item vs a new one. In any case it is a very very nice camera with more features than I know how to use. My previous camera was a D70 so it was a bit of an upgrade. If you are just going to buy a couple of modern zooms such as the 18-200mm VR or the 18-105mm VR or only lenses with built in focus motors then I would buy the D5100. But if you are an old guy like me who is used to film cameras then the D7000 is really great with the older manual focus lenses. I have a nice Vivitar series one zoom (version 3 by Komine) and it works very well with the D7000. I also have the Nikon 16-85mm VR and the Nikon 70-300mm VR but I think aside from these two I will use older AIS lenses since they are available for very reasonable prices. I don't really mind manual focus vs AF but I do like VR since when you are older you can't hold the camera as still as you would like and you miss too many shots if you have to set up a tripod. All of Nikon's dslr's take nice pictures but if you want the maximum selection of lenses then buy the D7000. The D7000 also has many features that I still need to learn about since I have only had the camera about a month. I used to have a Nikon 18-105mmVR that was stolen along with my D70. In spite of it's plastic mount which many people don't like, but it took very nice pictures. I am a big fan of modern digital cameras but I don't like the point and shoot cameras. If my budget was very limited I would buy a good used D40 and the 18-105mm VR which would take way better pictures than any point and shoot. In any case I was very surprised how well the D7000 works with older AIS lenses which is something not mentioned too much in the other reviews. This is something to seriously consider when deciding whether or not to buy the D7000. I also considered an FX camera but with an FX camera you start spending too much money for just a hobby and the D7000 takes very nice pictures that will make the great majority of users very happy. Also the high ISO of the D7000 makes up for not having an FX to a great extent. The only thing the D7000 lacks is built in VR which would be a useful feature as many lenses don't have it. Built in VR is the one thing that might tempt me to upgrade from the D7000. Update: I've been looking at the reviews of the new Pentax K5. It seems to have the same ISO performance of the D7000. By having a built in anti-shake mechanism you can save quite a bit on lenses with the K5. For example the Nikon 70-210mm F2.8 VR costs more than the K5 and the Tamron 80-200 F2.8 put together. If the D7000 had built-in VR you could save well over a thousand dollars on one lens alone. I guess Nikon wants to make money selling VR lenses.

Be aware that there is a big question mark on Nikon's quality control on the production of this specific model the Nikon D7000. I've seen a lot of people complaining from a variety of manufacturing defects in this camera, ranging from hot pixels to a softness due to focus issues.I went to a store and I tried a display model of the camera. I was impressed about the quality of pictures taken at ISO 4000! I was speechless seeing very sharp and vivid pictures produced at that high ISO which is like a day and night compared to my aging D80. I was sold and asked the sales man to bring me a body only. I assumed that the new camera he was selling me will function the same, I was wrong!After getting home, I started taking pictures with my new D7000, then this feeling of dissatisfaction and unhappiness started to develop inside me. A closer examine of the pictures showed a halo around dark objects and softness in the picture and most of the time, the camera was unable to even focus on the target and it was still taking pictures. I tried everything possible with this camera, I tried fine tuning the lens with no use, I updated the firmware to the latest but without any improvements. Last nail in the coffin was to directly compare this camera ISO performance and sharpness against my D80!!the rules were like this:Nikkor 50mm 1.8DManual shooting was selected, ISO 2000 and 1.8 was the lens openness.1- D80 in those conditions was able to take optimum image at lens speed of 1/30 of a sec. which is fare compared to the camera old model and conditions of light. Noise was acceptable and color reproduction was terrible. Which is really the limitation of the D80.2- D7000 in the same conditions was only able to take the picture at a lens speed of 1/20 of a sec!!!! which is even slower than my aging D80. Noise levels were as high as of my D80 and Sharpness was lacking. The image was soft and even my D80 was able to take sharper images at lower resolution.I took the camera back to store and after they tested it for few seconds, they were agreeing with me that the camera I bought was defected. I was refunded with store credits and i'm saving them for the D800.The D7000 is very good camera when it's not defected. The Images taken were really really sharp at even ISO 4000. I liked that and I liked the vivid pictures that this camera is able to take at high ISO. Also I liked the out of focus background taken buy this camera, it's not going to give you the same bokeh you get from a full frame sensor but still that out of focus background was much better than what my D80 can do.I don't recommend buying this product online. If you're intending to buy this model, buy it from a store and try the camera you're buying to check against known issues. You'll be saving yourself a lot of time and frustration.

Bought this for my husband for Christmas last year and he loved the product. Around Thanksgiving of this year the lens wouldn't focus. Just took it to a camera shop and they said the problem is with the lens and we had to spend 400.00 on a new one. We were told sometimes the electronics just stop working from time to time. We are two weeks past the warranty.

we've had this camera for almost 2 years now and completely love it. great clarity, easy to use (both for beginners and more advanced users).

Now that the price has gone down to about $900 for the body, I can heartily say this camera is worth the money. I purchased this camera a year ago and paid the full $1,200 and I'm happy with it, but with the recent price cut, don't think twice about picking this up if you are considering it.Yes, the image quality will be much the same as the D3000 and D5000 series, but the D7000 is infinitely more satisfying to use. It handles better, it has 100% viewfinder coverage, a larger viewfinder magnification, easy access to necessary functions (ISO, White Balance, Image Quality, Metering Mode, Drive Mode, etc), customizable settings, a second command dial, a top lcd, a better build quality, and the list goes on and on. If you appreciate any of this stuff, then don't even consider the other models. If you don't care about any of these things, then yes, you will get just as terrific images from the cheaper models. All you are paying extra for is handling and operation. For me, it is worth it.Both the 18-105 and the 18-200 are terrific lenses. The 18-200 is significantly heavier, although not much bigger, but having the extra reach is nice. Better yet is the 35mm 1.8 DX lens. Yes, it is a fixed lens (no zoom) but it is a total rock star on this camera. I personally loath carrying a heavy zoom unless I have to. I much prefer a smaller prime lens, and this camera feels awesome in your hand with a prime mounted on it.My camera does have the back focus issue, but the good news is that you can adjust for it in the AF fine tune menu in about 5 seconds. Set it and forget it. Yeah, a bit of a blunder on Nikon's part, but the fix is incredibly simple.Happy shooting.

Love this camera! I upgraded from a Nikon D70s and the sum of little features and improvements add up to a big difference. The ability to get info from the control panel on the large monitor is very helpful in low-light situations. Putting the release mode (single shot, multiple exposures) on a separate dial is so much easier than going through the menu. The big monitor is clear and sharp. All my old Nikon lenses work fine. It just feels good in your hands. I think this is the ideal camera for an experienced amateur or a serious hobbyist.

I've been using a D90 for almost 3 years and just upgraded to the D7000. There are a couple of negatives I noticed right away. On the D90 in single point focus mode I could look at the top LCD display and see which one of the 11 sensors I was using. Then if I wanted to change it I could do so with out ever having to raise the camera up. On the D7000 the top LCD does not show this information, and you have to look at the rear display mode to find out. Another change I'm not happy about is the ISO-Auto feature, (this is not the same as Auto ISO). On the D90 I could add "ISO Senitivity" to "My Menu" and I had complete contol over the menu including the ISO-Auto feature. This is really handy when taking pictures at a show and the lighting is changing every second. On the D7000 I added ISO Sensitivity to "My Menu" but now I can only turn ISO-Auto on or off. On the D90 I could adjust the minimum and maxium ISO and shutter speeds, on the D7000 I can NOT. This is a major pain, b/c now I have to hunt down the menu item everytime I change lenses to adjust the minimum shutter speed. For professionals this might not be a big deal, they just switch cameras, but for the enthusized this camera is aimed at, it's a pain. Something else I noticed was that on the D90 I could change the recording folder name, but on the D7000 I can only change the folder number. For instance, on the D90 I could make a folder that said SHOW, GRAD, GTOR, etc, then when I went home I would know what pictures are in that folder. On the D7000 all I can do is change the folder from 100D7000 to 101D7000, 102D7000, 103D7000 etc. I'm sorry but 102D7000 doesn't tell me anything about what's in that folder. This might not be the correct place for it but the optional battery grip is also not as good as the D90's. On the D90 two batteries where in the grip and no batteries were in the actual camera itself. On the D7000's grip there is only one battery. On the D90 I could kill a battery, pop it out and put in a new one. This made it easy to rotate thru my batteries, now in order to remove the camera battery I have to completely remove the grip. I'm worried that one day I'll kill my grips battery and the camera battery will be dead too, b/c I was in a hurry and didn't have time to change it.There are not a lot of real positives that I see over the D90. True it has a 16MP sensor, 39 point autofocus system, expanded ISO range and a faster frame rate. Not to mention improved video capabilities, but I didn't buy this camera to shoot movies. These features aren't really that impressive. If my D90 hadn't died in a freak 6 year old accident (my son tried to take pictures of his goldfish up close and personal) I wouldn't have bought this camera. Don't get me wrong, it's a great camera and I'm sure I'll grow to love it in time, but if you already have a D90, I would hold on to it for now. Besides in about one year from now Nikon will probably be releasing an updated version(D7100??).

I Love my Nikon D7000, I needed a replacement for my D80. Its the most camera I could buy and I am happy withy it. It is fast, but it all depends on the lens in lower lighting. I definitely recommend it!

I found after using two of these for about 1.5 years, that the AF was about 80% good if you have decent technique.Oddly enough, it was with wider angle lenses that it was least accurate/consistent.

Let me start by saying that I am not a professional photographer. However I do have a good eye for clear pictures and colors. My friends and I have been Nikon users for past few years using D50, D200, and D70. Two of my friends bought D700 this summer and the results just blew me away and now I wanted one too. After spending countless hours on the internet and comparing sample pictures and reading reviews of D7000 and D700, I decided to give D7000 a chance and picked up the kit (just the body was not available) from a local Ritzcamera during the Thanksgiving weekend.So the Sunday of the tgiving weekend, my friend with D700 and I with my D7000 compared our two cameras side by side with same settings (apperture, WB, shutter, ISO, Fine quality, medium size, and other settings) and distance and took pics of a subject (a golden metal peacock with blue and green stones) to compare the results. We used a 35mm 1.8G on D7000 and a 50mm 1.4D lens on D700.The result - the pics on the "camera screen" for D7000 actually looked better than D700 "camera screen". On the D7000 screen the pics looked darker, sharper, and more clean. However, when we transferred the pics on the laptop then the D700 pics looked better. We compared pics on multiple ISO's from 1000 to 64000 and even H1. Each time we made sure the settings were identical. We compared pics at 100% size and D700 pics showed less noise at every ISO and were brighter and more natural in color. All the pics taken with ISO 6400 or higher were much better on D700. We took some face pics and D700 showed more details like skin pores and lip details whereas on D7000 the skin pores and lip details at 100% were not that great..kinda pixels breaking out. Even on the peacock the beak of the peacock was more clearly defined on D700 than the D7000. One thing we noticed that the golden, blue, and green shades on D700 were more vivid and were standing out more. Vice on D7000, the colors were there but didn't highlight as much. After playing with Irfanview software, I edited the saturation on D7000 pic and now the pic had more vividness than D7000. In a nutshell, I had to play with a software to bring more life to the pic.We also tested using the 'auto correct' (or something like that) feature on Irfanview software to see which pics from either of the two cameras require more editing. The result was that D700 required very little to none auto adjustment, whereas, the software corrected/edited almost all the D7000 pics.I am not sure if the larger CMOS sensor on D700 is the only thing that is making a big a difference in picture quality over D7000 or if Nikon hasn't declared any other details. Spec wise D7000 beats D700 on every other detail and D700 technology is 3years old so how come D700 is still delivering better pics than D7000? Is it just the sensor?All in all D700 is a better camera than D7000. But if you don't compare the two then D7000 is not bad. In my situation I have compared the two side by side so I know that I can get better quality pics with D700. So now I am going to return the D7000 and buy D700.The price difference is quiet a bit so for the price the D7000 is not bad, but if you can afford the difference then don't even think about D7000 and go for D700. But if you have a tight budget D7000 will make you happy too.The camera does feel solid, light, and overall great build quality. The menu options are almost identical to D700. Two card slots is a good thing, but really, how often does one run out of memory if you have a decent size card.The video quality at 1080 is great but you would need an external mic since the camera picks up the churning sound coming from the lens while it's trying to focus as you're making the video and it's quiet noticeable. The video feature does not replace the camcorder by any means. If you make long videos, you'll need a camcorder. This feature is rather useful in case where you don't have your camcorder with you and you need to make a quick short video. Also the autofocus feature sucks as it keeps on focusing in and out the moving subjects or as you move the camera.Hope this helps.

I love this camera. Haven't got a single problem. It is for those who want to move a level up from amateur photography. I had D5100 before this and used it for some 5 months but then I lost it. :( and got this one.

Used, but in great condition! I heard very good things about this camera and I have a lot to learn, but I'm looking forward to learning it on the D7000. The charger I received didn't work, but the seller sent me a new one in a matter of days. I'm satisfied!

From the moment I heard about this camera's release, I was very excited and immediately began the process of justifying its purchase. Once I was able to drop the $1200 all I could find was the kits and I really didn't want the lens that came with it so I waited. And waited. And waited some more. It took almost 3 months for me to find just the body, and I must admit that it was well worth the wait.From the get go, I noticed the mirror slap was much quieter than that of my D200 and I found it to be a pleasing sound. Definitely better for stealthier situations. It was also immediately apparent that the body was smaller than the D200 as well, but not so much so that I could feel a big difference while shooting. Another thing that I noticed was that the larger display was crystal clear and a nice upgrade. The general controls on the body were similar enough to the D200 that it didn't take me too long to figure most of them out, but there were a few options that I had to consult the manual to figure out; specifically, changing the flash mode and trying to figure out where the shutter release cable plugged into. The user menu is similar as well so I had little trouble setting up my normal shooting parameters.I was very pleased to see that the D7000 wasn't nearly the battery hog that the 200 is. I purchased a spare battery and the MBD11 "multi-power" battery pack and got roughly 3,000 frames from the first battery. That's over double what I would get from the D200 and the BP that accompanied it.There are a few other improvements over the D200 that I have noticed as well. The exposure metering seems more accurate and the AF motor is quieter too. I love the 16 MP images (twice that of my previous body) and despite my initial apprehensions, I even like the dual SDHC card slots though I wish I could still use my collection of CF cards. The auto white balance is HUGELY improved over the D200. I would usually do a custom WB for each lighting situation I would encounter. The D7000 has yet to be taken out of Auto WB mode and the results are more than acceptable.The noise at higher ISO settings is greatly reduced in comparison. I get more noise shooting with the D200 @ ISO 1600 than I do with the D7000 with the ISO @ 6400. And the fact that I can go to 6400 makes the camera all the better.Then there's the built in intervalometer which gives the D7000 the ability to automatically shoot one frame per second for up to 999 seconds. This is the feature that I was most excited to use and have used it a few times already. I am a huge fan of time lapse photography and now I have the ability to do TL projects. My only gripe is that the camera's internal software limits us to just 999 frames. That's only 16.25 minutes of shooting when taking one frame per second and when you make your movie (which is normally @ 24 frames per second) that works out to roughly 42 seconds of TL video per session.Speaking of video, that is another feature that I was very excited over and I am looking forward to using when opportunities arise. I have used the camera in video mode all of once in the past six weeks and I am not completely happy with the results. In all fairness though, I am sure that the issues I have with the videos shot are more from operator error than they are from the camera. I really need to read the section of the manual pertaining to the video capabilities before I say anything unflattering.As time goes on and I've had a chance to give the camera even more of a work out, I will make any necessary amendments to this review.Strengths:16 MPISO range from 100 to 6400 (25,600 on the "H settings)6 FPSBuilt in intervalometerGreatly improved auto white balance100% View FinderMetal frameWeather and dust sealsWeaknesses:Limited number of frames can be shot using interval shooting.Similar Products Used:Nikon D100Nikon D200

Wonderful camera, I only a problem with the battery not hold a charge. It is a little more complicated to set up to my standards because of the menus in menus I have only had it a month and have only used it twice for work. It will be better with use.

This is a preliminary review. I'm a pro photographer who has been faithfully served by Nikon D200 & D300's for event and nature photography. Just before a trip to the Everglades, my D300's lcd info panel light wouldn't turn off and it kept abnormally seeking the cf card resulting in quick battery drain. Of course the fix was having lots of batteries and turning it off when not shooting. But In panic assuming that the D300 was going to completely fail, I read Ken Rockwell's review and noticed the D7000's price. With time running out and not wanting to shell out $7K for the D3x (or D700 for other reasons) I somehow found one D7000 kit, but not body, offered by Amazon and could get it quickly. It was on b/o everywhere else I looked. I didn't want or need the lens, but what can you do sometimes?I haven't had time to evaluate image quality in detail, but it's impressive at least up to ISO 1600. Without the battery attachment it's small and light, but with good ergonomics. It's got most of the feature required for my shoots and tons of goodies if you're just a camera bug. Combined with the 18-200 VR it's a dynamite, relatively affordable package. It was easy to use without consulting the unusually well written manual. However, if you're used to the D300, etc., you won't be happy with the organization of the controls. The iso button's on the back left and the exposure options are set with a dial like on the D70, so you can't change the most important settings as easily. I don't like the new control for setting the focus options. But if you've never used a D200/D300 you probably won't care. The 6 fps is cool, but I'm used to 8 fps with the D300s battery pack. Those extra 2 fps sometimes mean getting the shot or not for sports/birds.Random remarks: So far, taking movies is easy and fun. Rockwell states that the quality isn't great, but they look excellent when shown on a large led hd tv. I have had no trouble focussing with my 200-400 or any other lens. I don't like it that you can't display both iso and frame count at the same time. The lcd info display on the top of the body seems fine, in contrast to criticisms by other. What I'm really upset about is that neither Nikon or Adobe have updated Camera Raw for phototshop CS4, so you can't use the D7000's NEF files with CS4. Maybe Nikon gets a cut from Adobe for CS4 - CS5 upgrades, which I purchased reluctantly. Nikon's ViewNX2 is good software and loads and displays raw files quickly, but I need to use psd files and, of course, photoshop's + plug-in's features to do real work.At this point, nothing much to contribute until I can get that camera back from my wife. (My D300 healed itself, I did lots of trouble shooting, but don't know why it started to work again.) My recommendation is that if you can afford to shell out about $1.5 - $2K for the body/kit (this price includes battery attachment, sd cards (too easy to lose!), decent case and camera strap [Nikon should get out of the strap business or contract with Tamrac.] buying the D7000's a no-brainer regardless of your expertise and experience.Update, 7/1/11: OK, upgrading to CS5 was worth it, sorry about the conspiracy theory. This is a great camera except that it's destroying my technique because it's so easy to use. With the 18-200 VR and the D7000's low noise at hi ISOs (but keep using Define2.0), I can shed 30 lbs of photo gear and my tripod. It's really fun taking videos and as stated above, the quality's great. And Scott Kelby, notwithstanding, the built-in flash ain't so bad either.

The D7000 is an excellent replacement to earlier Nikon models I have owned. It combines the flexibility of a point and shoot camera with all of the customized features of a quasi professional camera. Having just bought it, I know that it will take many weeks to learn how to use it to its maximum potential. At a subjective level, it feels and handles optimally.

I have a variety of pro photography gear, which I use for my real estate work and for non-profit volunteer photography work. I have been using a D2Xs--Nikon's last generation flagship body, which I paid more than $4,000 for a few years ago--as my primary body and a D70 as a backup/2nd body. I purchased the D7000 figuring I would replace the D70 and continue shooting with the D2Xs as my primary body. I was surprised to discover that the D7000 outperforms and outhandles the D2Xs in almost every way.The focusing system is extremely fast and a marked improvement over the anything else I have used. It is still not psychic, of course, but it does a good job in full auto, and with 38 focus points from which to choose, it offers good flexibility for pinpointing a specific focus point almost anywhere in your image.Battery life is excellent for a non-professional body. I shot 1,300 images with it one day last week. I changed batteries preemptively. The one with 1,300 images on it was still showing multiple bars remaining.Low light performance just blows me away. I try to avoid going higher than ISO800 on the D2Xs due to inescapable noise. I had assumed that the only way to get a meaningful improvement in low light performance would be to get a full-frame body, such as the D700 or D3, but this body represents a major improvement. I can shoot at ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 with very pleasing results. Yes, ISO 3200 or 6400 will display noticeable loss of detail and smearing if you are looking at an images pixel for pixel. But the overall usability of those images is still very good. This is the first body that I have used at automatic ISO, since I can then set shutter and aperture as my application demands, and I can know that the camera can then pick the ISO and still produce spectacular images.The only meaningful drawbacks compared to a true professional body are 1) limited buffer for continuous shooting (but it still fires off several images in rapid-fire sequence), and 2) no built-in second shutter release for shooting vertically. Yes, there are other differences, but most are not important for most folks. For example, being able to get 1,500 images out of the D7000 battery versus maybe 2,500 out of the larger professional body batteries. For the price point, this is quite remarkable.I have not used this for video work yet, but it has excellent capabilities and an external microphone jack. I have seen plenty of samples online of beautiful video work done with this body. If you plan to use it for video, plan to use a tripod and/or to spend some serious money on accessories to help handle this body smoothly. DSLRs are virtually impossible to hold out from your body (far enough to watch the LCD live view display) steady for any length of time.Overall I am extremely pleased and amazed at the high end features for the price point. I give it four stars and not five only because it is not literally perfect, but quite close!

There are several well done and detailed reviews here (B. Fuller +). Please just allow me to add a few considerations.I now have my second D7000. The first one was from the very first batch shipped and several in this batch had focusing problems (many comments on DPReview). With all lenses, and most noticeably at their maximum zoom setting, the focus was terrible. This second camera is perfect. I would guess Nikon fixed a bug in their setup routine (think Hubble :-)A second problem receiving numerous comments concerns "hot pixels" in live view / video mode at high ISO settings and dark surroundings. All sensors have a few pixels that are defective, are mapped, and are "fixed" to look like their neighboring pixels. This makes it a near zero problem. Unfortunately in live view / video mode the D7000 does not "hide" these pixels. My current D7000 has one annoying red pixel that is easily visible about 1/3 of the time on an HDTV monitor when shooting indoors. According to DPReview, Nikon has announced a new firmware release to solve this problem. It is no longer a concern of mine.I have also spent a fair bit of time comparing lenses (Koren 203 lens test chart - plus printed text and fabrics). The unexpected result is that the 18 to 105mm kit lens is nearly equal to my 60mm micro Nikkor D lens in the 18 to 35mm range (f-8). My 70 - 300mm lens (F/4.5-5.6 G IF-ED) was better than the 28 - 300mm (f 3.5 -5.6 G ED VR) in the 70 to 200 range but not quite as good at 300. The 70 - 300 produces equal centers and slightly sharper edges than the kit lens at 70mm and up. All my tests were done using jpg files with the camera setting bumped one notch for both sharpness and contrast. The differences are much less obvious and far less important in real world use. Photos of a large blooming orchid plant look almost equal on 13" x 19" prints when I was careful with the f-stop (if in doubt use f-8).Update: I have tested this camera in various light situations. The dynamic range system works quite well but there are occasions where you can not trust the camera's auto metering. DPReview noted: "Tendency to overexpose in bright sunshine/high contrast situations". A few of my daylight photos confirm that you need to be watchful in bright sun. I would suggest routinely setting the exposure compensation -2/3 rds stop (down) outdoors on a sunny day. There are other suggestions on the internet but this is by far the easiest to remember and undo for me. Nikon did not confirm or deny if they will include an adjustment for this in their firmware release.A video note:The focusing during video shooting tends to hunt and be noisy. The noise is more noticeable when reviewing in camera than on an HDTV system. One solution is to think "producer" and edit together a series of shots instead of continuous shooting.Update: The Sennheiser MKE 400 Shotgun Microphone was a nice addition for video. The focus noise becomes less noticeable and the quality is very good. The mic is quite compact and does not make the set up look too over the top. It seemed better to use a medium mic sensitivity (2) than AGC when shooting.Within the camera setup there are a number of focus options including changing the delay time before the camera tries to refocus (0 delay and 5 other options). There are many other options including subject tracking and facial recognition. The method I am currently using is to set it to center refocus when I half press the shutter release. I have made the mistake of fully depressing it though, and that terminates recording. If you are primarily interested in video the Panasonic GH1 / 2 is more designed for that. The D7000 is spectacular still camera first, and capable of beautiful video when carefully used second.A personal bias:I believe the D7000 is capable of more than many of the Nikon DX lenses are delivering. Great lenses are a strength of Nikon, let's keep the heat on them to design lenses that maximize the images from their DX cameras too.

Pros:Performance in low light is superb.Build quality is as good as professional level DSLRs.Custom mode dial is very useful.Small changes in layout from D90 are great.Infrared thingy on the back makes using the remote easier.Cons:Video auto-focusing is a marketing gimmick and just does not work in real world situations. In addition, the mic picks up the AF sounds and it is very loud. You would have to use a mic off-camera. I even bought an on-camera directional mic, but it still picks up the sounds to the point of being useless. But the audio issue is a moot point really, as the video AF is of little use. Nikon should focus on competing with Canon for video market share by matching Canon's bitrate and framerate levels rather than by touting video AF. Pros don't use video AF anyway.!!! The lack of a recording indicator light on the front and little indication on the back means you will have no idea when the 20 minute recording limit is reached when using it on a tripod without someone behind the camera. If you are planning to use the D7000 to record family gatherings, you are going to be frustrated and disappointed. I actually missed the first laugh of my infant son because I thought it was recording, but it wasn't! A simple light and a beep when it is done seems like a complete no-brainer and I can't imagine why Nikon did not include this feature on this or the D7000.Included software is not very good. Okay, Nikon's software sucks. It is a complete mystery how they rationalize charging $200 for a half-baked remote capture application (Camera Control Pro), when Canon includes something better for free! I scratch my head a lot when thinking about Nikon's strategies.Check your camera for backfocusing before the return period ends! This is widely reported, but Nikon has not owned up to it. I had to send mine in for service for a severe backfocusing problem. The entire service experience ranks up there with my Worst Nightmare Experiences Ever. Nikon's Customer Service is bad, bad, bad- infamously so. I won't go into the details here, but let's just say I came very close to selling my Nikon gear at a loss to switch to Canon. But they just make such darn great cameras!Final Analysis:The best prosumer DSLR Nikon has ever made. It's class performance is second to none. Video looks great but is frustrating to use without an indicator light. Backfocusing problems should be checked for right away. If this is your first camera and you are considering the Nikon/Canon question, ask yourself how important customer service is to you. Canon=good, Nikon=bad.

Battery lasts incredibly long. Images are sharp, even in low light using a high ISO. The HD video feature is really nice to have too. Being able to take videos using all of the compatible lenses is a huge benefit. I upgraded from a Nikon d40x, and this was a big step forward without adding much weight or bulk to my camera bag. The live view feature is really helpful. Many of the settings can be adjusted with dials or buttons, so you don't really have to spend much time in the menus.

Pros: Nice features of product Sharp pictures Battery backupCons: Heavy Missing bag UK 3 pin not available in market