Jason Stoller
Veteran Member
Today I went back to Best Buy and looked at the D7 again. Best Buy in my area has it priced at $999. After reading Brian Biggers post on Batteries, I thought Brian had the heat thing worked out. As it turns out Brian was wrong. When I got to the store the camera had batteries in it but they quit in a very short period of time. I put in my Power EX rechargable Nimh Batteries and continued to examine the D7 once more as I felt the Grip on the D7 heat up.
Again I noticed that compared to the E-20 the D7 felt like a toy in my hands. If that offends others then so be it. As far as I am concerned the D7 cannot even compete with the E-10 and E-20 where construction is concerned. Some have said, they have even dropped the D7 with no damage. I think thats great but I also think that a better comparison would be the constuction of an Old Lincoln Town Car to that of Yugo. Just looking the two side by side you can see the difference in contruction and quality. Is that worth an extra $200 or $300? In my opinion yes.
I tried and tried to get the D7 to focus. Sometimes it did, and sometimes it didn't. Compared to the E-20 or the E-10 it is very slow to focus when and if it did. I found the very tiny wheel and attempted to adjust the diopter. I got it as close to focus as I could, but to be honest I never really felt that the EVF was in clear focus. I will say that the Electronic View Finder(EVF) was nice and bright in the store. The image in it seemed to be very steady but again slightly out of focus.
But the fact that I could not get what I felt was a clearly focused shot in the view finder really bothered me. I set the D7 to auto everything and still could not really get a clearly focused image in the EVF. I locked the Macro in on the lens and again focus issues. I did bring a compact flash card with me so I did take a few pictures. Yes the D7 is only Compact flash and only holds one card. I see that as a limitation. The E-10/20 hold both smart media and compact flash. The E-20 supports the 1 gig Microdrive. I have used the 1 gig MD with my E-100,E-10,and E-20. I know others have have problems with the 1 gig MD in the E-10 but I didn't.
In my opinion File writing in the D7 is slower compared to the E-20.
I did not think the camera was laid out very well. Most of the buttons were too small which made it a chore to change the functions. I have small hands and fingers. The button used to change to modes to review, P mode, and others is locked by a small tab you have to depress to change it. Some may see this as a benefit but I found it annoying.
As far as the heat issue goes, the grip on the camera got very warm. I had the sales person touch it and even she said it was very warm. I turned off the camera and took out my CF card and batteries. A moment later I had my girlfriend come up and feel it and she also agreed it was warm.
This is my Conclusion:
The Grip on the D7 gets very warm when the camera is used continuously even with NiMH 1600 fully charged batteries in it. I intentionally brought batteries of this type with me to test Brian Biggers therory. Maybe I was examining a defective D7 but I really do not think so. Others have noted this heat problem. This is not just my observation, but the observation myself and two others who have nothing to gain by reporting this.
The D7 focus is very slow compared to the E-10 or E-20. In my opinion I think even the E-100rs and UZI is faster.
The D7 has focusing problems. I will know more when I look at the pictures I took in the store tonight, but if I went by the EVF, most of the time there was a focus issue. The camera may be better when used maually, but what is the point. There are sometimes you just want to get the shot and I personally do not want to miss the shot because I am trying to get the settings right.
The Buttons and adjustments are too small which makes it hard to adjust or manipulate.
D7 File write times are slow compared to the E-10 or E-20. I left out the E-100 and UZI here because the file sizes are so much different so it would not be a fair comparison.
Althought the D7 EVF was nice and bright in the store, I had a very hard time getting it to the point where I felt it was in focus. That was even after adjusting the diopter several times. The EVF flips up so you can look through it at different angles but again construction of it concerned me and this feature did not make the image in it any clearer.
It may seem to any who read this post that I am hammering the D7 intentionally, but I am not. I went to examine the D7 with an open mind. if with the possibility of buying it. I was really looking for good points in it to report, but the bad points of the D7 overwhelmed me once again.
I personally would avoid the D7. I am sure others feel differently. I think to buy it solely for the 28-200 lens 5MP would be a bad decision based on the other things I mentioned here.
Even at $600, the D7 is no bargin.
Jason
--Jason Stoller [email protected]
Catching that special moment with a great camera
Again I noticed that compared to the E-20 the D7 felt like a toy in my hands. If that offends others then so be it. As far as I am concerned the D7 cannot even compete with the E-10 and E-20 where construction is concerned. Some have said, they have even dropped the D7 with no damage. I think thats great but I also think that a better comparison would be the constuction of an Old Lincoln Town Car to that of Yugo. Just looking the two side by side you can see the difference in contruction and quality. Is that worth an extra $200 or $300? In my opinion yes.
I tried and tried to get the D7 to focus. Sometimes it did, and sometimes it didn't. Compared to the E-20 or the E-10 it is very slow to focus when and if it did. I found the very tiny wheel and attempted to adjust the diopter. I got it as close to focus as I could, but to be honest I never really felt that the EVF was in clear focus. I will say that the Electronic View Finder(EVF) was nice and bright in the store. The image in it seemed to be very steady but again slightly out of focus.
But the fact that I could not get what I felt was a clearly focused shot in the view finder really bothered me. I set the D7 to auto everything and still could not really get a clearly focused image in the EVF. I locked the Macro in on the lens and again focus issues. I did bring a compact flash card with me so I did take a few pictures. Yes the D7 is only Compact flash and only holds one card. I see that as a limitation. The E-10/20 hold both smart media and compact flash. The E-20 supports the 1 gig Microdrive. I have used the 1 gig MD with my E-100,E-10,and E-20. I know others have have problems with the 1 gig MD in the E-10 but I didn't.
In my opinion File writing in the D7 is slower compared to the E-20.
I did not think the camera was laid out very well. Most of the buttons were too small which made it a chore to change the functions. I have small hands and fingers. The button used to change to modes to review, P mode, and others is locked by a small tab you have to depress to change it. Some may see this as a benefit but I found it annoying.
As far as the heat issue goes, the grip on the camera got very warm. I had the sales person touch it and even she said it was very warm. I turned off the camera and took out my CF card and batteries. A moment later I had my girlfriend come up and feel it and she also agreed it was warm.
This is my Conclusion:
The Grip on the D7 gets very warm when the camera is used continuously even with NiMH 1600 fully charged batteries in it. I intentionally brought batteries of this type with me to test Brian Biggers therory. Maybe I was examining a defective D7 but I really do not think so. Others have noted this heat problem. This is not just my observation, but the observation myself and two others who have nothing to gain by reporting this.
The D7 focus is very slow compared to the E-10 or E-20. In my opinion I think even the E-100rs and UZI is faster.
The D7 has focusing problems. I will know more when I look at the pictures I took in the store tonight, but if I went by the EVF, most of the time there was a focus issue. The camera may be better when used maually, but what is the point. There are sometimes you just want to get the shot and I personally do not want to miss the shot because I am trying to get the settings right.
The Buttons and adjustments are too small which makes it hard to adjust or manipulate.
D7 File write times are slow compared to the E-10 or E-20. I left out the E-100 and UZI here because the file sizes are so much different so it would not be a fair comparison.
Althought the D7 EVF was nice and bright in the store, I had a very hard time getting it to the point where I felt it was in focus. That was even after adjusting the diopter several times. The EVF flips up so you can look through it at different angles but again construction of it concerned me and this feature did not make the image in it any clearer.
It may seem to any who read this post that I am hammering the D7 intentionally, but I am not. I went to examine the D7 with an open mind. if with the possibility of buying it. I was really looking for good points in it to report, but the bad points of the D7 overwhelmed me once again.
I personally would avoid the D7. I am sure others feel differently. I think to buy it solely for the 28-200 lens 5MP would be a bad decision based on the other things I mentioned here.
Even at $600, the D7 is no bargin.
Jason
--Jason Stoller [email protected]
Catching that special moment with a great camera
...what I haven't told you Maxven is that I've got the shipping covered. My daughters friend is a supervisor at DHL and so shipping will not be a concern..but I will remember the gift part..thanks Jason as always you are are always forthcoming with very helpful information.