P7000 Questions

Hi guys,

I'm leaning pretty far forward on getting the P7000 as my carry around. But I have a few questions before I go plunk down the cash:

1) How many focus points does the camera have?

2) Are the three Custom Mode Settings similar to the CMS' on the D3100 and D7000? For example, can I set one up for video, another for b/w and another for low-light work?

3) A two parter: How's the video on it? And does the AF work in video?

4) How well does the on-board camera trip off-camera flashes?

There might be more question but that's it for now. I am serious about getting this camera but want to hear observations from current owners before tripping the shutter, so to speak.

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you all.

Cheers,
Bill.

billputnam said:

1) How many focus points does the camera have?

Click to expand...

Just counted them in Manual focus mode - 99. in Auto - 9

billputnam said:

2) Are the three Custom Mode Settings similar to the CMS' on the D3100 and D7000? For example, can I set one up for video, another for b/w and another for low-light work?

Click to expand...

There doesn't seem to be a way of setting video (I could be wrong though as I never use video), but the mode dial has a position for it anyway. Certainly you can set up for low light or black and white.

billputnam said:

3) A two parter: How's the video on it? And does the AF work in video?

Click to expand...

As I said, I never use it so can't answer.

billputnam said:

4) How well does the on-board camera trip off-camera flashes?

Click to expand...

I have a couple of hotshoe slave switches, the little pop up flash fires those no problem, just have to set flash to manual, none of the auto settings seem to sync properly.

Regarding the video questions on your post; I thought it was (mine has been at the service center for a couple of weeks due to zoom locking problems) quite nice and yes the auto focus does work. There was a thread a while back that had a couple of examples and youtube has a selection.

I noticed the search at the top of the dpreview page does not work but if you drop down a couple of rows, the search just above the threads does work and will bring up a number of previous threads.
Old thread:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=36711476

flatwater

billputnam said:

Hi guys,

I'm leaning pretty far forward on getting the P7000 as my carry around. But I have a few questions before I go plunk down the cash:

1) How many focus points does the camera have?

Click to expand...

There are 12 AF points in manual point selection

billputnam said:

2) Are the three Custom Mode Settings similar to the CMS' on the D3100 and D7000? For example, can I set one up for video, another for b/w and another for low-light work?

Click to expand...

Yes you can do that.

billputnam said:

3) A two parter: How's the video on it? And does the AF work in video?

Click to expand...

The video quality can be very good, although it gets a little bit soft at 200mm. The quality is better than the dedicated camcorder that I had that shot at 1080p, so I sold the camcorder. The video AF works in two modes, pre focus or full time auto focus. The full time AF works okay, as long as there is a defined subject near the center of the frame, but can struggle if there isn't. Full time AF makes a low pitched noise that will be recorded by the internal microphone, so you'd want to use an external mic if that bothers you.

billputnam said:

4) How well does the on-board camera trip off-camera flashes?

Click to expand...

It doesn't, you need an SB-7000, SB-800 or SB-900 to use CLS with the camera.

--
Rob - A picture is worth a thousand words, but which
ones?
http://robdphotos.smugmug.com/

PB PM said:

There are 12 AF points in manual point selection

Click to expand...

How did you get that? I counted 11 across and 9 down = 99, this from counting the points on the camera, not by reading specs oranything. Or am I missing something?

Going from what the users manual has it is 9 for AF and 99 for M. The manual refers to them as “areas”.

Also if CMS’ refers to U1,U2 or U3 (USM) I don’t remember being able to use them for movie mode nor could I find any reference to this possibility in the manual.

flatwater

Is the P7000 the only P&S digital camera with that allows external stereo microphone? That's what I read.

Very interesting about selling your video camcorder!

PB PM said:

The video quality can be very good, although it gets a little bit soft at 200mm. The quality is better than the dedicated camcorder that I had that shot at 1080p, so I sold the camcorder. The video AF works in two modes, pre focus or full time auto focus. The full time AF works okay, as long as there is a defined subject near the center of the frame, but can struggle if there isn't. Full time AF makes a low pitched noise that will be recorded by the internal microphone, so you'd want to use an external mic if that bothers you.

Click to expand...

flatwater said:

Going from what the users manual has it is 9 for AF and 99 for M. The manual refers to them as “areas”.

Also if CMS’ refers to U1,U2 or U3 (USM) I don’t remember being able to use them for movie mode nor could I find any reference to this possibility in the manual.

flatwater

Click to expand...

Thanks for clearing that up, I was beginning to doubt myself...

No, your right, not sure why I was thinking 12.
--
Rob - A picture is worth a thousand words, but which
ones?
http://robdphotos.smugmug.com/

At this time the P7000 is the only point and shoot compact that I know of that has a port for using an external microphone.

As for the camcorder, I sold it for several reasons, a) I don't shoot video enough for it to be worth while and b) I found the video quality of the P7000 to be superior. The AF of the video camera was better, without a doubt, but overall video quality from the P7000 was better, simply because it has a larger sensor.

CAcreeks said:

Is the P7000 the only P&S digital camera with that allows external stereo microphone? That's what I read.

Very interesting about selling your video camcorder!

Click to expand...

--
Rob - A picture is worth a thousand words, but which
ones?
http://robdphotos.smugmug.com/

Download the manual.