MJ_Photo38
Veteran Member
[Disclaimer : I used a D7000 for about 2 weeks for testing purposes before I gifted it to my dad as an upgrade for his aging Nikon D60. I have since used the camera here and there between my other cameras when my dad wasn't using it (he's aging and does not have the time to go out nearly as much as before). So technically, it's not my camera, but I've still been using this camera for the last 2 years regularly]
So, where do I begin with this old chap...
It has a many good points as bad point in my experience, but I think the good outweighs the bad, and that it represents an awesome value for people looking for a camera to start on.
1. Ergonomics, design and build quality
The camera is pretty well designed. It's not too heavy (not as much as my D300), the grip is deep enough even though it's not as big as I would have liked. Overall I have no problems with the handling. The buttons are well placed, the viewfinder is pretty big considering it's an APS-C DSLR, and the menu system is pretty well made.
I particularly appreciate the lever to pull to switch into Live View, I find that much more intuitive to used than a simple button (or worse, a specific drive mode). The back screen displays a good enough refresh rate and decent sharpness for a camera of this age, however the live view quality is not exceptional.
The biggest head scratcher for me with this camera body was the autofocus controls. It's using the "new" Nikon AF control scheme, where you need to hold down the AF button on the bottom front left of the camera, and cycle through modes on the top screen with the front and back dials. It works, but I much prefered the dual selector switch system on the D300/D700. It was more intuitive and faster to use.
There is also the case of the ISO button. It's on the back panel, and I always confuse it with the other buttons, so I generally need to remove my eye from the OVF to change the ISO, it's quite annoying. I would have liked if we could swap the ISO and metering buttons, that would have made a lot more sense to me.
Overall though, the camera is well made, solidly built and the little criticism I have are mostly nitpicks. It has nothing to envy to the later models in the D7x00 line in my opinion (I am, by the way, saddened to see that live view lever go).
It's using the EN-EL15 battery format, which is still used today in cameras like the Z8. I needed a battery backup for my Z6 not so long ago, my dad gave me one of his, and it worked perfectly fine, even though the camera is 8 years younger. That's pretty nice to see.
It also has double SD card slots, which means two things : as a hobbyist you can separate RAW and JPEG files, and if you're shooting something a little more important, you can do backup recording. Both cards are UHS-1 so not the fastest by today's standards, but it's still nice none the less.
Little thing to keep in mind about the SD cards though, I don't know if that is a wide spread issue (or if that's a sign that this D7000 is fading away): the second SD card slot does not recognize when you remove the SD card. It's using two 32GB SanDisk SD cards currently, and if I want to remove, or put another card in there, it gives me a card error, like if the card was corrupted or damaged. When I pop the SanDisk 32GB card back in, it's working like normal again. Definitely strange behavior for sure.
2. Image quality
Image quality is pretty good. That 16MP sensor still has some life in it and it's pretty nice to see.
16MP of resolution isn't especially high by today's standards, but it's more than enough for most uscases, even some landscape photography if you're a beginner.
The native ISO goes from 100 to 6400, and the image is still decently clean at ISO 3200, but I wouldn't wander much further without heavier noise reduction.
Dynamic range is pretty okay too, I never had issues pushing up to 4 stops. It's not as good as a full frame cameraof the time but it gets the job done.
Same thing goes about the colors, which are pretty good. They're not D700/D300 good in my eyes, closer to what you'd expect in a D600 for example, but it's still very nice color repro in my opinion.
3. Performance
The autofocus performance of the D7000 is one of the weak points in my opinion. It's not too bad, it's still competent enough for most applications, however, it's leagues behind the AF system in the D300 or the D7100 for tracking and accuracy. In its early years, the D7000 also had problems of autofocus drifting that required you to send your camera back to Nikon for them re-calibrate it. I don't know how wide is the spread of this issue, however it's worth noting that I've talked to friends that bought a D7000 and had this issue happening to their copy of the camera, so it's definitely something that can still happen.
Burst rate isn't too bad, being at 6fps (similar to a D300 without its grip), however, the buffer depth is very low. If you're using any kind of RAW format, your buffer is 8 photos deep, which is rather limiting. It clears out pretty fast (obviously) but coupled with the rather average autofocus performance (especially when using 3D tracking), I wouldn't consider the D7000 to be a particularly competed sports / action camera.
I won't really talk about video. The D7000 can do 1080p30 video, but that clearly isn't its strong suit and I didn't use it much. All I know about it is that tue contrast based autofocus in video is unusable outside of a very amateur kind of footage.
4. Conclusion and value
The D7000 can be found nowadays at an extremely low price. I bought the one I've used for 200€, and it came with a 35mm f/1.8G DX lens, so overall very cheap.
The autofocus, though not the best is serviceable, the image quality is still able to produce good images and prints. The ISO performance and file flexibility is still good enough to provide decent quality images for -I feel like- almost all purposes.
It's also one of if not THE cheapest camera to give you access to double SD slots, and considering the other metrics of the camera (AF, IQ, build quality) could be a super affordable point of entry for someone that wants to dip their toes into paid photography gigs.
It's also a camera with a full feature set : weather sealing, AI ring to use older AI and AI-S lenses from the film era, internal focus motor for AF-D lenses, tracking autofocus etc, making it a camera you can start and grow with. It's no limited beginner camera.
There is a lot of Nikon cameras that are an awesome value : the D300, D600, D700 even the D800. The D7000 can compete with those more prestigious camera bodies on the subject of bang for buck for the user.
Sure, there is cameras in a similar price point that have better image quality (like the D3200), or a better autofocus or better build quality (like the D300 or D300S). But the D7000 achieves to really be a jack of all trades. It's not outstanding in any scenario, but it's competent enough to give satisfactory results in about everything it does, even if it's not ideal.
I did not talk about video, but with manual focus glass and a bit of practice, it can be used for some video application (without being really a good video camera either, let;s not kid ourselves).
Now for the ranking:
I give it a 4/5 score, as I think that even if the camera has some problems, it's one of the best bang for buck that you can get and a really good starting point for any beginner shopping for cameras used. I'm knocking a star for the AF not being as great as it could be, and the various little errors here and there (the AF calibration drifting, the SD card thing that happened on my copy, etc), as well as the very dated video specs.
kids / pets : Okay. Not the best, but the tracking AF will definitely help you get some keepers.
Action / sports : Mediocre. This is where we hit the AF limits, the very shallow bufffer is not helping. Can still be use if shot conservatively, but it requires practice
Landscape / scenery : Good. When the camera doesn't have to rely on the autofocus a lot, it's where it can stretch its legs. The 16MP sensor gives acceptable detail, and the dynamic range is very acceptable, allowing for shadow pulling without banding
Portraits : Good as well. For slower movements, the tracking AF actually works great, and if you don't need it, the AF-C with a single AF point is also doing wonders. The lower resolution compared to other cameras in that price point is keeping it down a bit, but it's still overall nice to use for that. Skin tones are pretty good too.
Low light w/out flash: Okay. As I said the DR is pretty good when pulling shadows asn there is less banding than on other camera (from what I've seen). It's not to the same level as other cameras, and it also has slightly more noise at the same ISO compared to cameras like the D3200
flash photography : it's good, the flash compatibility is pretty good with this camera. The pop-up flash is also quite useful.
Studio / still life : Good for the same reasons as landscape and portrait photography
So, where do I begin with this old chap...
It has a many good points as bad point in my experience, but I think the good outweighs the bad, and that it represents an awesome value for people looking for a camera to start on.
1. Ergonomics, design and build quality
The camera is pretty well designed. It's not too heavy (not as much as my D300), the grip is deep enough even though it's not as big as I would have liked. Overall I have no problems with the handling. The buttons are well placed, the viewfinder is pretty big considering it's an APS-C DSLR, and the menu system is pretty well made.
I particularly appreciate the lever to pull to switch into Live View, I find that much more intuitive to used than a simple button (or worse, a specific drive mode). The back screen displays a good enough refresh rate and decent sharpness for a camera of this age, however the live view quality is not exceptional.
The biggest head scratcher for me with this camera body was the autofocus controls. It's using the "new" Nikon AF control scheme, where you need to hold down the AF button on the bottom front left of the camera, and cycle through modes on the top screen with the front and back dials. It works, but I much prefered the dual selector switch system on the D300/D700. It was more intuitive and faster to use.
There is also the case of the ISO button. It's on the back panel, and I always confuse it with the other buttons, so I generally need to remove my eye from the OVF to change the ISO, it's quite annoying. I would have liked if we could swap the ISO and metering buttons, that would have made a lot more sense to me.
Overall though, the camera is well made, solidly built and the little criticism I have are mostly nitpicks. It has nothing to envy to the later models in the D7x00 line in my opinion (I am, by the way, saddened to see that live view lever go).
It's using the EN-EL15 battery format, which is still used today in cameras like the Z8. I needed a battery backup for my Z6 not so long ago, my dad gave me one of his, and it worked perfectly fine, even though the camera is 8 years younger. That's pretty nice to see.
It also has double SD card slots, which means two things : as a hobbyist you can separate RAW and JPEG files, and if you're shooting something a little more important, you can do backup recording. Both cards are UHS-1 so not the fastest by today's standards, but it's still nice none the less.
Little thing to keep in mind about the SD cards though, I don't know if that is a wide spread issue (or if that's a sign that this D7000 is fading away): the second SD card slot does not recognize when you remove the SD card. It's using two 32GB SanDisk SD cards currently, and if I want to remove, or put another card in there, it gives me a card error, like if the card was corrupted or damaged. When I pop the SanDisk 32GB card back in, it's working like normal again. Definitely strange behavior for sure.
2. Image quality
Image quality is pretty good. That 16MP sensor still has some life in it and it's pretty nice to see.
16MP of resolution isn't especially high by today's standards, but it's more than enough for most uscases, even some landscape photography if you're a beginner.
The native ISO goes from 100 to 6400, and the image is still decently clean at ISO 3200, but I wouldn't wander much further without heavier noise reduction.
Dynamic range is pretty okay too, I never had issues pushing up to 4 stops. It's not as good as a full frame cameraof the time but it gets the job done.
Same thing goes about the colors, which are pretty good. They're not D700/D300 good in my eyes, closer to what you'd expect in a D600 for example, but it's still very nice color repro in my opinion.
3. Performance
The autofocus performance of the D7000 is one of the weak points in my opinion. It's not too bad, it's still competent enough for most applications, however, it's leagues behind the AF system in the D300 or the D7100 for tracking and accuracy. In its early years, the D7000 also had problems of autofocus drifting that required you to send your camera back to Nikon for them re-calibrate it. I don't know how wide is the spread of this issue, however it's worth noting that I've talked to friends that bought a D7000 and had this issue happening to their copy of the camera, so it's definitely something that can still happen.
Burst rate isn't too bad, being at 6fps (similar to a D300 without its grip), however, the buffer depth is very low. If you're using any kind of RAW format, your buffer is 8 photos deep, which is rather limiting. It clears out pretty fast (obviously) but coupled with the rather average autofocus performance (especially when using 3D tracking), I wouldn't consider the D7000 to be a particularly competed sports / action camera.
I won't really talk about video. The D7000 can do 1080p30 video, but that clearly isn't its strong suit and I didn't use it much. All I know about it is that tue contrast based autofocus in video is unusable outside of a very amateur kind of footage.
4. Conclusion and value
The D7000 can be found nowadays at an extremely low price. I bought the one I've used for 200€, and it came with a 35mm f/1.8G DX lens, so overall very cheap.
The autofocus, though not the best is serviceable, the image quality is still able to produce good images and prints. The ISO performance and file flexibility is still good enough to provide decent quality images for -I feel like- almost all purposes.
It's also one of if not THE cheapest camera to give you access to double SD slots, and considering the other metrics of the camera (AF, IQ, build quality) could be a super affordable point of entry for someone that wants to dip their toes into paid photography gigs.
It's also a camera with a full feature set : weather sealing, AI ring to use older AI and AI-S lenses from the film era, internal focus motor for AF-D lenses, tracking autofocus etc, making it a camera you can start and grow with. It's no limited beginner camera.
There is a lot of Nikon cameras that are an awesome value : the D300, D600, D700 even the D800. The D7000 can compete with those more prestigious camera bodies on the subject of bang for buck for the user.
Sure, there is cameras in a similar price point that have better image quality (like the D3200), or a better autofocus or better build quality (like the D300 or D300S). But the D7000 achieves to really be a jack of all trades. It's not outstanding in any scenario, but it's competent enough to give satisfactory results in about everything it does, even if it's not ideal.
I did not talk about video, but with manual focus glass and a bit of practice, it can be used for some video application (without being really a good video camera either, let;s not kid ourselves).
Now for the ranking:
I give it a 4/5 score, as I think that even if the camera has some problems, it's one of the best bang for buck that you can get and a really good starting point for any beginner shopping for cameras used. I'm knocking a star for the AF not being as great as it could be, and the various little errors here and there (the AF calibration drifting, the SD card thing that happened on my copy, etc), as well as the very dated video specs.
kids / pets : Okay. Not the best, but the tracking AF will definitely help you get some keepers.
Action / sports : Mediocre. This is where we hit the AF limits, the very shallow bufffer is not helping. Can still be use if shot conservatively, but it requires practice
Landscape / scenery : Good. When the camera doesn't have to rely on the autofocus a lot, it's where it can stretch its legs. The 16MP sensor gives acceptable detail, and the dynamic range is very acceptable, allowing for shadow pulling without banding
Portraits : Good as well. For slower movements, the tracking AF actually works great, and if you don't need it, the AF-C with a single AF point is also doing wonders. The lower resolution compared to other cameras in that price point is keeping it down a bit, but it's still overall nice to use for that. Skin tones are pretty good too.
Low light w/out flash: Okay. As I said the DR is pretty good when pulling shadows asn there is less banding than on other camera (from what I've seen). It's not to the same level as other cameras, and it also has slightly more noise at the same ISO compared to cameras like the D3200
flash photography : it's good, the flash compatibility is pretty good with this camera. The pop-up flash is also quite useful.
Studio / still life : Good for the same reasons as landscape and portrait photography
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