Tech Tuesdays - First Look: Nikon D7000

There are some products that, once they're introduced, rewrite the rules for an entire industry. If you believe the hype, Nikon's new D7000 DSLR might just be one such product. It's been favorably compared to cameras that cost anywhere from twice as much to 4 times as much. No one can keep it in stock and rumors a swirling that, unless you have had one on preorder for a while, it will be months before you can get one.

Imagine my surprise when I decided to dig around a little and found one in my area that was available for sale! Honestly, I believe it was probably the only one available (at retail prices, at least) in the state of Colorado. Someone had a D7000 on hold but hadn't come in to pick it up, so the salesperson took that person's name off of it and put mine on it. I had until the close of business that day to pick it up. I didn't wait.

I got it, brought it home, charged the battery, read the manual, did some research and started playing around with it. So far I've only had a chance to do one shoot with it, but many more are on the horizon. What follows are my first impressions. I'll be sure to follow up with a more in-depth review in the near future.

Note: All comparisons are made to a Nikon D90.

Feel - The first thing I noticed about this camera was the feel of the body. I'm talking about the actual texture of the surface. It feels a bit more sticky, more grippy. I never really felt like I was going to drop my D90, but this camera really feels secure in my hands.

Look - It doesn't really look much different from my D90. There are a few more buttons and an extra dial for the shutter control. The menus and displays all look pretty much the same. Once I had it set up the way I like, it took about, oh, 2 seconds to feel comfortable with it.

Sound - This camera sounds awesome. Or should I say it doesn't sound awesome? It's quiet! The shutter sounds so fast, tight and slightly muffled, I think I'm in love. When you switch it to quiet mode, the shutter just makes the tiniest bit of noise. The first time I tried it I had to make sure I was using it right it was so quiet!

Other thoughts: With just one shoot to go on, I have to say that I'm very impressed.
- Having dual memory card slots was pretty sweet.
- Reviewing photos is a fast and easy experience, as you can scroll up/down, left/right and diagonally, and you can do it quickly!
- Exposures seemed to be dead on when shooting in manual mode and spot metering.
- Focus was pretty good, although I did have a few soft images. I'm going to blame it on the move from a 9-point to a 39-point focusing system. I think I might not be used to such a small focus point, so I was a little careless about being precise with my focus. Regardless, focusing was fast and I don't think I experienced any lens "hunting" in almost 3 hours of shooting with my 50mm f/1.4 AF-D and 135mm f/2 AF DC lenses.
- Did I mention how great this camera sounds?

I haven't really had a chance to test out the D7000's performance at higher ISOs, but everything I've read so far makes me think I'm in for a treat. I also plan on shooting quite a bit of video with it in the next few months. I can't wait to try out the autofocus while shooting some video!

One thing to mention is that in order to process the RAW files, I had to download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.3 RC1. So far I haven't had any issues with it. If you're not running Lightroom and need to process your D7000 RAW files, a quick search should point you in the right direction.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a new camera that's just begging me to use it.