A moment back with my Nikon D7000 by D.J. De La Vega

February 26, 2014 DSLR, Guest Post, Just for fun, Mirrorless, Nikon 17

A moment back with my Nikon D7000

by D.J. De La Vega

I’m a long time (and compulsive) reader of the site and am pleased to see it continue to grow year by year! I haven’t sent anything in for a while as I really haven’t been trying anything drastically new worth writing about.

That is until recently when I have found myself doing something I never believed I would really ever do again… I have begun actively reaching for my dusty old DSLR to take out shooting for the day (I pretty much exclusively shoot with my trusty Leica X1 normally).

I’ve always shot Nikon DSLR during my life as a semi-pro freelance photographer. Always carrying one semi-pro camera with a smaller back up: FM2n/F80, D200/D70, D600/D7000. However for my personal work, for years I’ve ditched the bulk and carried the compact. I’ve never once found myself wanting in the image quality department, but speed and the use of a good optical viewfinder are something I crave and it has has been slowly eating away at me.

Here are a few shots I’ve taken recently, most of which would have been impossible with the X1 due to the start up time and focusing. With a DSLR, the speed of spotting something, whipping it to your eye (whilst turning it on), focusing and shooting is literally just a blink of an eye. This is something the new range of CSC’s are beggining to equal, but I can not find one that ticks all of my boxes to persuade me to upgrade the X1. Personally, I would like a Fuji TX1 with an optical or hybrid viewfinder or a down scaled Nikon Df closer to an FM2 size and dials.

Until then I’m happy with my X1 and on the odd days the mood takes me, my D7000.

Thanks for looking

D.J. De La Vega

http://www.flickr.com/photos/djdelavega/

http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/tag/d-j-de-la-vega/

http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2011/06/22/user-report-a-photographic-road-trip-with-the-leica-x1-by-d-j-de-la-vega/

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17 Comments

  1. Just sold my D7000 and 17-55mm pro lens, with some regret. Great camera/lens combo with equal results. But, I walk a lot and shoot lots of architecture, interiors. Now using the Fuji X100S and probably bound for the new Fuji X-T1. The X100S is simply incredible in all aspects and I expect the new X-T1 will be too. I just finished a shoot of a 19thC mantel in tricky light, and the X100S handled almost all of it on auto. Lots of (easy) one-handed shots high-up to get detailed views. The performance and weight combo makes for great experiences and results. I will miss the D7000 from time to time, as you do…a great camera whose 16MP beats the 24 in the D7100 (for my needs).

  3. I had 2 D7000’s nice sensor good camera but horrible AF. I couldn’t wait to get rid of them nightmare for AF, half my shots were horribly back focussed.

    Shame really. Oh and the metering wasn’t very good in matrix all over the place.
    Could have been a great camera, plagued by QC issues.

  5. Tried the D 7 000 for one day when a friend borrowed it to me. A big step up from my D 5 100 although the same sensor.

    Prices are going down so I might buy one.

    Br
    Heiner

  6. At the end of my professional life, a pair of Nikon D2H bodies lasted me 10 years (2003-2013) providing me with the speed and accuracy needed when working for a newspaper. Now that I have retired (actually laid off and no jobs available for PJs in their sixties) and shifted to mirrorless, I still see images that the slow response (either AF or wakeup) are missed. While I don’t miss the weight of my Nikons (and f2.8 zooms), I do miss the comfort they gave me that I would [almost] always be able to grab the shot when I saw it!! I have sold all my pro gear to people that [hopefully] have need of good, well maintained gear to get the job done…

  7. I usually shoot an Fuji X100, but I recently used my friend’s D7000 + 50 1.8 when I was in Hong Kong. The D7000 is a wonderful APS-C DSLR. The size and controls are very nice and the AF is snappy and accurate. As much as I like M4/3, even the images I’ve seen from the EM-1 don’t match my buddy’s D7000 in terms of IQ. And the Nikon 50 1.8 is a seriously sweet and small lens for $100! Wonderful for people photos with nice bokeh. I love the size of mirrorless cameras, but DSLRs are still kings for a reason.

  8. Thank you, and nice photos on your Flickr… But i did not mean fast photos were not possible on CSC’s or evfs. EM5’s are great and fast, i just don’t like evf’s. Optical viewfinders are just nicer imho. I love seeing the world through sharp bright glass like 36mm brightline viewfinder for x1 or to a lesser extent through any dslr rather than look at a little low res screen to see a wonderful thing you could be looking at with your own eyes.

  10. I have a D7000, also, and have to admit it doesn’t get used much since I went mirrorless (Fuji X-E2). But I do get it out every so often because it’s just faster than any mirrorless I’ve tried. Great article and beautiful images. Thanks.

    • I actually sold my D7000 because it was so much slower than my E-P5. The E-P5 also nails focus more accurately.

      I guess you just haven’t tried the right mirrorless (or don’t shoot your D7000 in low light).

      • Really? E-P5 faster than the D7000? 😀

        I shoot D7000 for 3 years now and my only complain is the small buffer for burst shooting. And I have a whole host of mirrorless cameras – which are smaller, sometimes have better image (NEX 7) but never faster.

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