I'll never be able to 'review' a camera with any great usefulness like some on here so I'm not going to try

I just wanted to share a few thoughts about the D7000 I bought a week ago. I know it's been out for over a year now but I have been quite happy with my D90 so only decided to change recently.

It's been a busy week for me and my new camera. So far I have shot the Lakes Classic Car show for Porsche Post magazine and then did the photos for drum'n'bass/dubstep night in a nightclub which will eventually turn up on their website.

So it's been a couple of good outings of contrast, a sunny field full of cars and a dimly lit club. Perhaps I've done a thorough test by accident!

Things I like:

The dynamic range seems to be shockingly good - I struggled a little with the D90 at outdoor car shows where you would expose for the car and quite often the sky would be blown out to white, even on days that weren't particularly bright. I used the D7000 in a good mix of conditions at the Lakes show (dull/overcast, bright but overcast/cloudy, and bight sunshine with little cloud) and in those conditions there was a marked improvement over the D90 for a nicely exposed car and a sky with good colour and detail, so I'm really pleased there.

The Noise. Again, a marked improvement over the D90 which in itself is a decent camera. At 3200 the noise is quite acceptable, and at 1600 barely there. This is important to me as I generally shoot at minimum 1600 when on nightclub duty.
On the D90 I was wary of shooting at over 800, and this just allows me to relax my ISO worries quite a bit.

The new autofocus system. Seems quicker and also seems to nail things better first time, noticeable on panning shots. Also, I use a few lenses that require an in body motor such as a 50mm 1.8, Tokina 11-16 2.8, and a Nikon 80-200 2.8. The autofocus motor feels quite strong and has made focusing on the big 80-200 seem a bit snappier which I like.

Plus all the other little bits:
Twin SD slots that you can set up as you like for backup, overflow, RAW/JPG etc, really good.
Magnesium body and better rubber coating makes it feel a LOT more Pro than the D90.
The viewfinder is 100% coverage so is a little brighter for the eyes than the D90.

So there you go, I'm extremely happy with the purchase and feel it was well worth the £420 it cost me to change from one body to the other.

I was toying with the idea of going full frame to be honest, but I'm not a professional photographer by any stretch and the thought of buying a heap of new full frame glass, especially for the wider end, was just not sensible. Plus I love my 18-200 VR DX lens too much for travel/holidays!

Really nice shots there Adam!

Thanks

Interesting, my shooting buddy and I both got D90's at the same time (18 months ago), he has more money than sense and got the D7000 soon after, selling his D90 to a colleague.

It is a nice piece of kit for sure, but I didn't/don't see it as a big enough jump to justify the outlay.

He has since gone on to drop shed loads more on various lenses whilst I have the kit 18-105, sigma 24-70 2.8, 50mm 1.8 and just treated myself to a 70-300 VR.

On the upside, his mate who works for Gallo Images said I take a much better photo, that'll do for me at this point

There's a Nikon app for the iPhone so you can download the manual to your iPhone if you have one. Nikon Manual Viewer.

I upgraded to a D7000 from a D70 at the beginning of last year....absolutely love it. I have found when using heavier glss the grip is a very worthwhile addition.

Forgot say, the only thing that annoys me is the lack of 3rd party batteries, apparently due to Nikon putting a chip in them so that only genuine Nikon ones work. I think that stinks personally, if car manufacturers starting making their cars reject non-manufacturer clutches, batteries and exhausts the EU would have a fit...

For both my D40 and D90 I bought a couple of spare chinese batteries for them for about £10 a pair, and they were bloody brilliant. Did about 90% of the shots you could get out of the Nikon original and never failed.

Having said that, I know the standard batteries are really good now... 1000+ shots off a single charge should be easy, but never the less I wouldn't mind a spare or two especially for travel/holiday away from home for 2-3 weeks at a time, but I don't really fancy spending £70 on a battery!

A good alternative is you can buy a battery grip that comes with one very large slide out rechargable battery inside it, but also comes with a tray which can hold the standard D7000 battery in there as well. You can get them for about £50 on eBay.

I bought a spare but haven't really 'needed' it as such, was handy on holiday or is handy if you want to run the battery totally down. The battery meter on the camera actually appears to work unlike my old one where it went, full - full - full - 2/3 - 2/3 - dead.