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D7000 announced (1 Viewer)

Not a good announcement for those nikon users who were hoping for a D400. If only to keep up with the likes of the excellent 7D

To many threads on new bodies so keeping my fingers crossed
 
Could well be Nikon's best DX camera as far as exposure and IQ is concerned, but I'm reluctant to part with £1k to buy it when the D400 could be around the corner (possibly early next year).

Spec-wise it does appear inferior to the 7D as far as MP's, fps, and resolution at max. filming rate. And the 7D came out a year ago.
 
One improvement I would like to see is for Nikon to make the camera contacts more robust so that we can see an end to the DBS. That would be one of my biggest complaints about the D80 and the D300. I was photographing a Lapland bunting at Minsmere on Sunday, and when I wasn't using the tripod, the camera was comming up with DBS on a regular basis.
 
My D200 was prone to DBS but the D300s hasn't once in 12 months of use.
The D7000 might have more MP's than the D300, but otherwise there is nothing to attract D300 owners unless the higher ISO performance is better.( Nor should there be, it's a cheaper body after all)
Rumour has it that there might not be a D400 and that Nikon will concentrate on FX bodies for the "more serious" photographer. I must admit, give me more pixels than the D300 on an FX body with high ISO performance and I am not bothered about the 1.5 crop camera. You can achieve the same on your home PC.The advantage of being able to catch more on the original shot has it's advantages. There is many a time I wish subjects hadn't got so close !
I guess we will find out soon enough but I feel the replacement aimed at D300(s), and maybe D700, users will come in at around the £2k mark. The current price hike in lens RSP's doesn't bode well !
 
rioja said:
The D7000 might have more MP's than the D300, but otherwise there is nothing to attract D300
Click to expand...

I don't see the D7000 in that role, Rioja - it's aimed at more or less the same niche that the Canon 60D is intended for, I'd say.
Rumour has it that there might not be a D400 and that Nikon will concentrate on FX bodies for the "more serious" photographer.
Click to expand...

I think it's very unlikely that there won't be a successor to the D300 with a variant of the D7000's 16 mp sensor in it: Nikon will want to react to the Canon 7D which - despite loud grumblings from some that it has "too many pixels" for a cropper - has been received very well. A lot of Nikon users are now asking for a more densely-packed sensor in a camera in the Dxxx range, and Nikon won't want to leave the 7D unchallenged in that market sector.
 
Keith agree, having seen friends with the 7D I do kinda marvel at the quality it delivers, can honestly say that my D300 is slightly lacking.
The problem will be the price, can't see a replacement for the D300s being less that £1500 when launched
 
I hope you're right Keith. The D7000 doesn't really inspire me to buy it. I've met many people in the field who use the 7D camera, and they all agree that it's a big step forward.

Apart from the DBS, I'm fine with the D300 at the moment, although it's not great at anything over ISO400. It's getting on a bit though, and I'm in the mood to buy a new camera. I don't really want to go the FX route, as good as they are, as I believe I'll be struggling for reach with the style of photography that I use.

Ideally, I'd like a cropped sensor pro camera, like the old D2X, but I doubt we'll see the likes it it again. But a D400 would be very good news indeed.
 
I'm surprised, Helios - your D300 should be good for better than 400 ISO.

In my early comparison tests the Nikon was on a par noise-wise with my 40D, which was essentially noiseless at 400, and eminently usable well into 4 figure ISOs: I'd expect the D300 to be fine at those values too.

If you want to give the D300 a new lease of life in that regard - download Topaz Denoise 5, a Photoshop plugin capable of miraculously effective NR processing.
 
Duke Leto said:
The problem will be the price, can't see a replacement for the D300s being less that £1500 when launched
Click to expand...
Just bite the bullet and be patient, Steve - I held back for a few months for my 7D and saved nearly £300.

If I could have lasted until now (and strictly speaking I didn't need to buy a 7D when I did - my 40D's still going strong) I could save nearly £500.
 
not really in a hurry, and to comment on noise I happily use my D300 on 800iso, I do find like I assume we all do that when the exposure is off (uner exposed) noise levels rise significantly


Keith just downloaded Topaz on a 30day trial first impressions are favourable, thanks for the tip, I'll try it against my current noise plug- in
 
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The Downey Emerald shot that I entered in this months competition was shot at ISO800. The background has some luminescence and chroma noise visible, and that's after applying noise reduction and reducing the file size from megabytes to less than 200kb's.

Too be honest I was a little bit disappointed with the D300's performance, in that it wasn't much better than the D80. For this reason 90-95% of the time I shoot at ISO400. Maybe I've got a lemon of a sensor that's not typical of a D300.
 
Helios said:
Too be honest I was a little bit disappointed with the D300's performance, in that it wasn't much better than the D80. For this reason 90-95% of the time I shoot at ISO400. Maybe I've got a lemon of a sensor that's not typical of a D300.
Click to expand...

Are you cropping in excess of 50%?
 
Sometimes, but not often. Ideally I try for as close to full frame as possible but there's always some cropping. I don't often heavily crop (unless the bird is a rare one). The noise problem only appears at when the ISO>400. Which is the same situation with the D80. To be honest most of the time I can shoot at ISO400, even for flight shots, which is why I'm fairly happy overall. The Downey emerald had a dark background against the directional light, which is why it had to be ISO800 for the shutter speed. It was a shot which I had spent many hours trying to achieve, on and off for about two years. I'm very pleased with the overall result, but I do feel that if I had used a lower ISO, or different camera, or even a flash setup, then the IQ would have been even better.

Have to admit though that my image processing maybe slightly lacking when compared to others here. I'm not very technical at photgraphy (even though I'm an electrical engineer by trade). I'll try the Topaz denoise 5, as Keith has suggested, to see if the IQ can be further improved.
 
Pretty much all the cropped sensor cameras perform the same at ISO800 when normalized for an 8x10 print. The DxOMark sensor ranking has the D90 on top with an ISO ceiling of 977 vs. 679 for the D300. FWIW, the D80 comes in at ISO 524. And if you are thinking of switch brands, the Canon 7D is in the middle at 854 but you can get better crops due to its higher pixel density.

To get better ISO performance you will need to make the jump to full frame sensor camera like the D700 or the amazing D3s.
 
RJM, DxOMark is crap. My personal ownership experience of a number of the cameras they test is so far from the nonsense DxOMark comes up with that I honestly don't know if they just make it up for comic effect.

Furthermore I've seen a series of thoroughly well conducted, objective side-by-side high ISO tests of a D700 against a 7D - size-equalised to account for the different pixel densities but otherwise entirely like-for-like - and not only did the 7D compete in terms of noise right up to 6400 ISO, but it provided significantly more detail, from identically framed shots, than the D700.

Do not trust DxOMark.

The fact is that these days, smart conversion and PP decisions can all but eliminate the noise advantages of one body over another: anyone who doubts this should have a good look at Lr 3 or CS 5/ACR 5.6, with Topaz Denoise 5 plugin downstream of the conversion as necessary.
 
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Keith Reeder said:
RJM, DxOMark is crap. My personal ownership experience of a number of the cameras they test is so far from the nonsense DxOMark comes up with that I honestly don't know if they just make it up for comic effect.

Furthermore I've seen a series of thoroughly well conducted, objective side-by-side high ISO tests of a D700 against a 7D - size-equalised to account for the different pixel densities but otherwise entirely like-for-like - and not only did the 7D compete in terms of noise right up to 6400 ISO, but it provided significantly more detail, from identically framed shots, than the D700.

Do not trust DxOMark.
Click to expand...

Frankly, I think you are confusing image quality determined by a camera/lens SYSTEM with the basic sensor capability that DxOMark measures. Moreover, for you to suggest we not trust them demands an explanation of your science background/education/experience/expertise in optics/sensor testing. I mean for all we know, you also might think the Earth is flat and revolves around the Sun. Doesn't make you right!;)

BTW, if you have ever been to the big imaging expos like Photokina you would learn DxOLabs has a fairly symbiotic relationship with all the major camera OEMs. Pretty harsh to slam them when the OEMs use their stuff too.
 
Pleased to see that they added AF-fine adjustment to this new body.

A feature that was previously not available in any of the "amateur" bodies.

On the downside they changed the battery that used to be downward compatible between D300s-D300-D90-D80-D50

Now I am curious to learn about the IQ (i.e. high ISO performance). If its IQ is equal or even better than IQ of the D300 then I am seriously interested in this one as a 2nd body as a replacement/update for the D300s seems nowhere near.
 
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