Why I am thrilled with the D7000

Pupator

I took the D7000 to a minor league baseball game today. My only telephoto (while I save up for the 300 f/4) is the 70-300VR. At 300mm it can't go faster than f/5.6. So I'm on a crop sensor, with a slow zoom. Why bother taking it to a night game at all?

I'm not posting these pictures because they're great. I'm posting them because they're usable. Tomorrow I'll have time to post process and run them through noise ninja - what you're seeing are some of my default presets in LR. That includes some automatic exposure increase, which ups the noise. Again, these are nothing fantastic, but it's incredible to me that I got usable images at all.

Here are some examples:
1/640, f/6.3, ISO 2500


1/640, f/6.3, ISO 2500


1/640, f/6.3, ISO 6400

ziggy53

Very nice. Remember when ISO 1600 film could be pushed to ISO 3200 and people thought that was sumthin' special?

I do see some strong banding(?) at ISO 6400 on that one bottom image. What version of firmware are you running?

Pupator

That's the foul ball net. I couldn't get close enough to night to make it completely disappear. If you look closely at the first two there's vertical banding in them as well, but much less noticeable.

ziggy53

Pupator wrote: »

That's the foul ball net. I couldn't get close enough to night to make it completely disappear. If you look closely at the first two there's vertical banding in them as well, but much less noticeable.

Gotcha. Thanks.

catspaw

kick ass If I were looking to upgrade or become a more powerful photographer from something like the D90 or lower, I'd totally go for this camera. I've seen nothing but better than expected results from it. go Nikon!

Matthew Saville

ziggy53 wrote: »

Very nice. Remember when ISO 1600 film could be pushed to ISO 3200 and people thought that was sumthin' special

...I just wish they'd make another DX ~6 megapixel sensor, with even crazier low-light performance. I guess down-sampling the 16 MP files will have to do... ;-)

=Matt=

ThatCanonGuy

Those ISO 2500 images look like ISO 1000 images from my 1DII

I do see banding near the roof of the dugout on the last one. That may be a horizontal line of dark foul ball net that it's on, but it's still banding. Still, impressive ISO and very usable

Qarik

nice stuff..couple of things..the NR in LR3 is outstanding..way better then LR2..don;t know what version you are using but LR3 obsoletes stand alone NR programs. Alos if you can..stick to full stops on the ISO..200,400,800,1600,3200, etc. There is anecdotal evidence that full stops treat the noise a bit better then in between stops.

Pupator

Thanks Daniel, I'll give the full stops suggestion a try.

I do have LR3 but haven't had as much success with the results as in Noise Ninja. That's probably just because of familiarity with what settings and levels work. I'm open to suggestions...

Need2Ski

I to think the NR in LR3 is pretty darn good. I generally use it if I just have a little light noise that I want to smooth a bit. That said, I really like Topaz DeNoise. I think it really trumps LR3. You can adjust luminance noise and noise in the RGB, red, and blue channels separately. I've never used Noise Ninja, Neat Image, or any of the other solutions. The D7000 looks like a heck of a camera. Among APS-C cameras it seems to be the current leader with respect to high iso noise performance. Sensor technology has really made huge gains in this area in the last couple of years. Folks who never really worked with film don't have any idea how fantastic current technology is. I used to shoot lots of K25 and K64, often underexposed 1/3 stop, because of it's clean grain structure. ASA (iso) 400 films were definitely grainy. And when pushed to 800 or 1600 ...

Matthew Saville

Since I was originally a film shooter, I think grain can add to a photo, and usually the types of photos that require shooting at such high ISO's are the types of photos that benefit from it. So, as long as an image has enough *DETAIL*, I just use the default color noise reduction in LR or whatever program I'm using... (Bridge CS5 uses the same RAW engine, but without all the importing / cataloging nonsense, for smaller shoots that don't require extreme processing speeds...)

All in all, I too am very happy with the D7000 high ISO detail / image quality, in professional situations with proper exposure up to 1600 and 3200, or in casual situations with poor exposure at 3200 or 6400... Like I said before, as a professional I cannot wait to see if Nikon makes a D400 when they also make a D4. (due this August, with probably no more than a 3-6 month possible delay due to Japan's crisis...) And also, as a hobbyist, I don't care as much about a D400, I'd buy a D7000 today if I had the money, for general adventure and street photography. It's just an amazing "creative workhorse", as I call it. Not "flagship professional workhorse" to be sure, but the incredible functionality, (dual card slots, intervalometer, pop-up flash CLS, AIS and AF-D lens compatibility, etc.) ...and moderately rugged yet lightweight and compact construction, make it the PERFECT camera for many types of photographers.


=Matt=

Pupator

On the last trip I took I rented the battery grip for it as well. That makes it fit perfectly in the hand, really an incredible difference for comfort and balance. The bad news is that now I have to save up for a grip.