It’s incredible that nearly four years have passed since I picked up my Nikon D300. I’ve just sold away that much-loved camera, and the next owner remarked that I take incredibly good care of my equipment because that four year old camera still looked as good as new!
Though there still is a worldwide shortage of Nikon DSLR bodies – none of the five stores I checked here in Singapore had stocks of the D7000, nor any indications when it would be replenished – I got lucky with an online store here which imports camera equipment. The shop was pretty confident it would be able to acquire an export unit of the D7000, so I gave them a try by putting in an order for it a week ago. The order came through on Monday morning, and I’ve just picked it up. The unit I got too was absolutely straight-out-of factory with zero number of shuttle actuations – nice.=)
Funny story here too. The store also realized that there was a waiting list of customers all wanting this unit, and half-jokingly said that if I had not picked up my newly arrived unit quickly, they would sell it to someone else immediately!
How the D7000 fares as a DSLR has already been well-reviewed in many photography-enthusiast sites, so I won’t do a blow-by-blow analysis in this blog entry. Instead, I’ll just center on the specific things that matter to me and how the new D7000 compares to my old D300.
Better than D300
It’s lighter.
It’s smaller.
Next-gen sensor, so better low-light performance.
Worse than D300
It’s cheaper and feels exactly that. Not nearly built like the D300 tank. Some parts feel real plasticky.
Shuttle-release sound not quite as awesome – really!
Multi-selector/dial button feels stiff.
Fewer dedicated functional buttons and levers. I’m already missing the levers for metering and focusing.
Top control panel LCD is small – I was squinting at the digital readout.
Oh well. More notes and quips to come soon. At least the unit seems to work perfectly out of the box, and I have been able to get some nice shots of Hannah with her favorite game:
Allow me to expel a sigh of relief. I thought for a moment you might be done with DSLRs for good! It’s good to know I’m not the only one crazy enough to haul around these huge honkin’ cameras.
Is that your old battery grip attached to the D7000?
Never mind — I now see the MB-D11 battery grip’s box in the photo above. : )
Yeah it’s a different grip from the old D300. BTW; there’re apparently a lot of MB-D11 fakes sold online now, that there are web sites (even one from Nikon itself) documenting photographic comparisons between the fake and the genuine article. E.g.:
http://fstoppers.com/fakembd11
The MB-D11 here and Malaysia is – strangely – sold for a much cheaper price. Amazon lists it as USD259, but I got it for USD196, and it’s still the genuine article. Weird!