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Nino Film Blog | March 28, 2024

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Welcome to the HDSLR game, Nikon! – D7000 unveiled

Welcome to the HDSLR game, Nikon! – D7000 unveiled

With today’s introduction of the Nikon D7000, Nikon finally shows that it seems to be serious about HDSLR filmmaking after all. It will be Nikon’s first DSLR offering full manual control in video mode and 1080p recording at the same time, both of which are essential to be able to use this tool professionally.

Nikon D7000 with battery grip

How does the Nikon D7000 specs compare to the Canon DSLRs?

Downsides

[EDITED Sept 16, 2010]
There are a few downsides here: It seems to offer only 24p in 1080p, but neither 25fps nor 30fps in 1080p – only in 720p you can record at either 30p (NTSC mode) or 25p (PAL mode). It’s still not sure if there will be separate versions for PAL and NTSC markets, but I think there will be only one version for both (also the Canons can switch between PAL and NTSC in the presets).
Recording at higher frame rates like 50p or 60p (necessary for slow-motion shooting) like with the Canon 7D, T2i/550D and 60D is unfortunately not possible.
The Nikon D7000 also doesn’t feature an articulated screen as its direct competitor, the Canon 60D. Also, looking at some details from the test videos (see below), I think the aliasing artifacts are quite bad with this camera as well.

Unaltered screen shot of Chase Jarvis' "Benevolent Mischief" at 100% (1080p YouTube video) showing quite heavy aliasing artifacts (likely no web compression issue)

Upsides

On the other hand there are a few upsides as well: The Nikon D7000 features a magnesium alloy body, much better than the polycarbonate body by the Canon 60D.
It also offers AF in video mode (not that I would ever use it, but it might prove useful for certain shooters on the more amateurish side), and there’s hope its high ISO rates are less grainy than on the Canon DSLRs. Why? Simply because the Nikon D3s has incredible low-light-performance, as proven with Zacuto’s incredible DSLR Shootout. If the D7000’s high ISO’s are just as good, this might make it a great and affordable second camera for those special low-light shoots.

Convergent photographer-turned-filmmaker Chase Jarvis has had an established relationship with Nikon for quite a while, so he was the first filmmaker to get his hands on the D7000 way ahead of its release. He shot a great little short film with it in low light, but I feel it’s a bit hard to tell if the low-light performance is particularly great as we don’t know which ISO’s were used.

Check out his blog for all the details on the test shoot.

Some technical details on the camera:

16.2 megapixels (CMOS sensor, DX format, 6fps burst mode)
1080p full HD video (24 or 30fps)
ISO up to 6400 (can be pushed to 25,600)
Magnesium alloy body

Here’s a quote from Chase Jarvis, taken from the comments section on his blog:

“generally i think 1600 is great. 3200 solid. 6400 passable in certain situations.”

Watch Chase Jarvis’ two videos, be sure to check out the HD versions:

As Andrew Reid from EOSHD points out, Nikon mentions in its press release that the camera’s electronics “remove distortion”, and rolling shutter is clearly less obvious in Charvis’ videos during quick camera movement like on comparable Canon videos.

Let’s wait and see, I hope to be able to get a review unit at some point. Nikon should better hurry up with releasing the camera though, as the Canon 60D is already among Amazon.com’s bestsellers in electronics – and it hasn’t even started shipping yet!

Check out my early take on the Canon 60D right here.


UPDATE with native still image from Chase Jarvis’ blog:
Chase Jarvis just posted a native (still) image at ISO 3200 directly from the D7000 – and it certainly looks much less noisy than Canon stills at ISO 3200 (or the noise is more acceptable)! Should look the same in video mode, I presume:

Native ISO 3200 still from Chase Jarvis’ blog – click on the photo on his blog to see at 100% or download.

Comments

  1. The aliasing looks very bad. I can’t believe there is no 60p… I find that very strange! So as a filmmaker why would I get this over the 60D?

    • So far, the only reason could be better high ISO performance …

    • Guido

      It’s a real shame…it’s a fantastic stills camera from the looks of things. I already have a couple of Nikon lenses that I could use on this.

      If Nikon only updated the firmware like Canon did with the 5DMkII I would be all over this…

      60D for film making, D7000 for photography..I want both!

  2. I watched it in HD.

    I would really like to see the aliasing issues on a very clean codec. I am not really disputing it, it is just that the supered graphics have similar artifacts at the edges for most of the time in each video.

  3. Welcome to the game Nikon. Let the fun begin.

  4. If the low-light capabilities work well on this camera it would be a great pairing with the T2i.

    Looking forward to your review.

  5. James Miller

    The aliasing is in a lot of places if you look for it. An example on the short film on the wide shot at 00:01:25 just before he starts spraying the van on the cable/wires under the street lamp (cyan, magenta shimmer).

    Also the footage looks soft as if USM with a high radius look, might just be the transcoding.

    Love to see 10 seconds of clean footage straight from the camera for download.

    HD Downloads from YouTube:
    Road trip: http://bit.ly/cVQyGH Short Film: http://bit.ly/cDQHpz

    • You’re right, it can be seen quite often, but it’s difficult to judge with the web compression.

      Your download links don’t work.

  6. James Miller

    Sorry, you have to alt click (mac) then check download manager.

    • Nope, sorry – tried that too. It’s only working for you because it’s in your personalized cache, it’s not working for anybody else. I deleted the links (see below).

  7. Jens

    From what I understand the D7000 can be set in both NTSC and PAL mode.
    In NTSC you have 24p and 30p and in pal you have 24p and 25p.
    Also 24p and 30p are true 23.976p and 29.97p.

  8. Ronan

    Bitch all you want, D7000 just beat the crap out of the Canon’s equivalent.

  9. Guido

    It’s better than the 60D in many respects (except video) but there is very little in the D7K that is better than the 7D, at least on paper. ISO performance is about the only thing that matters where the Nikon wins.

    It was a tough call for me. I wanted the Nikon but the video letdown and price gouging here in Australia have led me to the 60D, which I can now get for $1,000. The Nikon will cost me at least $1,500 (the same as the 7D) and that’s just not worth it for me. If I were shooting stills only, I’d go for the Nikon but since I really want to give video a go, it’ll have to be Canon.

  10. vladimir

    hi nino ,moje je ime vladimir ,prosle godine sam kupio nikon D7000 cameru, camera je odlicna!!, ali ja imam problem da razunem sve operacije jer je knjiga o instrukcijama na engleskom ,,da li mi mozes pomoci kako da dodem do prevoda na croatian jeziku, hvala unapred,, vladimir

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