Nikon D7000 Rewrote the Nikon DSLR’s History!

Nikon‘s DSLR history, though is not long,  has made a significant contributions to today’s digital photography era. Nikon have introduced many ‘First’ in the DSLR history in terms of new digital technologies and image quality. Let’s check back some of the ‘First’ histories of Nikon (most were also first in the DSLR market as well!)

1. In 1986, Nikon revealed a prototype analog electronic still SLR camera, the Nikon SVC, a precursor to the digital SLR.
2. In 1991, a modified Nikon F3 SLR body was modified by Kodak and released it as the first commercially available 1.3 MP digital SLR, the Kodak DCS-100 (cost USD30,000 at that time!), with modified drive unit, and an external storage unit connected via cable.
3. In 1999, Nikon announced the Nikon D1, the first DSLR to truly compete with, and begin to replace, film cameras in the professional photojournalism and sports photography fields.
4. In 2006, Nikon released its first entry level 6MP DSLR, D40. Selling at USD500 at introduction, D40 was the least expensive DSLR in the market from a reputable manufacturer. Nikon had successfully open up a new low price range for DSLR and closed the price gap between DSLR and consumer Point-and-Shoot compact’s. It was the camera that many photography hobbyists started to change shooting digitally instead of film.
5. In 2007, The D3 announced. D3 is Nikon’s first full-frame digital SLR. Full frame DSLR’s sensor’s size is resembling the film size, which is 2.34x bigger than the APS-C cropped sensors (in terms of area).
6. In 2009, Nikon released the D90, first DSLR to feature video recording. Since then all other major companies (including Canon and Sony) offer DSLR cameras with this functionality.

Wait. From 15th September 2010, ever since the Nikon D7000 has been announced, the Nikon’s history book has to be rewritten! Many top features in Nikon DSLR has now been upgraded and Nikon D7000 has them all! Let’s take a look:

1. The highest pixel count in Nikon DX-format DSLR used to be 12.3MP in D300s. It is now replaced by the the new 16.2MP CMOS sensor in D7000. It is also the second highest in all Nikon’s DSLR where the flagship mdel, D3x still hold the reign.
2. The top 1,005-pixel RGB sensor for metering and colour balance used in D3x and D300s is now doubled in D7000! D7000 uses the top of all range (also top of all manufacturers) 2016-pixel RGB sensor to assess the exposure metering as well as White Balance. Look at the photo below. This is exactly what I saw in my eyes in terms of colour and exposure and D7000 captured it perfectly!

1. The history D90 made 2 years ago in introducing video recording is now being re-written by D7000 (even by D3100 at the same time). D7000 is Nikon first 16MP DSLR to be able to record Full HD video in 24fps!
2. The history of difficulties in recalling user settings in D300s has now being rewritten. Photographers are now able to store their preferred shooting options such as Picture Control, White Balance, exposure mode and so on, into 1 of the 2 User Mode (U1 or U2) in D7000, and recall them instantly by simply rotate the mode dial on top of Nikon D7000!
3. This is totally new in Nikon DSLR history. D7000 has 2 options of Auto White Balance control called AWB1 and AWB2. AWB1 is now so accurate (with the help from its 2,016 segments colour sensor) that all white colour would appear white under whatever lighting source, including tungsten or warm halogen lighting. So Nikon has added another AWB2 options to users that too used to old WB technology to retain the old yellowish rendering of white under such warm lighting. Brilliant!
4. The ability to shoot photos easily and safely by using pre-set Exposure Modes is sometimes too safe to advanced users. D7000 has it re-written! Now users can even shoot High-Key or Low-Key photography by simply switch to the desired Pre-set Exposure Mode, to either boosting or lowering the key tone exposure!, and
5. Last but not least, D7000 is Nikon 1st DSLR to have double slots for SD memory cards. Unlike the D300s that having 1 Compact Flash and 1 SD, users can now use 2 SDXC (can store up to 2TB instead of 32GB in SDHC!) in D7000. Users can also assign the 2nd slotted card as back-up, flow over from 1st slotted card or for Video files! Excellent!
6. A good news for Arabian and Thai, D7000 has 22 languages with both Arabic and Thai selectable as their menu language. Hooray!
7. UPDATED: I just found out that D7000 is Nikon first DSLR (Just realised D300s has it already 🙂 ) to implement Auto ISO on flash photography as well! It raises ISO in flash mode (instead of a fixed preset ISO) whenever the background is dimmer than your object in front so more background ambient lighting will be captured instead of a dark background! This alone has made D7000 the most intelligent Nikon DSLR ever!

Can you imagine? Nikon D7000 scored 7 ‘First’ in Nikon DSLR history! It is perfect on paper. But how does it perform in real life photography? I’m writing a hands-on review on D7000. I will explain all the above features in real life photo shooting with my little experience gained from my previous photographic travel. Until then… –Travel Feeder, the ultimate travel photo blog.

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.