Yesterday Nikon announced their newest DSLR camera, the Nikon D7000. What’s unique about this camera is that when shooting video in full HD, the camera has full-time auto-focus, which means as you shoot video, the camera will do all of the focusing for you. Up until now, auto-focus hasn’t been available in DSLR cameras…at least not when shooting full HD.
The D7000 is a mid-range camera (not the cheapest, not the most expensive) with an expected price tag of $1,200 for the body only model. It does have an external microphone jack and allows you to edit video clips directly in the camera. It will also shoot pro-quality still photos and uses dual SD memory cards.
While Nikon cameras haven’t received the same love for their video quality that Canon cameras have, the D7000 does up the bar with the new auto-focus feature. It does not however have a swing-out viewfinder like the new Canon D60 (then again, the Canon D60 doesn’t have auto-focus in video mode).
The D7000 is expected to be available in mid-October. If you’d like to see head to head video tests of Canon vs. Nikon cameras, an excellent demonstration is here.
WOW! I was amazed a how the boundaries between traditional film and digital film have blurred in the past few years. It was really eye opening to see the side-by-side comparisons of the different cameras and tests. I was also amazed to see the detail and color that was present and missing in the different tests — the enlarged test, the color test and the green screen — all were a good test. It was also interesting to hear the different viewpoints of the film makers, and the post-processing guys — the teckie guys agreed on a lot of the points the creative guys made.
That was a well spent 34 minutes…
I guess I’ll have to pick a point in time and jump off and invest in some new photo gear and processing equipment and hope for the best!
Jeff