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Upgrade: D90 or D7000?

avro707 said:
To be honest, I don't think you should switch to Nikon.

Save your money up for a bit longer, and think of upgrading to EOS 1D4 body. In Australia, those are down around AUD$4200, and it's a heck of a lot of camera for the money, with brilliant AF and great low light performance. It's also really, really fast.
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I think a 1dmk4 is a great option, but it's almost 4X what my camera body costs alone. I think thats a little ambitious. If I have to buy a 4k dollar Canon body in order to get good AF and low light performance. Buy selling 3 items. I know a guy who sold 24-70L 70-200 f/2.8L IS II, 50L, 50 f/1.4, 430 EXII, 580 EXII, 100 Macro, 5dmkii, and t2i inorder to buy a d3s, 16-35 f/4 VR, 24-70, and 70-200 VR II. WHY?

Nikon's AF and low light performance out does Canon every day of the week. As well Nikon Zooms are quite amazing now compared to the meh, 24-70 and 16-35. Not to mention Nikon's new prime additions with G lenses.


Is it a hassle, yes? But is it worth it for the long run. I think so, but as of now 9 AF points that do nothing but make me switch to manual focus in low light ain't doing much for me. So I'll take a hassle and in the long run enjoy a company that seems to know what its customers care about.
 
I love it so far. Seems extremely responsive. Shot maybe 200 or so pics. I also really like the U1 & U2 user selectable preset program modes.

I already did the firmware update to address the hot pixel issue that some folks are reporting.
 
In the end, it is hard to argue against the newest and most expensive models of any mechanical device! In the world of technology, newer is almost always better. My car, computer, camera, plasma, receiver...you name it, are all a few years old now. Perfectly serviceable cuz I research what I buy and get stuff that lasts, but there is no doubt that new replacements would be better.

And I am sure that if I bought a new D7000 or whatever new FX comes out I would be a happier, if poorer, photographer. I swear my photos would be better.
 
twitchgreen said:
I love it so far. Seems extremely responsive. Shot maybe 200 or so pics. I also really like the U1 & U2 user selectable preset program modes.

I already did the firmware update to address the hot pixel issue that some folks are reporting.
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I have been learning with a new d7000 for a few days too. I have not applied the new firmware yet. I did notice I have literally hundreds of hot pixels. They are visible at iso 6400, 1/2 sec exposure, lenr off. I've been trying to establish if this number of hot pixels is normal before I apply the firmware update as I suspect after that I will be blissfully unaware of any problem. Actually, I will be aware of the problem but it will be masked by pixel mapping.
 
I got the D7000 about two weeks ago and loving it. I only had a D40 before this, so it's a significant upgrade. Used the D40 for 3+ years and wanted to upgrade badly.

I'm finding the low light performance to be great. In combination with my wide F1.4 aperture, I can take photos indoors in low light without much troubles. ISO6400 is very usable after removing some noise through some photoshop filters such as DeFine.

I haven't applied the firmware upgrade, nor noticed any hot pixels in any ISO except H1 and H2 (which is to be expected anyways).
 
NathanCH said:
I got the D7000 about two weeks ago and loving it. I only had a D40 before this, so it's a significant upgrade. Used the D40 for 3+ years and wanted to upgrade badly.

I'm finding the low light performance to be great. In combination with my wide F1.4 aperture, I can take photos indoors in low light without much troubles. ISO6400 is very usable after removing some noise through some photoshop filters such as DeFine.

I haven't applied the firmware upgrade, nor noticed any hot pixels in any ISO except H1 and H2 (which is to be expected anyways).
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Thank you for your feedback. I have found the low light performance to be great as well :) This, and the speed were the two most important things for me. I was a simple point and shoot guy before getting the D7000.

Could you please try the iso 6400 at 1/2 sec exposure setting and let me know your result? Take a low light photo in near black to total black conditions and zoom in. In my case, in an area about 1/16 of the total photo area I count an average of 32 or more hot pixels. So, extrapolating that to the entire photo suggests my total hot pixel count is more than 500 at this iso setting. Through trial and error I found that the 1/2 sec exposure made them most visible. 500 in 16 million doesn't seem too bad. Some of them are quite bright. The worst are red with a couple of them becoming visible in a photo at just one magnification level from normal.
 
Thanks for all (well most) of the responses. I will probably be going with the D90 for now, or maybe waiting to see if it comes down in price at all in the next month or two. I don't consider myself at all a pro or semi-pro photographer so I don't need the bells and whistles of the D7000, and like some said, future proofing is pretty impossible. My main purpose for the upgrade is to, yes, achieve better looking photos, as well as upgrading because of the lack of AF features on the D3000 and no Depth of Field preview button.
 
JuiceyJuice said:
Thanks for all (well most) of the responses. I will probably be going with the D90 for now, or maybe waiting to see if it comes down in price at all in the next month or two. I don't consider myself at all a pro or semi-pro photographer so I don't need the bells and whistles of the D7000, and like some said, future proofing is pretty impossible. My main purpose for the upgrade is to, yes, achieve better looking photos, as well as upgrading because of the lack of AF features on the D3000 and no Depth of Field preview button.
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Just a word of warning. Many of the D90s have Communication issues with lenses. Both of mine did with the lens that came with it. I had to reseat the lens to get it to AF again. When I sent it in for repair for a SD Slot issue, they fixed the communication issue while it was there.

Just wanted to make you aware of it. It irritated me when it happened as I was in a middle of a shoot and had to loosen the lens and tighten.
 
How about this ... and I'm just throwing it out there without an opinion as I don't know much about it.

There has been discussion about image quality being directly related to technique / photographer, etc - this I agree with. Back in the day when we all shot film, you could load Velvia in a brand new F100 with a crappy photographer; someone with a good eye and experience could make better images with a simple mechanical SLR from the 1970's. Same film.

However, does the new technology for the sensor play any role now? In effect, the D90 and the D7000 are not using the same "film" - resolution aside, I am sure there are other improvements as well. Does this make a difference?

Full disclosure, I got a D7000 for xmas from the wife and am loving it so far. Great upgrade from my D40X and old F100 / older film bodies.
 
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