D7000: handbook or video instruction? General advice?

[wayne gardner]

<p>First:Thanks to all who advised on warranty service in USA for D7000 bought in Copenhagen airport. I decided to wait until I returned from Finland. I bought a D7000 body only from Richmond Camera (Virginia) because in general I like to support local businesses, and Richmond Camera did not raise the price because of camera shortages from Thailand floods. NEX-7 to use Leica M lenses was appealing in theory, but NEX-7 nonavailability and belief that M lenses would work better with Leica M9 I don't have, influenced staying with Nikon digital.<br>

To supplement the Nikon handbook supplied with the camera, I heard Thom Hogan's D7000 handbook is excellent. I also found a video D7000 instruction on the Internet. Any recommendations? Or is the Nikon handbook good enough?<br>

I've been a photographer for over sixty years, so I understand basic photography and film-camera technology fairly well. Digital cameras are more like computers to me, however, and I would like to shorten the learning curve. I used a D70 until it thankfully died a few months ago (no longer accepts CF cards). D70 was OK except for the viewfinder I detested. D7000's is much better.<br>

Being red-green color deficient ("color-blind"), I took only JPEGs with D70, as I don't see colors well enough to trust myself to process raw photos. I reckon to do the same with D7000.<br>

I'll continue to use the D70 kit lens, 18-70mm, plus 50mm 1.8 that never worked on D70, 70-300mm, and 55-200mm VR; until I finally decide on another zoom lens for portraits and landscapes. Full-frame equivalent to 24-120mm would be nice, but on DX the choices are limited. 16-85mm gets good reviews, but I wonder if it is that much better than 18-70mm I have, disregarding VR.<br>

Thanks for any advice,<br>

S/F Wayne </p>

[martynas_photo]

<p>did you try Nikon's digitutor? I believe it covers all the major points pretty well<br>

http://www.nikondigitutor.com/eng/d7000/index.html</p>

[Matthew Brennan]

<p>Jumping from the D70 to a D7000 means taking on board quite a few more features and functions. I get a lot from the Thom Hogan guides. I have purchased one each for D70,200,300 and 700 and have never regreted the spend. Thom Hogan has excellent explanatory skills and is able to articulate purpose of functions, photo concepts etc. much better than the Nikon printed manuals. T.H. Guides = money well spent IMHO.</p>

<p>Can't really comment on the new DX lens range but I think the 18-70mm kit lens represents some of the best bang for buck glass Nikon has produced for digital backs.</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<blockquote>

<p>16-85mm gets good reviews, but I wonder if it is that much better than 18-70mm I have</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Basically, excellent summary of the situation! So, is it better? Yes and no. I used to have a 18-70, and now have a 16-85VR. The 16-85VR is a better lens, it's sharper at wide apertures, mine feels built better than the 18-70 I had, and the 2 extra millimeters at the wide end is really nice to have. VR is more useful than I expected for a lens this short. The loss in aperture at the long end (4.5 versus 5.6) is for me a bit a moot point; I kept the 18-70 at f/5.6 nearly always. The 16-85 performs about as well at that same aperture. So no big loss there either.<br>

I'd rate the 16-85 as an excellent landscape lens, for portraits it's not all that brilliant. As generic walkaround lens, it's really good.<br>

But the 16-85 is a bit expensive for what it is. It's not "better enough, I think, really a minor upgrade over the 18-70.</p>

[chris_letts]

<p>A couple of things:<br>

1. Much of the wording in most of the guides seems to relate to functions only relevant when shooting jpeg. I have a Hogans guide (D200) but found much of it not use as I only shoot in RAW. <br>

2. You say you will only shoot jpegs but that seems an awful waste of a good camera even if you have problems with colour !</p>

 

[owen_omeara]

<p>Mastering the Nikon D7000 by Darrell Young is excellent.</p>

<p>-O</p>

[owen_omeara]

<p>Mastering the Nikon D7000 by Darrell Young is excellent.</p>

<p>-O</p>

[robert_k1]

<blockquote>

<p>I get a lot from the Thom Hogan guides. I have purchased one each for D70,200,300 and 700 and have never regreted the spend. Thom Hogan has excellent explanatory skills and is able to articulate purpose of functions, photo concepts etc. much better than the Nikon printed manuals. T.H. Guides = money well spent IMHO.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>I cannot agree more. Unlike many other products that are little more than regurgitation of Nikon's manuals, Thom's eBooks offer in-depth explanations not found elsewhere. Unlike other authors who seem to be Nikon cheerleaders, Thom is frank in his criticism. Such as:</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p><em>The D200's autofocus system is actually very difficult to describe clearly. I've come up with a number of interesting observations and idiosyncrasies that are too elaborate for this review (obviously, they'll be in my eBook). Most of those derive from the fact that the AF sensors in the D200 are just much different than you'd expect from Nikon's description of them. First, there are only seven (not 11), though at least two of these apparently have multiple personalities, which is where the wide versus narrow AF area mechanism comes from. The shape of the sensing areas is also much different than you'd expect from Nikon's descriptions. This is almost certainly going to cause the all-automatic users some grief, as the AF system will do things they aren't expecting. However, once I finally tuned into the subtle differences the underlying AF part makes, I found my own focusing performance improved dramatically.</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Disclaimer: Aside from being a satisfied customer, I have nothing to do with Thom and his products.<em><br /></em></p>

[diane_madura]

<p>I thought David Busch's D7000 book was quite good.</p>

<p>http://www.amazon.com/David-Buschs-Nikon-Digital-Photography/dp/1435459423/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324512476&sr=1-1</p>