I recently had the opportunity to test drive the Nikon D7000, and in a word:  Wow!

The D7000 is Nikon’s latest consumer DSLR.  It includes a 16.2 megapixel CMOS Nikon DX format sensor (1.5x crop) and is capable of shooting up to 6 frames per second. It shoots video at 1920 x 1080 24fps, and has twin SD (SDHC/SDXC) card slots.  The latter is a great feature – you can configure the camera to separate JPEG and RAW files or JPEG and movie files onto separate cards, or use the second to just keep shooting.  I personally would prefer the larger and more sturdy CF cards, but SD has become the standard for consumer cameras, and the ability to simultaneously shoot JPEGs and RAW files to separate SD cards has definite advantages should one card fail.

Shown with Nikon 18-105 included in kit bundles. Full specifications are here.

Compared to my D200, I found the D7000 small and light. The live view (though the LCD) feature made some types of photography easier.  The autofocus was fast, accurate, and responsive. But the dramatic difference was in low light capability. With a fast lens, I found myself shooting without flash indoor and outdoors at night.

In the end, image quality is what counts, and images from the D7000 were superb. The D7000 takes image quality to a new level.  Ken Rockwell calls the D7000 “Nikon’s best DSLR ever.” Taking into account its $1200 price tag, I agree.

Added Oct 2011:  The Nikon D7000 appears on our new recommended cameras page.

Added Nov 2011: I purchased a Nikon D7000 and Nikon’s new 35mm f/1.8 DX lens. They make a great lightweight combination.

During the summer Kodak was kind enough to lend me a Playsport to test out for a two-week camping trip. The Playsport is a light-weight, pocket-size HD video (and still) camera that is waterproof to 3 meters.

The Playsport features a 5 megapixel sensor and shoots video at WVGA, 720p and 1080p through a fixed focus lens that works out to a 35mm equivalent of 36mm for stills, WVGA, and 720p and a 48mm equivalent for 1080p.  It offers 30 frame per second on all video modes plus an additional 60fps mode at 720p. The lens is a fixed focal length, but it does offer a 4x digital zoom and electronic image stabilization. It has 128MB internal memory, but is primarily designed to shoot directly to a SD or SDHC card. And finally, it has a built in mono microphone and speaker for playback, USB 2.0, AV out, an HDMI connector, and accepts a standard 1/4” tripod mount.

But enough of the technical specs. The PlaySport is the most fun video camera I’ve ever had the pleasure of using. I used it in the truck, in the trailer, in the pool, and it spent several hours in the ocean off of Cape Cod tethered to my wrist.

Like all other cameras in the pocket video class, it’s easy to criticize the lack of optical zoom, fixed-focus lens, or the fact that the audio can get a bit strange sounding when the microphone is wet. But I kept coming back to, “It costs $160 and it’s waterproof.”  I own an expensive video camera, and I wouldn’t take it to the beach for fear or getting a few grains of sand in the mechanism. But there I was, playing with the kids in the ocean surf and shooting video clips.  I shot mostly at 720p to balance quality with file size, and I was pleased with the results.

When it came to uploading a few clips to YouTube, it was also a breeze because the Playsport produces H.264 .MOV files that can be directly uploaded, no editing or re-encoding required.

The bottom line:  Two weeks with the Playsport changed the way I see personal video – from expensive and fragile to something really fun I could carry with me all the time. If you’re looking for an easy-to-use digital video camera that you can take anywhere, look no further. Highly recommended.

Choosing a camera is tough. Choosing a camera for someone else is even tougher. So with Christmas on the horizon, we’ll help you wade through the sea of cameras at your local retailer and narrow down the choices to a more manageable number.

The key to choosing a camera is to consider it a tool. Your challenge is not to find the perfect camera because it doesn’t exist. Instead, we’re looking for the best tool for the job. So to begin, we’ll divide the digital camera marketing into three categories: Pocket, Compact and SLR.

Continue reading →

The main complaint I had about the Canon G7 is that it didn’t support shooting RAW.  Apparently Canon was listening.  According to their recent announcement, they have reintroduced RAW mode in the G9.