Nikon D7000: Camera Road Test With Chase Jarvis

From Chase Jarvis

A while back I got call from the Nikon mothership which put the very first HDdSLR–the Nikon D90–into my hands months before the world had seen that technology. I won’t ever forget that experience. That little camera kicked off this whole craze of photo and video convergence that we’re swimming in today.

Well…low and behold, a few months ago I got another one of those calls from Nikon. “Chase-san. We have a new camera…” I love those calls. And so today I’m again excited to share with you another new camera that will get its moment in the spotlight next week at Photokina: the Nikon D7000.

There’s a feature list a mile long after the jump below, but the only data I cared about heading into this can be summed up in 4 lines:

_16.2 Megapixels. (CMOS sensor, DX format, 6fps)

_1080p full HD video. (24fps)

_ISO up to 6400 (pushable to 25,600)

_Magnesium alloy construction (read “pro quality”)

When an automaker rolls a new car off the assembly line, the first thing they do is call in a professional driver to “road test” that car. They’re armed with the basic tech specs, but the drivers aren’t overly saddled with capturing data and providing computer-style analysis. In reality they don’t care about that stuff. The care how the car feels.

In the very same way, I got to “road test” the Nikon D7000. This behind the scenes video (above), this short film Benevolent Mischief I got to make with the new 1080p HD video (below), and the still photos I shot after the jump tell my story of getting to play with this cool new camera.