The Future Looks Bright

I’m very enthusiastic about the new Nikon D7000 D-SLR. I’m not going to buy one anytime soon, but like all the other cameras I can’t afford, I can still take possession of it, intellectually speaking.


As a good friend of mine and I speculated, technology will concentrate on improving the sensitivity of CMOS sensors, not necessarily increasing their pixel density. In the D7000, we get the of both worlds; a modest improvement in resolution, but more importantly, significant inroads to low-light capability. Two stops to be exact. That means every lens you own is now two stops faster.

But what is really significant about the D7000 is that it’s a DX format camera. It speaks volumes that the DX format is here to stay, and not just as an interim technology solution. And it pushes full-frame cameras further into the “medium format” realm.

Speaking of which, I always speculated that when it comes time to acquire a full frame DSLR (not a replacement for DX, but an addition to it) that the long-lived D700 would be in the running. It looks as though that will change to its successor, whatever that will be. But given the D7000’s improvement over the D90, that new camera is really going to be worth the wait. I have more FX lenses than DX lenses, so I’ll be ready.