Some questions from a new d7000 owner

[laffles]

Hi there, great site here

I'm a digital illustrator/graphic designer and have been wanting a good DSLR for a while, so yesterday I took the plunge and bought the d7000 18-105 VR Kit as there was a weekend deal on a website with a load of free goodies, so it was slightly impulsive too (though I have read alot of reviews about it, even though I don't fully understand half of the stuff it does ) it should arrive tomorrow.

I'm starting to think maybe it was sliiiigtly overkill, for what I need. I usually collaborate with photographers or use stock imagery for my work, I purchased the camera so I can do everything myself..

here are some examples of the kind of thing I do to give you an idea:






My questions:

What's the print quality like with top quality Jpeg settings?

Is the 18-105 lens fine to keep me going as a noob?

What are the downfalls with the kit lens, and what are some good points about it?

What would be a good lens to buy next, an all round lens, I will be doing fashion shots to environments, buildings, cars etc..

What are some things things a newbie should know about this camera..

Sorry for all the questions, I really appreciate it if you've read this far, would love some help, thanks.

Dan

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[480sparky]

........... I usually collaborate with photographers or use stock imagery for my work, I purchased the camera so I can do everything myself..

Don't burn that bridge just yet. It's gonna be a while before you can 'do everything yourself'.


A long while.

[laffles]

hm, yes I'm not expecting to be an expert photographer at all, it's just my reason for purchasing the camera.

Thanks for the informative post, much appreciated.

[480sparky]

To answer your questions:
What's the print quality like with top quality Jpeg settings?

Depends on the camera settings you shoot with. If you shoot Basic Jpeg, Small image, you're gonna end up with something good for a Facebook Profile image, but not much more. I shoot Raw/14-bit and convert to Jpeg in PP.

Is the 18-105 lens fine to keep me going as a noob?

For now, probably. Not sure what your need are other than possibly needing a macro lens.

What are the downfalls with the kit lens, and what are some good points about it?

Con: It's a kit lens, not the best. Variable aperture through the zoom range. Pros: It will get you going, lightweight & a usable zoom range.

What would be a good lens to buy next, an all round lens, I will be doing fashion shots to environments, buildings, cars etc..

Fashion might need a prime 50 or 85mm lens, environment/buildings/cars will need something wider than the 18.

What are some things things a newbie should know about this camera..

Start slow. Practice makes your work better. You'll make mistakes... don't worry about them, that's how you learn.

[laffles]

thanks for the post, slightly less condescending, which is nice.

I was wondering what the print quality would be like with the top quality Jpeg settings I understand Raw is much better and alot of photographers turn their nose up at Jpeg, but as my work is mainly printed on cd covers/a5 flyers and sometimes A3, as long as the images are @ 300DPI, Jpeg should be fine, and I can fit more on the SD card

Thanks for the tips :]

[480sparky]

I think you'll find image quality isn't an issue at those sizes. I've run jpegs up to 36x48 from my old D60.

[flatflip]

I am not a pro but I've had my D7000 several months and love it. I shoot in the highest quality jpeg and it makes great prints. Maybe when I learn more about photography I'll switch to raw.

You will enjoy the 18-105. Pros; it has a nice range and makes decent - good images. Cons; After using a $200 35mm f1.8 and a $125 50mm f/1.8 the 18-105 doesn't seem as sharp or fast. You should probably get an economical prime too. Check out a lot of shots at f/2.8 for reference. A popular zoom lens is something like a 17-50 f/2.8 . I hope to get something like that one day. By doing some test shots at f2.8, you will have an idea if a 17-50 f/2.8 is gonna be fast enough for you.

[Propsguy]

I purchased a D7000 a couple of months ago to augment my studio gear... it really is a fantastic camera. You'll find the kit lens fine at first, but I highly recommend using high quality glass with the D7000. I found my D90 had better general image quality when compared to the D7000 if the captures were taken using the 18 - 105 VR (at identical settings, but with my 24 - 70 2.8, or any of my primes, the D7000 leaves the D90 in the dust, and actually, at least in studio (as per my experience), it's better than the D300s...

A couple of reasonable primes will make your camera sing...

Have fun with it...

Paul

[KmH]

The most important thing a newbie needs to know about the Nikon D7000 is where it's Users Manual is.

The D7000 has many useful features and functions, and they are all described in the manual. Read it through, cover-to-cover with the camera right there so you can compare the users manual to it.

[enzodm]

thanks for the post, slightly less condescending, which is nice.

I was wondering what the print quality would be like with the top quality Jpeg settings I understand Raw is much better and alot of photographers turn their nose up at Jpeg, but as my work is mainly printed on cd covers/a5 flyers and sometimes A3, as long as the images are @ 300DPI, Jpeg should be fine, and I can fit more on the SD card

Thanks for the tips :]

Most people prints from JPEG anyway, but starting from RAW. One reason for shooting RAW is not quality alone, but the fact you have better opportunity to work with when postprocessing. Do not hope your images will be often good straight out of camera. Since you are doing graphics work, starting from RAW will simply give you some more freedom.