D7000 Oddities

LRC · May 9, 2011

I just received my Nikon D7000 and a camera with this many features is new to me. Working through the basic setup, two things spooked me immediately. First, shutting the camera off leaves scraps of information on-screen in the top display which seems kind of sloppy for such a sophisticated camera. And second, the two button card format sequence works instantaneously, which is great, but formatting from the set up menu doesnt work at all. Since software is such a big part of these devices now [my last Nikon was a 35m film camera many years ago], should all new users go to the Nikon website and download the latest firmware before doing any elaborate setup? Has anyone else experienced these issues?

480sparky · May 9, 2011

Not sure what you mean by "leaves scraps of information on-screen...." Perhaps you could use another camera to take a pix and post an example?

Never had a problem formatting, although I've not a fan of the two-button option.

Judobreaker · May 9, 2011

Formatting seems fine for me.
As for the scrap information: Some of the information on the top display stays there even if the camera is turned off (I think one of them is the estimate of how many photos can still be taken on the card).
That doesn't really bother me though...

Bynx · May 9, 2011

I have a Mac computer and so far I cant get the Mac to recognize the SD card. It wouldnt recognize it either before or after I formatted it with the camera. So how do I load the new firmware if it cant be read?

LRC · May 9, 2011

Judobreaker said:
Formatting seems fine for me.
As for the scrap information: Some of the information on the top display stays there even if the camera is turned off (I think one of them is the estimate of how many photos can still be taken on the card).
That doesn't really bother me though...

Thanks, [and to Sparky who also replied]. The manual does indicate that the info left on-screen is the number of photos remaining, so I'll plead laziness with that one [I guess I have to read the manual after all] but the setup menu format doesn't erase photos on the card so I'm assuming it's not working. The two button format wipes the slate clean as it should but the set up menu format doesn't. I'm going to be embarrassed if there's some simple thing I'm overlooking but even checking the instructions [which shouldn't be necessary for such a basic function] the format obviously is not happening from the setup menu, only with the two button procedure. l can work with this, of course, it just concerns me that only one method works. Later I expect to have much more interesting questions about what this camera can do.

480sparky · May 9, 2011

Judobreaker said:
Formatting seems fine for me.
As for the scrap information: Some of the information on the top display stays there even if the camera is turned off (I think one of them is the estimate of how many photos can still be taken on the card).
That doesn't really bother me though...

If you're referring to the display screen on the top.... that's normal.

Propsguy · May 9, 2011

If you have two cards in at the same time, you can pick which one is formatted when formatting from the menu... you have to format the cards independently. So if you format one card, you will still be able to review images from the second card, but the first one is, in fact, formatted.

OrionsByte · May 9, 2011

I always use the two-button format, but just for grins I decided to go through the menu just now. It worked just fine, so I'm not sure what the problem you're having is. You go to the setup menu, choose "Format memory card", choose Slot 1 or Slot 2, and it says that all photos on that card will be erased, and is that okay. Choose yes and... boom, formatted.

Are you missing one of those steps somewhere?

And yes, read your manual, even for the simple stuff, because you may be missing something important.

480sparky · May 9, 2011

OrionsByte said:
..............Are you missing one of those steps somewhere?..........

One that I know of.... once you get to where it says "All images on memory call we be deleted-OK?", you need to scroll to "Yes", It defaults to "No" on this screen, so simply pressing OK without scrolling to Yes will not reformat the card.

KmH · May 9, 2011

LRC said:
but the setup menu format doesn't erase photos on the card so I'm assuming it's not working.

For what it's worth, nothing ever gets "erased" from a flash memory card, it only gets over-written.

When a card is formatted, among some other tasks the File Allocation Table (FAT) in the card controller is updated to indicate that all memory storage addresses can again be written to. Whatever image data was on the card before is still there on the card after it is formatted, but the card controllers FAT no longer knows which memory location addresses correspond with the begining and the end of eachof those image data files.

Bynx · May 9, 2011

There is a misunderstanding. My Mac wont recognize an SD card. When the camera is plugged into the Mac by way of USB Nikon software comes up and wants to download any pictures. Thats ok. But to upgrade the Firmware for the D7000 I have to get the new update on the SD card. Then from the SD card it will go into the camera. I have a couple of USB SD card readers but one does nothing and the other has the Mac giving a window saying it doesnt mount the device --- Eject or Initialize. I am not concerned except how do I get the new firmware into the camera?

ultimadrift · May 10, 2011

My only gripe about the D7000 is the low continuous burst of only 10 frames of RAW

OrionsByte · May 10, 2011

Bynx said:
There is a misunderstanding. My Mac wont recognize an SD card. When the camera is plugged into the Mac by way of USB Nikon software comes up and wants to download any pictures. Thats ok. But to upgrade the Firmware for the D7000 I have to get the new update on the SD card. Then from the SD card it will go into the camera. I have a couple of USB SD card readers but one does nothing and the other has the Mac giving a window saying it doesnt mount the device --- Eject or Initialize. I am not concerned except how do I get the new firmware into the camera?

I'm assuming the camera takes pictures properly, and stores them on the card properly - otherwise you wouldn't be able to download them to your computer via direct USB cable or otherwise. So I'm assuming everything's working fine as far as your camera is concerned, and it sounds like the problem is with your USB card reader.

Does the reader recognize the card properly when there are pictures on it? In other words, are you only having this problem after you've formatted the card, or is it always a problem?

Ginu · May 11, 2011

Bynx said:
There is a misunderstanding. My Mac wont recognize an SD card. When the camera is plugged into the Mac by way of USB Nikon software comes up and wants to download any pictures. Thats ok. But to upgrade the Firmware for the D7000 I have to get the new update on the SD card. Then from the SD card it will go into the camera. I have a couple of USB SD card readers but one does nothing and the other has the Mac giving a window saying it doesn't mount the device --- Eject or Initialize. I am not concerned except how do I get the new firmware into the camera?

This might sound a little dull but how old is the MAC? and how big is the SD card?
I ask this because I've experienced something similar with my cards and wife's laptop which is a little older. If the laptop is older and the SD card is bigger than 2GB , then it means your SD card reader drive is not HC(high capacity). This can also happen to your SD external card reader (I have one of those and its useless now).

I have a older external Card reader and again it will not read any SD cards over 2GB. If this is your issue than I would suggest buying a high capacity SD card reader (make sure it says HC on it) and try again. My laptop which is an i3 and a few months old has no issues reading any SD card (I have a nice collection, about 10, from 1GB up to 16GB SD cards).

Plugging the camera directly in the MAC and using the Nikon software will most likely work since the software knows how to read high capacity SD cards.

Hope this helps.

Bynx · May 11, 2011

I think you solved the problem. Both card readers I have are older models. Ive had them for a while but just never had to use them. Its a new mac mini and the cards in the camera are both 4Gig. I will do as you suggest and pick up a new card reader and see if that works. Thanks very much.