Derrel...
I have been looking at info on the D7000 for an hour or so now and I got to say, its the kind of body that will make you want to change systems lol.
I do love my 7D though, and am looking forward to what the 5D mk III will bring...
If people ask me whats a good camera to start out with, I will probably be saying the D7000 for now at least.
Neil
Yeah..the system-changing bodies...those DO come along every so often. You might want to talk to Buckster about the 7D versus 5D-II issues...he has some insight into that entire issue. No doubt, the Nikon D7000 looks like a VERY good performer for $1199...it's a "new generation" enthusiast's camera from Nikon...Nikon works very hard to produce what its executives think is the best camera body that they can make for a particular segment of the market, and then they allow that body to maintain its position in the lineup for a reasonable length of time, until they can really out-do the model with its follow-up model. The switch from the D90 to the D7000 is sort of a tip-off that the D100-D70-D80-D90 lineage has been ended...this is a new era for Nikon. The Canon 20D was a similar model for Canon, as was the original 5D--both of those Canon models got a LOT of wedding shooters to drop Nikon in favor of Canon, as well as thousands of hobby shooters.
Periodically, one camera maker will develop a really new, better, or different product. Or will incorporate a LOT of advances, such as moving the D90 class from 11-area AF to 39-point AF and a brand-new AF module with over 2x the number of color-measuring sites, to be able to do follow focusing via color-awareness, or the way the D200 model introduced Ai- and AI-s lens metering compatibility AND the PRO-level 51-point autofocus, not the 11-point or 5-point AF of the prior models in the same class. The D7000 apparently looks, and feels, and behaves much more like a D300s, and statistically, it has passed the D300s in several metrics.
A few years ago, Canon was clearly ahead of Nikon in camera sensor performance. I think the pendulum has swung the other way now. As far as the 5D Mark III--Canon needs to do some serious thinking there...they need a better-focusing better-handling, better-designed body in their lineup...the 5D is a $359 EOS Elan with a $2,000 sensor in it...I think the 5D-II's successor body needs to be up-specified a bit more, with better autofocusing coverage, faster frame rate, and a few other tweaks. I kind of think the 5D line will end with the Mark II, and a new model will be introduced, featuring some of the higher-tech features, like color-aware light metering, wider-area AF system, and so on.
I think a lot of the new Canon efforts, like upgrading the light metering to measuring color of subjects will help get better exposures and better flash results, and I think the 7D's advancements will sort of form the basis for the 5D-II's successor model.