How can/will the D7000 be upgraded?

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How can/will the D7000 be upgraded?

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in4fun

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@Mike
Ups, I didn't know you were that deep in the business.

My recommendation was of course not mend for serious pros, since we're talking about the D7000, so please forgive me.
My only experience with Tascam was with the 07 and in direct comparison with the HR-09 the 07 was too strong on the highs for my taste. Especially voices sounded more natural on the 09. Mind you that I only tested the factory settings without tweaking levels, so it's not a fair comparison really.
To lay my cards on the table, I do stuff for websites and such, so my needs are not that sophisticated as on your level and post production is still more fun than getting the job done on time.

Good to know we have guys like you on board in here ;)

Posted 1 year ago #
Mike Gunter

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Hi,

@in4fun,

There are plenty of folks more adept than me, just not many older. ;-)

I have done more teaching of post production (Adobe products) for college-level students and professional-materials producing folks, however, now I'm mostly retired.

While I prefer still work (it's how I started as Army photographer in the 60's), motion comes this way occasionally.

Tagging your audio with the Edirol is fine, but not monitoring as you go along is not a terrific idea. Any kind of handling noise, ambient noise - machine from a refrigerator or air conditioner, street or what not - could spoil your day. Depending upon your production, multiple takes will be boorish to sync up in post, too. Running a short or long shotgun to close proximity to the talent on a boom will decrease some of that by the nature of the focus of the envelop of the microphone's pickup. Monitoring it will also reduce the gain to it's best level, reducing the cutoff of unwanted background noise. While the Tascam 100 is small, a sound guy/gal can hold a boom, ride the pots and get good sound independently of the camera. For one scene, and not too many takes, that's not so bad (log "bests" and such). For many takes of an undetermined scene (many, many multiples of start and goes, of many scenes for long interviews), it's godawful.

The Tascam 100 has XLR phantom outputs, which powers the microphone which really helps. I don't know if the Edirol does or not.

In any case, Nikon did add an audio out on the D800, so they are aware that it is the right thing to do and fixed it on that model. I wish that they had used better judgment earlier.

As always, my very best,

Mike

Posted 1 year ago #
The Man From Mandrem

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Sorry to hijack or revisit this thread, but I was curious what people's thought (Mike for example) on Zoom H2 vs H2N vs H4N in combination with the D7000's mic jack for amateur recordings.

There are some comments on web about H2 low level noise at least with default settings or external mic. Since H2 is VERY cheap, very small; comes with a windscreen, I wonder how much functionality I would lose with that unit vs the more expensive Zooms. To put request in context, I'm mainly interested in documenting family and friend short snapshots for posterity, especially my kids and elderly relatives (both here in US and in India)and during long vacation trips, but my home speakers are very revealing (Ascend Sierra's if anyone's familiar with that brand). I have mainly been using D7000 on Bogen 561B, manually focusing AIS primes or Tokina zooms (116, 535). I am trying to keep additional investment low, so wondering how clean of sound I can expect from the Zoom if I take a little time to set the levels before recording. I am thinking to use the H2 closer to subject for interviews or use it to capture ambient and use a cheap Rode or Steinhauser (sorry if misspelled) probably shotgunon the camera and mix them for stereo or maybe 5.1. Don't expect concert-like volumes MUCH, though I would probably also want to capture street music, temple sounds, trains, other ambients (rain, lightning). Wondering how much I lose with the $100 H2 which I can also use for dictation and work vs. the additional functionality of the close to $300 (with windscreen) H2N/H4N. Again for amateur application.

Posted 1 year ago #
Mike Gunter

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Hi all,

@The Man,

I don't know too much about the Zooms, but it all depends upon how you want to use them and what their capabilities are.

If you want to set the up and forget them, you'll want to set a level that is convenient and things fall where they may or let automatic gain (nearly always a bad idea) do it's job.

For strictly amateur 'archival' or fun work, the cheapest should work fine. Even for professional work, it's how you work the tool that matters. For example, the H4N has phantom power that allows a shotgun mic on a boom pole so one could mic a pole and ride the potentiometer on the device and get terrific sound as if it were a top notch rig. It might not be the easiest thing, but it would work and get great sound. However, for casual use, an independent recording device, with the levels set fairly low, and the D7000 inputs also set to a 1 or 2 (you'd want to see how that works for you), would likely work just fine.

One more thing. You might trying to add a short shotgun mic to the D7000 with a shock mount and plug it into the microphone input. I use a AudioTechnia AT897 with a Rode Shock Mount. You can also get a Mic stand to put to your subject. This works fairly well.

I also have a JuicedLink box which is a preamp/mixer and works well.

The real Achilles' heel in any of this is not being able to hear exactly what is going on the video.

Hope this helps and my best,

Mike

Posted 1 year ago #
The Man From Mandrem

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Mike,

Anything that requires 2 people (like boom pole) is beyond my capabilities and would be hard to manage (My subjects know me well enough not to be surprised if my camera rig is absurd but if others are involved they will feel self-conscious as they start to pity : )
I WAS looking at shotgun in hotshoe shock mount for outdoor as you suggest (Rode vs Stennheiser, but will look at AT897 you mention). I planned to use the Zoom indoor close to subject with in-built mikes or with a Lavelier or use it outdoors for ambients.
From what you are saying it seems if I keep the level low enough I can get decent audio with this kind of setup (with some risk due to lack of monitoring).

Thanks! Your advise is very helpful as usual.

Posted 1 year ago #
jonnyapple

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I have the H4n and my little brother has the H2. Both are extremely capable. I bought it originally to record the reminiscences of my father-in-law, who had never talked much about his childhood until his three kids were moved out of the house.

I had thought to try the built-in mics of the H4n and buy some better microphones if they didn't work out. My main reasons for H4n over the H2 was the phantom power through the XLR inputs and the ability to record 4 tracks simultaneously. Frankly, I was so impressed with the quality of the built-in mics that I never ended up getting any other microphones.

The startup time is the only negative thing about the zoom h4n that I can think of (~10s). For my use, I probably would have been okay with the H2, and haven't tried the H2n, but it looks great, too.

Posted 1 year ago #
Mike Gunter

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Hi all,

@The Man, you're welcome, and I got the notion that you, like I, many times, are a one-man band playing many instruments.

And you're absolutely right, the trick is setting the levels low enough as not to peak out and over modulate, and just high enough to raise them in post in needed.

The on-cammera mic is nice for 'relatively' close audio captures, but not for all things. It has a 'newsy' feel and sound to it.

@Johnnyapple - In broad strokes, and that's where everything really gets distorted (if we want to stay with a tonal metaphor), using something like the H4N becomes really nice as it allows the use of professional XLR microphones with and also provides phantom power to them. That's nice. Sooner or later in any interview, one will want to set up a microphone on a stand or boom close to the subject, and if one is recording to a device, the device you'll want to record to will have XLR inputs with phantom power. I have other tools that work just as well or better, such as the JuicedLink box that has 4 powered inputs, each with discrete preamps and can mix them all into stereo channels. That's convenient for recording larger sound requirements such as a play or multiple speakers, anything where more microphones are necessary. Of course, it comes at a price that I can't really endorse for the average joe.

Naturally, you can also use a mixer board, I have a Beringer, with 16 inputs, for concerts, that go into another recording device. Again, how many concerts a year does one do for a living?

Ultimately, it's much, much easier if you lay your audio track on your video as you shoot. Always. A few tracks here and there aren't too heinous, but any project of size will take its toil on you in the edit bay.

When possible, attach a feed into the camera. And above all remember this, if the audio is separate to the camera, the camera's audio will be of paramount importance to synchronize the captured audio to the video. Make sure it's loud enough to hear on the camera and cue it with a clap and sync point. You should then be able to see the talent or assistant clap their hands (and hear it on the device's tract) and also match the wave forms on the audio tracks.

My best,

Mike

Posted 1 year ago #
MikeWhis

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I predict that D7000's replacement:
1. $100-300 more expensive
2. 24MP sensor
3. 14 bit
4. D800 video
5. Accepts screw mount lenses
6. D300s AF system
7. D4 metering system
8. D4/D800 auto ISO system
9. Slightly larger optical viewfinder
10. D4 LCD
11. Orientation sensor works with AF system
12. Similar or slightly better build quality
13. Same battery
14. Slightly larger body
15. Slightly different button/dial placement at the top and front of the body

I hope:
16. Articulating screen
17. Removal of top LCD

Posted 1 year ago #
E4tmonkieshyt

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It would be harder to weather seal the camera if they did put an articulating screen on the d7000 replacement.

Posted 1 year ago #
MikeWhis

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E4tmonkieshyt said:
It would be harder to weather seal the camera if they did put an articulating screen on the d7000 replacement.

Yeah, but I'd totally prefer slightly worse build quality than the loss of the articulating display. I use the articulating display for maybe just less than 5% of the time, but I have yet to need a better build quality compared to my little D5100. All I need is just it to withstand slight rain, snow, dust and sand, which my D5100 have been able to survive in all of those conditions, though I wouldn't wanna risk it that much. IMHO, it's more likely for my lens to die before my body in those conditions. The build quality of entry level lenses I have is not really good, ie the 18-55 and 55-200.

EDIT: Like what I said, I don't think there would be a articulating screen in D7000's replacement, but I hope there would be.

Posted 1 year ago #
Mike Gunter

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MikeWhis said:
Yeah, but I'd totally prefer slightly worse build quality than the loss of the articulating display. I use the articulating display for maybe just less than 5% of the time, but I have yet to need a better build quality compared to my little D5100.
...
EDIT: Like what I said, I don't think there would be a articulating screen in D7000's replacement, but I hope there would be.

Hi,

While I would like the articulating screen, too, I don't think I want to lose an iota of weather proofing or build quality - and I would use the articulating screen a lot.

Weather proofing and build quality, in Nikon's eye, likely beefs up the camera more and will make it a better value it the shutter box as well as the body. I guess I'm suggesting that _I think_ it's a trade off for a lot for a little, if the trade off is weather proofing and build quality.

You'd be sacrificing a terrific camera in order to have a so-so camera if you were in a position to make that bargain.

My best,

Mike

Posted 1 year ago #
MikeWhis

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Mike Gunter said:
Hi,

While I would like the articulating screen, too, I don't think I want to lose an iota of weather proofing or build quality - and I would use the articulating screen a lot.

Weather proofing and build quality, in Nikon's eye, likely beefs up the camera more and will make it a better value it the shutter box as well as the body. I guess I'm suggesting that _I think_ it's a trade off for a lot for a little, if the trade off is weather proofing and build quality.

You'd be sacrificing a terrific camera in order to have a so-so camera if you were in a position to make that bargain.

My best,

Mike

True.

Posted 1 year ago #
DaveyJ

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I bought another D7000 today as waiting for new replacements doesn't cut it when you have subjects we need to work on now. I agree with many of the thoughts for an upgrade. Problem is though when the replacement does come, and it WILL have an Expeed 3 processor which alone will make a huge difference, it will cost more$$. I would have preferred the older style lithium battery too. But for a combo that does good stills and video, it is worth the price now. Check TaoTeJared's list on intros. The D7000 is not new. For what it is worth I still use my D90 the most as it is what seems to get the 70-300VR zoom mostly for use. For fast subjects it is quite good. Sure like to see the 80-400VR redone. That current lens is too slowww. Good luck to all,
DaveyJ

Posted 1 year ago #