What everybody said... With one exception - if you do a lot of work with live view, d7k is much better. I ended up using lv quite a lot for precision focusing with fast primes and d7k was much faster in all kind of situations.
I have to jump in this battle. When the D7K came out, I was intrigued by the affordable price point for higher res. So I jumped on it and got one. I like it so much that I sold my D700 and got 2 more D7K's. For the entire 2011 wedding season, I used D7K's for weddings and loved the results. I shoot at 6400 all the time and never had a complaint. I even blew a few images up to 24x36 and most recently a 30x60 that were shot on 6400 ISO. All looked good. If you know how to use light and know good post techniques for cleaning the images up, you are fine.
I will say, the AF on the D7K is not the D700 or D3 system, but it is still good and gets the hob done.
Some of the comments that you would "fee" for "professional" by having a d700 or better in your bag is a crap statement. if you need a piece of gear to feel professional then you either suck or are doing this for the wrong reasons. I will be glad to use ANY camera at a wedding. I most recently used a Fuji X10 and X100 at a wedding for ALL pre wedding shots and then for a lot of the ceremony too. I then used it for some of the formals we did later on too. Are those pro cameras? Nope! Did they give me pro results? Yep!
But back on topic. For some the D700 will be the camera of choice, for others it will be the D7K or something else. Find and use what works best for you and your workflow. Run with it and perfect it.
Buying a D7000 was part of my reason for getting out of wedding work. I had to own a D7000 for my day job. i coupled it with a D700 for weddings. The D7K was terrible for wedding work. Can't follow focus worth a darn and even the groups were hit and miss on focus. The focus is the worst part of this camera.
Skin tones aren't nearly as nice as the D700's. Just not a good wedding camera.
Carl Feather wrote:
Buying a D7000 was part of my reason for getting out of wedding work. I had to own a D7000 for my day job. i coupled it with a D700 for weddings. The D7K was terrible for wedding work. Can't follow focus worth a darn and even the groups were hit and miss on focus. The focus is the worst part of this camera.
Skin tones aren't nearly as nice as the D700's. Just not a good wedding camera.
you must had got a bad copy. all 3 of mine are spot on and follow focus just fine.
paparazzinick wrote:
you must had got a bad copy. all 3 of mine are spot on and follow focus just fine.
Must be one of those "it's all relative" things...
After all someone out there probably thinks the 5D or the 5D2 follows focus just fine... and maybe compared to that the D7K does kick major ass... but compared to the D700 it's definitely night and day.
Now of course that's not to say that I agree a D7K is unfit to shoot a wedding... Canon 20Ds were far less capable bodies and they were certainly fit to shoot a wedding.
I'm curious to know what your motivation to switch frm the D700 to the D7K was. Did you just decide that the resolution delta was worth more than the IQ delta given that under the vast majority of circumstances even if an IQ delta existed the D7K produced images that exceeded the "good enough" treshold?
That's something that really needs to be pointed out by the way... and I would caution anyone who might read some of our opinions here... With very rare exceptions the whole "Has better image quality" comments may be valid and totally irrelevant all at the same time. Kind of like... I'm pretty sure Ferrari puts out a couple of supercars right now. I don't know which of them is the TOP DOG but I'm sure that one of the two IS in fact top dog. And if you could drive them back to back constantly for a couple of days maybe you TOO would determine that the hardtop red one is faster and more agile than the convertible silver one. However both would be epic rides, normal peeps would NEVER know the freaking difference and if you want a convertible who the hell cares if it rounds the Nurburgring 1.2% slower than the hardtop one if it's still way faster than pretty much everything else on the road?
I love the D700 to me better IQ, focus, and FF. But the plus with the D7000 is the dual card slot and video if that matters to you but other then that D700 all the way. But the D7000 high iso isn't bad either just not as good as the D700.
This would be a great debate over a good beer or coffee and good piece of pie. Again, it is all personal pref. I love my D3. But most times I leave it at home or let me second use it while I rock my 7k's
Having both a D7000 and D700 I will shoot the full frame sensor of the 700 any day over the 7000. The D700 feels so much better to use, much more ergonomically friendly, nicer files, better low light, faster & better focus there is really no comparison!
700 vs 7k This issue has come up many times. Let me state first that I have both and i'm very unhappy with the 7k. Due to focusing issues. Now, I am aware that there are a lot of people out there that won't agree with me but, they did not receive the same camera that I did. After extensive testing and comparisons and two trips to Nikon repair the 7k still has focusing issues. What really surprises me is that after all of the complaints and cameras sent back for repair Nikon still seems to refuse to acknowledge that there is a focusing problem in this camera line. I have yet to see any other Nikon or Canon for that matter, receive any focusing complaints. Just one word of caution, if you are thinking about getting a 7k please test it out thoroughly before buying That may not be easy if your ordering it online but check out their return policy carefully.
Again, it is all personal pref. I love my D3. But most times I leave it at home or let me second use it while I rock my 7k's