Very interesting to see Tom's reviewing cameras.
I have a couple of minor issues with the D7 review.
First, the write speeds tested and shown are VERY dependent on the brand of flash card used and the version of the firmware in the camera. The speeds posted here are about the slowest speeds that could possibly be attained if you tried. Most people, with the new 121 firmware and major brands of flash cards (Lexar, Viking, Kingston, Ridata, Simple, PNY, CompUSA) and all brands of microdrives get RAW file write times of about 12-13 seconds, not the extremely long times shown here. Unfortunately the old Sandisk cards are very slow. It is like you tested a motherboard but put an old BIOS or slow CPU on it; it seems like in keeping with the Tom's traditon you would want to test the latest and what most people would be using. I think that the E-20 and CP5000 speeds are also affected by the brand of card used.
As a reference, see this page of flash card timings in the D7...
http
/webpages.charter.net/bbiggers/DCExperiments/html/dimage_flash_card_speeds.html
Note that most brands produce nice fast times.
Second, the battery life in the D7 is very dependent on having good batteries. Most people report good life (over 100 shots) with good batteries, the times reported here are abnormally short. Just because you have high mAH batteries does not mean that they are good under high current drain and that they are being properly charged. The problem with the D7 is it allows people to use any AA batteries in it, and it is quite possible to get batteries that don't work well. As references, see the battery life review on imaging-resources where smaller mAH batteries beat out higher mAH batteries...
http/www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/BATTS/BATTS.HTM
and this account of typical battery life in the D7
http/webpages.charter.net/bbiggers/DCExperiments/html/a_day_in_the_life___.html
Thanks, Bryan
I have a couple of minor issues with the D7 review.
First, the write speeds tested and shown are VERY dependent on the brand of flash card used and the version of the firmware in the camera. The speeds posted here are about the slowest speeds that could possibly be attained if you tried. Most people, with the new 121 firmware and major brands of flash cards (Lexar, Viking, Kingston, Ridata, Simple, PNY, CompUSA) and all brands of microdrives get RAW file write times of about 12-13 seconds, not the extremely long times shown here. Unfortunately the old Sandisk cards are very slow. It is like you tested a motherboard but put an old BIOS or slow CPU on it; it seems like in keeping with the Tom's traditon you would want to test the latest and what most people would be using. I think that the E-20 and CP5000 speeds are also affected by the brand of card used.
As a reference, see this page of flash card timings in the D7...
http
/webpages.charter.net/bbiggers/DCExperiments/html/dimage_flash_card_speeds.htmlNote that most brands produce nice fast times.
Second, the battery life in the D7 is very dependent on having good batteries. Most people report good life (over 100 shots) with good batteries, the times reported here are abnormally short. Just because you have high mAH batteries does not mean that they are good under high current drain and that they are being properly charged. The problem with the D7 is it allows people to use any AA batteries in it, and it is quite possible to get batteries that don't work well. As references, see the battery life review on imaging-resources where smaller mAH batteries beat out higher mAH batteries...
http
/www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/BATTS/BATTS.HTMand this account of typical battery life in the D7
http
/webpages.charter.net/bbiggers/DCExperiments/html/a_day_in_the_life___.htmlThanks, Bryan
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