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Most of the Nikon D7000’s key functions and settings that are changed frequently can
be accessed directly using the array of dials, buttons, and knobs that populate the cam-
era’s surface. With so many dedicated controls available, you’ll find that the bulk of your
shooting won’t be slowed down by a visit to the vast thicket of text options called Menu-
land. That’s a distinct paradigm shift from early point-and-shoot cameras, which had
only four or five buttons, and relied on menus to control virtually every setting you
might want to make. With the D7000, you can press specific buttons dedicated to image
quality, white balance, ISO sensitivity, shooting mode, exposure compensation, and
playback options, and then spin a command dial or make adjustments using the multi
selector.
While it might take some time to learn the position and function of each of these con-
trols, once you’ve mastered them, the D7000 camera is remarkably easy to use. That’s
because dedicated buttons with only one or two functions each are much faster to access
than the alternative—a maze of menus that must be navigated every time you want to
use a feature. The advantage of menu systems—dating back to early computer user inter-
faces of the 1980s—is that they are easy to learn. The ironic disadvantage of menus is
that they are clumsy to use.
Imagine that you are familiar with digital SLRs in general, but know virtually nothing
about the Nikon D7000. You’ve decided that you want to format the memory card.
A-ha! There’s a big ol’ MENU button on the left side of the camera. Press it, and you’ll
see a series of different menu icons, which, when you scroll through them, have titles
like Playback menu, Shooting menu, Custom Settings menu, and Setup menu. You
might guess that the Setup menu is the likely repository for a Format command, but
even if you guess wrong, it takes only a minute or two to check out the other menus
and discover the Format command tucked away within the Setup menu. A couple more
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Nikon D7000 Roadmap