Nikon D7000 for Astrophotography

Folks familiar with trying to use Nikon DSLRs are probably aware of the so-called "Star Eater" effect that afflicts the cameras. This is where Nikon applies a form of median filtering against its RAW files, which has a tendency to remove finer details in astro images. Personally, I couldn't detect this in my Nikon D40 but maybe that's just me. The trick that "Nikonians" would use to get around this was the so-called "Mode 3" trick: take the image, then when the camera starts its noise reduction routine, you turn the camera off and it saves a pure RAW file.

Anyway, some analysis has been done on the Nikon D7000, and it looks great. Check this post on the DPREVIEW.COM forums which shows a comparison between the D7000's image processing algorithm and the algorithm used in other Nikon models prior to the D7000. It shows that the 'star eater" phenomenon is no longer an issue! The simulated star in the image remains intact, whereas in the previous algorithm sample image it does not. This bodes very well for those folks interested in using this camera for astrophotography. I am already very impressed with the quality of the astronomical images I have taken using this camera, and now have a little extra confidence that I am not losing any real detail.

To see what I have been able to achieve using the D7000, look here.