Looks like the D7000 has a replacement... D7100

[D70FAN]

Looks like the 24MP DX replacement for the D7000 (and D300(s)) will be arriving shortly.

24.1MP DX sensor.
3.2 inch LCD
Built in HDR
51 point AF
1.3x crop mode w/7fps

$1200 Body Only.

Basically the DX version of the D600.

[Falconest174]

Cool! Can't wait.

[tim11]

Another cool feature:
"1.3x Crop Mode – In the newly employed 1.3x crop mode reduces the effective sensor size to 18.8mm x 12.5mm. The consequence of this is a reduced resolution from 24.1 to 15.4 megapixels, but the advantage is that the focal length of your lens is essentially doubled. In 1.3x Crop Mode, your 70-200mm lens turns into the equivalent of a 140-400mm (35mm equivalent) telephoto zoom."

My 70-300 can now reach to 600mm!

[Falconest174]

Mine, too. And my 150 Macro becomes a 300. If I read it right, that won't effect the aperture either,the macro will still be an f2.8. Seems to good to be true though. Any optical experts have a definitive answer? The more I read the more this looks like a good buy. DPR (Not our DPR but the photo site ) has a nice Preview on the 7100 with quite a bit of detail.

[K1W1]

As far as I understand all the 1.3x crop factor is is the same as the old "digital zoom" from point and shoots updated. All they are doing is electronically cropping the sensor area to a smaller central part of the image. By doing that you will generally be using the sharpest part of the lens and because of the sheer number of pixels in sensors these days there are still plenty to work with as far as image size is concerned.
The caveat will be the quality of the lens and the ability to focus correctly. A crap lens will result in even crappier photos once they are digitally cropped to a smaller area and then enlarged back to standard size for viewing. If you take an existing image from a DX camera then crop in about 25% from each edge then enlarge the picture back to full resolution on your screen you will achieve roughly the same result.
The issue I have with Nikons implementation is the viewfinder. The crop area is defined by some white lines in the viewfinder. I would rather see the outside of the crop area being greyed or blacked out (which would mean a Fuji like hybrid viewfinder panel). I can see the situation in sports or action photography where it will be easy to chop arms or heads or other body parts out of cropped photos in the heat of the action due to the really small available viewfinder window. A greyed or blacked out surround would make things easier to set up I suspect.

[tim11]

... If I read it right, that won't effect the aperture either,the macro will still be an f2.8. Seems to good to be true though. Any optical experts have a definitive answer?

You need to contact RAZR for the answer to that. And he'd say it won't be affected in any way.

[K1W1]

If I read it right, that won't effect the aperture either,the macro will still be an f2.8.

The aperture will still be f2.8 because you are not changing the lens in any way like for example when you add a teleconverter.
Who shoots macro at f2.8 anyway?

[Falconest174]

I have used it at night for outside baseball games at our local minor league stadium and would find the additional 'reach' useful.
I get the 'digital zoom' comparison but with this 24 Mp sensor the loss is not as bad as with a 5-7 Mp sensor. In fact it is nearly as many MP's as the 7000. The nice thing about the crop as nearly the entire cropped area is covered by focus points.

[K1W1]

I get the 'digital zoom' comparison but with this 24 Mp sensor the loss is not as bad as with a 5-7 Mp sensor. In fact it is nearly as many MP's as the 7000. The nice thing about the crop as nearly the entire cropped area is covered by focus points.

Baseball at night is not macro though.
I believe that the "crop" area does match up nicely with the area covered by the focus points.

[RichNY]

I have used it at night for outside baseball games at our local minor league stadium and would find the additional 'reach' useful.

The additional 'reach' you get with a crop sensor is what enables you to get all of the detail of cars in the parking lot behind the players because you are using a lens with a shorter focal length and getting increased DOF. Larger sensors and longer lenses are the solution for isolating players when shooting sports.