I'll check it out tonight. Thank you

I shoot Nikon. It creates .nef files. When I open them in Lightroom it converts them to Adobe standard .dng files. I recently bought DxO Optics Pro Elite to use for perspective correction only to find out it doesn't support .dng. It does support . Nef, tiff, Jpeg, etc. I want to use RAW to preserve as much data as possible. Can I and how do I set Lightroom to import my photo's in the.nef format and not convert them to .dng so that I can then import them to DxO as .nef files

Put the refrigerator within arms reach and provide a catheter and you can stay seated a lot longer

Have had it since the D7000 came out, I was an early adopter. I personally wouldn't shoot without it. In addition to ensuring a full day of shooting it gives the camera more of a Pro-body feel. I also have a D3s and moving between the two is much more comfortable because of the grip. I love it.

I have a slew of Nikon lens including 28-300 and the 14-24 2.8, 24-70 2.8, 70-200 2.8 and 6 others including 1.4 G lenses. For the outdoor for games I go to the Tamron 18-270 PZD lens. if I use the D3s body is shoots as specified but if I throw it on the D 7000 i'm at 27-405. It is incredibly sharp. I have recommended it to 2 friends who bought it and also love it. You should be able to find it from $ 629 to $ 699. With the ISO capabilities that you will get in your new D7000 you should never have a lighting problem.

Now if it's Basketball the 24-70 2,8 and 70-200 2.8 cannot be beat

They are PC only and as their Web page says, "The result image below may look like a HDR (High Dynamic Range) image, but it is not. It is produced from just a single RGB 8bit/channel image processed with our ReDynamix plug-in. ReDynaMix plugin uses polished and easy to understand interface with immediate preview of the settings. But it doesn't just stop with faking HDR images......"

Photomatix will do single photos

I must admit I was wrong about Jpeg to RAW conversion in Photomatix. I was told by someone I considered quite knowledgable on HDR that Photomatix did this. Admissions like this make my wife very happy.

From Photomatix FAQ:
Is is true that Photomatix converts RAWs to JPEGs for internal processing?
No. Photomatix does not convert RAWs files to JPEG for internal processing, and never did it. It would not make sense to do this anyway, given that converting to JPEG would result in quality loss and moreover would add processing time.
When you load RAW files in Photomatix, the files are converted in linear space into an uncompressed image with 16 bits per color channel, i.e. 48 bits per pixel.
The only moment Photomatix converts to JPEG is when you want to save the image created by Photomatix and choose to save it as JPEG. This applies to a tonemapped or fused image created by Photomatix, and not to the original image you loaded.

Photomatix is the best that I have found. Can be used stand alone or from within PS. Comment on using RAW is correct. HDR uses Jpeg. You can still shoot it RAW for all the benefits it brings but these programs, including Photomatix will convert the images to jpeg for processing. I have found better results converting the RAW to jpeg first and then importing the jpegs to Photomatix.

The recognized Guru on HDR is Trey Ratcliff, first photographer to have his HDR work hung in the Smithsonian. Web site:
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/

All kinds of tutorials advice and resources, many free.

another great site to get help and see some incredible work is:
http://www.hdrspotting.com/

Stuckincustoms should give you everything you need from beginner to advanced.

Good Luck, HDR opens up an entire new world of creativity.