The manual located here: http://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/17008/~/user's-manual---d7000---guide-to-digital-photography
has a great tutorial starting on page 21 on going through about page 39. These are really short pages, but each step is important.

You camera is very sophiticated and can do a lot of stuff. Once you get it setup, it can be as simple as point and shoot, or as complex in manual mode as you want to go. The steps listed below should cover all of the setup to make sure you have everything ready to go. (Seems like a lot, but I assure you, once you learn it, its easy.)

Make sure:
1. You have a charged Nikon battey installed (batteries don't come charged)
2. You have a compatible lens, it is attached, and in A or M/A if the lens has this switch
3. Insert an SD, SDHC, or SDHX memory card. (Make sure the write protect switch is off if it has one)
4. Format the memory card
5. Press and hold the two buttons with a green dot on them for more than 2 seconds to reset any settings back to factory. (The camera will turn off briefly while they are reset.)
6. Make sure release mode is set to S (Single) on the top left of the camera
7. Set the exposure mode to A (Auto) (inside the release mode dial on the top left)
8. Make sure you have enough light, that the camera focuses (it won't shoot a picture by default if its not in focus)
9. If you are not using a new DX lens (usually sold as a kit with the camera), then look to see if the lens has an apertature setting (called a gelding) at the base where it attaches to the camera. These older lenses have to be set to max aperature for the camera to fire, which is isually marked with an orange dot)

If you are still having trouble, take the camera to an high quality photo store. Ask them how to work it. It should not matter that you did not buy it there. Most folks are more than happy to help people that are learning. Folks like me hang out in the photo stores waiting for someone to ask us. :)

You would have to have a digital out put on the VCR and a digital input on the DVD plus the DVD player must have recording capabilities .VCR digital out to DVD digital input .

I had no trouble with my own D7000, but I've heard that some photographers wish for better sharpness and color saturation. You didn't say what shutter speed and F-stop you're operating at, but I would suggest to get a truly accurate test run, you should put your cameras on a tripod and take pictures of exactly the same thing in exactly the same conditions. Very few photographers can hold a camera stock still. Remember to turn OFF VR if your lens is capable of that, when it's on a tripod. There are settings in the D7000 menu for better color saturation look up "Picture Control". There are also settings for better sharpness.

I did have some issues with soft focus at first, but I found that as I learned to use the lens/camera combo at the optimal settings, with some adjusted menu settings, my photographs, even hand-held, became tack sharp in the right conditions.

there was a glitch in the initial firmware for the d7k. upgrade to the latest and it will work (btw, the sound is there, you just need an "unorthodox" media player to play it or convert the file to a different format and you'll hear it).

I don't have this lens so I can't answer your first problem; but I have some thoughts about the second problem. When using the built in flash, in "crowded" scenes, sometimes you will get a high flash return from some very close bright object that may be way out of focus , so not feature prominently in your image, but the high flash return from the "interloper" will shorten the exposure and so render the rest of the scene darker.

You might try using a more center weighted exposure mode, that ignores edge objects that may be much closer than your subject of interest. This also can be a "problem" of these wide range zooms, when you use a longer focal length to pick out a smaller distant object, and the flash bounce from some closer near object shuts down the exposure earlier. Wedding dinners are a great place to have this problem, when the table flowers turn out the lights on the distant person you are trying to catch in a special moment.

GES

All D7000 made in Thailand.

Linda, I had a similar issue with a set of images taken with my D700*. I used Nikon Transfer at first, and decided to try reading directly from Root folder (My pictures), some of the missing or corrupted files were intact in the transfer folder*.

Also try removing the memory cards from the camera and reading directly from them via, the computer
My D700 image issues were moisture related*

It depends upon what you mean by "goes dead". Do you mean that none of the buttons work, and that you cannot get the camera into Live View mode or anything at all? Does it mean that all displays including the display on the top of the body next to the shutter button all go completely blank? Does it mean that you can't see anything except a very dim display through the viewfinder until you press the shutter or some other button? If that's the case, you may have a problem. HOWEVER, as the Nikon staffer mentioned, the camera goes into stand-by mode after a few seconds if no buttons are pushed. If you press the shutter button 1/2 way down, or press other buttons and the camera "wakes up" it is operating as it is supposed to. You can set how long the camera waits before it goes into stand by mode by reading the procedure on pages 214 and 215 and 219, among other pages.