The first couple weeks with my new D7000 were extremely frustrating and discouraging. I started out with lots of things set on Auto. I just couldn't master the 3D tracking or 39 point system. Eventually I found my way to this forum and followed a lot of the advise I found here. I switched to a setup like MotoMannequin has suggested and I immediately got amazing results. Here's a shot I took the first day after switching to single point. I was shooting some stationary objects on the ground when this goose exploded out of the marsh so I just started shooting in single exposure mode, not continuous. I wasn't prepared for this scenario. The shutter speed wasn't optimum for a flying bird shot so I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Don't give up on the camera yet.