Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR Camera Review

[Jon Ruyle]

Thank you, Bryan! That review (like your others) obviously took a lot of time, but there are a lot of us out here who appreciate your work.

[btaylor]

Yep agreed - great review and highly detailed once again. I'm slightly concerned about its softness compared to the 50D but I think the loooooong list of features quickly outweighs that phenomenon.

[Daniel Browning]

I think the reason why DPP is turning out soft 7D files is because of a manufacturing defect: in each GRGB group of pixels, the gain and offset between the two green pixels is slightly mismatched, from 1% to 3%. This is enough to cause mazing artifacts in the demosaic algorithm. The way Canon is correcting it is probably to average the green pixel values together, so they lose their resolution. I haven't had much time to research it; hopefully Canon will come up with some sort of fix (firmware, ideally).


Some of the 5D2 cameras had this problem too, but it was only a small percentage.

[ShutterbugJohan]

Great review!

Not far into the review yet, but I appreciate the noise charts requiring a click. It was always a pain to compare two non-adjacent options before, forcing you to attempt to weave in and out of the links. I hope you keep the click format for future reviews.
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I agree with the usefulness of click navigation. Much easier to use.

I agree. Much nicer, and harder to make slow computers jam up. []

[bob williams]

Again, Thanks for the great review Bryan---your research and informative observations are of great value. I do have to admit that as a 50D user I have been seriously considering upgrading, but without significant IQ improvements, the bells and whistles of the 7D aren't enough to convince me to give up my down payment on my 500L. I was so excited when Canon's anouncement came out, the 7D had so many featuresthat I really wanted but ultimately it lacks the IQ I was looking for.The 5DII had the IQ, but lacked some of the features I was hoping for.---Now, I am expecting the 1D4 to be the best of both worlds, but at a healthy price tag--guessI will have to wait for that review to come out---before considering a X4 priceupgrade. In the mean time I will continue to learn more from this forum and others as well as hone my skills with the 50D------The 500L F 4is the next target on my horizon, I have a trip to the Tetons and Yellowstone planned for the spring---and the Lens is what is most important at this point.


Thanks again Bryan, Your review, once again, kept me ontarget.


Bob

[bob williams]

By the way---The "Click navigation" is great---much prefer that to the mouse over.

[musickna]

One day of ownership is little enough time to give anything approaching a definitive review of the 7D, but what I can say is that ergonomically this is great improvement over all Canon EOS cameras I've previously owned (these being the Rebel XT, 30D, 40D and 5D II).


For the first time in my experience, every feature of importance when taking a shot (and what you consider of importance is highly customizable) can be assigned to an easily activated button. Before there always seemed to be something that required a menu screen or a tricky multi-button combination. Now there are enough well-placed buttons to do the job easily. For me, that's a big improvement.


I haven't used the new focusing features enough to give an opinion, but I can say that the on-screen grid is invaluable (and no longer do I have to buy a grid focusing screen to get this effect) and also invaluable is the LCD leveling feature that allows me to level the camera with a flash attached to the hot shoe. ( I use a hot shoe mounted spirit level, but, of course, you can't mount that with an external flash in place.)


The 100% viewfinder is also a lot more significant that I first imagined it would be (having only used reduced-view viewfinders in the past). It makes a tangible difference to see all that the camera sees and records when composing a shot. Going back to a cropped viewfinder is quite a letdown after this.


That's it for the first impressions.

[Johnny Rasmussen]

Thanks for the review, Bryan.


It&acute;s a very nice camera indeed. I&acute;m sure it will deliver great prints. For me, the only reason I can think of that can justify an upgrade is the viewfinder with 100% coverage and better ergonomics. I am not a fan of DSLR/Video combo, but I know many others are.


Thanks for the new "click" navigation. The mouse-over was a bit tricky.





- Johnny

[Alan KE]

good review, as always. well thought out and written.


i was a little concerned that the introduction of the 7D would give me buyers remorse after getting the 5D2. But after your review i feel happy i made the right choice still.

[piiooo]

Hereis a nice video review of the 7D by cameralabs.com that I think nicely complements Brian's review:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYXlsAUXYus