Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR Camera Review

[Alan]

Thanks, Bryan. Very informative review.


Would you conclude that the 7D is more for sports, action shots, whereas for landscapes, the DLA would be a factor to consider?


That is, the 5D Mk 2 would be preferred for landscapes/portraits?

[Bryan Carnathan]

Thanks for the comments everyone ...


I'm glad the mouseclick feature is a welcome upgrade - It's one of those not-sure-why-I-didn't-think-of-that-sooner changes. I'll continue to use mouseovers for the small comparisons, but will use mouseclicks for the larger ones.


Daniel - LOL - I probably have some undiagnosed mental disorders, but HLD is indeeda made-up one.


BTaylor - I've been liking the 7D's image quality a lot - just need to turn up the sharpness setting to at least 2.


Bob - That will be a great trip. The 500 L will be very useful there - especially in YNP.


Alan - The 7D will work well for landscapes as well.


Diffraction will start affecting pixel sharpness at narrower apertures than the other current DSLRs, but the higher resolution sensor is still capturing more detail at f/8 and beyond (until Diffraction Cutoff Frequency is reached several stops later). When output to a print, the additional resolution is useful.


A full frame body such as the 5D II has a larger and less-dense sensor, but requires a longer focal length to achieve the same framing. The longer focal length means ashallower DOF which means a narrower aperture is required - which brings the 5D II closer to its DLA. In my opinion, the 5D II has better image quality, but the 7D is still a good landscape camera.


Hope that makes sense - I'm sure Daniel will remove the ambiguities for me.





Thanks again for the comments everyone!

[Sean Setters]

Hope that makes sense - I'm sure Daniel will remove the ambiguities for me.

That made me laugh (because it was so accurate).

[apersson850]

It will be interesting to see if your 7D has the same wireless flash control problem as several other cameras have.


Bryan already has a copy, but the rest of you can read about the test to determine it here.

[Manofmayo]

I had a chance today to play with the 50d & the 7D. I am in love....with the 7D. I really thought I would be buying the 50D soon, but I guess I will be saving my money for another few months to get the 7D. My HLD problem will be solved with this camera.....

[musickna]

A few more thoughts on the 7D now I've had it for 3 weeks or so.





I think this a fabulous camera. I've already described how much I like the ergonomics, but the image quality is really impressive. I have a 5D II so I can compare the two and there is very little difference in real-world overall IQ to my eye. I took this shot of a Mississippi River barge from a high bluff, a distance of about half a mile, using the 100-400L at 400mm, f/9.0, 1/1000, ISO 200 with the 7D. It's a 2933 x 1955 crop out of the original image that has been downsized to 1024 x 683 and converted to '8' compressed jpg for web display (open it for ful size). The original sharpness in DPP was set to 4, and I applied a luminance noise reduction of 2, chrominance of 3 (not really necessary). Apart from the need to sharpen less, I would not be able to realistically claim to get a better image from my 5D II.

Of course, the larger pixel size and larger sensor of the 5D II give it some inherent advantage in terms of diffraction limiting and depth of field, but in (my) actual use it's not going to make much difference. The focusing advantages of the 7D over the 5D II are clear to me - you simply have that much more control over where you want to pin your image. I love having the full-frame capability of my 5D II, but I can't say that I would have done much worse if I had the 7D instead. Anyway, I hope this helps anyone who is agonizing over which of these two great cameras to buy.