Canon EOS 7D 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3-inch LCD and 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens
by Canon
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon EOS 7D 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3-inch LCD and 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens
Customer Review: Awesome!
Summary: 5 Stars
This camera is absolutley amazing. I bought it mainly for video, but the pictures are wonderful as well! It is worth every penny!Customer Review: Great purchase!
Summary: 5 Stars
You will not be disappointed. This camera is spot on. Have only had it for 24 hours and can't put it down!Customer Review: Canon eos 7D
Summary: 5 Stars
Very satisfied. Amazon is the most reliable site for buying stuff once again. :-) :-)Customer Review: A seriously capable and enjoyable camera.
Summary: 4 Stars
The Canon EOS 7D is Canon's new semi-pro / enthusiast digital SLR and competes primarily with Nikon's recently updated D300s. It's a terrific SLR that shines in photo quality, control placement, speed, and viewfinder size and coverage.
First, let me tell you a little about myself so you can gauge what my expectations for the camera are. I'm strictly a hobbyist photographer and use my camera a couple of times a month at museums, outdoor parks, and vacations. Besides photos of my dog, my photography consists primarily of static subjects. This is my second SLR.
Enough of me, onto the camera. The 7D is a fairly bulky SLR and dwarfs "entry level" models such as the Olympus E-510 (see my photos), though it's no bigger than Nikon's D300s. With that said, it's not uncomfortably large and is easy enough to carry around all day. Build quality is terrific and the camera has a solid, luxury feel to it. The 7D fits very well into my average sized hands and, with the kit 28-135 lens, is nicely balanced. All the buttons are easy to reach and, if you've used a Canon camera before, easy to figure out. The magnesium body is sealed against moisture and dust. The shutter button is well placed and has a nicely defined halfway point. A control dial is on the back of the camera and behind the shutter button too. There is also a joystick-like toggle on the back of the camera as well.
A large (3") and high-resolution (920,000 pixel) screen is on the camera back with a secondary status LCD display on the top (with backlight). The screen is a pleasure to use when reviewing images for focus, and when manually focusing in magnified live view mode. Compared to the 3-inch 420,000-pixel screen on my Panasonic LX3 it's a definite upgrade, and makes a noticeable difference.
The viewfinder is huge and bright and has 100% coverage. Coming from the Olympus, which has a very cramped and tunnel-like viewfinder, it was a revelation, and was one of the reasons I decided to step up to the 7D. Also, by using a transmissive LCD on the viewfinder the only markings you see until you confirm focus are for the selected focus method (for instance, a single box when using one focus point, or brackets when using the auto select autofocus method). Moreover, a composition grid can be imposed on the viewfinder. The information display on the bottom of the viewfinder is large and bright and contains lots of shooting and camera information.
The camera is very responsive and turns on almost instantly. The sensor cleaning occurs when you turn the camera on or off but can be interrupted during power up. Focus speeds with the kit lens are very speedy, even in dim light (two 40 watt lamps and a television as the only light sources in a 17' x 11' room). The 19-point all cross type autofocus is uncanny at picking the correct subject. If it doesn't get it right the first time it will the second. I usually set all my cameras to center point autofocus, but the 7D does a great job picking out the subject, so I leave it on fully automatic mode. Live view focusing is not a quick, especially in low light, and I only use live view when I need to shoot at a weird angle and I can't shoot looking through the viewfinder. Live view can be used with a mirror flip or contrast detection. The contrast detection mode is fairly pokey, while the mirror flip mode is quicker, but introduces a brief break in the view. Continuous shooting is available in both a high and a low setting. High is 8 FPS, while the low speed is 3 FPS. The shutter sound is nicely subdued and not nearly as noisy as the Olympus' is.
Photo quality is terrific. There are various Picture Styles you can choose to alter the contrast, sharpness, color tone, and saturation of the photos. At any rate, 99% of the time, colors are natural, exposure is accurate, and dynamic range is great. At this level of camera, that's expected though. What I really love about the 7D is the high ISO noise, or lack thereof. The luxury of feeling confident while shooting at high ISO is priceless. I've taken a good number of shots as high as ISO 3200 and have no complaints. Of course there is a bit of noise, and the mushiness that noise reduction brings, but for an 18 MP image at ISO 3200, I have no complaints. The ISO speeds above 3200 are OK as well, but I'll reserve those for emergency use only, they get fairly processed looking. The relatively large APS-C sensor not only allows for low noise, but also allows me to produce nicely blurred backgrounds and great depth of field. I couldn't achieve the same degree of that effect with the smaller 4/3 sensor in the Olympus, and I certainly couldn't do it with my point and shoot cameras unless I was in macro mode. There is an Auto Lighting Optimizer feature that attempts to correct photos that are not correctly exposed (e.g. subjects are too dark or highlights are lost). It works well for the most part, but, depending on the subject, the differences are very subtle.
The HD movie mode is nicely done as well. You set your focus, either automatically or manually, before you start recording. You can refocus during recording but you'll definitely notice it. You can adjust shutter speed, aperture, and ISO in manual movie mode as well. There is a monaural microphone on the front of the camera, or you can plug in a stereo microphone. By pressing the shutter button, you can interrupt the movie briefly to take a still photo, similar to Canon's S series super zoom cameras.
The kit lens is nicely constructed and fairly sharp from corner to corner. Purple fringing is not much of a problem in my photos. The field of view is kind of narrow though. The lens starts at 44.8mm with the 7D's 1.6x field of view crop factor taken into account. Without a wide angle it's not an ideal all around lens, but I do feel it's worth the extra money for the kit with this lens. You end up getting a nice, ultrasonic motor, image stabilized, 4.8x lens for a minimal cost.
The only things I don't like about the camera so far are that in auto ISO you can't limit how high it goes. I find the 7D wants to jump up to ISO 3200 fairly quickly in low light when it doesn't need to go nearly that high. When it jumps to ISO 3200 I find I can dial it down to ISO 1600 manually and still get an acceptable shutter speed, so the Canon is being very cautious jumping up so high. The other thing I'm not fond of is the fact that when you're in playback mode the most you can zoom out is a 9-image grid. With such a large high-resolution screen I would appreciate an index grid playback mode that showed more photos. Lastly, I find the process for setting the custom white balance a bit long winded. You have to take a photo of a white reference object then go into the menus to choose that photo as the reference photo. On other cameras, even Canon's point and shoots, the process is much faster, and it doesn't save the reference photo to your memory card. It's not the worst system, and I have become very quick at it, but it could be better.
All in all... a phenomenal semi-pro SLR. The Canon 7D covers all the bases.
12/17/2009 Update: I found a nice case for the 7D which fits the camera with kit lens quite well. It doesn't fit much more than that, but it's a good case if you don't carry too many accessories with you. It's the Lowepro Topload Zoom case.Lowepro Topload Zoom 1 Camera Bag (Black)
12/19/2009 Update: You can change the depth of field preview button to switch to another autofocus mode when you hold it down, instead of doing a depth of field preview. I find this very useful since I hardly ever use depth of field preview. Now if I find that the autofocus is consistently not picking the right subject for a shot, I simply hold down the depth of field preview button to have it temporarily switch from auto select mode to spot focus mode. Very convenient.
01/04/2010 Update: Just got back from a trip to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The 7D was a joy to use. I took about 160 photographs. Of those only 4 or 5 are out of focus due to camera error. The low light performance continues to impress me. I took many photos at ISO 1600 through 3200 and all of the photos are completely usable. In the large "Sea Life" and "African Mammals" rooms I was able to take sharp pictures of these very dim rooms while shooting handheld at ISO 3200 and no flash (see pictures). Anyone who has visited these exhibits knows how challenging they can be to shoot.
10/20/2010 Update: I am still loving this camera. No problems to report. In fact, I was a little miffed when Canon introduced the 60D because it seemed like I could have saved some money by buying that, however, one of the students in my digital photography class bought one, and while it is a nice camera, the build quality and design are nowhere near the standards on the 7D. Still happy with my purchase.
04/05/2011 Update: Still no problems to report with the camera. I took it out after a recent snow storm when it was still flurrying and it survived just fine.
P.S.: Sorry for the long review. There is a lot to cover, and even so I may not have gotten everything. If you'd like to know something I didn't cover, feel free to leave a comment and I'll answer it as quickly as I can. Also, I will update this review as needed based on any new experiences I have with the 7D.
Customer Review: Perspective of a Videographer
Summary: 4 Stars
As an aspiring videographer I was on the hunt for a camera that could shoot stellar video without having to spend $10,000. The Canon 7D was the perfect option for me. I bought it about 6 months ago and have gotten a ton of use out of it ever since then.
This is my first DSLR camera so it took some time for me to get to learn how to use it and discover the features and differences of a typical video camera. I'm writing this review from a pure video stance since that's mainly what I use it for, and I hope it can help others who are looking at the video capabilities.
The picture this camera produces is nothing short of outstanding. I recently finished a rather large project with it and once I exported and everything I just couldn't believe the outstanding quality it had produced. I often shoot sports highlights with it and several of my colleagues shoot using Sony EX3s (a $10,000 camera). Side by side, many have said that the picture produced by the 7D is superior. If you're looking to make a short film on a budget, this is the perfect answer. I honestly don't think from a video standpoint you're getting that much more with the 5D mkII. I do know that I am in love with this camera, and use it more than I ever expected to.
I will outline some of the cons I see in it however.
First, I find it a little more difficult to shoot handheld video on this than a regular video camera with a shoulder mount. You have to have some very steady hands to keep the picture looking nice. That said, I also love the portability of it in comparison. I got shots off the top of a rappel tower I couldn't come close to getting with a standard video camera.
I'd like more options on aspect ratio and frame rate. There are only so many settings and you get locked into them. For example, I can shoot 1920x1080 at either 24p or 30p. I would LOVE the option to shoot 60p. The only option available for shooting in SD isn't a 16:9 (widescreen) option. I always end up shooting in HD and down-converting later on. It clearly has the capabilities end to end, I'd just like to be able to independently manipulate these options.
Another con is audio. The on board mic is fine for nat sound. It actually works better than I expect it to a lot of times. It's just when you're trying to capture high quality audio without background noise where it gets tricky. It also only has a mini-jack input and it isn't always feasible to record directly to the camera. Recently, I used a low price lav mic with a mini jack that worked really well, but I hated that I couldn't see my audio levels on screen and really had no way to adjust them coming into the camera. You just kind of have to go on blind faith.
Overall though, a FANTASTIC product. People are consistently impressed with the product I produce with this tiny camera. It shoots wonderful video and I am extremely pleased with my decision to purchase it.