Canon EOS 7D

The 7D breaks the mold that Canon has had with dSLRs for several years: It presents many features from the professional 1D line in a crop-sensor camera. With 18 MP shooting at 8 frames-per-second (bursts up to 126 jpgs or 15 RAW files) it is a sports and action shooter’s dream camera. Canon has added an enhanced all cross-type 19-point autofocus system that is claimed to allow extremely accurate AI Servo AF subject tracking and user-selectable AF modes for precise focusing. It also features a new 63-zone iFCL metering system that takes focus and color data into consideration when establishing exposure times. And its weather and moisture sealed.

The 7D has a couple of very new features that are worth discussion. First its the first Canon camera to have integrated wireless control of off-camera flashes. You can control up to three groups of four flashes each directly from the camera, no ST-E2 transmitter required. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the autofocus system described above is an entirely new and very robust system, allowing you to select single points or groups of points for autofocus emphasis.

And finally the camera’s movie mode allows manual control over shutter speed and aperture. It will shoot full HD Video at 1920×1080 resolution at 30p (29.97), 24p (23.976) or 25p, for up to 4GB per clip. Movies are saved as .mov files and can be directly viewed in Full HD with HDMI output. Note also that HD movie recording requires fast CF cards.

Videographers: SLR sensors that are run for prolonged times (several minutes), run at high ISO, and sometimes simply randomly will develop “hot pixels”. Each camera is tested before being sent out for any hot or dead pixels, but they still happen during shooting. Check your video in the field! Resting the camera for 15 minutes may clear the issue up, but not always. If your rental camera develops a hot pixel we will send you a replacement overnight, but that is all we can do. This is a well known phenomenon, and consistent with the manufacturer’s design, so the operator’s failure to be aware of it is not our responsibility.

All of our cameras ship with one fully charged battery, instruction sheet, the battery charger and a bag. A lens does not come with the camera. Additionally, the Canon software included with a new camera is copyrighted and we cannot send it with the cameras. You will need Photoshop or some type of image editing software to download and view your images.

Roger’s take: We’ve had trouble keeping these in stock (understandably) but I’ve managed to grab one for a weekend. Initially I was nervous over the whole “Canon introduces a new autofocus system” idea, but a very short time with the camera eased that. My impression is the autofocus is clearly improved, better than anything this side of a 1D body that I’ve experienced. Its clearly better in low light and quick and accurate with moving subjects in AI servo. I would add, though, that I’ve only shot it with Canon lenses. I’m old enough to remember that new autofocus systems in the past have not done well with third party lenses. While I’ve yet to hear of any problems, I’m still wondering if that might cause some issues. It will also take you a while to get used to the new ‘zone autofocus’ feature so I’d definitely get the camera a day or two early to get used to that. Its still not intuitive for me, but I’m a slow learner.

With a fast CF card you can basically shoot 8 frames/second in jpg mode as long as you want, hundreds of frames. Its rather amazing. In RAW mode Canon says 24 frames before the buffer fills and I came really close to that. I found ISO 1600 to be excellent and 3200 quite usable, but clearly saw loss of detail at ISO 6400. Still usable, but there’s a penalty being paid to in-camera noise reduction. The in-camera noise reduction works OK, but I’d rather do it in post-processing on a RAW image myself. Overall though, I’m comfortable saying high ISO performance is better than the 50D even with the increased resolution. And the resolution does shine. These are 18 usable MP and it shows. The 7D clearly outresolves the 50D handily.

So my take? This is different. The 30/40/50D were steady, progressive improvements. This is NOT a 60D, its a markedly better camera with markedly improved capabilities compared to the 50D. They’re not close, except in price. That’s a home-run formula I believe.

All-in-all, it’s a groundbreaking camera.

The 7D uses the LP-E6 battery and you should get 600-800 shots per fully charged battery.

Works Well With:

• Rode Stereo Video Mic or Sennheiser Shotgun Mic
• Beachtek DXA-5D audio adapter
• Litepanels Micro or MicroPro
• Cavision Shoulder Mount
• Zylight

Includes:

• Canon EOS 7D camera body
• Body cap
• Strap
• Battery
• Charger
• Manual or cheat sheet
• Camera bag