Canon EOS 7D Review – Excellent dSLR, Great Value For Money

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Great photo quality, bright and big view finder, great options for autofocus.

Thumbs Down:

There is only one card slot, the buttons are hard to feel.

Inside the Trunk:

Eyecup, dust cap, neck strap, body cap, lens cap, eyepiece cover. You also get A/V cable and USB cable.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The Canon EOS 7D has 18 mega pixels.

There is also sensor dust reduction, field of view crop factor – 1.6,
Sensor Features are EOS integrated cleaning system and anti-dust coating
Light Sensitivity is ISO 100-6400, ISO 12800, ISO auto (100-3200)
Special effects include neutral, portrait, landscape, faithful and monochrome

It has Optical image stabilizer, the maximum shutter speed is 1/8000 sec and minimum shutter speed is 30 sec, X-sync speed 1/250 sec.

Exposure Metering is Spot (2.3%), Evaluative, Center-weighted, Partial (9.4%)

Exposure Modes are shutter-priority, automatic, manual, aperture priority, program, E-TTL II program flash

Exposure Range is EV 1-20 (ISO 100). Exposure Compensation is ±5 EV range, in 1/2 or 1/3 EV steps. Auto Exposure Bracketing is 3 steps in 1/2 or 1/3 EV steps

The camera also supports face detection and red eye reduction. For white balance -  presets, automatic and custom. White balance presets include shade, flash, cloudy, fluorescent, daylight and tungsten light. Video is stored in H.264 format and image format is JPEG, RAW+JPEG, RAW. Video capture options are 640 x 480, 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080. Image resolution options are 2592 x 1728, 3888 x 2592, 5184 x 3456 each for RAW and JPEG.

Flash modes include rear curtain sync, auto mode, flash off mode. Lens type -  Zoom lens – 28 mm – 135 mm – F/3.5-5.6 IS USM Canon EF. Focal Length is 28 mm – 135 mm. Minimum focus range is 19.7 inches, Maximum viewing angle is 75 degrees, lens aperture F/3.5-5.6, optical zoom is 5x with manual zoom adjustment, other features include ultrasonic monitor, aspherical lens and internal focusing system.

Other features include AE lock, FE lock, direct print, auto power save, histogram display, LCD live view mode, USB 2.0 compatiblity, auto lighting optimizer, dust delete data system, in-camera movie editing, light source detection AF, camera orientation detection, depth-of-field preview button, automatic display brightness adjustment, peripheral illumination correction, 1080p full HD movie recording, display brightness control, RGS primary color filter, highlight point display, digital noise reduction, digital image rotation, AF lock, DPOF support, dust resistant, weather proof, date/time stamp, exif print support, PictBridge support, digital image rotation.

Connection ports are USB, HDMI output, Microphone, Remote control, Composite video/audio output. And expansion slot of CompactFlashCard Type I/II is included. Software bundled is Canon ImageBrowser, Canon PhotoStitch, Drivers & Utilities, Canon Digital Photo Professional, Canon ZoomBrowser EX. Compatible OS is MS Windows Vista, MS Windows XP and Apple Mac OS X 10.4 – 10.5

The camera comes with a 1 x Li-ion rechargeable battery (included)

Razzle Dazzle:

This camera from Canon is quite like the earlier dSLR’s that it has produced. We found this camera more comfortable than the D300 because this one has larger eyecup. The camera also boasts of cold resistance, ruggedness and weather sealing but you would probably have to go to places like Siberia to check it out.

Inside Dope:

This camera is not an entry level model, but it is meant for photo enthusiasts. If you are a newbie, then stay away from this camera because it has all the advanced features which might confuse you.

It has the same traditional layout of buttons like white balance, metering, autofocus, ISO sensitivity, drive mode and flash compensation. There is also a M-Fn key which can be used to surf through the options of AF point and Canon also gives you the LCD illumination button. We found the buttons a bit hard to press and when it comes to smaller buttons it gets tougher.

There is a switch for the start/stop button for movie capture and Live view some thing that we were looking for since the days of 5D Mark II. Other than this there is a switch to lock the thumbwheel along with the sliver ring on it. The joystick is still there but it is prone to accidental pushes, we would have liked if it was a bit sturdier. The AF options have been increased for photo enthusiasts to select what they need.

The modes in the camera are changed electronically, something which is not seen in cameras like Nikon D300. Now this is subjective, it all depends on your preferences but we liked the dial more as it was of great help when it came to accessing the custom settings. In the custom settings interface was overburdened with too many features.

The feature called AF-point capability lets you register AF point by default or an orientation scheme (two vertical and one horizontal). We thought this was really use full but you will have to enable it for everything, like for every custom slot or else it will use the 19 point area auto focus setting when you go vertical.

The wireless flash controller in the camera is pretty easy to use and it support three groups and four channels. You can change the ratio of firing output and compensation for flash exposure.

For video, this camera is better on option that the 5D Mark II, it includes 1280×720 mode at 60 frames per second. The features include ISO sensitivity, shutter, white balance control and full aperture and also presets like Picture Styles.

We tested the camera for performance and we found the quality amazing even by the standards of a high end dSLR like Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and Nikon D3S. It takes about 0.2 second to start up and get ready to shoot. Autofocus speeds for dim light is 0.5 second and for bright environments it is 0.3 second. If you want the to use the 8 frames per second feature you will have to go to a lower quality.

There is a new 63-area metering system called iFCL which stands for intelligent, focus, color and luminance it is there to improve consistency and exposure accuracy where the lighting is changed frequently or for scenes which have high contrast.

The photo quality was excellent on the Canon EOS 7D at higher resolutions you get very small pixels which gives you one of the best photo quality. Photos are stored in JPEG format, just like most cameras and at ISO 400 they looked sharp and clean while at ISO 800 the softening begins to show but the noise level is not increased. When it comes to videos the camera performs well, but they don’t look as saturated or sharp as a Canon high definition camcorder.

Nitty Gritty:

Canon EOS 7D completely stood up to our expectations. This is a great camera for shutter bug freaks with big budgets. Get it for the excellent photo quality, great viewfinder and fast speeds.