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- Paul Beastall
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OK. Well, as I said last night, I had a play with my 7D that I collected from Digital Depot yesterday lunchtime. First impressions are very good. Here's a quick review so far.
1. Look and feel
The 7D definitely feels a bit more substantial than the 50D that its replaced. It's not much bigger but has an extra ridge on the back that seems to help it fit the hand better. The eye-cup is a touch larger and more like the one on my 1DsII - presumably the bigger viewfinder needs a bigger eye-cup.
One of the big revelations for me is the shutter button. It is so controllable. When I had a 1D MkII, I used to have to leave it in low speed mode or I would always fire off two shots at a time. The new button on the 7D offers the control to leave the camera on 8fps and still take single shots when I need to.
The only negative is the same issue that I've always had with the 5D and xxD cameras that pulling it out of a bag can cause the control knob top left to turn to a different mode so you have to remember to check it. Perhaps I need to go back to the insulation tape holding the control like I did on my 5D.
2. Viewfinder
The viewfinder is superb. It is significantly clearer than the 50D and exactly what I was hoping for. I also like the new grid you can turn on or off in the viewfinder. I have a grid screen on my 1DsII which I find very useful for leveling horizons and to have the option when I want on the 7D is great.
3. AF Performance
Although I haven't had chance to test in anger yet (planes against sky are hardly a challenge) it feels impressive and did in the garden this morning too. I am co-leading a bird of prey photography workshop next Saturday and so should be able to comment better then. The 50D really struggled a couple of weeks ago so we will have to wait and see.
But, it feels like the AF is accurate and tracks well on planes (the results so far confirm this) and it is certainly quicker than my 1DsII.
It also seemed to handover between AF points and seemed to be more sophisticated than the 1Ds. Again, only time and experience will truly tell.
4. Metering Performance
Can't really comment yet as I was running manual metering off bushes so nothing challenging.
5. Options
It's a complex camera and I will have to take time to learn it. Only really played with the different AF modes a little bit so far.
6. Image Quality
I know there are loads of tests but for me the real proof will be in what I take images of.
Firstly, 100% crop on a decent lens (500/4) shows good resolution and although high ISO looks reasonably noisy at the pixel level, it takes NR well showing the noise is well distributed and on a full screen image where pixel smoothing/averaging is used the quality really is good. I reckon it's at least a match for my full frame 1DsII. I need to do a Noise Ninja profile and play more but again it looks pretty promising.
7. Other info
It works with Lightroom 2.5 although it is not on the official list of supported cameras. However, only a beta camera profile is available so I would expect 2.6 to offer better support.
8. Conclusions
So far, so good. Pretty impressed although need to take more images. Really feels like it could hit the spot as a 1D-lite, in the same way as a 5DII is a 1Ds-lite.
So, an image...
EOS 7D, 500 f/4L IS, tripod, gimbal, ISO 1250, f/4.5, 1/250s
As you can see, it was getting proper dark - this was taken at about 7pm last night.
And a 100% crop
I don't want to get into a pixel peeping war here just want to provide people with information.
Yes a D700/D3 will be better but I wanted a crop sensor on this camera. Remember, this is a 100% crop from a 18Mpx image. I am very confident this will give a fine quality A4 print and Noise Ninja would further help things along.
Hope this is useful to some and I will add more over the coming days/weeks as I get more exposure to the camera. I would also encourage other early adopters to do the same.
Paul
1. Look and feel
The 7D definitely feels a bit more substantial than the 50D that its replaced. It's not much bigger but has an extra ridge on the back that seems to help it fit the hand better. The eye-cup is a touch larger and more like the one on my 1DsII - presumably the bigger viewfinder needs a bigger eye-cup.
One of the big revelations for me is the shutter button. It is so controllable. When I had a 1D MkII, I used to have to leave it in low speed mode or I would always fire off two shots at a time. The new button on the 7D offers the control to leave the camera on 8fps and still take single shots when I need to.
The only negative is the same issue that I've always had with the 5D and xxD cameras that pulling it out of a bag can cause the control knob top left to turn to a different mode so you have to remember to check it. Perhaps I need to go back to the insulation tape holding the control like I did on my 5D.
2. Viewfinder
The viewfinder is superb. It is significantly clearer than the 50D and exactly what I was hoping for. I also like the new grid you can turn on or off in the viewfinder. I have a grid screen on my 1DsII which I find very useful for leveling horizons and to have the option when I want on the 7D is great.
3. AF Performance
Although I haven't had chance to test in anger yet (planes against sky are hardly a challenge) it feels impressive and did in the garden this morning too. I am co-leading a bird of prey photography workshop next Saturday and so should be able to comment better then. The 50D really struggled a couple of weeks ago so we will have to wait and see.
But, it feels like the AF is accurate and tracks well on planes (the results so far confirm this) and it is certainly quicker than my 1DsII.
It also seemed to handover between AF points and seemed to be more sophisticated than the 1Ds. Again, only time and experience will truly tell.
4. Metering Performance
Can't really comment yet as I was running manual metering off bushes so nothing challenging.
5. Options
It's a complex camera and I will have to take time to learn it. Only really played with the different AF modes a little bit so far.
6. Image Quality
I know there are loads of tests but for me the real proof will be in what I take images of.
Firstly, 100% crop on a decent lens (500/4) shows good resolution and although high ISO looks reasonably noisy at the pixel level, it takes NR well showing the noise is well distributed and on a full screen image where pixel smoothing/averaging is used the quality really is good. I reckon it's at least a match for my full frame 1DsII. I need to do a Noise Ninja profile and play more but again it looks pretty promising.
7. Other info
It works with Lightroom 2.5 although it is not on the official list of supported cameras. However, only a beta camera profile is available so I would expect 2.6 to offer better support.
8. Conclusions
So far, so good. Pretty impressed although need to take more images. Really feels like it could hit the spot as a 1D-lite, in the same way as a 5DII is a 1Ds-lite.
So, an image...
EOS 7D, 500 f/4L IS, tripod, gimbal, ISO 1250, f/4.5, 1/250s
As you can see, it was getting proper dark - this was taken at about 7pm last night.
And a 100% crop
I don't want to get into a pixel peeping war here just want to provide people with information.
Yes a D700/D3 will be better but I wanted a crop sensor on this camera. Remember, this is a 100% crop from a 18Mpx image. I am very confident this will give a fine quality A4 print and Noise Ninja would further help things along.
Hope this is useful to some and I will add more over the coming days/weeks as I get more exposure to the camera. I would also encourage other early adopters to do the same.
Paul
I'd like to know if the raw format is the same as the 50D and/or if Aperture 2 will support it without being updated. If not, I think I'm going to wait until they release an update before I take the plunge but from what I've seen so far I am chomping to get one of these!
It certainly looks like a great body from all I've read so good to see that your initial findings back this up. I'll be watching out to see what results you get tracking BIF. It's the potential AF performance that would make me sell my 50D for one of these 
BTW is it possible to grab a frame from the HD recording?
