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Canon 18 Megapixels EOS 7D Review by ePhotoZine With Rating 9/10

2009-11-10 02:21 | EOS 7D Sales Ranking: #26 | Tag:  EOS  Rating  Canon  Megapixels  Review  | Source
Average Camera Review Rating [12 reviews]
On September 1 2009, Canon announced the EOS 7D to add to its prosumer lineup of DSLRs. The Canon 7D comes with 18 Megapixel APS-C (1.6x crop) CMOS sensor, which is 3 Megapixels more than the 50D. There is a new autofocus system consisting of 19 cross-type points which will likely be welcomed by most shooters. It also features two DIGIC-4 processors, 100% viewfinder with 1.0x magnification, improved Movie function, a new 3 inches LCD monitor, and a wide range of ISO speed settings from 100-6400 (expandable to 12,800). 

The 7D will record Full HD at 1920 x 1080 pixels in selectable frame rates of 24p (23.976), 25p, or 30p (29.97); 720p HD recording at 50p or 60p (59.94) and SD video at frame rates of 50p or 60p (59.94). The 7D is priced at $1699 for body only and in a kit with Canon's EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM at an initial retail price of $1899. Here is the review summary of the camera by ePhotoZine, giving the camera a high rating of 9 out of 10:

"I had the 7D set to give full-sized Raws and Large JPEGs simultaneously. JPEG quality is very good and it is only in areas of really fine detail where Raw (I converted mine using Adobe Lightroom 2.5 as well as the supplied Canon Digital Photo Professional software) had the edge. For example, the eyebrows of our model, Elin, were finely resolved in Raw mode but were less distinct with the JPEG - this was when viewed at 100% and 200% on-screen so we are talking serious magnification here. Colour reproduction with standard settings in JPEG was impressive and punchy. Shots taken on a dull grey certainly had some life in them and the camera's tendency towards rich colour saturation is definitely a benefit. However, this tendency to vivid colour reproduction can be a problem if you want subtle hues, especially when the sun's shining, but the colour controls within the menu system allow you to fine-tune reproduction to how you prefer it. 

The 7D's base ISO is 100 and the top setting is 6400. Turn on ISO expansion and you have the option of shooting at an equivalent of ISO 12,800. As a top speed, it is pedestrian when compared with the staggering speeds of the Nikon D3S and Canon EOS 1D mk IV, but to the huge majority of photographers ISO 12,800 is more than enough. Noise performance is very good and competitive with rivals. There is no noise of real note at speeds up to ISO 1600 and even here images are very clean and colour saturation remained impressive. By the time you get to ISO 3200 noise and detail loss was more evident, but the noise at least was neutral and not too obtrusive. It is probably only at the highest official ISOs of 5000 and 6400 that noise got to the point of being obvious. The H option, giving the equivalent of 12,800, shows detail loss and blotchy, colourful noise so this is best reserved for those dire conditions when you truly need such sensitivity. Overall, performance is of a very high order and the pictures I got in my short time with the camera I was perfectly happy with, so it is undoubtedly worthy of recommendation."

Photo Album: Canon Announces 18 Megapixels 7D with 1080p Full HD Video Support


Canon EOS 7D Sample Photos on Flickr



Canon EOS 7D Camera Reviews Roundup

KirkTuck: "In the Canon line the 7D is the current camera with soul.  The shutter sound is satisfying.  The finder is fine.  The feel of the body is like solid steel in your hand.  The buttons are just right.  It's got the feel that eludes the 5D2.  I'm willing to be that the 1D series of cameras is in the same ball park but the cost to someone who doesn't abuse their bodies is just too high. But..." - Aug 13 2010 More »
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KenRockwell: "The 7D is a spectacular camera for general use. If you think you want one for general photography or action, get one! For nature and landscapes I'd go the extra cost for the 5D Mark II in a heartbeat, but for action in reasonable light, the 7D is an awesome camera. The 7D is ideal for amateurs shooting sports, who prefer not to have to carry the professional standard, the $5,000, 10 FPS, three-pound Canon..." - Aug 04 2010 More »
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RegHardware: "There is a new Quick menu button, which does as it says, offering a shortcut to get to the parameters you need to adjust swiftly. One interesting inclusion is a button that switches you into RAW shooting for one frame if you are in JPEG Only or to RAW+Jpeg if you are in RAW already. It's a brilliant idea and helps avoid forgetting to switch and ending up filling your card in RAW. See a great shot? Well now you can m..." - Mar 07 2010 More »
MacWorld: "The EOS 7D is a stellar performer at low lighting levels. Even on a gloomy day it will take vibrant shots in its standard color mode, although you might have to adjust the levels slightly during post-processing to give the darker colors more richness. In dark environments the EOS 7D's ISO speed can be boosted right up to ISO 6400, allowing you to use a shutter speed fast enough to counter blurring as you hold t..." - Feb 11 2010 More »
PhotoZone: "The build quality of the camera is superb thanks to a metal construction with additional seals against dust and humidity. The AF performance is great both in daylight as well as in dark light conditions and it's suppored by a correspondingly high processing speed with up to 8 fps. The exposure accuracy of the new metering system is very good as well although not foolproof but then no system is here. It's a joy to ha..." - Feb 10 2010 More »
Photocrati: "Canon did lots of things right with this camera. But most importantly, if you think you're sacrificing a clean noise-free image to save a few bucks, think again. The Canon EOS 7D makes no compromises. In many respects it flies past the 5D Mark II. The only drawback to the 7D is the range of available Canon lenses, notably at the wide end. Fortunately, third-party manufacturers, namely Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina,..." - Feb 10 2010 More »
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Steve's Digicam: "Imager noise was well controlled, which is a big deal with a camera of this nature. Those of you who purchase a dSLR in this price range need, and expect that it will perform well, no matter what the lighting situation is. I used a range of ISO 500 - 1250 during the wedding, and even the images that were captured on the higher end of that range were able to produce some beautiful 8.5x11-inch borderless prints from m..." - Jan 20 2010 More »
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ImagingResource: "Though the image quality is not quite up to the standard of the $2,600 full-frame EOS 5D Mark II, the crop-frame 7D does stand up quite well to its current competitors, both in resolution and high ISO image quality. Even when compared to the 5D Mark II, the 7D does have a few advantages of its own. To start with, that eight-frame-per-second frame rate is just what serious photographers on a budget have needed t..." - Jan 18 2010 More »
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PhotographyBay: "Canon has a solid in-camera noise reduction solution for JPEG shooters.  You can take the camera up to the edge and shoot images at ISO 6400.  I would prefer to stop at ISO 3200 for JPEG files; however, you can definitely push it to ISO 6400 for web, small prints and newspaper uses. For RAW shooters, if you'll put the files in DPP for your noise processing, ISO 6400 becomes a lot more usable.  So..." - Dec 30 2009 More »
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DigitalCameraReview: "With the introduction of the 7D, Canon has fit a camera neatly into both the resolution and cost gaps that had formerly existed in their DSLR lineup. Now there's a smooth progression of resolution from 10 megapixels to 21 at roughly 2 or 3 megapixel increments, and a $1700 camera to fill the gap between the $1100 50D and $2700 5DII. The Canon EOS 7D is an interesting mix of features - on the one hand it brings..." - Dec 08 2009 More »
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GSMAreana: "There was a lot of commotion in the enthusiast community about the Canon 7D pixel-crammed sensor. The 15 megapixel EOS 50D was not among the Canon's most successful products and the new 18 megapixel camera made photographers fear the worse - excessive noise without noticeable increase in resolved resolution. The real-life results however are far from that and they are actually quite promising. The noise is well..." - Dec 06 2009 More »
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PDN GearGuide: "There's a lot to like on the Canon 7D so if it seems like I'm being hard on the camera for its overambitious pixel count, it's mostly because I'm holding it to a higher standard. For starters, the HD video capabilities of the 7D are the best we've ever seen for a digital SLR. (The only things missing are a built-in stereo microphone and Continuous Autofocus.) Furthermore, as a still capture device, Canon has loaded..." - Dec 04 2009 More »
NeutralDay: "Overall image quality from the EOS 7D was very good. The large (5184 x 3456) files are full of detail and at ISO 800 and under, are mostly free of noise. Exposures were all quite good, aided by the 63 zone dual layer metering system and further helped by Canon's Auto Lighting Optimizer (which I typically just leave on standard). In very high contrast scenes, the EOS 7D did have a slight tendency to overexpose, but s..." - Nov 13 2009 More »
CameraLabs: "The new 19-point AF system is a big step-up from the 9-point system employed by Canon for so long at this level, and is a triumph in customisation. It's very useful to find the AF Point Expansion inherited from the pro models, while brand new options like zoning and setting different points for vertical orientation really show Canon taking time to think about how different photographers work. Nikon's 51-point system..." - Nov 08 2009 More »
TrustedReviews: "The 7D features a new autofocus system, which is always a bit of an event for Canon. It is, to say the least, impressive. It has 19 f/2.8 cross-type sensors arranged in a broad diamond pattern across the central area of the frame, which can be used either for a wide area AF mode, in selected groups for small area AF, or singly for point or centre. It is a fantastically adaptable system, and clever too. There is a cu..." - Nov 08 2009 More »
PhotoReviews: "Still pictures from the test camera looked as sharp and colour accurate as you would expect from a pro-sumer DSLR with professional specifications and almost-professional pricing. Video quality was outstanding, particularly in low light levels and with the 24 fps frame rate. Audio quality from the built-in microphone was also well above average. However, the overall handling of the camera for shooting video was no b..." - Nov 03 2009 More »
DavidTong: "I'm quite impressed with the ISO performance, with noise reduction set to standard,  it still manages to preserve the details. The pictures taken up to ISO 1600 are still very acceptable and images taken with ISO 3200 are still usable for small prints or for web use.  At ISO 6400 image will still be usable after some post processing. Coming from a cropped sensor (APS-C) camera, my initial intent was t..." - Nov 02 2009 More »
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Pocket-lint: "Detail and colour are excellent; shooting RAW+JPEG gave superb results though the auto WB setting left things looking a tad warm. Processing the RAWs (I shot RAW + JPEG throughout) using the supplied Canon Digital Photo Professional software was easy, even if said software is a tad slow, particularly when exporting the RAWs as JPEGs. One of the most impressive aspects of the 7D is the low noise performance at h..." - Oct 30 2009 More »
NeoCamera: "Image quality when it comes to noise is awesome. This 18 megapixels camera produces clear results up to ISO 1600, perfectly usable for large prints and even remains usable to ISO 12,800 for smaller prints. While-balance is very good except under artificial light. This is typical and not much of a problem because custom white-balance is right on. Where the 7D unfortunately falls down is in terms of color and exp..." - Oct 22 2009 More »
TechRadar: "We liked: The 7D's high-ISO performance is hardly bad, and compared to the 5D MKII it's £200 cheaper, offers twice the maximum frame rate and a significantly more advanced auto-focus system. The 1.6x crop factor of the 7D's smaller sensor is also a potential advantage. It's also built incredibly well and the video mode, while not perfect, is better than any other HD-DSLR we've seen, thanks to its excellen..." - Oct 17 2009 More »
Naturfokus: "I shall be very careful to say much about the image quality, just based on the JPEG images I have taken with 8 bit color depth. But what I´ve seen so far, it can withstand comparisons with image files from both the 5D Mark II and 1DS Mark III, especially with ISO settings below ISO 800. I photographed most of my test pictures with ISO values at ISO 500, but with the water droplets, I used ISO 1600. Even at ISO 1600..." - Sep 15 2009 More »
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