29 Oct 2009, Posted by Kay in t Veen in Equipment, 1 Comments

Canon EOS 7D A choice in sports photography

For the last 2 years, we missed a high-end asp-c-camera in the product line of canon. Nikon was a long time to strong with the Nikon D300 for Canon. Nevertheless, now there is solid answer from Canon The Canon EOS 7D, a new design with a lot of new great features on board! With the new Canon EOS 7D there is a new choice for Sports and Nature photographers, with a lot of new features, there is something between the pro-sumer 40 and 50D and the 1D-mark III (or now the IV).

The EOS 7D is the first camera with the possibility to trigger remote flashes directly from the body. Earlier you needed to buy a ST-E2 to get this working. With the iFCL-Metering system existing on 63 zones needs to take care of consistent metered exposures. The system uses focus, color and lightning information. All af point transfer information to the new metering system that will result in more consistent exposure. With the 2 DIGIC 4 processors, its now possible to shot bursts of 8 frames per second with a total of 126 Jpegs or 15 Raw files.

New design
Not only technical features and specifications have been changed, Canon also designed the camera new from scratch with a lot of attention going toward ergonomics. The 7D is for example, a lot more solid and feels a lot better than the earlier 40D and 50D cameras. For example, the buttons are now positioned on the left side of the screen instead of the bottom, which is a lot better usable. The body is a lot better sealed for different kinds of weather conditions. Even while the body is almost the same size as the 40 and 50D, it still has the 3 inch screen and even a new button called the quickmenu button.

Mega pixels
With the same sensor sizes as the EOS 50D (1.6x) are the amount of pixels again improved. With 18 Mega pixels is this a great improvement on the 15 mega pixels on the 50D. The sensor of the 7D is newly designed and uses just like the 50D and 5D Mark II a gapless design, where there is no space between the micro lenses. Unless the new designed sensor its the question if canon can produce the very clean high ISO images like they promise like they did on the 50D. The 40D outperformed the 50D significantly concerning ISO noise.

19 AF points
Also the focus system is designed completely new. While Nikon supplies there basic models with 11 AF point with 3d Tracking, has Canon not improved very much last years in the aps-c-cameras. The new 19 AF points are going to change that, since all 19 points are Cross-type sensors from f/5.6. The Focus system has a dedicated processor so that the camera has no problems with the 8 fp/s.

Movie function
In the EOS 7D there has been a lot of improvements on the movie function. The lightning is can be used fully manual en frame rates can be chosen. In Full-HD (1920X1080) the choice is 30 (29,7), 25 and 24 fps. On the resolutions 1280X720 and 640×480 you can choose between 60 and 50fps. Cutting your movies directly on camera is the next great new feature added, and just like the 5D Mark II is there a possibility to add a external microphone to your camera.

Intelligent Viewfinder
On the new viewfinder Canon added a LCD-Overlay, where you can choose different overlays, like grids, spot metering and AF points. This seems interesting but sounds a lot better than it is. Nikon has this already for years and seems a lot handier than it practically is. Canon uses 2 lighted AF points to measure your straight horizon, they will light up when you tilt your camera. But this is a lot less accurate than using this is live view mode.

Conclusion
This camera seems to be a great fit for Sports and Nature photographers with the 1.6x crop factor, and the improved speed and auto focus system, they have a great (cheaper) choice between the 1D series and the 50D series. Great for a second body next to your 1D or just as your main body.

Price: 1739 Euro
Pixels: 18-Megapixels
Sensor: CMOS (22.3 x 14.9 mm)
LCD: 3 inch (920.000 px)
AF: 19 Cross type
Burst: 8 Frames per second (126 jpeg 15 RAW)
Data: Conpact Flash
Dimensions: 148 x 111 x 74 mm
Weight: 820 gram (ex battery)