7D Review – DPReview
November 6th, 2009 Posted in Canon 7D, Canon Reviews
Weee
I can’t believe I’m seeing so few cons for a Canon camera at DPReview. They loved it! They really loved it!
Read it: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0911/…….
G11 Review Delayed
I wanted to rewrite a bunch of it and do some large prints. It’ll be up before the weeks ends.
cr
November 6th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Couldn’t be much more positive could it?
Amazing camera, now to let Canon’s factories catch up and prices to come down a little bit more. Am I dreaming?
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Lindsay Reply:
November 6th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Oh yeah, you guys who already have one, if you’re not busy taking photos as opposed to wasting time here, can officially like it now. :P
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max Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
people can connect to the internet at night or at the office… no need to be shooting pictures all day…
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November 6th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
im super happy with mine!!
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November 6th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
+1
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November 6th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
regarding the Ghost image, has anyone seen the original photos (raw or jpg)before the post processing that got the ghosting to show up ?? a before and after kind of thing ?
links to images ?? i saw the flying bird photo where you couldnt make out what the bird was anyways, just a black outline with a ghost image from previous snapshot, that seems pretty severe processing
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November 6th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
I’m loving mine. It’s far better than my old 20D!
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November 6th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Pretty impressive technology by Canon!
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November 6th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Well, I’m more impress by the review than by the camera… honestly, I’m starting to like the camera (since firmware update 1.0.9), but since there is no raw converter yet for Mac (Aperture) I still need to handle the over exposed area with jpg… DPP would be an option, but I would prefer to stay in my standard flow.
Overal it’s a good camera and a nice upgrade from my 30D, however, it’s definitely $200 Canadian too expensive.
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afrank99 Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 2:20 am
You prefer to use crappy JPGs just to “stay in your standard flow”? You’re kidding, aren’t you?
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John.B Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
What he said was that he’d prefer to not use DPP if he didn’t have to.
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Rox Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
You read better than the previous reply ;-)
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Rox Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
I never said than I’m not shooting raw… actually I shoot both to be able to modify the raw in a near future… I hope.
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Denni Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Dude,
download the Adobe DNG converter (for free) and convert the CR2s to DNG and get on with RAW shooting…
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John.B Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
The DNG converter in ACR 5.5/LR 2.5/etc. isn’t *finished* for 7D files, even though it *opens them*. This according to Tom Hogarty, Lightroom program manager at Adobe:
http://twitter.com/LR_Tom/status/4010132137
“LR2.5, CR5.5 include preliminary support for Canon 7D, G11 and S90. Preliminary = files open but we are not close to final quality.”
Any time you “save” will be wasted trying to get that orange tint out of your raw-converted images. The raw converter is also pretty noise-infested at higher ISOs, as it stands right now, though I’m sure that will be fixed in ACR 5.6/LR 2.6.
Probably get better results for the time being using JPEG than ACR 5.5/LR 2.5 with the 7D. Or DPP, for those who are so inclined.
On a side note, I really don’t understand why Adobe would release this early pseudo-support for the 7D like that. They had to know how crappy the results were going to be.
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November 6th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
The 7D will definitely be an asset in my event shooting. I will wait for next year with(hopefully) price drop. Running a photography business isn’t about getting new shiny gear as they come out.
As for those of you who have it, enjoy it. I believe the best situation for the 7D- the sun is nearly setting into the horizon, you’ve got that orange red glow. Get the kids or family to stand with their backs to the glow, use built in speedlite control to fire off to camera right or left (2nd curtain). Set cam to f7 or 8, aperture 20, iso 200 and just adjust aperture as you go. That should get you a nice family shot. Just make sure you’ve got tpod for flash and cam =)
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Drome McKauliff Reply:
November 6th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
That’s a great and really really random tip!
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Paul Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 2:14 am
Really really really random, but great.
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wot Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Thing is, a flash is “daylight” and the orange glow is… orange. So you’ll be getting mixed colour temps. Still it will look ok (natural even) because the other side of them “the blue part of the sky” is still “daylight”, so yeah, my point is sorta moot… carry on.
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November 6th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
I sent mine back after the 1D announcement. It was a excellent camera, but I’ve been wanting the 1D mk IV. I may hold off on buying it as well, and wait for the reviews. My 5D MK II does a very good job.
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November 6th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
“Instead of asking if this camera is fast enough for you, you should probably be slightly concerned if you are fast enough for the 7D.”
LOL!!
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November 6th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Lol!! +1
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November 6th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
I’m going to email the review to all my Nikon friends, and then give ‘em a big raspberry! It got a slightly better review than the D300, HA!
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Lindsay Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 2:14 am
That’s a strange thing to do.
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ossme Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 5:29 am
agreed. :P
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David Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
That’ll learn em!
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November 6th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Am I the only pixel peeper. Look at all the photos – especially anything with fine detail like grass – it all looks like noise reduced mush. Take a look at a D700 / D3 / D3x and see the difference. Bigger photo sensors are better than having a ton that can’t collect light.
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Carey Photography Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 1:07 am
There’s more that goes into a sensor’s efficiency than just pixel pitch. And Canon has clearly shown that it is possible to engineer an 18MP sensor that is competitively as efficient as a 12MP sensor.
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Fred69 Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Totally agree that it might be possible. Sony / Toshiba have some backlit sensor technology but look at two similar photos taken by dcresource:
5d mark 2: 20+ MP
http://www.dcresource.com/sites/default/files/galleries/canon-eos-5d-mark-ii-photo-gallery/IMG_2350.JPG
vs. Nikon 700D: 12MP
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/nikon/d700-review/DSC_0136.JPG
Take a look at the grass with 100% magnification on both. Can you see the detail in the D700. Now look at the palm tree on the top left. On the canon, it’s blurry and the details are rough. Now look at the Nikon.
I used to be a huge canon fan. I still am but starting at the 50D and on, there’s just too much compromise being made for the sake of more megapixels.
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Michal Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 1:28 am
Judgement, like beauty, is the eye of beholder. You seen what you choose to see and it’s your choice and besides there are a lot of factors that can affect perceived sharpness – compression ratio, different lens, different point of focus etc. On the Nikon pic grass is brightly light by the Sun, on the Canon pic it’s not so bright. Look at the stained window – do you honestly see much difference in the picture quality?
The megapixels are not being increased just for the sake of megapixels, some people do need them and having them gives one a lot of flexibility when cropping. It’s actually quite funny, pixel peepers like you complain about some minor details that would be only visible if blown up to dimensions that are almost never used in real life for printing picture. You basically find (real or imagined) problems and faults that do not apply in real life situations (assuming that they are real and not imaginary).
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Fred69 Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 10:54 am
How do you evaluate a camera without looking at what was captured at 100% magnification?
If you look at the photos at 20% scale on a typical monitor, don’t a lot of photos from a lot of different cameras look good?
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Adam Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Doesn’t that tell you something? That in the end, most cameras are pretty close. Close enough to make laughable the thousands of dorks online comparing “100% crops”..
My pixels are better than yours!
Yeah well my dad’s better than yours.
etc.
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Michal Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
“How do you evaluate a camera without looking at what was captured at 100% magnification?”
By judging the overall quality of the camera, handling, cost, etc. Perceived, (please note the word “perceived”, as you can see even from this thread people see things differently) image quality is only a part of it.
“If you look at the photos at 20% scale on a typical monitor, don’t a lot of photos from a lot of different cameras look good?”
Where did you get this “20% size” from my post and how on Earth do you propose to compare quality looking at jpgs?
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Jochystarz Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Agreed 100%, wait for them to be asked to shoot a billboard add, I’ll bet they’ll wish to hace those extra MP’s handy !
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Simon Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 4:04 am
5DMk2 truanced D3, D700 and even edges D3x in every IQ tests.
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Simon Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 4:09 am
Look at this review, in fact just compare the samples you will find the better ones are from the 5DMk2, the worse ones are from D3
http://rolandlim.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/canon-eos-5d-mark-ii-review/
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Gary Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 8:04 am
The blur on the edge of the frame is probably due to the lens. If you look at Jesus in the stained glass in the center of the frame, the Canon noticeably has more detail.
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Sensorpic Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Gary Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 8:04 am
“The blur on the edge of the frame is probably due to the lens”.
that´s what i wrote below, canon is giving us great sensors but not the glass to make full use of it. what good is it to have 21 Mp and crop out the blurry edges and have a 15 or 16 mp frame?. where is our version of nikon´s 14-24 and 24-70 .updating the sensors alone dont do much good for us ,i´t just going to make fanboys happy means profit rise for canon.
give us the lenses to match our sensors.
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Scott Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Can you say 24L(II)? How ’bout 85L? or 70-200? Is Tilt-Shift in your vocabulary? Citing two excellent Nikon lenses is fine, but why don’t you start looking at the EF line before you say there’s no good Canon glass.
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Lindsay Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 2:15 am
Have a look at the RAW noise comparisons, the 7D’s pixels are not significantly worse than the 50D’s or D300’s.
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Fred69 Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 10:53 am
I wonder if these synthetic tests are as good as real world tests. Here’s a 7D photo and upclose you still can not see detail in the grass, and the faces of the players seem to have details that are smudged by noise reduction?
http://a.img-dpreview.com/gallery/canoneos7d_samples/originals/img_9207_acr.jpg
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Carey Photography Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Well first off where’s the plane of focus? Second, what lens was being used? Third, what focus mode was being used? Forth, what shutter speed was being used?
You see, I understand what you’re trying to get at, but you point is invalid. The REAL point here, is that in any real world situation, taking comparable shots and PRINTING them at, lets say 11×14, not just looking at 100% crops on your monitor, NO ONE would be able to tell the difference between the 7D and the D300/300s. That being said, all things considered, I’d rather have the 7D and some extra pixels so that I may crop my photo a little bit. Plus it’s always been proven that Canon’s RAW files have more head room for processing than Nikon’s. You’re 100% crops are an INVALID point because NO ONE will be printing large enough to see them at 100%, and if you are, get a medium format camera, because neither the D300/300s or the 7D are meant for that type of work flow or large format printing. One more time, just in case this didn’t get through, your point is INVALID Fred69.
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Carey Photography Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Plus the 7D is way more customizable than the D300/300s, so I can set it up for EXACTLY the way I like to shoot and it makes it that much more comfortable to use.
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James C. Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Carey Photography:
This is a good discussion that’s worth having. No need to make it personal.
Everyone has a camera preference, seems you have already purchased the 7D.
I think Adam summed it up pretty well in a post up above:
Adam Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Doesn’t that tell you something? That in the end, most cameras are pretty close. Close enough to make laughable the thousands of dorks online comparing “100% crops”..
My pixels are better than yours!
Yeah well my dad’s better than yours.
etc.
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Carey Photography Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I agree with you, it just get’s frustrating when someone get’s so narrowly focused on such a minuscule issue that they don’t see the whole picture. The picture being that Canon is dong something here that all sensor manufacturers should look at, creating high density sensors that are efficient enough to produce very high quality photos with an enormous amount of detail, even in low light and at high ISO speed equivalents. Sure, full frames do better, and pixel pitch (size) is still an issue in terms of light gathering efficiency, but that reality, at some point, will fade away. So I apologize, and no I haven’t bought the 7D, yet, but am happily anticipating the time I do, and a couple nice lenses too. :)
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Sensorpic Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Carey Photography,
Fred has a point, and i dont think it´s a case of someone being narrowly focused, and i dont think it´s a minuscule issue either. the problem with canon right now is,there aint a single lens below 85mm which can match the new sensor´s resolving power,let alone come anywhere near.
(every landscape shots out here on dpreview samples shows the problem no matter which aperture ,none of them are even sharp across the frame,details aint there anyway either) we simply have to get some incredibly expensive Zeiss (18 mm and the new 21 mm )or Nikon glass (14- 24 mm).
makin a high MP sensor nkaes the fanboys happy as long as they have the bragging rights,canon knows it better than any of us.and they simply dont want to waste their resources on developing the lens to match the sensor resolution.
ever wondered why all the wide angle samples out here should be cropped before printing to avoid the blurry edges anyway ? how much of the frame is available to you if you avoid the blured edges. 10 Mp 12 Mp? ( http://www.dcresource.com/sites/default/files/galleries/canon-eos-5d-mark-ii-photo-gallery/IMG_2350.JPG ).well ,i´d be using the trusty old 5D or a d700 for some good reason if i were shooting landscape.
no wonder when it comes to resolving grass and tree details my 10 mp 40D and the 12 mp nikons does better job than the 50 d and 7d.
simply look at the whole scene and honestly tell us how much of the frame is acceptably sharp and how many MPs it is after you crop those parts away.i´ll bet it wont be more than 12 – 13 Mps ,atleast witht the current canon Zooms.
here is a site which might help you not to think i too am just another narrowly focused person.
it´s not always MPs and noiseand pixel pitch etc etc, it´s also about how much of the MPs you have is really useful at the time of print.when they dish out high MP sensors they should give us some good wide angle zooms too.otherwise i´ll have a 18MP camera which gives me 12Mp results.
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Sensorpic Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
oh i forgot the site
http://16-9.net/ .
it should come with a warning to the real fanboys who might be easily offended at the front page pic ;-)
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Scott Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Again, sensorpic, have you ever heard of the TS-E17, TS-E24II, 24L, 35L, 50L, 60Macro, 17-55IS or 10-22? All of those are perfectly capable of resolving the 7D’s sensor. There’s also several third party options including the new Zeiss ZE series, Tokina 11-16, 16-50, Tamron 17-50 and others that meet your needs of great <85mm lenses.
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Sensorpic Reply:
November 11th, 2009 at 5:53 am
well Scott,
i accept that i havent used any of the canons TS lenses (simply cos i do fashion and Portrait stuff), but i´ve tried most other EF lenses ,Both nikons and canons upto 300 mm)
( i´ll quote this from http://www.lonestardigital.com/D2X.htm )
“It has been calculated that most (including the most expensive) lenses in real-world shooting conditions actually resolve details in the 50-80 Lp/mm range. Some specialty lenses can do better (certain prime & macro lenses in certain conditions), cheap lenses usually do worse.”
that´s what i figure out too from my own tests,but the newest lenses should have a bit more resolution .now the 5D2´s sensor has around 78 Line pairs /mm and 7D is 116 Lp/mm – yes you might get really good resolving power at the centre of the frame with any of the L prime lenses you mentioned above,but with those WA zooms i doubt it and that´s what the soft samples shows. and am talking about the whole frame (relevent to Landscape photogs ,i do occationaly like to do it for a change ,pure hobby :-)and the 3 canon lenses (2 Ls also )i own disappoints me)
i mentioned the Zeiss and the 2 Nikon´s because those lenses could be called “great” along with Canon´s “great” 85 1.2 L,the new TS ,135 mm , 200 mm 2,300 2.8 etc.the rest of the lenses you mentioned below 85 mm are good but not Great for me (to you it may be,i accept it.it depends on what one expects)
here is something you can check out so you´ll understand the difference between `great´ and `good´ lenses available today at the wide angle end.
done with the same canon camera
http://www.16-9.net/lens_tests/canon14l2_nikon1424/nikon1424_canon14l2_a.html
by the way, i´ve heard about alomost all the lenses out there ;-).i used to work with nikon cams but moved to Canon 2 years back – i still use a couple of nikkors with adapter.
have a nice day.
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Sensorpic Reply:
November 11th, 2009 at 5:58 am
compared to 24 L
http://www.16-9.net/lens_tests/nikon_14_24mm_1/nikon14_24mm_a.html
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Sensorpic Reply:
November 11th, 2009 at 6:00 am
16-35mm f2.8 L
http://www.16-9.net/lens_tests/nikon1424_17mm/nikon1424_17mm1.html
Sensorpic Reply:
November 12th, 2009 at 9:39 am
to Scott,
something which will help you easily understand what i mean – latest from this site
EOS 7D Review – Darwin Wiggett
November 12th, 2009 | 4 Comments | Posted in Canon 7D
Not much love here
I’m a big fan of Darwin’s work. He’s one of those photographers that makes landscape images I can stare at for long periods of time. I was pretty eager to read his take on the 7D.
I was quite surprised by the results….
From Darwin
“Of all the cameras we have ever used, we loved the handling of the Canon 7D the best. What a little sports car of a camera! We so much wanted to love this camera. But in test after test we constantly were disappointed in the quality of the files. For our purposes, landscape and nature photography shot using RAW images, the 7D just does not cut it. Darwin is definitely keeping his Rebel (a great camera for the money) for backpacking. We were so impressed with the Canon G11 that we plan to add it to our camera bags as an everyday walk around camera.”
Read More: http://darwinwiggett.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/the-canon-7d/
CR’s Take
I’m super curious now if I’d get the same results. I’m going to give it a whirl if I get some time.
cr
November 7th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Shame they failed to mention half the bodies are going back to Canon for AF repair. Make sure you try it carefully before you buy. Seems there’s a very high percentage of lemons on this tree.
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Lindsay Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 2:15 am
Wow, a full 50%!
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Paul Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 2:16 am
And your information comes from? oh right, its anecdotal. probably made up somewhere on the ‘net.
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Lindsay Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 5:01 am
http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/PIDOOMA
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Paul Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 3:05 am
+1
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heavybarrel Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
I heard that 75% of statistics are 50% wrong. That happens like 90% of the time. I have two friends with the 7D (I sadly cannot justify having a 5DM2 AND and 7D) and both of them are working great… That means 100% of them are absolutely awesome in my little world.
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Rox Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I bought 2 had to return 1 for bad focus issue… that makes 50% to my eyes… ;-)
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Michal Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 3:07 am
As they say on Wikipedia “cite please” – do give us a reliable source for this information.
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EvertJan Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 6:14 am
I told him
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heavybarrel Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 2:19 am
John Hooper? Do you remember where you heard that half the 7Ds are being sent back? I would really like to read this for myself.
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November 7th, 2009 at 2:08 am
definitely making me reconsider the 1D MIIN/III for a backup to my 1Ds… replace my “aging” 40D (ha!) backup with a 7D!
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November 7th, 2009 at 8:32 am
I am sure the 7D is a great camera. Canon can not afford a second 50D flop in a row. Sinds DPReview is owned by Amazone.com, I tend to wait also for a review by Rob Galbraith and Steve (Digicam), although my own judgement with my cummulated experience remains my final judgement.
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exit_level Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 9:07 am
EOS 50D isn’t a flop as well as Nikon D5000. Without 50D experience 7D would be impossible. I suspect that still there are some hardware and firmware problems about 7D. You can’t emulate real resistor or capacitor by software in easy way. So I think that at the end of January Canon will optimize 7D so it would be as reliable as every their camera.
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John.B Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
DPReview was owned by Amazon when their scathing 50D review came out, so that undermines the whole “positive DPR reviews generate Amazon.com sales” theory just a bit.
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November 7th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
wow, I cannot wait to see 1d Mark IV review. :)
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November 7th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
i know this is a bit off topic, but is this for real???
http://www.deltacamera.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=CNEOS7DBODY&Show=TechSpecs
the 7d for $1249????
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John.B Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
If it sounds too good to be true…
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Lindsay Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
What John.B said.
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Delta_Camera
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November 7th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
The samples look impressive to me. The 3200 and 6400 look as if they would be very usable up to 8×10. The lower settings are very impressive too. It seems as though Canon has a winner. I am hoping that this new technology will trickle down to the 60D.
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November 8th, 2009 at 2:23 am
another 7D review is out over at CameraLabs (for those that didnt know)
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ossme Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 4:51 am
Yeah, I was suprised by the Positive review of the cameralabs.
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November 8th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Seems like an awesome camera but I think I’ll wait for the next new thing before upgrading from my 40D. But that’s only because I don’t have a lot of spare cash lying around. If I did I’d totally get one.
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ossme Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 4:52 am
Just wait and you will see lots of those second handed and with a geart price. :)
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November 11th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
See Cameralabs.com review. They really, really loved 7d.
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November 22nd, 2009 at 8:14 pm
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