Can a 7D do Landscapes?

[briansquibb]

I would suggest the 7D is more than good enough for prosumer landscapers, printing happily up to A3 (c.16x12) on a simgle image

After that multiple image stitching is a good option.

It may not be the 7D's strong point but it will perform more than adequately for the average user.

Specialist landscapers will probably go a different route

[torger]

I have shot quite much landscapes with the 7D.

The good:
 - large LCD good live view, good for manual focusing
 - electronic start of shutter (less vibration)
 - good build for the price (better weather proofed than the 5Dmk2)
 - if full-frame glass is used, good corner-to-corner performance, little vignetting
 - if using APS-C lenses - good performance for low price, lightweight

The bad:
 - lower res and less sharp per pixel (due to stressing lens resolving power) than full-frame 5Dmk2
 - no weather-proofed APS-C lenses
 - no APS-C tilt-shift and primes, making wide-angle lens choice a bit limiting.
 - ISO100 performance less good than the competition (but still adequate)

If you like working with primes and tilt-shift full-frame is a better choice. If you like working with zooms, the practical quality out of the 7D is quite close the 5Dmk2.

[bycostello]

nice images, don't know why u were stresseed

[briansquibb]

If you like working with primes and tilt-shift full-frame is a better choice. If you like working with zooms, the practical quality out of the 7D is quite close the 5Dmk2.

It is fine with primes - but not tiltshift

+1 - especially in good light

[torger]

If you like working with primes and tilt-shift full-frame is a better choice. If you like working with zooms, the practical quality out of the 7D is quite close the 5Dmk2.

It is fine with primes - but not tiltshift

+1 - especially in good light

Yes you're right, it is good on many of the available primes. What I meant is that on the wide end there's not really any good primes. Those 14mm and 17mm full-frame primes don't perform that great on the small-pixel APS-C compared to longer primes, then it is better with the wide-angle 10-22mm APS-C-specific zoom lens. Full-frame primes are sharp down to 24mm, but less than 24mm they lose some sharpness, meaning that they don't perform well on small-pixel APS-C. Since APS-C needs shorter focal lengths to get the wide angle views, the full-frame wide angle primes are not great to use, and there are no wide angle APS-C-specific primes made (APS-C-specific can be made a bit sharper due to the smaller image circle).

However, the 50, 85, 100mm etc primes perform very well on APS-C, but may be a bit long for landscape shots. I've done quite many 50mm landscape shots on the 7D though.

[briansquibb]

If you like working with primes and tilt-shift full-frame is a better choice. If you like working with zooms, the practical quality out of the 7D is quite close the 5Dmk2.

It is fine with primes - but not tiltshift

+1 - especially in good light

Yes you're right, it is good on many of the available primes. What I meant is that on the wide end there's not really any good primes. Those 14mm and 17mm full-frame primes don't perform that great on the small-pixel APS-C compared to longer primes, then it is better with the wide-angle 10-22mm APS-C-specific zoom lens. Full-frame primes are sharp down to 24mm, but less than 24mm they lose some sharpness, meaning that they don't perform well on small-pixel APS-C. Since APS-C needs shorter focal lengths to get the wide angle views, the full-frame wide angle primes are not great to use, and there are no wide angle APS-C-specific primes made (APS-C-specific can be made a bit sharper due to the smaller image circle).

However, the 50, 85, 100mm etc primes perform very well on APS-C, but may be a bit long for landscape shots. I've done quite many 50mm landscape shots on the 7D though.

I do a lot of longer prime landscapes (135 and 200f/2. where there is architectural interest. I also find the 50 f/1.4 and 85 f/1.8 work well too.

[pj1974]

I've said for many years that people often overstate that the 'best of the best of current day photographic equipment' is needed for good photos. Landscape photography is one of the photographic genres that have less of a demand on equipment essentially than some other genres (eg sports).

The ability to understand light (colour, tone, brightness, contrast, etc); think and apply powerful composition tools (form, shape, contrasting elements, etc) - often sets apart good landscape photos from 'just average' ones.

The Canon 7D can create amazing landscape photos with a skilled photographer using it. While some full frame cameras would benefit to some degree, that's often at the pixel peeping level.  I have used a variety of cameras including my Canon 7D (and even from over 10 years ago when owning a humble Fuji p&s, then migrating to a Canon 350D) - to take landscape photos.

Many of my landscape photos have been acknowledged as being very good (and I consider there is much I can learn and improve on).

While I would like the 7D to have somewhat lower ISO noise, it's not that bad. With correct exposure and careful post processing, magnificent results are indeed possible.

Wishing everyone (whether with Canon 7D cameras or other equipment) joy while taking & sharing photos, especially at this time of the year. 

Regards,

Paul

[torger]

I've said for many years that people often overstate that the 'best of the best of current day photographic equipment' is needed for good photos. Landscape photography is one of the photographic genres that have less of a demand on equipment essentially than some other genres (eg sports).

I agree here. With sports you may need high class auto focus and low light capability to be able to make the shot at all. With landscape, you can make the shot with any equipment.

However, with landscape and other slow tripod-mounted photography you also have the ability to max out what the camera can do in terms of resolution and dynamic range. This can also be appreciated by making large high res fine art prints, and landscapes are often detailed so there's small details to discover. So while the equipment will not lead to better images artistically, it can certainly improve print quality. How important that is, and how good "good enough" is, is a matter of taste of course.

[sawsedge]

Friedmud,

I'm glad you kept the 7D and are out using it.  Those samples are great.

A note on diffraction... I've tested diffraction on 35mm film, my old 20D, and my 50D, and I saw the same result.  Worries about diffraction are somewhat overblown.  I'm OK down to f/16 on all of them.  Yes, when you conduct a test and compare the results side-by-side you see the image degrade some from, say, f/5.6 as you stop down to f/16, but it isn't bad really.  The results are quite usable in my opinion.  When you do landscapes and you need the DOF, don't be afraid to stop down, don't worry about diffraction too much.  But it doesn't hurt to vary your aperture either.  It won't cost you anything but a few more moments, enjoying a scene you find worthy.

On noise reduction, I've had great luck with CS5 (in ACR) and Noise Ninja (rarely using both, mostly using CS5 now).  I've heard great things about Topaz DeNoise too.  Glad it works for you.

As I said in your other thread, I think digital becomes more demanding in general as the pixels get smaller, so we have a bigger learning curve.

[akiskev]

Short Answer: Yes!

Long Answer: Read On

A few days ago I was "Earthshatteringly Disappointed" with my new 7D.  However, upon learning that I couldn't return it, I decided to give it a fair shake to see if it would be worth keeping or dumping for a loss.

I took it out to Jackson, Wyoming...

Thanks for sharing your experience with us! I found your tips very useful!
+ RAW conversion settings were excellent! Good job!
Do you have any shots with a Circular PL filter on?

[pedro]

As an amateur I sold a nightscape to a company this early year after being published in a regional newspaper as a readers photograph for USD 1000. 00. No joke. This was taken by my current 30D and a EF-S 10-22. Therefore I strongly guess the 7D CAN do landscape as well. 
FYI: http://www.flickr.com/photos/guatitamasluz/5362831447/in/set-72157602075454706

Cheers, Pedro

[Texas711]

Please excuse the noob here, I just purchased the 7D and notice it has 3 levels of NR in the custom menus.
Is it better to shoot with this off and smooth the picture is post production?

[friedmud]

Congratulations on giving the 7D an honest run and discovering what it can do! Good shots, good comparisons, and good analysis. Your detailed post can serve as a guideline to future 7D/60D/T2i owners.

* Playing with an online DoF calculator is a great way to get a feel for what apertures are actually needed in different situations: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html.

Thanks!

As for DoF calculators... I personally use a simple DoF calculator on my iPhone.  There are several good ones.  One thing I like about the one I have is that you can set your camera and lenses and then it gives you tailored hyperfocal distances based on what you want in focus.

[friedmud]

I'm surprised you even needed f/8. How far from the barn were you?

Nice shots. I especially like the first one.

I was about 50-75 feet from the barn.... but I was miles away from the mountains.  I haven't done a proper hyperfocal calculation... but f/8 or so seems about right.

Thanks!

[strikerwy]

I think your detailed report and break down of things is quite informative, but I've never questioned for a moment the 7Ds ability in the realm of landscape imagery.  I am finding myself achieving stunning results with very little post-production.  This is not an advertisement for myself, but you can see a number of landscapes taken with a 7D by following the link.  95% of the images posted were captured with my 7D.  The other 5% came from a 50D.  I think the images are a grand testimony to the ability of the camera to render my vision quite well.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1384191182#!/pages/Tim-Doolin-Photography/127209093980710