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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
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Whatever the subject, opinions will always differ. Yes, the 7D is more prone to diffraction limitations, but as many have said, photography is all about compromises. I probably shoot more landscapes than wildlife, but I prefer to shoot wildlife on the whole, even if I probably get better results in my landscapes. In an ideal world, I would get the 5d MkII for the landscapes, but at the time I was looking for improved AF accuracy and improved noise control in comparison to my 40D to try to improve my chances with wildlife. I was also looking for larger output files to avoid having to interpolate for certain sites.
A while back, I wrote a mini-review of sorts. It wasn’t an attempt to make any scientific comparisons, but more of a report of my experiences at that point, using the 40D as a reference point. I also tried out a few things with different AF settings after reading about AF problems.
http://avalonlightphotoart.blogspot.com/2009/10/canon-eos-7d-hands-on-mini-review.html
The conclusion I can draw from use so far, is that while it isn’t perfect, it is suitable for the purpose I intended and is more than capable of producing good results for landscapes too, even though it is never going to match the 5D MkII. I did however make one odd discovery tonight though and it is something I need to look into more. I was planning on trying out switching off noise reduction (I’d read one comment that noise reduction may still affect RAW files even when switched off) and comparing files with the standard noise reduction setting at ISO 6400. My eventual aim was to see if I could get better results by processing the files with NR off than with it set to standard. What I discovered though, was that the autofocus was less accurate with noise reduction set at standard, than when it was switched off. I tried it more than once using a 50mm f/1.4 wide open with similar results. It was full night in heavy rain, so AF accuracy was never going to be the best, but I thought it produced interesting results that others might want to investigate too.
I wish I had read more review before making my 7D purchase. Having owned many Canon bodies, I felt completely let down at the IQ of 7D images. Now this was prior to reading all the reviews that complained of soft images. I googled 7D soft images after I noticed them on mine and thats when I found all the complaints. With all my previous bodies I could go out and get sharp and consistent results. With the 7D I have yet to produce 1 single image that matches the IQ of previous Canon bodies. This is also using L glass with more than holdable shutter speeds in addition to using and not using IS. Now either there are some bad 7D bodies out there, one of which is in my hands, or the 7D just has a very narrow sweet spot that some have found. If that is the case then that makes the 7D a very poor camera body choice in my opinion. I strongly urge anyone considering this body… take a CF card to a good photography shop that will let you try the camera out. They should let you use a lens.. request an L. Take some shots in the store and check them out on your computer. Base your decision off those results.