Well this is not a technical review by any means, but as a professional photographer, mainly shooting weddings and events, here are my thoughts. My 7D arrived yesterday from B&H Photo, along with the 100 2.8 IS L lens. The only comment on the lens is that, as I expected, it is SLOW focusing from near to infinity, but that was expected. So back to the 7D…I literally had about 10 minutes to play with it before jumping in to shoot at a non-profit event. So I only set some very basic menu, but not custom functions, settings. In fact I had to disable all of the AF point selections options because I didn’t have time to read the manual to know how to select the different modes!
My setup was the 7D with the 70-200 2.8 IS as well as the 17-55 2.8 IS EF-S lens. Most shots were with the 70-200 and capturing guests of the event mingling and having fun. It was at the Loews Philadelphia Regency ballroom where light is good in the foyer (large floor to ceiling windows) but only slightly better than an average wedding reception in the ballroom. I am presently waiting for DPP to process the RAW files into TIFF so I can normally process in Lightroom as usual, so no images right now. However, when looking at them in DPP they all looked like what I am used to from my 5D II, and 1D III.
So here are my observations about actually using the 7D in the real world and not taking pictures of pets, color cards, or a bookshelf…
UPDATE 5: I have now second shot a wedding, and shot one of my own weddings with this awesome camera. From the second shooting wedding…the photographer I was shooting for, Dave Zaveloff, said when looking at all the images, including his Nikon D700, and Canon 1D III and 5D II, that his second favorite looking images were the 7D, after his D700 of course, but he is biased! Anyway, the AF has performed flawlessly, the WB is great and consistent, and the noise is looking good at high ISOs for me. Only issue I have is that sRAW is not supported yet in Lightroom. My 1D III is SOLD and not looking back at all. Just wished this AF was in the 5D II!
More below after the click…including images…
- The viewfinder…AWESOME…the viewfinder on the 40/50D series was the reason I never used them. They were only backups to my other cameras, and were just awful. Since I wear glasses I normally can’t see all the viewfinder easily on the 5D and 1D series, and the same is now true on the 7D
- Shutter is very quiet as well…reminds me of the film camera Elan 7E which I think was one of the quietest Canon cameras of all time.
- Most of the focusing point features are gimmicks to me because I am a center point, focus, and recompose shooter. I tried the all point auto selection for a moment, and it seemed to work well, but I want to pick my focal point, and tend to shoot wide open so need to make sure I get the critical point sharp. I ended up using the SPOT AF mode for all my shooting with the camera. The 7D, with the center point only, locked on equally well as the 1D III and 5D II…no question. In fact I thought it locked faster than the 5D II. There was only one fast moment during the award ceremony where I (not the camera) was not fast enough to get the moment dead on, but the camera responded promptly in all fast-paced moments I needed to grab.
- The body and grip are awesome. Again, I was shooting 70-200 most of the time and had a flash attached, with no additional battery grip, my hand was not fatigued at all by the end of the two hours. I never had a chance to put the strap on, so I was carrying it the entire two hours. The back of the grip has a contoured part that your thumb rests into beautifully, so it was well done by the Canon ergonomic engineers.
So that is my brief review on what matters to me…focusing speed and accuracy, the feel, and the viewfinder. I am seriously considering replacing my 1D Mark III in my regular shooting setup at wedding based on the experience so far. The 7D will get it’s first wedding workout next week…that will be the next test.
UPDATE: while walking around on the shoulder the mode dial is annoyingly loose and easily turned…how hard is it to add a lock other than gaffers tape!
UPDATE 2: discovering some cool little features….more later
UPDATE 3: After a day of shooting at our college homecoming I found one super cool feature, when you press the center of the multi-directional selector, of course you get the center focal point, but when you press it again it jumps back to the previously selected point…kinda like the last channel feature on a TV remote
I never really used the feature before on the 5D II, but used the Auto ISO while in manual mode almost the entire day. Very useful feature and makes my life a little easier in some situations.
UPDATE 4: Image quality…awesome! Here are a couple websized images, but also links to the full size image. One low ISO, 160, and two higher, 800 and 1000. I will get some more higher ISO files from Friday’s shoot at the MANNA event online later today. Each of the images below were processed with NoiseNinja, then sharpened with Boutwell’s Sharpen Like A Ninja action. If you click on the image it will launch the full size image…which is HUGE! Oh and did I mention the viewfinder is awesome…yeah it is worth mentioning over and over…
ISO 800
ISO 1000
ISO 150
UPDATE 4: Here are the images from Friday’s event where conditions were as close to a wedding reception as possible. At least using high ISO…all were either 70-200 IS or 17-55 IS lens. These were shot Medium RAW, converted to TIFF in DPP since Lightroom can’t process them, then brought into LR, slight WB correction (they still look terrible in my opinion), then edited in PS as I normally would, NoiseNinja and Boutwell’s Slice Like A Ninja action. If you click on the image you will get the full-sized edited image, and there is also a link to each unedited file…enjoy…
First, ISO 3200 – click here for the unedited file
ISO 2000 – click here for the unedited file
And a couple at ISO 1600…unedited file here
Last one at ISO 1600 and the unedited file here
UPDATE 6: Images from my wedding shot with this little gem of a camera…and get over the 100% viewing of images…silliness! Just shoot! Oh and the 100 2.8 L IS lens is simply amazing…so light and a perfect fit with this camera.
With the 100 2.8 lens…pretty good amount cropped from the original sRAW1 file.
100 2.8 as well…
The AF even with the relatively new slow focusing 100 2.8 I had no problems “grabbing” shots like this that were fleeting moments during the day
Added grain cause I like it…but with the 24 1.4 super sexy lens…
70-200…again very quick to grab shots like this during the cocktail hour in a pretty dimly lit room…flash bounced off the wall behind me
70-200…bounced flash…again AF was quick even with this “slow” 2.8 lens…yeah 2.8 is like a dark tunnel when I am normally shooting with 1.2 and 1.4 glass!
16-35 II…again great focusing during the dancing…
And the best part of the wedding…this kid was awesome…waited almost all night to get down with some of the ladies!
FINAL UPDATE:
To date, the camera has performed flawlessly. No problems with any aspect of the camera at all. For my setup, it is my dedicated second camera, used mainly with flash, as the 5D II is an ISO champ compared to the 7D. However, when shooting with 1.2 and 1.4 prime lenses you really don’t need ISO higher than 1,000 anyway, and the 7D files at that ISO are more than usable and easily printable at 20×30 inches.
I really wish the 5D II had the focusing system that the 7D has, it is really 1D like in low light and initial acquisition of the subject. I will certainly upgrade to the 5D III when it comes out (hopefully sooner than later) with these improvements in AF.
No wedding photographer should question this camera’s ability to be a part of their gear for regular use. Especially those that like to travel light.
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