Review: Canon EOS 7D

The Canon EOS 7D is Canon's top of the range APS-C camera. Below it sit the compact forms of the 1000D, 450D and 500D, and above it the full-frame glory of the £200 more expensive EOS 5D MKII.The big difference between the 5D MKII and the 7D is inside. The 5D MKII is the cheapest of Canon's line-up to offer a full-frame sensor ? the 7D has the same size image sensor as cameras such as the 500D, Nikon D5000 or Pentax K-x.There's also a slight difference in resolution - the 5D MKII has the edge with its 21.1MP sensor, versus the 7D's 18MP APS-C CMOS.Build quality is basically indistinguishable from the 5D MKII. The body ? with the exception of the memory card and battery doors ? is made from tough-feeling magnesium alloy. Every point of contact is coated in thick, tactile rubber, making the 7D easy to hold on to through a pair of gloves. And, unlike Canon's smaller consumer range ? the 450D or 500D, for instance ? the grip is practically sized for grown up hands, and feels like the body will be perfectly balanced paired with one of Canon's L-series telephoto lenses. It's been weather and dust-proofed as well. The battery and memory card doors have a thin layer of rubber where the door meets the body to prevent contaminants getting in.The body is festooned with buttons, which while initially intimidating for beginners, will be unbridled joy for anyone upgrading from a consumer body. Focus zone, continuous shooting and ISO are controlled from a row of buttons next to the shutter release. Each button controls two functions ? one button manages white balance and focus zones, for instance ? and you choose which setting you want to change by using either the click wheel on the back or the command wheel on the right hand shoulder. Learning which wheel does what means the 7D has a relatively steep learning curve, but after a while making important changes to shooting modes takes a few seconds, and you'll only need to refer to the onscreen menu system when reaching for more obscure functions. All this is helped by the presence of a secondary LCD screen which shows shooting information. A final button on the top shoulder controls a handy backlight for making changes in the dark.For those married to the 3in LCD, the Q button on the back gives you a big-screen glance at the camera's settings. The inclusion of a RAW/JPEG button is useful for one-off RAW shooting ? when faced with a scene with particularly wide dynamic range, for instance.Canon does make a few concessions to those still learning the ropes. Switch the shooting mode to CA and you can make changes on the menu system. Settings such as aperture and exposure are broken down into layman's terms such as BlurredSharp and DarkerBrighter. And for when all else fails there's always the green square mode for letting the camera handle everything.Unlike the 5D MKII the 7D has an integrated pop-up flash. A potential weak spot in the otherwise rock-solid body, the flash feels secure and activates via a reliable-sounding motor release. It will be of mixed value - attach a hood to most lenses and the flash will be obscured. However, the 7D is the first Canon to come with an integrated Speedlite transmitter. This is immensely valuable for professionals ? if you have a standalone flash you can set it to fire remotely without needing to spend money on a flash transmitter or PocketWizard setup.While the 5D MKII might have the edge in terms of pure image quality, the 7D has a few advantages, despite being cheaper. It's arguably better for sports and wildlife photographers, for instance. The 5D MKII shoots at a maximum of four frames per second, claims Canon. In our tests, the 7D was little short of unbelievable. Canon claims it will hit eight frames per second, and although we couldn't get it to match that number against a stopwatch, it nevertheless took 52 shots in 7.22 seconds, or 7.2fps.That makes it an incredibly good wildlife camera. There is no shutter lag or measurable time between shots, making it very responsive. It's so responsive, in fact, that there's a second continuous mode that shoots at a more manageable 3.5fps. The smaller sensor hides another plus for sports and nature photographers ? the 1.6x crop factor means every lens you attach gains a little distance. A 400mm lens on a 5D MKII, for instance, will be a 640mm lens on the 7D, getting you closer to your subjects.The responsiveness is helped by the 7D's excellent focusing system. It has 19 cross-type focus sensors and in our tests was limited only by the speed of the lens' focus motor. It tracks superbly. Interestingly, the 7D's autofocus system is superior to the Canon 5D MKII's, at least on paper. The 5D MKII has nine autofocus points, but only one is the more accurate cross-type sensor, against the 7D's 19.The one area build quality is a little off the mark is the lens that you can get bundled with the 7D. The Canon EF-S 18-135 lens was announced at the same time as 7D, but doesn't feel like it matches the body for build-quality. It's made from all plastic, for a start, and unlike more expensive lenses doesn't have full-time manual focusing, so you can't simply grab the focus ring if you don't like what it's trying to do by itself. Its specifications are nothing exciting, with a maximum aperture of f/3.5 at wide angle and f/5.6 zoomed in. On the plus side, it's a good starter lens if you're getting the 7D for video ? it has image stabilisation, which greatly reduces frame shake when you're zoomed in. Unfortunately its good video credentials are sullied by the fact that it isn't a USM (Ultra Sonic Motor) lens, and so makes all kinds of whining noises while hunting for focus. You only save £160 if you opt for the 7D without the lens, but once you start spending more money on more advanced lenses you're unlikely to look back.The lack of a full-frame sensor naturally means that the 5D MKII beats the 7D in a straight image quality comparison ? but only just. Compared with shots taken by an original 5D, the 7D's 3200 ISO images were noisier, but not to the point of destruction.ISO 200:ISO 3200:The difference between the 5D MKII and the 7D comes when you compare the maximum ISO ? the 7D will go as high as 12,800 if you tinker with the custom settings. The 5D MKII goes twice as far, to 25,600. ISO 12,800:Otherwise it almost goes without saying ? the 7D's image quality is almost beyond reproach, and its chief limiting factor will be your abilities as a photographer and the lens you partner with the body. 5D MKII users had to wait for a firmware upgrade before they had manual control over their cameras' video mode; the 7D provides an incredibly powerful manual mode out of the box. Fully automatic modes are still there for those who want to point and shoot, but flick the mode wheel to manual and you can set your own aperture, shutter and ISO speeds. There are four video modes. You can opt for 25fps 1080, 24fps 1080, or 50fps 720 or 640 x 480.Quality is unbelievable ? sharp, with rich colours that, with the frame frozen, may as well have been still images. Sensor wobble (also known as the 'jello' effect) is less in evidence in our test videos as it is with some other cameras, most recently the Pentax K-x, although we noticed problems with vertical objects when the camera panned quickly. Trees, for instance would lean towards one side of the frame depending on which way we panned the camera, and while this is a simple enough problem to correct (pan slower), it means the 7D isn't without the odd chink in its armour.However, there's much more to like than dislike. The manual mode provides a massive amount of flexibility and power, besides being easy to use. Your changes are reflected in real time on the screen and you can change the aperture and shutter speed while video is recording.Shooting for a day is instructive. You can forget about telephoto work unless you have a reliable stabilised lens and ideally a tripod. You can focus during recording, as long as you're happy to live with relatively slow contrast detection focusing, which is less accurate and takes longer. The 7D's integrated microphone also picks up a fair amount of handling noise, although you get an external microphone socket on the side. A headphone socket is the only obvious missing detail.We also had huge problems with our 4GB Crucial memory cards. Having never showed signs of slowness before, the very longest video we captured in the 7D's 24p 1080 mode was 50 seconds long, and that was the exception. Our videos averaged between eight and 10 seconds each before the camera ran out of buffer and stopped recording. To call it frustrating is a masterpiece of understatement. Canon says you'll need a UDMA Compact Flash card that can write at least 8MB/sec to shoot HD video reliably.You'll also need plenty of space. The smallest still image the 7D produced was 3.29MB, but the average was a sturdy 7MB. And, with HD video taking around 60MB for a 10 second file, a Compact Flash card with a capacity of 32GB goes from being a luxury to a fairly strict necessity.A battery grip will come in handy as well ? at the end of a day's shooting, in which we captured 8GB of stills and video, the 7D's battery was half-depleted, meaning you'll need to take spares if you're going somewhere with limited access to electrical outlets. The 7D's battery (part code LP-E6) is the same as the 5D MKII's, and will set you back around £30 for a replacement. An alternative is the BG-E7 battery grip, which takes two batteries or, usefully for those heading for the wilds of Siberia, universally-available AA batteries.We liked:The 7D's high-ISO performance is hardly bad, and compared to the 5D MKII it's £200 cheaper, offers twice the maximum frame rate and a significantly more advanced auto-focus system. The 1.6x crop factor of the 7D's smaller sensor is also a potential advantage. It's also built incredibly well and the video mode, while not perfect, is better than any other HD-DSLR we've seen, thanks to its excellent quality, full manual control and 24p frame rate.We disliked:The excellent Nikon D300S looms large over the 7D. It's nearly £400 cheaper than the 7D, and matches it in virtually every way. The Nikon's build quality is superlative, its continuous mode performance is just about the same, and usability, while significantly different from the 7D's, is great. The D300S is just as fast to use, easy to adjust, and easy to control as the 7D. And, its autofocus system is about the same thanks to its 15 cross-type sensors, making it just about as good for sports and wildlife. Just about the only area in which the 7D is significantly better than the D300S is its video mode. The D300S' is seriously hampered ? only five minutes of recording time per clip, a maximum of 720p resolution and the generally less impressive overall quality of Motion-JPEG compared to the 7D's silky-smooth H.264 all make the 7D better for aspiring videographers.That means, naturally, that the 5D MKII beats the 7D in a straight image quality comparison ? but only just. Compared with shots taken by an original 5D, the 7D's 3200 ISO images were noisier, but not to the point of destruction. The difference between the 5D MKII and the 7D comes when you compare the maximum ISO ? the 7D will go as high as 12,800 if you tinker with the custom settings. The 5D MKII goes twice as far, to 25,600.There's also a slight difference in resolution - the 5D MKII has the edge with its 21.1MP sensor, versus the 7D's 18MP APS-C CMOS.VerdictThe obvious decision for anyone looking to buy a Canon is whether to go for the 7D or splash out on the 5D MKII. With the 5D MKII costing only a little more than £200 extra, it's not an easy choice. For the most fine-grained image quality, and particularly for professional photographers who cover tricky events such as weddings, the 5D MKII is the one to go for. The full frame sensor and massive resolution give you control over your pictures that the 7D just doesn't match.If you haven't already taken the plunge with Nikon or Canon and stocked up on lenses, the D300S is better for stills, although only by dint of its cheaper price. If the 7D's price drops, the best way to make a decision will be to actually pick each camera up and decide which feels best. If you want to shoot video, the decision swings back towards the 7D. The 7D is undeniably excellent camera, but for once, that doesn't make the decision any easier.Related LinksDSLR camera reviewsTechRadar's reviews guaranteeRelated StoriesReview: Pentax K-x

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