OVERVIEW

The Canon 40D was the last EF-S dSLR I owned, so reviewing the Canon 7D was an easy way to catch up on Canon’s newest dSLR developments. Prior to the Canon 7D’s arrival, I searched the web and started reading other reviews, forum postings, etc. The new features sounded overwhelming, and some aspects of the 7D’s operation sounded more complex / advanced than Canon 1-Series cameras.

When the 7D arrived its battery needed charging, so I spent some time admiring the 7D’s build quality. While looking at the 7D, I wondered – what do I compare it to? Should it be compared to what I remember of the 10D, 20D and 40D? Or maybe how it performs relative to the Leica M9 (which was sold just the previous month)? Or maybe to the Canon 1Ds Mark III since I know that camera fairly well. There were also some more general considerations such as – who will read this review and what do they want to know? And I am not a sports shooter, so how do I address the AI Servo auto focus and the 8 FPS frame rate? So as the anxiety mounted, one thing was clear – the 7D felt very, very nice.

Eventually I got past the angst and decided not to worry about the how’s, and instead to just take pictures - lots and lots and lots of pictures. Some days the 7D was a Leica M9 replacement, other days it was a Canon 1Ds Mark III shooting partner, and a couple times I took the 7D just to take pictures for the sake taking of pictures.

BUILD QUALITY & HANDLING

The 7D’s improved build quality is easy to see and feel. The camera feels solid, sturdy, perhaps even rugged. There is no body flex, nor any creaky plastic. I liked that the 7D’s viewfinder uses the same eye piece as the Canon 1-Series. This made the 7D feel familiar. And the shutter button felt the same as well, so that was comforting. In many ways the 7D felt like a mini 1-Series. Some of the stand out features were:

1. •The viewfinder is big, bright and shows all the relevant shooting information in the status bar. Canon did a good job here. The new transmissive LCD overlay is a cool feature. Grid line can be turned on / off. The auto focus points are clearly, cleanly outlined. Illumination is even too. There are various options for the overlay’s behavior when focus is achieved (I like the red flash option). The red flash confirmation could be considered gadgety, but in loud environments where the auto-focus confirmation beep cannot be heard, the visual cue is helpful.
   

2. •Selecting an individual auto focus point (or zone) is very simple. Selection starts with AF Selection button and then using the controls wheels to move the active point up / down / right / left. The mini joy stick can be used as well. The joy stick on the 1Ds Mark III is schizophrenic, whereas the 7D’s is pretty well behaved and usually goes in the direction intended. Pressing M-Fn button cycles through the single AF mode, spot AF mode and zone mode - all of it is really quite simple and easy. No menu diving required.
   

3. The 7D’s auto focus point selection process is significantly better than the Canon 1Ds Mark III’s. On the 1-Series Mark III bodies, the paths for selecting for AF points are not simple straight lines, nor do the paths loop. This results in a ridiculous amount of wheel jockeying, whereas the 7D’s intuitive straight line paths (there is an option to loop the path) made AF point selection simple and intuitive. NOTE - Canon realized the error of their ways and changed how the control wheels navigate on the 1D4.
   

4. •The rear LCD with its 900k dot screen is sharp, easy to read and works fairly well in bright sunlight. Using Live View on 7D in bright sunlight is difficult, and that is true for every LCD I have seen / used. I was able to review histograms and shooting data without any problems (with some occasional hand shielding).
   

5. •A rotary knob selects Live View or Video, and then a single button push to turn it on. Simple and well executed in my opinion. The 5D Mark II frustrated me with its implementation of Live View because too much menu diving was required. On the 1Ds Mark III I have the “Set” button on the rear control dial set to turn on / off Live View, so the 7D’s simple single button solution felt like home. A single button makes life easy, especially when things are happening quickly and there isn’t time to dive into the menus.
   

6. •The 7D’s on board flash can wirelessly trigger external Canon Speedlites (up to three groups). The 7D flash can be part of the lighting set-up, or it can act as just a trigger. I set-up the Canon 430EX II and took some test pictures. A single Speedlite set-up is fairly straightforward. A multi Speedlite set-up could take some trial error to get the ratios right (I used to do this with the Canon 1Ds Mark II and the 580EX’s). Built-in wireless control is a big weight savings because an on-camera 580EX (or similar) is not needed to trigger remote flashes.
   

7. •For flexibility Canon added the option to change button functions, so the 7D has a comprehensive list of button / function options. During the set-up process the rear LCD shows an image of the 7D, where the selected button is located and then a list of options for the button. I set the M-Fn button to enable / disable viewfinder leveling option (another cool feature!)
   

8. •The three custom set-up memory locations (selectable by the mode dial) is very useful. I set C1 to single-shot AF mode and C2 set to 8 FPS and AI Servo focus. With these presets I could quickly change between shooting static subjects to action shots.