I'm not one to jump up and down about the newest, coolest, latest gear...but...why not once in a while...
Things I love about the new Canon 7D
1- Feels great in hand. New design feels much more natural in my hand than 50d, 40d, or even 5D Mark II
2- Wireless flash control. From the on-board pop-up flash, you can now control (wirelessly) speedlights. A first for Canon, but it's about time.
3- Ful 1080p HD video with dedicated switch - 60FPS in 720HD mode. 24p option in 1080 HD. Awesome!
4- Potential weather proofing resistance resistance (my major complaint with the 5D Mark II!)
5- Auto Focus Rocks! AI servo is on the money for horizontal and vertical shots
6- 8FPS
7- Price $1699. less than 2 years ago these features were $4-5,000 on a 1D body
8- High ISO looks pretty clean so far for stuffing 18megapixels into a cropped sensor
9- Same battery as 5D Mark II
Wish List:
1- FULL FRAME
a) Non-crop body or option for crop or no crop version. Although will be nice for some sports and wildlife, turning a 400mm lens effectively into a 640mm lens @ 18mp
b) Please bring these exact same features to a FULL FRAME version (5D Mark III or 3D).
2- Better WIRELESS control
a) Longer range than 10-12 feet
b) Wireless flash control with a 580 EX II sitting in the hotshoe. Okay, so let's say I want to control three speedlights (580 EX II's) for something similar to a shot like this bow hunting image. I two lights on each side of the subject and a little bit of fill flash on or near the camera. Right now, you can use the pop-up flash on the 7D to control external speedlights, but if I mount another 580EX II in the hotshoe, I lose control of adjusting the settings from the camera. You can still make all three flashes fire, but have no control of the power settings on the external flashes. This would be beautiful for jobs without multiple assistants.
How will I use the camera?
1) Sports photography, Wildlife Photography when long distance, fps, and AF tracking are important.
2) Moon photography. Throwing a 400 or 600mm lens with 1.4 and 2x Teleconverters will make for some really nice Moon images especially with the LiveView 10x focusing and 18MP to work with for cropping.
3) Slow Motion, 60FPS video. The 7D will function as a primary back-up camera for my commercial photography work and also another source of video shooting for both behind the scenes shoots as well as utilizing the 60FPS when I need to slow down the video - sports photography and video related work comes to mind first.
I'm extremely excited about this camera, especially at this price point. Canon's put out a pretty sweet set of features in this body. I may have more on the wish list once I've had the camera for more than a day. Will update soon.
Some more links:
Difference between true 60FPS on 7D and slowing down 5D Mark II to imitate 60fps
5 comments:
Why is it important for you to have a full frame sensor? So that your wide angle lenses are "wide"?
Or do you feel that there is better image quality / noise / etc?
Hey Geoff:
There are a couple of reasons I prefer full-frame for all my shooting (with the exception of Wild-life and some big field sports - Soccer, Polo).
1) Used to 35mm lens lengths. When I put a 50mm lens on, I want it to be 50mm. Also, only a small portion of the glass is used on a crop camera
2) Narrower depth of field with full frame. If you are shooting a subject where you want a narrow depth of field, the full frame will render it narrower than a crop camera (given the same lens is used).
3) Less noise, better quality. Could argue going to medium format on this one for better image quality at say 20+ megapixels. 18pix jammed into the 7D's sensor is a lot. More noise is apparent overall.
4) True fisheye. I shoot a lot of fisheye stuff when shooting sports (ski shots, etc.) Fish eye lenses aren't fisheye's anymore on a cropped sensor. I know there's alternatives, but I don't want to carry two of every wide angle lens to accomodate. Example here: http://www.kevinwinzeler.com/Portfolios/Sports-Photography-in-Utah/3476157_uijLn#552954116_mCdyf
Example link here fisheye shot: Fisheye Skiing Photo
Love your blog!
Just found this:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0910/09102705canon7dservicenotice.asp
get my 7D on Tuesday to complement my 5D II. excited too!
i'm surprised you don't value the crop sensor more as a back up camera -- i feel like i just got a second set of lenses with the 1.6X effect!
plus, if you want to do candids, you can't beat a pop-up flash on a body with your walkaround lens. try THAT with a 5d II!!
enjoying your blog. thanks!!!
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