The Canon EOS 7D is Canon's semi-pro / enthusiast digital crop sensor SLR. It's a terrific SLR that shines in photo quality, control placement, speed, and viewfinder size and coverage.
First, let me tell you a little about myself so you can gauge what my expectations for the camera are. I'm strictly a hobbyist photographer and use my camera a couple of times a month at museums, outdoor parks, and vacations. Besides photos of my dog, my photography consists primarily of static subjects. This is my second SLR.
Enough of me, onto the camera. The 7D is a fairly bulky SLR and dwarfs "entry level" models such as the Olympus E-510 (see my photos), though it's no bigger than Nikon's D300s. With that said, it's not uncomfortably large and is easy enough to carry around all day. Build quality is terrific and the camera has a solid, luxury feel to it. The 7D fits very well into my average sized hands and, with the kit 28-135 lens, is nicely balanced. All the buttons are easy to reach and, if you've used a Canon camera before, easy to figure out. The magnesium body is sealed against moisture and dust. The shutter button is well placed and has a nicely defined halfway point. A control dial is on the back of the camera and behind the shutter button too. There is also a joystick-like toggle on the back of the camera as well.
A large (3") and high-resolution (920,000 pixel) screen is on the camera back with a secondary status LCD display on the top (with backlight). The screen is a pleasure to use when reviewing images for focus, and when manually focusing in magnified live view mode. Compared to the 3-inch 420,000-pixel screen on my Panasonic LX3 it's a definite upgrade, and makes a noticeable difference.
The viewfinder is huge and bright and has 100% coverage. Coming from the Olympus, which has a very cramped and tunnel-like viewfinder, it was a revelation, and was one of the reasons I decided to step up to the 7D. Also, by using a transmissive LCD on the viewfinder the only markings you see until you confirm focus are for the selected focus method (for instance, a single box when using one focus point, or brackets when using the auto select autofocus method). Moreover, a composition grid can be imposed on the viewfinder. The information display on the bottom of the viewfinder is large and bright and contains lots of shooting and camera information. (Update 05/27/2013: Since I've been trying to shoot manual focus more, I've noticed that the 7D will light up the focus boxes as you manually focus to let you know what part of the scene is currently in focus, at least it does when using Canon lenses. I can't comment on other lens brands since I only own Canon lenses. The 7D's huge viewfinder makes it easy to manually focus.)
The camera is very responsive and turns on almost instantly. The sensor cleaning occurs when you turn the camera on or off but can be interrupted during power up. Focus speeds with the kit lens are very speedy, even in dim light (two 40 watt lamps and a television as the only light sources in a 17' x 11' room). The 19-point all cross type autofocus is uncanny at picking the correct subject. If it doesn't get it right the first time it will the second. I usually set all my cameras to center point autofocus, but the 7D does a great job picking out the subject, so I leave it on fully automatic mode (unless I'm using the 50mm f/1.4 lens, since wide aperture lenses like that can focus shift with such a shallow depth of field). Live view focusing is not a quick, especially in low light, and I only use live view when I need to shoot at a weird angle and I can't shoot looking through the viewfinder. Live view can be used with a mirror flip or contrast detection. The contrast detection mode is fairly pokey, while the mirror flip mode is quicker, but introduces a brief break in the view. Continuous shooting is available in both a high and a low setting. High is 8 FPS, while the low speed is 3 FPS. The shutter sound is nicely subdued and not nearly as noisy as the Olympus' is.
Photo quality is terrific. There are various Picture Styles you can choose to alter the contrast, sharpness, color tone, and saturation of the photos. At any rate, 99% of the time, colors are natural, exposure is accurate, and dynamic range is great. At this level of camera, that's expected though. What I really love about the 7D is the high ISO noise, or lack thereof. The luxury of feeling confident while shooting at high ISO is priceless. I've taken a good number of shots as high as ISO 3200 and have no complaints. Of course there is a bit of noise, and the mushiness that noise reduction brings, but for an 18 MP image at ISO 3200, I have no complaints. The ISO speeds above 3200 are OK as well, but I'll reserve those for emergency use only, they get fairly processed looking. (Updating this section a bit: Since the 7D is over 3 years old at this point its high ISO shooting is not as good as it once was relative to the competition. I have a Canon G1 X and the Fuji X100 and they both do a bit better at ISO 1600 and higher. Having said that I doubt anyone would complain about the 7D's high ISO results, but you should be aware that sensor technology has gotten better since the 7D was introduced.) The relatively large APS-C sensor not only allows for low noise, but also allows me to produce nicely blurred backgrounds and great depth of field. I couldn't achieve the same degree of that effect with the smaller 4/3 sensor in the Olympus, and I certainly couldn't do it with my point and shoot cameras unless I was in macro mode. There is an Auto Lighting Optimizer feature that attempts to correct photos that are hard to correctly expose (e.g. big difference between shadows or highlights in a scene). It works well for the most part, but, depending on the subject, the differences are very subtle. There is also an image highlight tone priority option available in the menu system that limits the lowest ISO setting to 200 and helps preserve highlights a bit, but it too, is subtle. (Update 05/27/2013: Having recently decided to try shooting in RAW and editing my photos using Adobe Lightroom 4, I have noticed that it is worth the effort. If I thought the 7D's jpegs were good, the RAW files, post-processed, are even better. Using RAW I'm able to pull out details in the shadows and highlights, correct white balance, and remove purple fringing. Anyone who is hesitant to shoot RAW because it sounds intimidating, just go for it. You can always have the 7D shoot a RAW + jpeg together if you're cautious. Thankfully, even shooting that way the 7D is a fast camera.)
| ブランド | キヤノン |
|---|---|
| 製品型番 | EOS7D1585ISLK |
| 有効画素数 | 1800万画素 |
| 撮像素子 | APS-C |
| 画面サイズ | 3 インチ |
| 可動式液晶 | いいえ |
| 連続撮影速度 (コマ秒) | 8 |
| ズーム倍率 (光学) | 5.67 |
| 焦点距離 (望遠側) | 135 ミリメートル |
| F値 (広角側) | 3.5 |
| F値 (望遠側) | 5.6 |
| シャッタースピード | 1/8000~1/60秒(全自動モード)、1/8000~30秒、バルブ(すべての撮影モードを合わせて) |
| 最低 / 最高撮影感度 (拡張感度) | 全自動，クリエイティブ全自動:ISO100~3200自動設定/P，Tv，Av，M，B:ISO100~6400任意設定(1/3段ステップ)、自動設定、および12800の感度拡張が可能 |
| ファインダー付き | いいえ |
| ファインダータイプ | 光学式 |
| レンズ構成 | ズーム |
| レンズマウント | キヤノンEF |
| WiFI | 無し |
| 手ブレ補正 | 有り |
| 付属機能、特徴 | AF測距19点、ライブビュー撮影、多重露出、最高感度ISO12800、連続撮影速度最高8コマ/秒 |
| 付属品 | EF-S15-85mm F3.5-5.6 IS USM、バッテリーパックLP-E6、バッテリーチャージャーLC-E6 、インターフェースケーブルIFC-200U 、ステレオAV ケーブルAVC-DC400ST、ワイドストラップEW-EOS7D、EOS DIGITAL Solution Disk |
| 撮影機能 | オート |
| 映像圧縮方式 | MOV形式 |
| 防水性 | なし |
| カラー | ブラック |
| 電池付属 | はい |
| 製品サイズ | 7.35 x 14.82 x 11.07 cm; 820 g |
