5 Reasons Why I Probably Won’t Buy the Canon 7D
As I have previously mentioned, the Canon EOS 7D
However, amazing as it is, the 7D is still missing several features from my ideal camera, and even more from my list of must-haves for my next camera. Here are a few of the main reasons why I don’t plan to buy the Canon 7D:
- Autofocus at f/8: Most consumer cameras will only autofocus with lenses that have a maximum aperture of f/5.6 or larger (remember that the smaller the f-stop, the larger the aperture). This may not sound like a big deal since most professional lenses are f/2.8, and even consumer lenses typically range from f/3.5 to f/5.6. However, super zooms are often at f/4 or f/5.6, and if you add a teleconverter to the lens you will lose 1 or 2 stops further. My most used lens is the Canon 100-400mm f/4-5.6 L. It is a fantastic lens under most conditions but simply adding a 1.4x teleconverter takes it up to a maximum aperture of f/8 when fully racked out and so I lose autofocus with most cameras. (Sure, some will argue that this lens is not a good candidate for teleconverters anyway, but sometimes you need all the focal length you can get and the trade-off in image quality is worth the extra zoom). Professional cameras often extend the allowable autofocus range to f/8. If the 7D had this one feature it would be a very strong contender to be my next camera.
- Integral Battery Grip: I don’t often need more than one battery, even for a full day of shooting, and I’m very happy to carry a spare battery in my pocket. But the really nice thing about having a battery grip on your camera is that it provides an extra set of shooting controls (including a shutter release, main dial, AE lock/FE lock and AF point selection) designed to make vertical shooting easier and more comfortable). You can buy add-on battery grips for most cameras however they are not always the perfect solution. Inadequate weather sealing is one potential drawback, and they also do not always have all of the controls that would be included on an integral grip. One feature in particular that I want in my battery grip is the inclusion of an AF-ON button, but add-on grips typically don’t include one. The 7D doesn’t have an integral grip, and the Canon BG-E7 battery grip
designed for the 7D doesn’t include an AF-ON button.
- Not Enough Megapixels: I already mentioned this in my previous article about the 7D, but it’s worth mentioning here too… Lately lots of people have been crying for the camera companies to stop chasing megapixels and focus more on reduced image noise. Not me. I want both! I shoot lots of birds and wildlife which can often be very small in the frame, and more megapixels would mean that I could crop my images tighter in post, yet still have a large file for multi-purpose use. I was expecting this camera to be at least 21 megapixels, which would be comparable to the Canon 5D Mark II
. I really hope the next professional camera from Canon gets back to the winning ways of more and more megapixels.
- Single Memory Card Slot: I’m a backup freak and the most vulnerable point in any photography storage system is at the time of capture. If a camera has only one memory card slot, then, by definition, at the time of capture there is only one copy of each image that has been created. The simple addition of a second card slot would ensure that there are always at least two copies of every image. This would be a relatively inexpensive feature to add and I’m extremely disappointed that Canon missed this one on the 7D.
- Exposure Bracketing: Most Canon cameras provide a simple method to create a 3-stop auto-exposure bracket. In traditional film photography bracketing was used almost exclusively to ensure that you got the correct exposure. In digital that’s no longer really necessary because you can easily see the image on the LCD and decide whether you got it or not. Today bracketing is used more for HDR photography than anything else. For this reason it is often desirable to have (many) more than 3 images in the bracket. Personally I prefer 5 shots in one stop increments, so I have to shoot 2 brackets of 3 shots each in order to get all the exposures I need. Nikon cameras and Canon’s professional cameras allow much more control over bracketing. It is such a simple thing to provide (a software change only), so I’m stunned that Canon did not include this feature in the 7D. HDR photography is the hottest and most exciting thing in the photo world today (just do a quick search of HDR on Flickr to see what I mean) and Canon really missed the boat here.
I’m really excited by the possibilities that the Canon EOS 7D
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I think people should know more about a camera before posting things:
1)the 7D is has the most advanced canon autofocus yet and works perfectly with my 2.8 L lenses.
2)at the 7D price point you really expect an integrated battery grip? That’s a little unrealistic. The optional battery grip isn’t that much of an additional cost.
3)”I was expecting this camera to be at least 21 megapixels, which would be comparable to the Canon 5D Mark II.” PLEASE! This statement alone shows your expectations for this price point are too high.
4)The second memory slot is something that canon should have added.
5)The autobracketing takes 3 shots which is enough to render the vast majority of HDR shots. You can also set the custom functions so that 1 turn of the dial gets you a different bracketing setting. With 3 custom functions available you can get a 7 photo EV range quickly.
I appreciate your feedback, and I value your opinion; however, you came out pretty strong against most of my points without actually reading many of them. I think people should read articles before they respond to them.
1) The 7D might have a good AF system, but it can’t focus with superzooms (or combos of lenses and teleconverters) with maximum apertures of f/8. I’m sure it works great with 2.8 lenses, but that wasn’t at all my point.
2) I don’t expect an integral battery grip, although I would have been happier if it had it. But I do want a battery grip that includes an AF-On button, and that is not available for any battery grips in the Canon system. Only the cameras that have integral grips include AF-On buttons for both portrait and landscape orientation.
3) Perhaps you are right, but it was the trend at the time the camera was released for successive generations of cameras to meet or exceed the megapixel count of the cameras that came before. Since the 5D came with 21 MP I expected the 7D and any xxD cameras to follow it to also have at least 21 MP. Since the 7D was released Canon has slowed down the MP race. I still want as many MP in my cameras as I can get and it’s not unreasonable to ask the manufacturers to keep improving the image quality at higher density.
4) We agree on something!
5) It would be a very simple software change to allow me to choose 3, 5, 7, or 85 images in my brackets and I should be able to choose as many images in my brackets as I want. I have shot with Canon’s for years and am so sick of having to shoot 2 brackets in order to get as many images as I want for my HDR’s and this one really irritates me. If you are happy with 3 images for your HDR’s then I’m happy for you, but I usually use 4 or 5, as do a great many other people. Canon needs to recognize what people want.
Sorry, I might be just daft here, but I can’t understand the problem with aperture. I have no problems focusing at f/30, is it that the lens allows more light in anyway?
I got a 7D and I have yet to run into AF issues.
All too true about the AEB though, I seriously hope there will be some option to upgrade the firmware to do something more than 3 frames of 1/3-3 EV tick.
The issue is the maximum aperture of the lens… Remember that because it is a ratio a very large f/stop number actually means a very small aperture. For example the aperture for a 100mm lens at f/30 is 100/30, or 3.3 mm. For the same lens at f/2.8 the aperture is 100/2.8 or 35.7 mm. So at f/2.8 the aperture is very large and it lets in lots of light. Any camera can focus with a lens at that setting.
So back to maximum aperture. If you have a lens whose specs are 100 mm f/2.8, then its max aperture is 2.8, which is very large. This is common for pro lens up to about 200mm. Consumer lenses are often variable aperture, which means that there maximum aperture changes with the focal length. The kit lens that commonly comes with the 7D is the 15-85mm f3.5-5.6. When you are zoomed way out to the widest angle of the lens, 15mm, then the max aperture is a reasonably large f/3.5. However when you zoom in to 85mm the max aperture is almost 2 stops smaller at f/5.6. For every stop you lose half the light, which makes it much harder for the camera to focus. So hard in fact that most cameras will only focus with lenses whose maximum apertures are f/5.6 or better.
One of my favorite wildlife lenses is the Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6, and I like to use it with a 1.4x teleconverter. When you add a 1.4x you effectively lose 1 more stop of light, taking that f/5.6 at 400mm and making it f/8. Most cameras, including the 7D will not focus with this combination. This is not a problem for most people, but it is for me!
I tried to keep this as simple as possible, but I understand that it’s a confusing topic. I hope I helped you understand…
By the way, I do now own a 7D. It’s my backup camera (to my 1D Mark IV primary) but I end up using it all the time. It really is a great camera, but I stand by all of my points in the original article. These are all things that Canon should do better.
Actually, they did fix the battery grip issue. There are now battery grips available that include the AF-On button that I asked for, so that’s very good news!
I dunno about you man. Sounds like you just wanted to gripe about Canon’s latest pro-line camera without actually owning one. Looks like you finally went out and got one but still refuse to admit how awesome of a camera it is, even after stating that you use it most of the time now. The only thing I might agree on with you is the AEB 5 issue, but I really have no problem taking two AEBs. It’s not a trouble at all with a tripod.
Fact is, the 7D is the most compelling buy now from canon pro line-up. I’ve owned one for over a year now, used the 5D-MKII and honestly it barely stands up to the 7D in many core respects. This probably means the 5D-MKIII will be a full frame 7D basically with some firmware updates and obscure bells and whistles.
Your whole rant about the f/8 issue is suspect. It’s simple physics man. Plus are I and at many others shoot AF all day long at f/22 easily. Check your lenses and make sure they are canon and/or have the correct EF-S compliant interface.
Title say 5 reasons you won’t buy the 7D. But then you went out and bought it??? Sounds like this should have been 5 reasons you decided to spend $2000+ on a 7D setup???
Thanks for stopping by! I already replied to your comments on my other post (“5 reasons I might buy the 7D after all“), so I’m not going to get into everything here, but there are some specific points I want to address:
1. I do own a 7D (I bought it almost a year after writing this article after it became all too clear that my 40D was no longer good enough even as a backup camera), and as I said before, I use it “all the time”, but NOT “most of the time”. I carry a 1D Mark IV and a 7D with me all the time, but I use the 1D about 5 times as much as the 7D. The 1D has far better high ISO noise control and it’s simply a better camera than the 7D. Some prefer the 7D’s focusing system, but I do not. I recognize that you can get 3 7D’s for the price of a 1D, but when you’re using your camera day in and day out that matters less and less compared to the image quality and the versatility of the machine.
2. The AEB-5 thing is simply ludicrous. It’s a simple software change. You don’t want to get me going! Ha!
3. The f/8 thing is simple physics. With lenses that have a maximum aperature smaller than f/5.6 (remember that smaller means a bigger f number, and most lenses have a maximum of f/2.8, f/4, or a variable range such as f/4-5.6) most Canon cameras will not autofocus because they simply don’t get enough light. This is also true of a combination of a lens and a multiplier that takes the maximum aperture beyond f/5.6. For example, put a 1.4x teleconverter onto a 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens and the maximum aperture becomes f/8. The only cameras in the Canon lineup that will autofocus with this combination are the 1D cameras. This is a very important issue for bird and wildlife and sports photographers that use long lenses, many of which are fixed f/4 or f/5.6 lenses. As soon as you add a 1.4x or a 2x TC they go from f/4 or f/5.6 to as small as f/11, and they will not longer focus on the 5D, 7D, or any of the xxD cameras. This is clearly not an issue for you, but it definitely impacts a great many pro photographers. This is a problem that I expect Canon to fix in their next generation of pro cameras, although I really doubt that they will.