Canon EOS 7D – First Thoughts.

Well, I’ve had my 7D for a month or so.  Done one model shoot with it (which you can find in the Zen Photo Gallery on this site) and some still life work (which I should post in the future) and some self portraits (which will also be posted at some time in the future).  For those of you not in the know, let me mention this is my first digital camera.  As a film snob I have doubts about digital cameras to begin with and those will be addressed in my upcoming essay on digital vs. film photography.

Sticking to the 7D specifically:

Weight:  The camera is lighter than I expected it to be.  The lenses are heavier than I expected.  I’ll not go into detail on the lenses other than to say that so far I like them and I’m very pleased with my choices.  I’ll talk about the lenses later.

Durability:  I’ve not drop kicked it yet, but here is a report on the ability of the 7D to stand up to the weather.  http://canonfieldreviews.com/7d-1-weather-sealing/

Menus:  The menus are pretty intuitive and most of the things make sense without having to read the manual.

Controls:  I’m happy with the way the dials and such work.  It seems mostly intuitive, but I’m still pushing the wrong button for some things.  This is more to do with me just not being familiar with the 7D in specific and digital cameras in general.

Both the menus and the controls (buttons) can be customized.  This is a great feature I think, tho I’ve not made use of it.  At some point I may set up a custom menu with the functions I access the most often.  Just as soon as I figure out what functions I access the most often that is.

Autofocus:  Okay, now I’ll be first to tell you that I don’t fully understand the 5 different modes of autofocus so there could be mistakes on my part.  The 7D has only enforced my hatred of autofocus.  Yes, I really wanted to focus on the tree.  Those two people in front of it were just in the way.  More importantly, sometimes the camera can not lock in and the shutter will not release unless I either turn the camera off, then back on – or turn off the autofocus with the switch on the lens.  This is not making me happy.

Picture quality:  There has been some complaining about the quality of the pictures, while others have raved about it.  I can’t comment on this yet.  I’ve not noticed anything I consider low quality, but that might have something to do with my low expectations.  This will also be covered in more detail in my film vs. digital essay.

Battery:  I got an extra one, not knowing how long a battery would last.  So far I’ve not run out of power yet and they seem to charge pretty quick.  The longest shoot I did was the model shoot where my camera was on for about 4 hours.  Still had lots of battery time left at the end and didn’t need the second battery at all.

I’m still learning.  At this point I’d say I’m generally satisfied.  As I do more with the camera I’ll post more thoughts.