Preview of new Canon 7D

[Ollie]

Although this thread is a little long in the tooth I thought it was worth adding this to it.

There has been quite a bit of talk in this thread and elsewhere about the image quality from the 7D. People have said and I'm not quoting anyone in particular here that the images are soft, lack contrast and detail amongst other things. It's also been said that the 18 mega pixels of the 7D need a prime lens to get the best out of the camera.

I agree to a certain extent that a prime lens brings out the best in the camera, but then again isn't this true of any DSLR no matter what the make.

Yesterday I put the bigma (Sigma 50-500mm) on the 7D and took a few photographs in my garden. As you will be aware the bigma is not a prime lens. A very good lens in my opinion but not a prime Conditions were dull and overcast when I took the photographs.

I took some at the full zoom range of 500mm and some at 417mm. The bigma is known to give slightly soft images at the full 500mm end hence the reason for using the 500mm end.

I realise the birds are pretty close to the camera in my garden hence I get very good detail with my Canon 400mm F5.6L lens that I normally use.

The bigma pleasantly surprised me, the photos were definitely on a par with the Canon 400mm F5.6L lens as far as details were concerned. The ones taken with the bigma at the 500mm focal length were slightly soft but sharpened up in PS elements 7 to be as sharp as the Canon ones normally are. Just needed a touch more unsharp mask that's all.

I have posted four examples below from the bigma. These were taken at F8.0 and ISO 400. Please click the photos twice to see the full details, I think you will agree that the bigma lens and the Canon 7D are a very decent combination. All photos shot in jpg mode.

Bigma at 417mm focal length


Bigma at 417mm focal length


Bigma at 500mm focal length


Bigma at 500mm focal length

[glsammy]

Thanks for that info Roger, and for sending me the images.
I absolutely agree with your comments, hence why I'm quite happy just using my Bigma!
I've always found that my Bigma images sharpen very nicely, more so than my Canon 400mm shots, for the simple reason the Canon shots are sharper straight out of the Camera. At the end of the day the difference in quality is very small.
Of course the 400mm has other advantages, faster AF for one.

[Jonsfotos]

The Sigma is certainly a very good Lens and will always have a place in my camera bag.I have included a couple of Starling shots taken with the Bigma and i was very happy with the results.I agree wholeheartedly with Roger and Graham, their comments and excellent images taken with the Bigma show just how good the Lens is.Although the thread is about the Canon 7D ( i used a NikonD200), It just proves how good the Canon/Bigma combination can be, by looking at Roger`s and Graham`s results. I recently came into posession of a 40D and 400 F5.6 and although my equipment is Nikon, this offer was too good to turn down and i had to snap it up.It was offered to me at an insane price and i won`t upset loyal Canon users by saying what i purchased it for.....you will cry.....I have been very impressed with the 40D and the 400mm 5.6. and you never know,in the future this hardened Nikon user just might be tempted at a 7D...:-).


.

Jon.

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by BillyPilgrim

I've been wondering if its worth selling my EOS 1d mkIIn to get one of these so I'll be very interested in your views.

FWIW, this quote is from another forum:

"The Canon 7D for me was very overrated, I had far better results from my 1D mk 11n and that is only 8.3 meg it was just a pity it was so heavy."

Jim

[colincurry]

I have looked at a fair few forums on the topic of the 7D and you can find opinions to back up whichever viewpoint you wish to adopt. The impression I get is that most faults occurred with early models.

I must admit that I am tempted. I do not have the 400 prime but the 100-400. Googling the 7D and 100-400 combo has produced some encouraging results and good examples of BIF incoming.

I am encouraged by the experience using the Bigma with the 7D and would hope that the results with my 100-400 would be similar. My local Jessops is willing to let me try my 100-400 with a 7D; and I probably shall a little further down the line.

Colin

[DanJeffery]

Colincurry - see post #50 on this thread. Although that was "prefocused" manually, where the birds where landing on a feeder.

I think some of the initial bad press re the 7D was because Photoshop gave grainier results from RAWs at high ISOs than Canon's own DPP software. The later versions of the Adobe RAW conversion software are better but I think DPP still has the edge.

[MeadsMan]

I just read,that the 7D has no built in A.F illuminator,it does not appear to have made much difference to people using it,but has anybody noticed any problems regarding A.F ? I assume this would only make a real difference in very low light conditions,is that right ?

[squishy]

It uses the flash as a strobe for AF illumination

[squishy]

I can't comment on how well that works, but I know I've pretty much never used the AF illuminator on my camera for wildlife. Seems to be more of an indoor flash photography thing.

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by squishy

I can't comment on how well that works, but I know I've pretty much never used the AF illuminator on my camera for wildlife. Seems to be more of an indoor flash photography thing.

Usually for low lighting conditions where the camera has difficulty in obtaining focus.

Jim