The Canon EOS 7D is Canon's top of the range APS-C camera. Below it sit the compact forms of the 1000D, 450D and 500D, and above it the full-frame glory of the £200 more expensive EOS 5D MKII.
The big difference between the 5D MKII and the 7D is inside. The 5D MKII is the cheapest of Canon's line-up to offer a full-frame sensor – the 7D has the same size image sensor as cameras such as the 500D, Nikon D5000 or Pentax K-x.
There's also a slight difference in resolution - the 5D MKII has the edge with its 21.1MP sensor, versus the 7D's 18MP APS-C CMOS.
Build quality is basically indistinguishable from the 5D MKII. The body – with the exception of the memory card and battery doors – is made from tough-feeling magnesium alloy. Every point of contact is coated in thick, tactile rubber, making the 7D easy to hold on to through a pair of gloves.
And, unlike Canon's smaller consumer range – the 450D or 500D, for instance – the grip is practically sized for grown up hands, and feels like the body will be perfectly balanced paired with one of Canon's L-series telephoto lenses.
It's been weather and dust-proofed as well. The battery and memory card doors have a thin layer of rubber where the door meets the body to prevent contaminants getting in.
The body is festooned with buttons, which while initially intimidating for beginners, will be unbridled joy for anyone upgrading from a consumer body. Focus zone, continuous shooting and ISO are controlled from a row of buttons next to the shutter release.
Each button controls two functions – one button manages white balance and focus zones, for instance – and you choose which setting you want to change by using either the click wheel on the back or the command wheel on the right hand shoulder.
Learning which wheel does what means the 7D has a relatively steep learning curve, but after a while making important changes to shooting modes takes a few seconds, and you'll only need to refer to the onscreen menu system when reaching for more obscure functions.
All this is helped by the presence of a secondary LCD screen which shows shooting information. A final button on the top shoulder controls a handy backlight for making changes in the dark.
For those married to the 3in LCD, the Q button on the back gives you a big-screen glance at the camera's settings. The inclusion of a RAW/JPEG button is useful for one-off RAW shooting – when faced with a scene with particularly wide dynamic range, for instance.
Canon does make a few concessions to those still learning the ropes. Switch the shooting mode to CA and you can make changes on the menu system. Settings such as aperture and exposure are broken down into layman's terms such as Blurred<->Sharp and Darker<->Brighter. And for when all else fails there's always the green square mode for letting the camera handle everything.
Unlike the 5D MKII the 7D has an integrated pop-up flash. A potential weak spot in the otherwise rock-solid body, the flash feels secure and activates via a reliable-sounding motor release. It will be of mixed value - attach a hood to most lenses and the flash will be obscured. However, the 7D is the first Canon to come with an integrated Speedlite transmitter.
This is immensely valuable for professionals – if you have a standalone flash you can set it to fire remotely without needing to spend money on a flash transmitter or PocketWizard setup.
While the 5D MKII might have the edge in terms of pure image quality, the 7D has a few advantages, despite being cheaper. It's arguably better for sports and wildlife photographers, for instance.
The 5D MKII shoots at a maximum of four frames per second, claims Canon. In our tests, the 7D was little short of unbelievable. Canon claims it will hit eight frames per second, and although we couldn't get it to match that number against a stopwatch, it nevertheless took 52 shots in 7.22 seconds, or 7.2fps.
That makes it an incredibly good wildlife camera. There is no shutter lag or measureable time between shots, making it very responsive. It's so responsive, in fact, that there's a second continuous mode that shoots at a more manageable 3.5fps.
The smaller sensor hides another plus for sports and nature photographers – the 1.6x crop factor means every lens you attach gains a little distance. A 400mm lens on a 5D MKII, for instance, will be a 640mm lens on the 7D, getting you closer to your subjects.
The responsiveness is helped by the 7D's excellent focusing system. It has 19 cross-type focus sensors and in our tests was limited only by the speed of the lens' focus motor. It tracks superbly. Interestingly, the 7D's autofocus system is superior to the Canon 5D MKII's, at least on paper. The 5D MKII has nine autofocus points, but only one is the more accurate cross-type sensor, against the 7D's 19.
The one area build quality is a little off the mark is the lens that you can get bundled with the 7D. The Canon EF-S 18-135 lens was announced at the same time as 7D, but doesn't feel like it matches the body for build-quality.
It's made from all plastic, for a start, and unlike more expensive lenses doesn't have full-time manual focusing, so you can't simply grab the focus ring if you don't like what it's trying to do by itself.
Its specifications are nothing exciting, with a maximum aperture of f/3.5 at wide angle and f/5.6 zoomed in. On the plus side, it's a good starter lens if you're getting the 7D for video – it has image stabilisation, which greatly reduces frame shake when you're zoomed in.
Unfortunately its good video credentials are sullied by the fact that it isn't a USM (Ultra Sonic Motor) lens, and so makes all kinds of whining noises while hunting for focus. You only save £160 if you opt for the 7D without the lens, but once you start spending more money on more advanced lenses you're unlikely to look back.
The lack of a full-frame sensor naturally means that the 5D MKII beats the 7D in a straight image quality comparison – but only just. Compared with shots taken by an original 5D, the 7D's 3200 ISO images were noisier, but not to the point of destruction.
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