Thank you Canon!

[Dbl]

I know the Nikon users have had these capabilities for a long time but finally Canon has decided to play catch up. I tested the remote flash firing capabilities of the 7D today. I set up a 580 in ETTL mode and used the 7D to fire both with the pop up flash and the flash not firing on camera. Both worked flawlessly. Of course this was indoors at limited range but this shows some real promise! A huge step forward for Canon flash users!

Now I won't be selling my lot of Pocket Wizards or strobes anytime soon because they have a valuable place in my work. I do see the pop up flash and another couple of flashes making a more mobile set up for me. Might have to add another flash or two! This is all ETTL!

#1. Remote flash fires from signal sent from camera, no on board flash fire.

#2 Remote flash fires from signal and flash on camera fires.

Haven't had much chance do to any shooting, did shoot a few movies. I thought I would never use that feature but I am seriously re-thinking that. The customization of many camera parameters is a breeze with a quick screen to set about 10 custom functions.

[Steve Foss]

Great, Dan. Thanks for the hands-on report. The flash capability is one of the things that interests me most with the 7D. So many posed wedding applications made simpler, so little time . . .

One of Nikon's old and continued strengths has been its flash photography. No idea why it took Canon so long to copy a simply wonderful feature.

I'm really interested to see how you like the high iso performance, both using in-camera NR and PP software. Hey, you got the body, you gotta be the Guinea pig, right?

[finnbay]

Thanks for the report, Dan! That aspect would definitely be a help in a lot of situations!

[Dbl]

Steve, I agree why did it take Canon so long to do this? Major implications for wedding shooters and portrait work. If you are on the move it doesn't get much better than using ETTL. I've shot manual flash for so long I forgot how nice it is to use automatic flash capabilities. I do want to test the range and its capability outdoors I will let you know how that goes.

I will do some high ISO and compare to the 50D. A couple of quick snaps last night showed real promise. 6400 ISO is looking real nice with normal camera NR. I'm supposed to shoot XC tomorrow but it looks like pouring rain so I am iffy on whether I will or not.

I did some movies in HD and all I can say is WOW! 60fps in 720 and 30fps or 24fps in 1080 HD. Pretty cool stuff! You can even do editing in camera and use full manual control.

The options for setting the camera up for customization are really something. There are a lot of auto focus choices. I have been hearing good initial reports on auto focus capabilities. I've seen a few that are trading in Mark II's after using the 7D. I have yet to see how good it works but will give it a real good workout.

I am very impressed so far, I think Canon hit a home run with this one!

[Steve Foss]

Finally, a home run. It's been three years since Canon really hit one out of the park.

I may have to sell my boat and pick up two 7D bodies. With its video capability and my mate's video talent, we could doubleteam weddings with stills and video with two of these bodies. More and more wedding clients are asking me if we do video.

If iso6400 files look nicely clean with "normal" setting in-camera NR, that's huge. With Canon's lineup of superb zoom and prime telephoto IS lenses in the f4 and f5.6 range, a wedding photog wouldn't even have to spring for the extra jing for f2.8 lenses to get shutter speeds fast enough for sharp images in low-light indoor settings. I've already had great luck with f4 IS lenses and iso1600 indoors for weddings.

Heck, I may even have to revisit my love of the 100-400 for flexible indoor portrait/wedding shooting (YIKES!)

For sure, with a viable iso6400, Canon's 70-300 IS lens, which is a "consumer" grade lens with a relatively slow aperture, would easily do the job on indoor portraits/weddings with subjects that aren't moving fast.

Brave new world indeed. When you produce a body with these capabilities, it only emphasizes the importance of a truly wide-ranging and affordable high quality lens lineup. Canon's been the leader there for a long time, and continues to be.

Hmmmmm. The marketing game continues . . .

[Dbl]

Steve, my 30D is going out the door and honestly after I run this through some more paces over the next few weeks my 50D may go as well and be replaced by another 7D! Yeah I've only had it about 30 hours but I am really liking what I see here. Sure some problems are bound to crop up but man so many cool things on this camera.

The video, cropping marks in the viewfinder, a level in viewfinder and live view, snappy auto focus with a multitude of options, more button and camera customization than you can shake a stick at, button layout in line with my Mark II (very nice feature), the flash capabilities, I am really liking this.

When I got the 50D I liked the high ISO and a few upgrades but this has that and so much more. I have to say its exciting to say the least. With it priced like this if you are in the 50D market you should take a very hard look at this camera. I hope I can still say all this after a few months...but I am confident so far.

[Dbl]

Oh I just shot an HD video at 5000 ISO, again all I can say is wow! So darn cool! I have a feeling I am going to be learning all about video! How about using a 300/2.8 on a 7D and shooting in 1080 HD!

[WifeKidsandDog]

Wow, I am so out of the loop, I didn't even know there was a new Canon camera. Sounds great!

Cheryl

[Steve Foss]

but I am confident so far.

Confidence in a pilot? Go figure!

[Dbl]

Originally Posted By: Dbl

but I am confident so far.

Confidence in a pilot? Go figure!

An un-employed one though Cheryl glad to see you chime in! Check out that 7D, with your kids and dogs the video function would be killer! And I did not know you had British Labs!

[WifeKidsandDog]

No kidding, it sounds great. I love my 5D but the slow fps hinders the action shots I like.

Rick's lab puppies are adorable. I can't get a decent photo as they are so playful now and climb over me and the camera. Just too cute.

Cheryl

[Dbl]

If you been around a bit this is the same fax machine I shot some high ISO shots of last year with the 50D, here are four 6400 ISO shots with NR at off, low, normal, strong. I am posting these a little larger than normal to make them easier to see. Straight from the camera nothing done to them at all. NO evidence of any banding issues what so ever! Detail is much sharper even with NR on strong than the 50D. This is 6400 ISO!!!

NR off

NR low

NR normal

NR strong

Two more files one from the 50D and one from the 7D, both 100% crops and both with NR on strong. You tell me which is the which

#1

#2

[polarsusd81]

LOVE IT Dan! I am seriously looking at selling off a few things to come up with some cash to buy a 7D. The things I am seeing from the body so far are extremely impressive to say the least. For a wedding guy, you can't beat it in a cropper. For a sports guy, you can get a little extra length out of your lenses. For a wildlife shooter, you get delicious high iso performance. Plus all the extra features and finally some weather sealing on a non-1 series body. For the price I don't think anything could compare.

[Dbl]

Happy Birthday Tom!!!!!

Well I would change the order around and would say crop for a wildlife shooter, high ISO for sports, and ETTL flash for a wedding shooter plus video, but all those things are important. One reason I didn't comment on your thread about what you should do was this camera. My advice a few days ago would have been don't buy another Rebel. This camera may indeed backup that advice. I agree at this price this camera will be a winner!

[polarsusd81]

One of the things I was thinking about is trying to come up with a bit more jing for this bad boy. And yeah, my order was probably a bit off, but all those things are important in a lot of different situations.

I wish I coulda got to the pawn shop about 30 minutes earlier a couple weeks ago. I coulda got a barely used 40D with 18-55 IS lens with all the accessories for 550. It even had the original box and paperwork. Missed that one, coulda turned it in a day for a profit. Gotta watch those pawn shops. Some times they don't know what they have. An extra 200 in the 7D fund woulda been nice.

[Dbl]

Tom shoot me an e-mail. dbleitch at aol dot com

[JohnK]

Thanks for the review Dan, those samples look much better than others I've seen online. Some of the other ones made the 7D look pretty bad at even ISO 400. It's clearly better than the 50D, which some where saying it wasn't.

It doesn't look good enough to tempt me away from the D300s, but it does look like Nikon will have to step up their game for the next camera!

I'm looking forward to seeing what you get in normal, real world, shooting next.

[marine_man]

Happy Birthday Tom!

marine_man

[Steve Foss]

Happy Bday Thomas!

Yep, cancel my advice on that other thread. The iso6400 performance alone has me sold on the 7D, not to mention all the rest. Thanks, Dan, for supplying those comparisons with the 50D.

Do you need a backup body at all? If you only shoot the occasional wedding you could rent a backup body for a day for very little money.

I ask this because you could sell the 1D2 and XT and not have to pony up much more jing for a 7D. My world would be seriously rocked if I only had one body, but if you're in a different situation it's an option.

[polarsusd81]

I was thinking about that and actually communicated in email to Dan pretty much those exact thoughts. One other advantage is having two uncles that each carry an XT. Another good buddy has an XSi as well. I could possibly use one of them as back-up when I have a money gig. Good lord I want one bad. If I could just come up with an extra 6 hundo, I could sell both bodies I have now, buy a 7D and send in the broken Rebel for an XS loyalty upgrade. I gotta find a way. From what I have read, the 7D will do most of what my 1DII will do and a bit more. Just a little smaller.

[MARINERMAGNUM]

Quote:

Good lord I want one bad.

Uh oh. What is this addiction???!!

Happy birthday and I feel your pain.

For better or worse my 7D never got opened-it went right back to the seller. A bitter sweet moment,but I promised myself my next body would be full,FULL frame.

Since a 1Ds is outta reach,I'll endure a few weeks of saving for a 5D MkII. That and my 50 should be a good combo-I hope.

[finnbay]

Happy birthday, Tom!

[polarsusd81]

Thanks for the birthday wishes guys.

Hey Dan, when you get a chance can you test the effective range of the IR Speedlight system? I have never really tested the limits of the IR system with the 550 and 430 set up. Maybe I should get that done one of these days?

You are using PW's when it comes to money shots though. Any experience with Cactus triggers? I was looking at the strobist two light wireless kit at MPEX. Don't really want to pony up for the PW yet.

Also, one thing that is keeping me from jumping on a 7D is the idea that I would need a new computer to process the files. My lowly old laptop is slow enough with the 1DII files, I would be affraid to see what happens with a 7D Raw file.

[Steve Foss]

Simple, Tom. Don't shoot RAW. If you have CS3 or later, or the latest version of Elements, just shoot jpeg, and you can tell Photoshop to open the RAW preview screen any time you want to open a jpeg and you can do all the same things to a jpeg you used to only be able to do for a RAW image, including blown highlight recovery.

I haven't shot RAW at all since upgrading to CS3. Not only does everything run faster when capturing, transferring and opening jpegs, but you can get a LOT more images on a card. We've already had the print quality discussion several times here when using RAW vs jpeg, so I won't go into that.

If you're using Elements 7, you can still use the RAW preview screen to preview and develop a jpeg, although I noticed when working with a client recently on her workflow technique that her Elements 7 allows somewhat fewer developing options on a jpeg than CS3 does.

Working with jpeg also allows you to use the camera's picture style settings, which won't impact RAW files. This has become a big time saver for me with weddings, for example. I set a custom picture style for slightly increased saturation and slightly increased sharpening but no additional contrast, and doing this in-camera saves me a lot of time later at the computer because I don't have to perform those actions with hundreds of files in Photoshop.

If I'm in a situation (nature photography, for example), where I don't want the camera to be in control of any processing, I'll choose "neutral" or "faithful" for the jpeg picture style setting. If my reading on the 7D is correct, there are even more picture style options than on my 3-year-old bodies (1D2 and 30D).

[Dbl]

Tom,

Did some testing on the flash range. I was able outdoors under partly cloudy sky's with muted sunshine to get 45' distance and reliably fire the flash. Under bright sunshine I would guess it will be a bit less. At 50' I was getting an occasion fire, but most of the time it wouldn't fire. At 45' it fired every time.

Indoors I found the exact same thing. I tested in my garage (44' long) and when I opened the door and stepped back a few feet I started getting mis-fires. So the 45' worked here as well. Not bad, not PW range but I am using ETTL with the 7D.

One other limitation I found that I hope is corrected with a firmware update is the in-ability of HSS on the remote flash when using the 7D as the wireless trigger. Hope that gets addressed, that is a drawback for outdoors work.