The 7D is a very modern camera. I've owned one for about two months. I was planning on purchasing a Nikon D300s for sports and birds, but the ergonomics on the 7D won me over pretty easily. Most of the Canon crop cameras I've used over the past five years have had kludgy design; this camera is mostly different.
It fits the hand quite well and doesn't feel all that big. The viewfinder is better than the K-7 for both AF and manual focusing. It is easier to use M42 lenses on the 7D because the adapters, unlike the old-style Pentax one, just pop out with the lens attached like any other bayonet-mount lens.
Generally the systems exceed the K-7, but the Pentax still has the feel that a photographer rather than an engineer designed the camera.
The LiveView is excellent; video too.
The weather resistance of the body is very good; not quite K-7 but I think adequate for the Pacific Northwest where I shoot. Now none of my Pentax lenses are weather resistant either, but you know, those OpTech Rainsleeves are really cheap and work quite well for outdoor sports shooting. That's the real world talking, not a keyboard. or ad copy.
The shutter feels and sounds excellent. The predictive AF systems are so beyond the K-7 and very most likely the K-5;
The AF points are nicely configurable;
The AF has more detailed Spot AF which is great for the eyes of birds;
You have three custom modes on the dial.
The flash system is so much better than Pentax though not quite up to Nikon.
Many of the buttons are customizable
There are some stupid things:
-The second wheel is a thumb wheel that I cannot get used to; it rotates and has a center select button, but it is not a 4 or 5 way button.
-There is only a front facing IR port for cheap wireless remote control. My K20D has a rear port as well. This makes shooting portraits and group shots a lot easier as I can hide the remote in my palm and trigger the shutter from most anywhere when working the group; on the 7d I have to use a wired remote which distracts in a negative way. You'd think Canon had a staff photographer around to do scenario testing.
-MLU is not triggered by the 3-second shutter delay.
-The shooting modes are typical.
-The top LCD is relied upon too much for critical information
-With 18 MP, onscreen noise requires more oomph in software, but it is controllable. Prints turn out excellently though.
-Canon cannot make a decent ultra-wide angle prime for crop cameras.
Other things to be aware of:
-The Canon lens system is primarily oriented towards 135-format bodies, FF. This is good and not good.
-It's not good because only a few EF-S (crop sensor) lenses are considered better than average; some of the third parties make very nice versions, especially Tokina using the same Pentax DA and DA*
designs more or less.
-It's good because having a "FF" pull of gravity means that sooner or later you may just get a 5DMKII which is a very fine camera that mostly produces better images than any APS-C body. You just have to manage the transition of lenses upward and balance their use with your shooting requirements. I use the 7D where the perceived telephoto boost is beneficial.
-Canon lenses are very expensive; third parties are generally held in lower esteem by Canonites than Pentaxians feel.
-Canon zooms are many and powerful; their primes can be amazing (135mm @ f2) but I know many professional shooters who just use a couple of f2.8 zooms and a T/S.
-The Pentax overall approach is very unique, quirky, and charming to an extent. The cameras are better integrated with your mind and body somehow. Until you need fast AF and long fast glass.
-Pentax higher end glass is excellent and special for the small size and high quality and weather resistance.
Finally, while it feels kinda special using Pentax, it is also harder to solve some problems that develop over the years (I've been doing this for 40 years). Going with a market leader ensures that there is an almost limitless supply of helpful information both online and in photo communities. And the tools and support are out there. I can go to my pro shop and test out or even rent bodies and lenses seemingly forever. I can put out a request to borrow a flash cable or a TC on my local e-list and get a response within an hour. Lightroom 3 has my lens profiles and can auto-correct distortion etc. on RAW files. I can also tether a Canon DSLR.
You are more on your own with Pentax--a mixed blessing over time.
M
Originally posted by Copyright The problem is that the promotion ends at the end of the month.
Would the 7D be considered a previous generation camera? As in, the D7000 and k-5 are going to be better just because technology gets better over time?