I think it's the first time I've posted in this forum.
Now this isn't Canon bashing. Just my thoughts on a particular camera that seems to be very popular these days. And it's a heck of a nice camera at that.
I shot a wedding last night and had my assistant shoot one at the same time in the same hotel. To back her up, I asked a friend from our local camera club, who's done several weddings to work as a second shooter. He had a new 7D. I haven't seen the images from it yet, but will add to this thread when I do.
So I had a little time to play with his camera. Nice unit. But 3 things really stand out.
1) That rear dial is pain and in such a crappy location. So in a mode where you are adjusting aperture, the dial is not easy to reach and use with your thumb. If you are not familiar with it, We have a dial in front and behind the shutter button. They have a dial in front and on half way down the back of the rear part of the body that is flat against the body. Not as easy to reach and adjust.
2) The grip is well featured but SUCKS! I have fairly big hands with reasonably long fingers. I buy Large or sometimes XL gloves (somewhere in between) and the grip is far too big for my hands. It sticks out in the back about 2 Cm's from the body. Using the aforementioned rear dial is nearly impossible in portrait mode.
Really bad design Canon. Nice camera but built for an ape. Now he tried my K20D with grip and said hands down (now he's a long time Canon guy), that the K20D has a superior design and fit his (smaller) hands much better. He liked the E-dial placements and said they work far better than his cameras. He also commented that the Pentax grip looks integrated and part of the body. Where the Canon clearly looks like an add on to the body.
He also commented that he much prefered the Pentax design with the grip. Why? Well lets say you want to take it off the camera and you're away from home. How do you protect that part that sticks up inside the body? In a camera bag, that part could easily be damaged. With ours, just bring the little plastic cover and one of those soft lens pouches and toss it in the bag. Nothing sticks out to get damaged.
Photo:
Canon Forum
Btw, for those that want a smaller body, this is not it. It's APS-c (1.6 i think) and it's considerably bigger than a K20D. The body's are roughly the same size but the grips are very different. Side by side the K20D looked like a KX!
3) Edit, this is incorrect and these focus points can be turned off and are user selectable. See the link posted below. So a comment on the AF, which is positive. It's fast and very good in terrible light. When I see the photos, I'll be able to judge how accurate it is. The room they shot in was very dark.
The focus points are scribed right on the focus screen. I hate that! I didn't count but there must be 10-12 little black squares all around the center of the VF. Then when you hit the focus, the screen blinks red to confirm focus. It's almost like a permanent 'heads up' display. I absolutely hate it. It's like looking through a store window with lettering on it. IMO it would really interfere with creating the image and actually seeing what you're trying to take a picture of. Particularly in dark situations. I so much prefer, the little red square(s) that only pop up when you focus a Pentax AF lens. The rest of the time the screen is blank as it should be.
EDIT: In counting from this picture I found on a resellers web site, there are 19 black focus points!. Now imagine having to look through that every time you try to shoot. If they make a screen like ours without those black squares, I'd be tossing the OEM screen in the garbage right away.
So in a few days I'll have a chance to check out the images. I'm guessing that it's much better at high ISO's but lets see what the difference is like below 800. I know from his 40D the Pentax smoked the Canon in image quality. The 40D takes lifeless, flat and dull images (and I've seen thousands of shots from that camera. IMO that is a crappy camera, particularly for the money).
Last edited by Peter Zack; 01-01-2010 at 09:04 PM.