Underwhelming 7D review from Dpreview

This belongs in a different thread, but there wasn't room for it. I'm posting this here so that current D200, D300, and D300s realize how good they have it, and also so there's one location to go to for all the things which Dpreview's "in-depth review of the Canon EOS 7D" mysteriously neglected to mention. Dpreview used to be much harsher in their reviews once upon a time. For example:

"The primary competition coming from Nikon's excellent D200, a camera which in many ways betters the EOS 30D, user interface, features and flexibility are all a step up."

The first remarkable thing is how much of that remains true with Canon's new 7D, but how this is no longer mentioned.

The second remarkable thing is how faults from the 30D which presist in the 7D and which even the D200 betters, let alone the D300, are no longer mentioned.

Curious, eh? Dpreview doesn't even mention the flurry of firmware updates to the 7D, even though this is something that owners of that body will need those fixes. Dpreview used to talk about such things in their reviews; they no longer do. Make of that what you will.

While there are plenty of "different UI" issues that are largely a matter of taste, serious and real failures of the 7D that do not afflict Nikon x00 series. These are not addressing the same market. Here is a list of those failings. Please add to it as you encounter more.

• No power regulation, so camera is at mercy of battery level; per 7D manual: "When the battery level is low, the continuous shooting speed will be slightly slower."
• Only 19 selectable AF points, not 51
• Spot metering not linked to AF focus point
• No focus confirmation light during continuous autofocus
• Cannot assign spot/center/matrix metering to any button
• Mirror-up buried in menus and cannot be assigned to a button
• Only one preset white balance supported, not four
• Setting of manual/preset white balance exceedingly complicated and involved
• Cannot assign white balance preset measuring to a button
• Cannot make auto-exposure lock "sticky" (AE-L Hold)
• Cannot assign bracketing to any button
• Exposure bracketing limited to 3 exposures only
• Exposure bracketing limited on 1/2 or 1/3 stop apart
• Cannot use exposure bracketing if flash enabled
• Cannot bracket flash exposure
• Cannot use manual mode with exposure bracketing
• Cannot use auto ISO in manual mode
• Cannot use autoexposure lock in manual mode
• Cannot use exposure compensation in manual mode
• Any flexible-program shift in P mode cancelled by every shutter release
• Timer does not lock autoexposure so must use separate eyepiece cover
• Camera turns itself off on you
• No control of flash for balanced fill-flash vs subject illumination
• LCD panel blacked out when power off
• No AF assist light separate from popup flash
• No built-in interval timer
• Auto-display of last shot not full review mode
• No matrix metering for non-CPU lenses because cannot set aperture and focal length for non-CPU lenses
• Per 30D review: "Picture Style tone curve not indicated in camera menu (contrast is an offset, not absolute)"
• Only 26 custom functions, not 48

Can you guess which of those Dpreview bothered to inform the public about? Turns out that Dpreview mentions only one of those under its Cons in its review of the 7D. Try to guess which.

--tom

Actually, I don't care how well or poor the 7D performs. I do care about how my cameras and lenses from NIKON performs.
Mr. Nikon may care, and Mr. Canon may care, as they are in direct competition.
--
Have Fun!
Steve

for putting together a list like this. Taking no shot at Steve here but it is good to know there are many features that we as Nikon users have grown to rely on and use all the time that this camera doesn't have.

On the flip side I wonder what the list would look like of all the features that this camera has that we as Nikon users would want/need?

Stevequad said:

Actually, I don't care how well or poor the 7D performs. I do care about how my cameras and lenses from NIKON performs.
Mr. Nikon may care, and Mr. Canon may care, as they are in direct competition.
--
Have Fun!
Steve

Click to expand...

--
Chris
http://www.33g.com/photos

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.

Chris Walden said:

for putting together a list like this. Taking no shot at Steve here but it is good to know there are many features that we as Nikon users have grown to rely on and use all the time that this camera doesn't have.

Click to expand...

You're welcome.

Chris Walden said:

On the flip side I wonder what the list would look like of all the features that this camera has that we as Nikon users would want/need?

Click to expand...

Well, there are a few. One is the two-axis virtual horizon. I'm not sure whether
this is really all that much better than the viewfinder grid, but I know I've
wanted one. The problem is that it's only accurate to within 1°, so I dunno
how much good it would do me. When I eyeball a shot, I am always 2° too far
in the clockwise direction, and it requires a counter-clockwise rotation of 2°
to fix. It's some fault with my visual system, because it happens even when
I try hard for it not to. Ansel talks about this in The Camera . So a feature
that's only 50% as bad might not help me much.

There were one or two others. I'll try to dig them up.

I hadn't handled a Canon since the 20D, and that was a long time ago.
I was pretty astonished by how much you couldn't do with a 7D that
just comes naturally on the D200 and D300 bodies. The UI is much more
fiddly than I'm used to; it reminds me much more of a P&S, always having to
descend into menus governed by hieroglyphics not by words. Nikon has
seriously fewer buttons that do seriously more for you. As I said, the Canons
are all very fiddly; you really do have to read their manuals and handle their
bodies to see what I mean. Canon is very far behind Nikon as far as handling
and control go. There really isn't any comparison; all they have is a couple
of numbers that look better on paper. They have nothing on us in handling,
nothing at all.

And I was terribly disappointed by Dpreview's so-called in-depth review.
It's not . Many things that Phil used to complain about are still wrong
with the 7D, and yet nothing is said of them! I just can't understand that,
not without resorting to paranoid conspiracy delusions about who owns whom.
Perhaps the new reviewers just never read Phil's old reviews and also have no
experience with more capable cameras. That's all I can think of.

--tom

LCD panel blacked out when power off

You mean when the power is switched off the LCD panel goes out?!? Scandalous! What kind of a camera company makes cameras that go off when the the power switch is set to off. How preposterous!

As a D300 owner I felt in heaven after reading this. But to be fair for both sides maybe you should write a complete review as well since you disliked the one by dpreview so much?

Since I started reading this site 4 years ago, it was apparent then, and still today, the bias is towards Canon - and it still is. Now with Amazon owning the purse strings, the reviews are even more tepid than before. I suspect it's to not chase off potential customers.

Since then, I've located other sources on the Web that do a much better job at evaluating hardware, etc. without the pretense. At least DPR prints the news and PR releases...

I don't really care if DPR is biased one way or another. What annoys me is they just won't admit it and get on with it...but it's their site, they can do what they want. My opinion only matters if I am one paying the bill to keep it going...

nirvana0001 said:

As a D300 owner I felt in heaven after reading this. But to be fair for both sides maybe you should write a complete review as well since you disliked the one by dpreview so much?

Click to expand...

Because I don't care to spend so much time with a 7D body as that would require. ☺

My appraisal of Dpreview's review is not an absolute one so much as it is a relative one. Their earlier reviews mentioned things that they no longer talk about, but which haven't been fixed. I don't understand that. It is misleading. Why would they want to mislead? It must be an oversight.

A feature the 7D offers but that the D300etc bodies do not is:

• lens/FL-based automatic vignette control

But two more features that the 7D lacks compared with the D300etc are:

• automatic in-body correction of lateral chromatic aberrations
• detailed read-out of battery use WRT shots taken

I'm afraid I'm not adding to the Pros list as fast as I am to the Cons list

There's also something very odd going on with the 7D's AF in low-light. I'm not sure what it is. It slows way down compared with the D300 in the same lighting. The Canon manual warns about this, and certainly it's not spec'd to as low light levels as the D300etc are. I'd have to go back to my "source" and beg borrowing the body again to figure it out better. I just know it's not the same.

--tom

Guys, guys, guys...

The Canon fora are abound with comments about how dpr is ever so biased towards Nikon. This especially happened after the 50D review, which had many happy owners shouting "CONSPIRACY!" and that the review was "not good enough" (often by people who never used the camera).

The Nikon D300-D100 forum on the other hand seemed to be much more focused on what matters: the cameras they owned and the pictures they took.

And then along comes one, apparently great, camera - the 7D and now we have posts saying "Canon bias" and that the review was "too good" (incidently by people who never used the camera).

Perhaps just be happy with what you have and accept the fact that technology evolves and that better cameras WILL come out.

Genix said:

Since I started reading this site 4 years ago, it was apparent then, and still today, the bias is towards Canon - and it still is. Now with Amazon owning the purse strings, the reviews are even more tepid than before. I suspect it's to not chase off potential customers.

Click to expand...

like someone who's a bit insecure about the 7D.

The lady doth protest too much.

I enjoy my Nikon as much as I enjoy my Canon.

... useful list - thanks for taking the time to put this up.

--
Regards, David Chin
Digital photography notes and stuff:
http://www.dpnotes.com/

now that would suck
--
hobby aviation photographer

Oh, for heaven's sake, Tom, go see a shrink about your insecurity...

Habakuk said:

Oh, for heaven's sake, Tom, go see a shrink about your insecurity...

Click to expand...

no kidding....what the crap does it matter....its a freaking camera......

Good work compiling such a list. Thumbs up.

When I was looking for a DSLR I too compiled such a list. It included the 50D, D90 and D300. After some weeks of studying the manuals I went for the D300 and couldn't be happier.

Regarding 7D : I can't belive to see all those shortcomings in a 1600 € cam (!!!). e.g. Bracketing has about the same level as on my 200 € p&s.

Regarding dpr reviews : I think a site like dpr simply CAN NOT afford to give bad critiques on a brand like Canon or Nikon. I see all this review stuff more like a big game where each player has his role and tries not to hurt the others to much. On the other hand could Canon or Nikon really afford to boycott dpr for a bad review ? I doubt so.

Therefore it is up to the potential buyer to carefully select the cam he or she wants/needs.

A once very famous tennis player once said, "YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!"

Cheers,
Gary.

I don't get it why some people are so stuck with one brand. I own too 3 Nikon bodies(d300,d80,d50) but that doesn't make me try and find only the bad points from other cameras...

Yes all these points you mention are maybe true but how many of them do you use regularly? On the other hand things like 18 Mpixel ,high iso noise , speed and accuracy of focus and ease of usage are important in nearly every single photo.

So in general I think Canon did an excellent job(I'm not compairing it to Nikons). If we deny to see and accept that then Nikon will not proceed forward as fast as we want it to.

--

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Visit my gallery at
http://nikos3104.fotopic.net/

Great list, Tom. Thanks for the effort and for posting. Nikons work as advertised and are a joy to use.
--
JohnE
I have enjoyed taking these images: http://www.pbase.com/jpower

Below, Phoenix City Hall with Nikkor 10.5mm on D200

Some of your information is wrong, some just nitpicking.

Tom Christiansen said:

This belongs in a different thread, but there wasn't room for it. I'm posting this here so that current D200, D300, and D300s realize how good they have it, and also so there's one location to go to for all the things which Dpreview's "in-depth review of the Canon EOS 7D" mysteriously neglected to mention. Dpreview used to be much harsher in their reviews once upon a time. For example:

"The primary competition coming from Nikon's excellent D200, a camera which in many ways betters the EOS 30D, user interface, features and flexibility are all a step up."

The first remarkable thing is how much of that remains true with Canon's new 7D, but how this is no longer mentioned.

The second remarkable thing is how faults from the 30D which presist in the 7D and which even the D200 betters, let alone the D300, are no longer mentioned.

Curious, eh? Dpreview doesn't even mention the flurry of firmware updates to the 7D, even though this is something that owners of that body will need those fixes. Dpreview used to talk about such things in their reviews; they no longer do. Make of that what you will.

While there are plenty of "different UI" issues that are largely a matter of taste, serious and real failures of the 7D that do not afflict Nikon x00 series. These are not addressing the same market. Here is a list of those failings. Please add to it as you encounter more.

• No power regulation, so camera is at mercy of battery level; per 7D manual: "When the battery level is low, the continuous shooting speed will be slightly slower."
• Only 19 selectable AF points, not 51
• Spot metering not linked to AF focus point
• No focus confirmation light during continuous autofocus
• Cannot assign spot/center/matrix metering to any button
• Mirror-up buried in menus and cannot be assigned to a button

Click to expand...

Can always use live view, that will instantly flip up the mirror.

Tom Christiansen said:

• Only one preset white balance supported, not four
• Setting of manual/preset white balance exceedingly complicated and involved
• Cannot assign white balance preset measuring to a button
• Cannot make auto-exposure lock "sticky" (AE-L Hold)
• Cannot assign bracketing to any button
• Exposure bracketing limited to 3 exposures only
• Exposure bracketing limited on 1/2 or 1/3 stop apart
• Cannot use exposure bracketing if flash enabled
• Cannot bracket flash exposure
• Cannot use manual mode with exposure bracketing
• Cannot use auto ISO in manual mode

Click to expand...

Yes, you can.

Tom Christiansen said:

• Cannot use autoexposure lock in manual mode

Click to expand...

I've never understood this argument - it's MANUAL mode. No reason for AE lock.

Tom Christiansen said:

• Cannot use exposure compensation in manual mode

Click to expand...

See previous.

Tom Christiansen said:

• Any flexible-program shift in P mode cancelled by every shutter release
• Timer does not lock autoexposure so must use separate eyepiece cover
• Camera turns itself off on you

Click to expand...

Auto off can be disabled.

Tom Christiansen said:

• No control of flash for balanced fill-flash vs subject illumination
• LCD panel blacked out when power off

Click to expand...

This is a silly thing to nitpick. If I switch the power off, I want everything off.

Tom Christiansen said:

• No AF assist light separate from popup flash
• No built-in interval timer

Click to expand...

Not many bodies have this, not a big deal.

Tom Christiansen said:

• Auto-display of last shot not full review mode

Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean here - display of the last shot can be changed to show all settings as well as a histogram.

Tom Christiansen said:

• No matrix metering for non-CPU lenses because cannot set aperture and focal length for non-CPU lenses
• Per 30D review: "Picture Style tone curve not indicated in camera menu (contrast is an offset, not absolute)"
• Only 26 custom functions, not 48

Click to expand...

Oh horrors!

Tom Christiansen said:

Can you guess which of those Dpreview bothered to inform the public about? Turns out that Dpreview mentions only one of those under its Cons in its review of the 7D. Try to guess which.

--tom

Click to expand...

I was thinking this,

On a Nikon the LCD panel displays remaining shots when the camera is off. I can honestly say if that feature were removed I wouldn't miss it.

I certainly wouldn't miss it on my F75 which permanently displays E since I usually have no film in the camera.