I've been holding onto my older Maxxum lenses for over five years while using an Olympus 2500 as the digital camera for some time, placing Maxxum 7000 and 8000i to their beauty sleep for most of the time. The moment has finally arrived. If I were to go for another D-body, I had no use for my over $3000 worth lenses anymore. Despite of other available somehow cheaper but maybe "better", depending what's your expectations from a DSLR, I purchased the 7D from a local camera shop which saved me $100 from retail price mathcing and beating most of the online retailers. Along with, I also acquired the 17-35 lens and a Lexar 80x Pro 1GB CF card (with discounts). I will use the $150 rebate towards for another lens if I desire to do so when I receive the check.
First of all, the camera fits my hands. I had trouble with Nikon, for example, when I held the camera tight to balance it's weight, it hurt my finger tips from squezing too much - grip was not "big" enough for my hand. All other mechanical controls are very nicely done and feels well made. Placements are intuitive and ergonomiclly correct. I am not an expert to judge the picture quality, color quality but from what I tested so far, exceptionally good to my eyes and taste. I found antishake works pretty darn good with both 100mm macro and 300mm tele. I particularly like PAL/NTSC selectable V-out. Photoshop can import RAW images. Dimage Viewer has it's own RAW format but seemed slower (using dual 2GHz G5).
If I were to wish other features, I'd want FireWire connect, an LCD on top which stays on all the times, dual memory slots (one SM and one CF). In ten years, I maybe shoping for an alternative but I am all set for now... Thank you Minolta, I mean KonicaMinolta.
Ruhi
Problems:
I couldn't quite figure it out how to fix autofocus areas yet.
First of all, the camera fits my hands. I had trouble with Nikon, for example, when I held the camera tight to balance it's weight, it hurt my finger tips from squezing too much - grip was not "big" enough for my hand. All other mechanical controls are very nicely done and feels well made. Placements are intuitive and ergonomiclly correct. I am not an expert to judge the picture quality, color quality but from what I tested so far, exceptionally good to my eyes and taste. I found antishake works pretty darn good with both 100mm macro and 300mm tele. I particularly like PAL/NTSC selectable V-out. Photoshop can import RAW images. Dimage Viewer has it's own RAW format but seemed slower (using dual 2GHz G5).
If I were to wish other features, I'd want FireWire connect, an LCD on top which stays on all the times, dual memory slots (one SM and one CF). In ten years, I maybe shoping for an alternative but I am all set for now... Thank you Minolta, I mean KonicaMinolta.
Ruhi
Problems:
I couldn't quite figure it out how to fix autofocus areas yet.