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Full Frame: 5d YES
7d NO (cropped APS-C sensor 1.6x)
Frame rates: 5d 24P ,30p
7d 24p (23.98) , 25p, 30p (29.97), 720 50p and 60p
Low light 5d just, mainly because it has less noise
Shallow DOF: 5d has more shallow DOF due it’s full frame sensor
Slow Motion: 7d can give you perfect slow motion by recording in 50p or 60p and changing the metadata to 24, 25 or 30p in post.
LCD: 7d, it’s slightly less reflective and brighter
Monitor Output 7d as it doesn’t go all 480p squished on our a** when we hit record like the 5d does!
Rolling Shutter 7d seems marginally improved, what this is down to I have no idea, but it seems a bit improved although still VERY present
all im saying is i've had my 7D for six months now and only once in the six month did i use the video recordings, why because i buy cameras to take photos, hence why im upgrading to a 5D next month
but here something i took of Dan Carr's blog
5dMKIIEver since I got this camera last year I have been in love. The quality of the images it produces are quite simply breathtaking if you attach an equally nice piece of glass to the front of it. With it’s full frame 21MP sensor it easily produces the most detailed photos out of the 3 cameras. if you were to put a photo taken with the 5d and 7d next to each other there would be absolutely no doubt as to which camera took which photo. The results are night and day. With the price of the 5dMKII falling recently, the difference in image quality is not even reflected by price difference any more. If straight up image quality is all you desire, the 5dMKII is the camera you need. With such a large sensor though, any shortcomings in your lenses will become more evident. Particularly corner sharpness and vignetting at wide apertures. Pick your lenses carefully for this camera, only the best will match the detail produced by the sensor.
Video quality on the 5dMKII is far superior to the 7d. This is something that I have been asked a lot too recently and my quick answer has surprised a lot of people. To my eye, the 5d video is far superior in clarity and sharpness to the 7d video. That is not to say that the 7d video is bad, not at all, but it is not as good. The size difference between the 5ds full frame sensor and the 7ds 1.6 crop sensor is the reason for this. If absolute quality of the video is your goal, the 5dMKII should be an easy choice over the 7d. If multiple frame rates are a factor then that raises some more questions which will be discussed later. Right now, the 5dMKII is only capable of 30.00 fps although a 24/25 fps firmware update will be available in the coming months (it will not include 720p 50/60fps)
A couple of things that I do not like about the 5dMKII…. shutter lag and 1/200x-sync speed. The shutter lag on the 5dMKII is noticeably longer than both the 1dMKIV and the 7d. After some time you will find yourself adjusting to it but it can be disadvantageous if you are shooting simultaneously with 2 different cameras. I use the 5dMKII a lot at night time when i’m shooting urban skiing and snowboarding and it is still possible to time things perfectly with one shot but it is a noticeable difference. The second thing that I do not like is the 1/200 sync speed. This is no problem at all when shooting in a studio or at night but it makes it very hard to shoot with strobes outside in daylight. Other cameras have a 1/250 or higher sync and you can often push those even further with minimal flash banding. The 5dMKII though is stuck at 1/200. Pushing it even to 1/250 leaves a huge portion of the image unlit by the strobes.
If I am traveling light and not shooting any kind of sports then the 5dMKII is a no-brainer to pick. I believe it to be the ultimate travel photographers camera. It’s is extremely lightweight and also physically smaller than 1 series cameras which in-turn makes it more discreet. The batteries are incredibly efficient and 2 of the tiny batteries will keep you shooting all day long. Some people sight the lack of great weather sealing as a negative against the travel camera tag, but I would say just use on of THESE if it starts to rain. In this case, the positives far outweigh the negatives! By coupling this camera with the 24-105mm f4 lens you have a formidable piece of kit. Add to that a wide aperture prime such as my new favorite, the 24mm f1.4 II L and I would happily travel the world with only that.
Now on to low light performance. The 5dMKII performs the best in low light situations. You can make enormous, beautiful prints from photos shot at ISO3200 and higher. Even when comparing to the much newer 1dMKIV, the 5dMKII has a slight edge in low light performance, again thanks to it’s full frame sensor. Much has been said about the low light performance of the 7d, yes its good for a 1.6 crop but personally over iso 1600 it was not acceptable to me. This isn’t based on specific tests just real world shooting.
I’d like to say a quick note about frames per second too, obviously the 5dMKII is the slowest of the 3 in this category. 3.5 fps is VERY slow. If you only intend to shoot naturally lit sports, this is not the camera for you, you will need something faster.
Canon 7dI had high hopes for this camera on its announcement. A fast fps camera in a small package is the dream for any photographer that has to carry their equipment on their back all day. I had to try one out so I picked one up as soon as they became available. Video functions were fun to play with, especially the 60fps 720p mode. Quality was acceptably high in the video but not as good as the 5d. Still much better than traditional video cameras like the Panasonic HVX though. Ergonomic improvements such as dedicated video buttons were a welcome addition over the 5d.
Who is the 7d for then? Well as it turns out, Canon did not make any leaps in image quality over the 50d. Cramming 18MP images into a 1.6 crop sensor was, in my opinion, a ridiculous idea. If they had left it at 12MP it would have been an entirely different camera. Unfortunately, with a camera in this price bracket they are targeting a consumer group that is not necessarily totally clued up on the technicalities of sensor size and pixel density. The fact of the matter is that I have had commercial posters printed 20ft wide with my 8MP Canon 1dMKIIN. 20FT !! And they look fantastic (check the galleries in my facebook group for some examples) You do not need to have a huge number of MP in order to make large prints, it is far far better to have lower noise than larger photos. For the most part, professional photographers now understand this, the new 1dMKIV is only 16MP and the Nikon D3s is only 12MP and there are NO complaints about either of those figures. Canon made the decision to put 18MP in the 7d just to appeal to the consumer market which has been sadly misled into thinking that the MP count is the magic number.
7d photos were not bad, there are plenty of examples out there to look at on the review sites. Compared to cameras in the same price category it is superior, but for someone who owns a 5dMKII and a 1 series camera the quality difference is fairly large. Rightfully so , the other cameras are FAR more expensive. So who is the 7d for then? The feature set on the 7d is quite incredible for a camera in that price bracket. For an amateur photographer who likes to take photos of many things from sports to landscapes and maybe the odd video, this one is for you. It is not the best at anything, but it does everything and it does it better than other cameras in a similar price range. If price is your deciding factor then this one is for you.
A few other things i noticed while shooting with the 7d: