Canon 7D DSLR

What a winner this camera is! I love just about everything on it, and its performance is astounding, both as a stills and HD video camera.

I have to confess that I’m using mine almost exclusively for video since I got hold of it. That said, it is far from shabby as a stills camera, particularly for wildlife photography. The 18 megapixel, APS-C sensor has a 1.6x crop factor on lenses. That means it can be frustrating for wide angles, but a real boon with telephoto, effectively increasing the power of your lens by a factor of 1.6 x. So, for example, a 500mm has the effect of an 800mm in terms of magnification. It can fairly belt through frames too, with a burst speed of 8 frames per second; great for fast action events.

Now to the video. What a little gem this camera is. I have been using it to shoot all my wildlife material for the past few months and am hugely impressed by the image quality. Full HD (1920x1080) movies at 25 fps (or 24 /30 if you have a use for that!) and 1280x720 when shooting at 50fps (or 60fps if you are shooting NTSC mode) means that you get super high quality video images AND a true slow motion capacity. OK, the slo-mo is not going to compete with the super slo-mo cameras I have used to film sharks, cheetahs, ospreys, hobbies etc, but then, the camera doesn’t cost £100k either! It DOES do much the same thing as certain video cameras which cost in the region of £40k!

I shall talk through the way in which I deploy the 7D as a video camera in films that can be seen in the members section of the site. Peripheral gear, like viewfinders and tripod rigs which converts it into a user friendly camera for wildlife filming can be found elsewhere within the Kit Box.

Virtually all my wildlife footage that you will see on this site has been shot on the 7D, which I hope will say a lot more about the camera than I can in words.

1/10

mark gowans

Level: Newt, Added: 17/04/2011

I am currently using a bridge camera. I have been considering making the jump to DSLR and this is the camera that I have been considering seriously even though I am not a pro by any stretch of the imagination. I am into wildlife photography and this camera fits the bill in every way I think.
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9/10

Jerry Kinsley

Level: Newt, Added: 12/01/2011

I have not used the video as yet but am delighted with it's use as a stills camera , combined with a 500mm lens it is a superb combination for wildlife photography.
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