Redefining EOS with more speed, more detail, and serious performance
You're used to associating Canon's EOS digital SLR cameras with the height of advanced, high-performance digital photography. But it's time to expand your expectations. With the EOS 7D, Canon redefines digital SLR photography with a new class of features. Providing a foundation for its impressive feature set, the EOS 7D combines a large, 18.0-megapixel APS-C size CMOS image sensor with dual DIGIC 4 image processors. Not only does a megapixel-capture resolution as high as 18.0 allow you to capture an incredible level of photographic detail, but it also makes it possible to enlarge and crop photos well beyond 8" x 10" prints without sacrificing any clarity or resolution. Further, the use of a CMOS sensor — as opposed to a CCD sensor — dramatically reduces visual noise for remarkably smooth images. And then, the EOS 7D's pairing of two DIGIC 4 image processors adds a variety of shooting features to your repertoire, including an incredible 8.0 fps continuous-shooting mode, ideal for shooting action sequences. Dual DIGIC 4 processors also deliver a Face Detection Live Mode, an Auto Lighting Optimizer, and Lens Peripheral Optimization for semi-professional-level shooting.
The ideal view (times two)
Image sensors, processors, autofocus systems, and megapixel resolutions aside, two of a dSLR's most important tools are its viewfinder and viewscreen. Sure, all of a dSLR's other components are essential to capturing a photographic image, but the viewfinder and viewscreen are your mediums of composition. Without these, you'd might as well be shooting with your eyes closed. But keep 'em open, because the EOS 7D brings you a clear, versatile, and functional view of your subject. When composing each shot, choose between the eye-level pentaprism viewfinder or the 3.0" LCD viewscreen, both of which offer 100% coverage of your subject area. Further, the viewfinder offers visual autofocus, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, flash, image, and composition information, all of which can also be viewed on the LCD viewscreen at the touch of a button. Finally, the LCD's Live View functionality eliminates the delay between what you see on the viewscreen and what the image sensor captures when you press the shutter, serving up the same visual responsiveness you enjoy when using the optical viewfinder. Experience wide compositional control with the EOS 7D from Canon.
Remember your director's chair
Imagine shooting Full HD video with a dSLR's level of control. With the EOS 7D from Canon, this isn't a stretch of the imagination. This Canon EOS dSLR is capable of shooting Full HD 1080p video, HD 1280 x 720p video, and VGA 640 x 480 video. Beyond shooting mere video clips, however, the EOS 7D delivers enhanced image quality, smooth frame rates, and adaptive exposure compensation. That is, everything necessary in a professional movie-making tool. By shooting HD video with a large, advanced CMOS, the EOS 7D is able to take full advantage of the imaging characteristics found on dSLR cameras but absent on most digital camcorders. Select different recording sizes or frame-rate modes. Manually control exposure and focus. Edit in-camera. All at the touch of a button — the EOS 7D sports a dedicated Live View/Movie Recording lever with start/stop button that allows you to start filming fast.
RAW creative freedom
If you're seriously considering a digital SLR camera like the Canon EOS 7D, that can only mean one thing: you want nothing less than complete creative freedom over your photography experience. While a dSLR's manual controls are important for creative freedom in the field, you need the same level of control back at home in the editing studio. Here's where image formatting comes into play. While the EOS 7D does allow you to record images in JPEG format for convenient, compact, near-universal use, it also offers a second formatting option: RAW. Free of the compression given to JPEG files, RAW-formatted images are not only clearer but they also allow you complete creative freedom during the editing process. Further, if you want the best of both worlds, the EOS 7D is capable of recording in JPEG and RAW, simultaneously.
Formidable features
As a serious or semi-professional photographer, you're looking for serious, semi-professional performance from a dSLR. Most often, this means high-performance digital-imaging capabilities and broad manual/creative control. However, you also know that sometimes specific shooting conditions require you to pay more attention to your subject than to camera settings, and you need advanced autofocus and auto-exposure performance. The Canon EOS 7D delivers on all counts. First, a TTL-CT-SIR autofocus-dedicated CMOS sensor with an 19-point all cross-type autofocus system is capable of handling the most demanding focus situations effortlessly. The EOS 7D's high-speed microcomputers use advanced algorithms to ensure the fastest, most accurate AF performance under a variety of conditions. Further, the EOS 7D's autofocus modes can be customized to suit any situation. Second, iFCL metering with a 63-zone dual-layer metering sensor complements the AF system, taking into account color and luminosity around AF points. The metering sensor's color measurement function minimizes exposure and focus errors caused by different light sources and stabilizes exposure in situations where light changes. Truly formidable.
How 'bout a little more versatility?
Let's be honest: "ideal" shooting conditions simply do not exist. Not only are well and fully lit situations rare, they rarely make for very interesting photographs. The most creative and expressive shots capture bright, wind-swept snow scenes, or dim, shadowy dusk or indoor settings. Imagine snapping a birthday photo of your daughter about to blow the candles out with all the lights on in the dining room. So much for the warm glow of candle light on her face. Equipping you to shoot confidently and successfully in bright or low-light situations without sacrificing the finest of detail, the Canon EOS 7D offers an ISO sensitivity range from ISO 100 to ISO 6,400 that can be expanded all the way up to ISO 12,800.
Bring on the adventure
Chances are you don't plan to shoot every photo you take with the Canon EOS 7D inside a climate-controlled studio somewhere. Heck no. You plan to take it with you on every variety of outdoor adventure. As such, you do run the risk of encountering water and dust in your travels. Good thing, then, that Canon has designed the EOS 7D with a lightweight and rigid magnesium body with seals designed to resist both water and dust. Now, should you happen to expose the camera's interior to dust when swapping out lenses, the EOS 7D offers automatic and manual dust-removal systems that clean dust from the low-pass filter in just a matter of seconds.
Lens compatibility
The Canon EOS 7D digital SLR camera body is compatible with Canon EF and EF-S lenses.
Product advisory
Canon reports that under specific conditions, some images captured using the EOS 7D's continuous shooting mode may contain barely noticeable traces of the immediately preceding frame. Currently, a Firmware update correcting this issue is available for download at usa.canon.com. The Firmware Version 1.1.0 update is intended for EOS 7D cameras with the Firmware Version 1.0.9. Cameras already featuring Version 1.1.0 do not experience this phenomenon nor require an update.
Included with purchase
The following items are included with the purchase of the Canon EOS 7D kit: EOS 7D digital SLR body, Eyecup Eg, Wide neck strap (EW-EOS7D), Stereo A/V cable (AVC-DC400ST), USB interface cable (IFC-200U), Battery pack (LP-E6), Battery charger (LC-E6), EOS Digital Solution Disk, and software instruction manual.
