Camera review
23
ISO performance
12,800. The highest native ISO does show more aggressive noise, but the colours remain true, as they do on the H1 setting. Only on the H2 setting do colours start to waiver noticeably and this setting should really only be used for artistic effects or when a very noisy image is better than no image at all. An impressive performance, especially when you consider the camera squeezes 20.2 megapixels on to an APS-C sensor.
Raws at every ISO were taken and processed through Adobe Lightroom 5.7. No noise reduction was applied. Viewed at 100% on a monitor, digital noise isn’t an issue for any of the three figure ISO settings, nor would the speckles at ISO 1600 or 3200 be considered intrusive. Understandably, by the time you get to ISO 6400 it is becoming more prominent, but nothing that some noise reduction software couldn’t alleviate. Crucially, colours don’t shift dramatically, nor do they at
FULL-FRAME IMAGE
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
ISO 3200
ISO 6400
ISO 12,800
ISO 16,000
ISO 25,600
ISO 51,200
What’s the difference? While they may look similar, there are plenty of differences between the 7D MkII and its predecessor. Here are the key ones:
EOS 7D MKII
EOS 7D
RESOLUTION
20.2 megapixels
18 megapixels
ISO RANGE
100-16,000 (expandable to 51,200)
100-6400 (expandable to 12,800)
PROCESSOR
Dual DIGIC 6
Dual DIGIC 4
MAXIMUM FRAME RATE
10fps
8fps
CONTINUOUS BURST CAPABILITY
31 Raw files, 1000+ JPEGs
24 Raw files, 94 JPEGs
METERING
150,000 pixel RGB+IR
63 zones
AF POINTS
65
19
MAX. VIDEO FRAME RATE
1080p/60fps
1080p/30fps
CARD SLOTS
Dual CF & SD
Single
The verdict The Canon EOS 7D Mark II represents the perfect blend of technological tour de force and user-friendliness. As an existing EOS owner, I picked up the 7D MkII and felt instantly at home with it. That matters. Any 7D owner will no doubt tell you that the original model was a very good camera, so it’s impressive to see that Canon has improved virtually every aspect of the original camera’s performance. Retailing around £1599 does throw up the APS-C/ full frame debate. The full-frame EOS 6D is cheaper to the tune of £300, which does make you wonder about the 7D MkII, but to compare the two is like comparing chalk with cheese. Neither camera is setting out to achieve what the other offers. And not at any point during the test did I regard the images from the 7D MkII
CANON EOS 7DMKII
22/25
FEATURES
as being obviously inferior to a full-frame model. I didn’t miss Wi-Fi or 4K video either, but some might. I definitely did miss an articulated LCD, though. The Canon EOS 7D MkII is a
Plenty to go at, but lacking some new technology PERFORMANCE 24/25 Outstanding AF, accurate metering, super-fast frame rate HANDLING 24/25 Superb shutter action, great handgrip, excellent viewfinder VALUE FOR MONEY 23/25 What price do you put on great shots?
brilliant DSLR that has hugely impressed me and if you’re going to make the most of its speedy characteristics, it’s a no- brainer. But if you shoot landscapes, still lifes and anything else that doesn’t move,
OVERALL
93/100
PROS Autofocus, video flexibility, handling, ISO performance CONS Fixed LCD, no Wi-Fi, no at-a-glance file format view A performance to match the EOS-1D X’s at a price to please the bank manager
you may be better off looking elsewhere. Buying a 7D MkII for this purpose would be like buying a Ferrari and driving at 30mph.
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Issue 15 | Photography News
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