If you have been following news about the 7D recently, it is impossible that you missed all the 7D reviews and comparison with the 5DMrkII. I wont even link to them, there are too many! The two most popular comparison points being the rolling shutter and the noise.

As shown in the Neutral Day post, the 7D is noisier than the 5dMrkII. Of course, everyone expected that. Still, it performed quite well as long as it stayed away from the top ISO levels. At least, that is what I thought after reading the post (and looking at pictures taken with my friend 7D).

Now, Karel Donk posted an inflammatory post against the 7D on his blog. Calling the 7D noisier than the 40D (we all know why he skipped the 50D!) and flaming Canon for its quality control. The read is interesting and offers a counter point to all the positive reviews we usually read.

While I disagree with some of the content (like why we need more megapixel), I think it is a must read for anyone thinking about buying a 7D.

That being said, should you still buy a 7D? Of course! It might not be perfect, but no camera offers so much value in the HDSLR world.

We shot a few clips yesterday with a 16-35L mounted on a 7D to compare it with the 5DMrkII with a 24-70L. I dont have the clip in my hands yet (will get them tomorrow), but from our initial tests, it seems like the 7D low light capabilities at higher ISO is about 1 1/3-1 2/3 stop lower than the 5D. Basically, ISO 1250 on the 7D looks about the same as 3200 on the 5D.

The increase of noise is not linear. By that I mean that ISO 800 on both camera is about the same, it is only above 1250 that we can see a difference.

Scott Boune who did his own mini review of the video of the 7D does not seem to notice the difference between the two. It is probably because he did not go high enough in the ISO chart.

Is this something you should worry about? No. Unless you are shooting in very dark places (or at night @ f2.8 and smaller), ISO 640 should be enough for most shots. Also, to correct Scott, the 5DMrkII also has the auto focus feature for video and it works the same way as with the 7D: it only works in live view: while you are not recording.

Our tests also show something very interesting: the 7D seems to process moire pattern much better than the 5D and the jelly effect is much less noticeable. This is probably thanks to the 7D smaller sensor, being smaller, it takes less time to fully scan it. What ever the reason, it makes the 7D much more desirable for fast moving subjects.

As I said above, I will get the footage from this weekend tomorrow and should be able to put it online soon.

We also did some steadicam shots at 60p, I am very curious to see how these will turn out, especially since I am the model walking around like an idiot…

If you are planning to buy a 7D on Amazon US, please use this link. All profits made by affiliates links are reinvested in the site to add content.

Just saw this 7D Field Review on CanonRumors.

While the guy is a photographer and approach the product from this perspective, it is interesting to see how well the camera was performing. He even goes as far as saying that it could replace his 1DMrkIII!

Lots of screenshots, go take a look.