Canon 70D - First Impressions & Review'ish Thread

Hi! My name is Jeremy and this is my very first post on POTN. I read through the 70D owners unite thread and learned a lot, so I thought I'd post this here to try and give back in some small way.

Let me start by saying I'm no pro. Not even close. My wife is a journalist and has a great eye (not a photojournalist, but she can shoot like one) but we've used P&S cameras since we went digital in ~2005. We had a Nikon film SLR before going digital but have used Canon ever since - an SD30 Digital ELPH followed by the superb S95. Last July I got my first DSLR, a Canon T3 (1100D for non-US folks) with its kit lens, the EF-S 18-55mm IS II. Later on I upgraded to a better-but-still-a-kit-lens with more reach - the EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS.

That sufficed for several months, but the T3 was missing something - control. Coming into photography as a self-avowed computer geek, playing with settings is my thing. Doing that on a low-end Rebel can be frustrating, at best. Sure, it had plenty of control technically but a lot of it was just plain not easy to access, in menus or with buttons that just weren't convenient. Put succinctly, I wanted more.

After the 70D was launched, it became sort-of an obsession of mine. I read everything I possibly could about it - every review, forum thread, even reviews on retailer sites. It just seemed like my dream camera. The whole full frame ecosystem is unfortunately not in the budget, plus I already had the EF-S 18-135 and the 70D would go along with it very nicely. Thus, it became my goal to acquire a 70D. While I saved up, the great holiday deals (body for $950) came and went. Nothing used really popped up on the market and it's way too early for refurbs. Cut to a couple of weeks ago and a used model popped up for sale. After talking with the guy, I got a slightly used 70D with the 18-55mm IS STM for a great deal.

Eventually, after using it a while, I may well write an impartial-as-possible review about it**, but I was so excited, I took to posting on forums; because coming from a T3 it's like a whole different world. (**I've reviewed computer hardware for several years so I'm going to try my hand at a consumer-oriented camera review.)

So, apologies if anyone has seen this before (likely on FM), but after reading through the helpful (and superb picture laden) owners unite thread, I wanted to give back what I could. This 'post' will span about ten posts. It is in a semi-finished state, but it works separated out.

Getting started with the meat of the thread, I'll save the close-up and detailed product photos for the actual review, but here are a few preliminary shots.

Front:

First Samples

The full size samples are JPG, as they came out of the camera. The crops are as viewed at 100% on the monitor. These were taken with both he kit lens (18-55mm STM) and an EF-S 18-135mm IS. The kiddo had a dentist appointment and this came with us (to be used afterward), so of course I snapped a photo of the chair next to me.

Chair:

Some sky photos.

ISO Noise Testing

These ISO tests were all taken with my standard image profile: Auto picture style, +6 sharpening, +1 saturation. The bookshelf is in our bonus room / office. The only light source was a 100W equivalent, daylight CFL in a fan, in the middle of the ceiling. The light source is approximately five feet away and about 1.5-2 feet above the shelf you're seeing.

To keep variation between shots minimal, they were taken with spot metering (center of the frame) and a single AF point (which is in the middle of the metering spot). The lens was the kit lens (18-55mm STM) at f/4.5 & 35mm. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have focused and then flipped the manual focus switch. The only variation is the 3200 photo though, so it's not too bad.

These tests are to test the in-camera JPEG processing with the DIGIC 5+ processor along with the sensor, as most people (me included) will shoot. These are not RAW + PP.

I'll split this into two posts to prevent bumping up against any potential per-post image limits. The first post is ISO 100 through ISO 800, the second is ISO 1600 through ISO 25600.

ISO 100

ISO 1600

ISO Tests Cropped

These are the first crops of the ISO tests above. I will be cropping tighter in at least one more place, if not more than that, as time allows. These are not quite as viewed at 100%, but quite close; they were resized by ~120px horizontally. I'll also split these into two posts.

ISO 100

ISO 1600

100% Crop ISO Test

Ok, here is a 100% crop of probably the most challenging portion of the image - a fabric book binding.

Real World Testing

After what seemed like forever (but was really only 11 days!), I was finally able to set out and actually use the 70D and the experience did not disappoint. To use the cliche, it just got out of the way and let me shoot. That's really the job of any good camera, and upgraded models like this with their glorious, easy-to-access multitude of external controls give you that very experience.

These were all taken RAW + JPEG as well. I have done nothing to these images, they are the JPEG SOOC (straight out of camera) shots with some cropping on a couple of the butterflies. The cropped shots will be noted. I'm going to take the plunge and see if I can do anything better with the RAW files. Chances are I can't, but I'll play with them anyway.

If anyone who IS experienced with RAW wants to take a crack vs. my in-camera settings with any of these, you're more than welcome to; just PM your email address asking for one and I'll send it right over.

Now on to the real-world use photos. Comments & (contstructive) criticism are always welcome. I'll split this into two posts. The lens used for the whole day was the EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (non-STM).

These were taken at the Museum of Life & Science in Durham.

This one was pretty heavily cropped.

Pretty heavy crop on this next one.

Well, this must be the BEST review of 70D that is available nowdays. Cudos!

great work!
jpeg engine in 70D is pretty good, but still i recommend using RAW format and remove noise in post to maintain all important details

That's very comprehensive. Must have taken ages to write up.

Don't buy anymore EF-S lenses.

hokiealumnus wrote in post #16628409
After turning it on, the photo counter was not reset and it had a whopping 318 photos. That's about a weekend of shooting for me, so this thing has barely been used.

Which "photo counter" are you referring to?

The battery info menu has a "Shutter count" but it only shows the count on that particular battery. It is reset every time you charge the battery or change batteries.

debokte wrote in post #16628755
Well, this must be the BEST review of 70D that is available nowdays. Cudos!

Hah, thanks but that's too kind. There are many, many out there much better than this. This is just my meager attempt to outline one person's experience.

palad1n wrote in post #16628963
great work!
jpeg engine in 70D is pretty good, but still i recommend using RAW format and remove noise in post to maintain all important details

RAW processing is still beyond me. It's not something that I have ever done (ok, once, which I'll show you) and after trying several times, the way I use the camera, its JPEG engine is far (FAR) better at noise reduction, colors and even sharpening than I am. I will definitely keep trying, but for now I'm mostly a JPEG only shooter. When I go out for non-essential photos (i.e. when I have SD card space to kill and it's not documenting a family something that needs recording), I'll shoot RAW+JPEG and work to hone my...ok, to develop, not hone, my skills. As I have none yet, there's nothing to hone.

The only type of PP I am any good at is drastic changes - for instance to B&W with some vignetting added like in this example. The photo is a branch that just called to me, so I had to shoot it. It felt like it was screaming to be B&W though, so I gave in and played with it a bit to come up with the final result. I'm not sure it's "better" per se, but I like the result.

Before:

flickserve wrote in post #16629166
That's very comprehensive. Must have taken ages to write up.

Don't buy anymore EF-S lenses.

Thanks! It's nowhere near as comprehensive as a solid review that goes over every included feature, the menu system (and its plethora of options), and even that includes video, but you're very kind.

You're absolutely right though, no more EF-S lenses!

msowsun wrote in post #16629299
Which "photo counter" are you referring to?

The battery info menu has a "Shutter count" but it only shows the count on that particular battery. It is reset every time you charge the battery or change batteries.

The count I'm referring to is the photo naming count. Unless the prior owner reset it, it was sitting at ~300 when the camera got to me. I could try EOSInfoto be sure of course, in case that count has been altered before, but the thing was three months old when I bought it and as you can see above, it was clean as a whistle. All that was done was to pull it out of the box and start taking photos. I don't doubt its newness. But hey, EOSInfo is free, so why not try it, yes? It might be next week, but I'll report back with the result.