GKPE 7 - And Still Going! Still Friendly and Still The BEST!

Jason, did yours arrive today? I sent you an email from work with the courier tracking details just in case.

I had a good old fiddle around with a 7D this afternoon, complete with the new 18-135 lens. At the risk of sounding inflammatory, it leaves me utterly bemused.

manipula wrote in post #8762033
Jason, did yours arrive today? I sent you an email from work with the courier tracking details just in case.

I had a good old fiddle around with a 7D this afternoon, complete with the new 18-135 lens. At the risk of sounding inflammatory, it leaves me utterly bemused.

Is that good or bad? Bemuse - stupify or bewilder - stupified by its beauty and performance or bewildered because it is so expensive for what it does.

Or perhaps stupified and bewildered because you don't understand modern cameras - being the owner of a really old 5D

I touched it. It was good.

That should be enough explanation of the situation.

Edit: The viewfinder etc now feels like a Nikon.

tongmaster wrote in post #8762102
Or perhaps stupified and bewildered because you don't understand modern cameras - being the owner of a really old 5D

Honestly, I don't like it.

Logically, a camera is really only about the photos it produces, and as such it seems pretty bloody handy. High ISO stuff seems pretty good, it focuses well and quickly, it's got more FPS than you'd ever need, and the movie functionality seems to be really quite handy.

Yet it doesn't seem so cohesive to me. It's like they took the list of gadgets everyone's asked for and added them all, and forgot their strength is utter simplicity and logical operation. I also think the new designs for the buttons (whatever they may be, and for whatever reason) mirror those of the S90 and G11 we tried a while back and work well, but feel cheaper. There's no real good, solid reason, but it feels underwhelming, maybe even psychologically. It kinda feels like a $3+k camera in feature set only, as opposed to handling. Or let's put it this way, if you were buying from a blank canvas, if you held it and a D300, you'd buy the Nikon.

Ironically, I kinda feel apologetic about that, as I don't wanna seem like I'm p!ssing on people's chips, I'm sure it's going to be staggeringly capable. Certainly outguns my shoddy old 5D in many places. I just wouldn't swap for free...

As for the new 18-135 lens. Shoite. Big thing, bulky, feels like it's an 18-55 on steroids. Cheap and nasty for a kit lens on a higher end SLR.

davethejnz wrote in post #8759734
Do you really use the 300 2.8 often enough

In a word, NO. However, there are others that do when they require it.

It is not, however, for sale. (I'm a horder, don't sell anything:rolleyes

Hi All.
Busy weekend behind me.

Friday night I went to Oktoberfest with my camera & the Nifty 50.
Saturday I helped frends move house, then drove 3 hours to Herzogenaurach for a night BMX race and Sunday was also the last race of the season there. then back home.
Took too many photos and haven't even looked at most of them yet.

akiwi wrote in post #8762372
Hi All.
Busy weekend behind me.
Took too many photos .

there is no such thing as taking too many photo's!

manipula wrote in post #8762172


Honestly, I don't like it.

Logically, a camera is really only about the photos it produces, and as such it seems pretty bloody handy. High ISO stuff seems pretty good, it focuses well and quickly, it's got more FPS than you'd ever need, and the movie functionality seems to be really quite handy.

Yet it doesn't seem so cohesive to me. ...

First little fiddle didn't feel too exciting, but we'll see how it goes when I get it customised and out in the field. Change is always difficult Once I get the hang of it and it moves from "gadget with flashing lights" and into "tool" status I'll let you know my thoughts...

jasestu wrote in post #8762451
First little fiddle didn't feel too exciting, but we'll see how it goes when I get it customised and out in the field. Change is always difficult Once I get the hang of it and it moves from "gadget with flashing lights" and into "tool" status I'll let you know my thoughts...

I'd appreciate that, honestly. Looking back, I bought the 5D because of what it should do for the money, but my first few months with it were hatred. However, 3-and-a-bit years on, it gets under my skin more and more every time I use it. It's still a total sh!t with reds if you're not careful mind!

Once people go full frame they rarely go back. Good things about the 7D are the quite large viewfinder, and it works really quickly, which is important to me. I may pick up a 5D classic one day, purely to use with a fast prime on the odd occasion I want less DOF.

Hi Tim

A while back you gave good business reason for not being able to justify the 5DII, so wondering what reason you have that justifies the 7D over say the soon to be released 60D?

haha, ya'all r crack'n me up... its a wizzbang... whoahoo

focus is bang on, it has a grid, it has horizontal thingy that tells me I'm straight, you have no idea how much those litle baby's alone are worth to me, for some reason it's sharper. it's pretty damn clean at 6400 iso and even better at 3200, and I haven't even downloaded an image into the mac yet. It has a light button on THIS side of the lcd... at last! it has lots of other buttons too that I have no idea what they do, it has copous amounts of things I'll never use. But, well, i like it, and there is no way in hell I'd swap it for a 5d classic, or the 50d for that matter:P.

momentz wrote in post #8762523
A while back you gave good business reason for not being able to justify the 5DII, so wondering what reason you have that justifies the 7D over say the soon to be released 60D?

I needed a new camera as the 20D is showing it's age now, the images have a magenta cast that I don't like so I needed to get my assistant off that camera. I wanted the better AF system and lower noise at high ISO. I also make quite a few 18" albums now, so more pixels helps a bit.

I decided not to get a 5DII beacuse i'd have had to buy $4K worth of lenses if i'd changed to full frame. The 60D doesn't exist so it wasn't an option, but I expect the better AF system in the 7D will be worthwhile over the 60D anyway.

Thought I might add my two cents on the 7D.

Had a go with it at work today.

Can't stand it.

Can't really justify that statement, the camera just feels wrong having had a 5D II for a while now.

Good to see the fact the the 5 and 7 are very different tools is being reflected in people's opinions. Would be disappointing if everyone liked both cameras, 'cause that'd mean they were both designed middle of the road rather than to cater to their specific market segments... Yes no?