Canon 7D

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Canon 7D (5D Mk II)
© 2007 KenRockwell.com

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There is no Canon 7D. I'm just guessing by adding some digits for what might eventually replace my beloved Canon 5D. For all I know, maybe it will be called the Canon 5D Mk II, or who knows.

Like all new products, until something is released, those who know aren't telling, and those who are telling, don't know.

Anytime you read something like "My best pal is a sales rep at XYZ, and he told me that he learned at his sales meeting that the new 123 is going to be ...." you should ignore it. You should ignore it because anyone who has advanced knowledge of a product and tells anyone, he's not only fired, but will never work in that industry again. In the professional world, advanced product knowledge is very valuable, leaking it is very damaging, and you just don't do it. So if you think you have a leak, it's most likely deliberate to get buzz going a week before announcement, or made-up, as I guess on my site.

This is because until something is released, it doesn't exist. I've worked in product conception, product definition, product design, product marketing and product sales. Products go through many stages before they are announced. I've worked on projects that were almost ready to be sold, we brought working examples out to customers under non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and then we changed our minds and cancelled the products. Thus these products never existed, even though we showed mock-ups.

Anyway, It's always fun to guess what and when new products will come out. They tend to come out in February and August from Canon, and February and November from Nikon. Things also get announced when we're not expecting it, and other times, even when all the rumors guarantee something's, coming, it doesn't.

If you have something to shoot today, get the 5D as I did for myself. See obsolescence for more.

That said, I'd love to see Canon have something even better than my Canon 5D. I'm sure resolution would climb, but the resolution of my 5D is so high I usually turn it down anyway. I'd guess a 7D might have around 16MP, using the full-frame sensor from the Canon 1Ds Mk II.

Hobbyists chatter about resolution, but that's much less important to photographers than a myriad of other issues like:

I'd love an improved, more color accurate LCD, like Canon already uses on their compact cameras. Seeing the 1D Mk III, I'll guess the 7D might have a 3.0" LCD.

I'd love to have an easier way to set manual custom white balances, something Canon does extremely well on their compacts and the XL video cameras, but requires way too many button presses on their SLRs.

I'd love to have faster data transfer via the USB port, and preferably, a Firewire 800 port.

I'd love for my memory card to pop up as a drive instead of only being able to download through software.

I'd love to be able set my camera to add my © notice to metadata directly in-camera without needing to talk to the camera with a computer.

I'd love more visible finder readouts. The finder digits of my 5D are too skinny, and too dim to read in bright light. (my Nikon D40's numerical readouts are much better.)

I'd love to have a freshly designed camera with all the information readouts and controls on the back of the camera where I can see them, not on a top LCD like old film cameras. We can't see the top of a camera when it's on a tall tripod.

I'd love a new flash exposure control system that bags every flash exposure perfectly.

I'd love it if Canon gave us more C1, C2, C3, etc. settings on the selector dial, each of which I could program myself. The C setting on my 5D is pure genius. Having more of them would let me shoot much faster.

As you can see, the 5D is a great product image wise, and my wishes for the future are more refinement than resolution.