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550D Upgrade. 7D or 70D ? (1 Viewer)

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Simmo1111

Well-known member
I'm thinking of treating myself to a camera body upgrade and am currently using a Canon 550D body along with a Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5/5.6L USM lens. I can get a 7D body now for around £570 and am drawn towards that particular one as it seems to be a very popular choice. I particularly like doing birds in flight which is my main reason for looking to upgrade. I have been advised to look at a 70D but having compared the various online reviews, it appears that the 70D can't beat the 7D for getting good flight shots .. But then I see that the 70D performs better at a higher ISO setting .. I'm now at a loose end as to which might be better for my requirements. Video/touch screen/wifi matters not to me, I just want to get nice, sharp, flight shots.

Anyone had any experience of the 2 models please ?

Thanks very much.

Dave.
 
I had a 600D and have swapped it for a 70D and I must say I'm very impressed with the results.It was a toss up between the 70D or a 7D,but the fact that the SD cards that I had or the 600D would fit the 70D swayed it for me otherwise I would have had to invest in a load of new cards.
 
Geoff Pain said:
I had a 600D and have swapped it for a 70D and I must say I'm very impressed with the results.It was a toss up between the 70D or a 7D,but the fact that the SD cards that I had or the 600D would fit the 70D swayed it for me otherwise I would have had to invest in a load of new cards.
Click to expand...

Thanks for taking the time to reply Geoff ;)

I did a load of searching around and tried many comparison sites and ended up going for a 70D myself .. I'm looking forward to getting out and about with it when it arrives ..

Thanks again,

Dave.
 
I had the same set up as you have now. My 550D got damp in Costa Rica and died! I now have the 70D and I am well pleased. I can't compare it to the 7D as I have no experience of that camera.
The auto focus on the 70D is much faster than the 550D and the frames per second is far superior. The video potential is much better and together with the fold out screen, live view I am sure I have made the right choice.

Oh and forgot to mention it has a much better level of water/moisture protection than the 550D!!
 
I had almost decided to by a 7D (an upgrade from a 30D) but think the 70D is the better option. Leaving aside the video nonsense which I will never use, both have the same AF and speed capabilities but the 70D offers better high ISO performance and in-camera HDR if that is an advantage. The only real advantages I see for the 7D is the 1fps faster shooting rate (8fps vs 7fps so not much of an advantage for me really) and the fact the 7D uses the same memory cards as my 30D. For me, it would be the 70D but your priorities might be different from mine. I would try them out side by side and see which feels better in the hand. But I suspect, objectively,the 70D really is the better buy these days.
 
I have not got either of these Cameras but used to have the 7D - a couple of things I would certainly miss on the 70D for bird photography would be spot AF and single point expansion. Spot AF is very useful for picking out birds in a cluttered environment or helping to nail the focus on a birds eye, it is also very useful for macro stuff. Single point expansion is a must for flyers against a busy background IMO (zone AF is fine for uncluttered backgrounds but not when there is clutter). From everything I have read there is very little to choose between the two as far as high ISO noise levels are concerned (with correct exposure they are both good(ish) to ISO 1600 but beyond that you would be struggling, especially if you crop the images).
If I had to choose one of these Cameras primarily for bird photograph it would be the 7D (but better still the 7D2 when it finally arrives).
 
A useful feature that the 70D has but the 7D does not is the digital zoom for video that can go right up to 10x. Useful to grab a quick highly-magnified video clip for birds at a great distance at focal lengths more akin to digiscoping. Your lens at 400mm will be more like 6400mm (400mm x 1.6 crop factor x 10!) A video still grab afterwards will allow you to have a record shot at least. That said, both are great APS-C cameras for general wildlife photography.
 
I have had both - yes i do miss the spot and single point expansion, but other than that the 70D is a better camera FOR ME. I found you needed to nail the exposure on the 7d or you get noisy photo's the 70d is much much more forgiving in that respect, plus its new technology with the processor, also the 7D is a old camera now so things have moved on. Not sure if its just me but the 7D hated me cropping the pictures with lots of noise starting to show when i did - the 70D takes cropping much better and it cant just be the 2mp more can it.


The 7D mark 2 I am sure will be a cracker, BUT at what price. Do a few 7D V 70D searches on google and then make your own mind up.
 
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Roy C said:
I have not got either of these Cameras but used to have the 7D - a couple of things I would certainly miss on the 70D for bird photography would be spot AF and single point expansion. Spot AF is very useful for picking out birds in a cluttered environment or helping to nail the focus on a birds eye, it is also very useful for macro stuff. Single point expansion is a must for flyers against a busy background IMO (zone AF is fine for uncluttered backgrounds but not when there is clutter). From everything I have read there is very little to choose between the two as far as high ISO noise levels are concerned (with correct exposure they are both good(ish) to ISO 1600 but beyond that you would be struggling, especially if you crop the images).
If I had to choose one of these Cameras primarily for bird photograph it would be the 7D (but better still the 7D2 when it finally arrives).
Click to expand...

Roy - sorry I may be missing something here but are you saying the 70d does not have a single point focus mode?
Or is spot AF something different altogether?
 
gazpic said:
Roy - sorry I may be missing something here but are you saying the 70d does not have a single point focus mode?
Or is spot AF something different altogether?
Click to expand...
Hi Gareth, spot AF and single point focus mode are two different things. Spot AF Spot has a much smaller focus area than a normal single AF point and can be very useful when focusing on a particular "spot" like the birds eye (something you should almost always try to do in bird photography). Unfortunately the 70D does not have this feature. The 70D is also missing single point expansion which is very useful for birds in flight, especially when the bird is flying through a 'cluttered' background.
 
Totally agree with Roy on this .I went from 550 to A 7d and glad I did A superb solid feel to the 7d and an excellent bif camera that's built like A tank. My mate was so impressed with mine he upgraded from A 500 and much preferred the build quality of the 7d rather than the plastic feel of the 70d .he bought his at an excellent price from jessups.
Hope this helps?
Clive
 
I used to have a 7D and recently changed to a 70D -so I have owned both.

I slightly prefer the 70D on balance. Roy's points about the "missing" focus modes on the 70D are valid, but for me, the key thing is that the 70D produces less noisy images, especially at high ISOs. This is especially an issue for me when using the new Tamron 150-600 zoom, which is quite a slow lens.

I may well upgrade from the 70D to a 7D Mk2 when the price of the latter drops from what I'm sure will be a silly launch price! At this point in time I would expect the 70D to have a higher trade-in/resale value than a 7D Mk1 (I predict the secondhand market will then be swamped with 7D Mk1s!!).

That was another factor in moving to a 70D as an interim measure.

At the end of the day it is a close call between a 70D and a 7D Mk1 - both are superb cameras that anyone would be happy to own!
 
Nick Leech said:
I may well upgrade from the 70D to a 7D Mk2 when the price of the latter drops from what I'm sure will be a silly launch price! At this point in time I would expect the 70D to have a higher trade-in/resale value than a 7D Mk1 (I predict the secondhand market will then be swamped with 7D Mk1s!!).
Click to expand...
I am sure you are right about the price of a 7D2 Nick although I suspect it will not just be at launch or for the early adopters - It would not surprise me if it came in at over £2k to start with (the 7D MkI was £1800 at launch but quickly dropped to around £1200) and settled at around £1500 - £1600. Because of this I cannot see the market being swamped by used 7DMkI's but obviously there will be a few around and probably going for around £450 (ish) I reckon.
 
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Wimpy said:
My 550D got damp in Costa Rica and died!
Click to expand...

That to me is a reason to go with the 7D. The 7D is very weather resistant. Mine has been considerably wetter than just damp, and has been downright wet. It is my understanding that the 70D isn't quite as protected as a 7D.

Canon makes little specific mention that I can find of the 70D's resistance to the outside elements like dust and water. They've compared it to the 1DN, which I find a little strange because that model is quite old, with a lot fewer electronics to protect.
 
Roy C said:
I have not got either of these Cameras but used to have the 7D - a couple of things I would certainly miss on the 70D for bird photography would be spot AF and single point expansion. Spot AF is very useful for picking out birds in a cluttered environment or helping to nail the focus on a birds eye, it is also very useful for macro stuff. Single point expansion is a must for flyers against a busy background IMO (zone AF is fine for uncluttered backgrounds but not when there is clutter). From everything I have read there is very little to choose between the two as far as high ISO noise levels are concerned (with correct exposure they are both good(ish) to ISO 1600 but beyond that you would be struggling, especially if you crop the images).
If I had to choose one of these Cameras primarily for bird photograph it would be the 7D (but better still the 7D2 when it finally arrives).
Click to expand...

Quoting this for emphasis, those are the only 2 focus modes I used, for perched and in flight respectively. Without spot AF it is too hit or miss with the razor thin DoF a long lens gives you.
 
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