Chefneil

So, I have this opportunity to trade my Caon 40D with 100,000 shutter actuations(?) for a Canon 7D Mk1 with an unknown shutter count, plus $250.
The 7D has some body wear, but nothing serious. I trust the people I'm getting it from that they will not sell me crap.

Any thoughts?

Thanks, olc

Anandnra Loc: Tennessee

At 100,000 clicks you're probably nearing the end of life cycle for the 40D. The 7D is rated for about 150,000 clicks (shutter). You can do a shutter count and find out
http://eoscount.com/
sounds like a decent deal on paper. And you're getting a heck of a lot more camera ....

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

I like the 7D, wonder about the body wear, did they take good care of it?

It is a nice camera, big step forward from the 40D

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

It's a terrific camera and a worthy upgrade to the 40D but only two things concern me. First, your comment about body wear. How extensive is it? None of my DSLR's have any noticeable body wear. Second, the 7D was introduced in 2009 and was discontinued in late 2014. If it's an early copy in the run it may have a very significant shutter count, especially if it was used mostly as a sports/action camera in high speed mode. Even though the shutter is rated to 150k actuations, may owners have gotten 400-500k or more from it. A new shutter box is an expensive repair. If you get it, check the firmware version. Late in the 7D's life a major firmware update was created to keep this aging camera more competitive by adding new functionality. If it's not version 2, download it from Canon.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

I think you should do it. I doubt your 40d is with much at all. The 7 is probably worth $500 and is twice the camera!!!
And because the 7 is still a good nature/sports camera it will always have some value! ;-)
SS

bee7474 Loc: Selah, Wa

Sounds like a great deal, can you check the shutter count on the 7 D?

TommiRulz Loc: Corpus Christi, TX

This is perfect advice !!
My 7D (circa 2010) has over 300,000 shutter count and has had a hard life! (I use and abuse my cameras) But I feel certain it will go on forever! Worst case scenario - the one your getting may have a couple more clicks than you hoped BUT it will be great camera! And it will last forever! You will LOVE it.
If you want a good 7D training guide - check out Michaelthemaven.com he make fantastic training videos to help learn all about the focus clusters/groups etc..

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I do not know the relative value of 40D and 7D... you might look at "sold" listings for them on eBay to judge for yourself.

Besides price considerations, the 7D would be an excellent upgrade for you. I've been shooting with a pair of them for over five years and have about 125,000 clicks on each, and they are still working quite well. Frankly, you have been lucky to get 100,000 shutter actuations with your 40D. While that's what they are rated to, it's a model known to have earlier-than-most shutter failures. Some informal studies online show it to not be uncommon for 40D shutters to fail as early as 40,000 clicks. Of course, like anything, a lot survive well beyond that, much like yours.

7D will give you lots of upgrade features... 10MP to 18MP and 6 fps to 8 fps (though 7D does slow sometimes for metering and AF to catch up). 7D's 100% viewfinder is bigger (but also is part of the reason the camera is heavier).

The AF system of the 7D is probably the biggest difference and will be way better than your 40D's for speed of acquisition and tracking moving subjects. 7D is designed to excel at sports/action shooting and it's AF has similar design to 1D-series cameras, such as using a discrete chip running the AF (instead of the main processor that's also handling imaging, the way your 40D and most other Canon DSLRs do). The 7D also has 1D-style dual image processors to support high frame rates with the higher resolution images.

If not already done, be sure to install version 2.x firmware, which significantly increased the 7D's image buffering capabilities, among other things. It was good with earlier firmware, but Canon extended the model life of the camera by a year or two when they released the free, major firmware upgrade mid-production. 2.x is available as a free download from Canon website and is easy to install.

You will quite likely have some trouble with the AF system initially, but only because it's quite different from and a lot more sophisticated than your 40D's. Your current camera has 9-point AF (all the better cross type) with two focus patterns: Single point/manually selected or all points/automatically selected. 7D increases to 19-point (also all cross type) and five AF patterns: It has the same single and all point as your 40D, plus Spot Focus, Expansion Points and Zone Focus. I would suggest you limit yourself to using the 7D most similarly to your 40D initially, then experiment with the other focus patterns a little at a time to learn when to use them (and when not to use them).

The 7D was the first Canon to get an Active Matrix Transmissive LCD focus screen. This means the screen can reconfigure itself to display the different focus patterns (and you can turn a grid display on and off). But it also means that the screen doesn't light up active AF points in red the same way your current camera does. This takes a little getting accustomed to... but once you learn to trust the camera, it's really not a problem. 7D will give the best AF performance when matched up with fast and responsive USM lenses.

As to the focus patterns:

All points/auto selection is one I very rarely use on any Canon. It just leaves it up to the camera to choose where to focus, and often it chooses wrong (this is not unique to the 7D, but the more AF points a camera has, the more it's an issue for me). I will only use it when shooting individual, hard to focus subjects that are against a very plain background and there are no obstructions between me and the subject... for example, a bird in flight against a plain sky.

Single point/manual selection is what I use most often. This puts me most fully in charge of where the camera and lens focuses.

Spot focus is a form of single point, but uses a smaller than usual AF point for more precise focusing. This mode is slightly slower than single point, but can be quite useful for some things.... I call it my "birds in trees" mode, since it's great if you are trying to shoot between obstructions such as branches that would distract a larger AF point (the 7D's standard AF points are slightly larger than the boxes indicating them in the viewfinder, like most Canon I've ever used... the spot focus AF point is smaller than the box). Though it's a little slower than single point, when using fast focusing USM lenses on the camera some people successfully use spot focus with moving subjects such as butterflies and moths.

Expansion points starts out like single point, but allows the camera to use the four adjacent AF points to each side, above and below the selected one, if need be. This can be useful when shooting erratically moving subjects that it's difficult to keep the AF point precisely upon yourself.

Zone focus is similar to all points, but reduced to using 9 (or fewer) AF points, in one region or another of the array. Unlike expansion points (and more like all points), any of the AF points can start focus, so this is more easily distracted by obstructions in front of or objects behind a subject. Instead of choosing a single point, you can choose a group of points. I use it sometimes, similarly to all points, but when I want a little more control over where the camera focuses. Still, it leaves a lot up to luck and the camera to decide, so isn't something I use a lot and tend to use only in special situations.

There also are several AF-related custom functions, such as settings to control how quickly the AF jumps to another object (C.Fn III, 1). I recommend setting this toward the "slow" side, at least initially. This doesn't slow down AF, it simply tells it not to be too quick to jump to a different object such as a momentary obstruction between you and the subject. I recommend to turn this down slower while learning the camera, but you may be able to speed it up after some practice. Slowing it does seem to slightly reduce the camera's response to moving subjects that suddenly change direction, so it's a little bit of a trade-off to slow it.

There are other AF customization, but IMO the only other really important one sets the priority for AF accuracy versus rapid as possible shutter release (C.Fn III, 2). I leave this at the default "0" setting, which prioritizes focus accuracy both for the first shot and for any subsequent shots in a burst. This might cause the camera to slow shooting or even delay the shutter release a small fraction of a second at times... but mis-focused images are of little use to me, so I'm fine with the minor amount of compromise.

I make up for that delay by using Back Button Focusing... which allows me to leave the camera in AI Servo most of the time and to start AF early, track a subject and trip the shutter whenever I want to take a shot. Setting up BBF on 7D is different from your 40D. Many of the 7D's buttons and dials can be customized (C.Fn IV, 1).... and this is one of them. Actually, BBF is already mostly set up on 7D by default, so all you have to do to fully implement it is unassign AF from the shutter release button. It's the second (middle "meter" ) setting on that button, to fully utilize BBF. (Optionally, the functions of the * or "AE Lock" button and AF/On button can be swapped too.)

Another thing you will notice coming from 40D is that your images won't seem as sharp initially. This is because the much more densely crowded sensor of the 7D uses a fairly strong anti-alias filter. Frankly, Canon might have gotten a little carried away with this on the 7D.... but once you have resized the images and sharpened them in post-processing, 7D can match and exceed the overall IQ of the 40D. Just plan to apply much more sharpening than you did with 40D (I nearly doubled the amount of sharpening I did with 30D and 50D I used before). Also, the much larger 18MP images displayed at the same 100% (or any size you normally use), will actually be magnified far more than the 10MP images from your 40D... so you'll actually be viewing the 7D files far more critically.

Canon issued a white paper about the 18MP sensor when it first came out... that the increased density seemed to make it more susceptible to camera shake blur. In general, they just recommended using slightly faster shutter speeds than you had with earlier, lower resolution cameras.

This goes hand in hand with the ISO performance of the 7D. The middle ISOs are actually more noise-free than ISO 100 and 200. I rarely use less than ISO 400 with mine. This might have to do with in-camera noise reduction which isn't applied as strongly or at all to the lowest ISOs, but using a higher ISO also aids with faster shutter speeds, so bumping up my ISO a bit takes care of the previous shake-blur concern, too.

Everyone has their own ideas about what's usable and what's not, when it comes to ISO. Personally I find 7D fully usable without much concern to ISO 1600, and I also use 3200 and even 6400 at times, with additional noise reduction work in post-processing (Noiseware plug-in with Photoshop). I know folks who use 7D at even higher ISOs with further NR work than I do. But you'll have to decide for yourself, what's usable.

You won't be able to use your current BP511/511A batteries and chargers with 7D. But the LP-E6 and E6N it uses are very good and generally give additional shots, so that fewer of them are needed. I use battery grips on all my DSLRs, so have dual batteries. When I was shooting with BP511/511A, I carried two backups per battery and nearly always had to do at least one battery swap during long shooting days. Now with LP-E6 I've only needed to carry one backup and very rarely need to do a battery swap during a long shoot, unless I forget to charge the batteries in the camera.

Although both your camera and the 7D use the same CompactFlash, you might want to upgrade memory cards, though if you have reasonably fast and large ones now, they would probably be fine. With 7D I don't notice much difference in shooting performance between older 300X cards and newer 800X and faster (but I also don't tend to shoot really long burst of images). I get about 250 RAW files per 8GB of card size, with 7D.

There are lots of other features of 7D you'll want to learn about. I highly recommend getting one or two of the model-specific guide books written about it. Those didn't exist in 2009 when I bought mine... and one of them really would have made the learning curve less long and steep, coming from earlier Canon DSLRs and trying to ramp up to use the far more complex, sophisticated and pro-oriented 7D!

Oh, and 7D shutter actuations can be checked with EOScount.com, if you wish. You might ask about that, before committing to the one you are being offered.

Finally, I highly recommend the BG-E7 vertical battery grip for the 7D... And, it's optionally possible to have the 7D's mode dial replaced with the locking type that's standard on most of the later models, helps prevent accidental mode changes when carrying the camera.

I have ended up using my 7D longer than any other DSLR I've owned, aside from my 5D Mark II (which is slightly older, but has seen far less clicks because I mostly shoot sports/action that the 7D handle much better). I've only just updated to a pair of 7D Mark II this month (partly because of some screamingly good rebate deals on them), wasn't in any rush to do so because the 7D have continued to work very well for me. I will be keeping them as backups.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

You have'nt done it yet ?? .......well worth it IMO.

Chefneil

I am now the proud owner of an old but awesome 7d!

Yey!

Now, all I have to do is learn how to use it! Tonight.

Before my shoot with my favorite model...Tomorrow. Right now, I'm just going to work with basics, mostly in AV mode. We'll do some inside work, but it will be cloudy during the day and we'll do some work with an old Chevelle and short shorts!
olc

Chefneil

OMG! 6400 ISO!

Gonna see how that works tonight. Maybe no flash tomorrow.

JosephSF Loc: Sonoma County CA

Without quoting Alan Myers' entire post I just wanted to compliment him on his outstanding analysis and advice in helping the OP make a sound decision in moving to the 7D. I gained a lot from his perspective and expertise. Thanks.

Chefneil

You and me both, my friend. Though it was not the deciding factor, it sure did help to tip the scales. There was a LOT of good info in it

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Chef, absolutely use flash(or some kind of light) tomorrow!!!!!
Keep that ISO at 100!!!! :lol:
SS

Basil Loc: New Mexico

Congrats on the 7D. That was my first "serious" DLSR, having moved up from an early Canon Rebel. It is truly an awesome camera - you will have fun!