photojoy wrote:
....I have a Canon T3i, and would like to upgrade, I purchased the Canon T7i, and don't like it, it is not as sharp as my T3i, so I am going to return it, but would like views on other canon cameras out there. I have EF and EF-s lens, so need to stick with Canon.....
Don't be too quick to give up on the T7i.
First, every Canon APS-C DSLR but one uses the same 24MP image sensor as the T7i and can be expected to give virtually identical results. From the entry-level T7 and SL2/SL3 to the 77D and 80D.... they all use pretty much the same 24MP sensor. In fact, the current Canon M-series mirrorless are also using the same 24MP sensor. Of all the current Canon APS-C cameras, only the 7D Mark II uses a different, 20MP sensor.
The "problem" probably isn't the camera, anyway. It's more likely you. Or, it's more likely the way you are viewing and handling the images.... or something else besides the camera.
If you are shooting JPEGs, you can adjust the sharpness that's applied to them. The Scene mode or Picture Style directly effect how much sharpening is applied to images in-camera. Picture Styles are user-editable, too, to change the level of sharpening that's applied. (Scene modes.... such as "Running Man"/sports mode or "Mountain"/scenic mode... are not editable and are highly automated in many ways.)
But it also might just be the increase in resolution. You are coming from an 18MP T3i to a 24MP T7i.... That's approx. 33% increase in resolution. If you are continuing to view your images the same way as always, with the same level of magnification, you are now looking at them 33% larger on your computer monitor... so it wouldn't be surprising if they don't appear as sharp or that other "short-comings" are more obvious. Those might be "issues" with the lenses, too.... not the camera. Your old lenses may not "look as good" on the newer camera, not because the lenses have changed in any way, but simply because the images are being viewed larger and more critically.
It might be your technique or post-processing workflow or other factors, too. For example, maybe you use "protection" filters on your lenses that appeared okay with the lower resolution camera, but are causing loss in image quality that your seeing now, viewing the images larger. Or, if you are shooting RAW files (CR2), it might be how you are converting those to usable images that's causing the problems.
Another thing... as resolution increases the camera is more sensitive to movement. Canon produced a white paper discussing that phenomenon some years ago. Basically, what it said (and proved true with the cameras I was using at the time), was that as image sensor resolution is increased, slightly faster shutter speeds are needed to prevent camera shake blur in images. Of course, to come degree Image Stabilization offsets this.
But, when it comes to IS the age of your lenses also might be a factor. Earlier IS lenses were good for around 2 stops of "assistance"... you could expect a reasonably high percentage of sharp shots at shutter speeds up to two stops slower than was possible without IS. Over the years, IS has further improved to offer 3 stops and even 4 stops of assistance.
I saw something similar when I went from 15MP 50D to 18MP 7D cameras. The newer cameras seemed a lot softer. In that case, it turned out that Canon had, in fact, used a stronger anti-alias filter on the 7D. After working with the images for a short time, I found that increasing the sharpening I applied in post-processing solved the problem. There was more detail in the 7D images, than in the earlier cameras, but - partly because I was shooting RAW and no sharpening was being done in the cameras - I had to nearly double the amount of sharpening to bring out all the fine detail of the images. I ended up using my two 7D for over five years, and took well over a quarter million images with them (I've since upgraded and used 7D Mark II for about 3 years now).
It was also with 7D where I started using slightly higher ISO and that largely solved the problem noted above, with higher resolution being more sensitive to camera shake. I use Av or "aperture priority" AE a lot, so setting a higher ISO causes the camera to use faster shutter speeds. This was no problem because the newer cameras have much higher usable ISO, before digital "noise" becomes an issue. When shooting in other exposure modes, I just made sure the shutter speed ended up a little faster than normal.
I'd advise you work with the T7i for a while... look at other factors that might be causing the lack of sharpness your seeing. Maybe it's something I mentioned... maybe it's something else. It's also possible you somehow got a "bad copy" of the camera.... though I think that's pretty unlikely (and I am not sure what the problem with a camera would be, that would cause "soft" images).
Hope this helps!
EDIT: I don't agree that you should "go full frame" in any way.... that's a lot more expensive and your kit will end up being bigger, even if you "go mirrorless" too. First, you
will need to replace all your EF-S lenses. Yes, they can be used on the full frame EOS R and EOS RP... however, those cameras will crop the images down to APS-C size... so the 30MP full frame EOS R will end up making 13MP APS-C images, while the 26MP EOS RP will trim images to under 11MP. In case both cases, this will be a downgrade from the 18MP you had with the T3i and a far cry from the 24MP of the T7i.
The M-series are the other alternative.... APS-C cameras that can make "full use" of your EF-S lenses, via an adapter. However, the AF system of the M5 is not as advanced or high performance as what's in the R and RP... or the T7i, for that matter (in fact, the Live View auto focus system of the T7i is very similar to the one and only AF system in the M5). It's a real question, too, whether or not Canon is going to orphan the M-series in favor of the an APS-C version of the R-series cameras. It doesn't make a lot of sense to have two parallel lines of mirrorless cameras that can't interchange lenses (and Canon has been VERY slow to develop native lenses for the 5 or 6 year old M-series... while they're rushing to produce new lenses for the less-than-a-year-old R-series... even delaying new lenses for the DSLRs to focus in new lenses in RF mount).
Don't get me wrong... the mirrorless cameras are interesting and capable. They just don't address your particular needs. And any of your lenses would at least need to be adapted (negating much of the size/weight savings of the camera body)... Or replaced with bigger, heavier, more expensive lenses.