I’ve been using the the Canon 7D for the better part of 3 months now in varying conditions mostly in my work for Alberta Parks. First off let me say that this camera has open up new opportunities for creative control that didn’t exist even just 6 months ago. The inclusion of 24p, 60p and interchangeable lenses at the $2000 price point is revolutionary. But there are drawbacks to shooting video with a DSLR, frankly is much harder to do than with a dedicated video camera. And thus the $2000 price point suddenly balloons to around $3500 with the inclusion of special apparatus and attachments to make this camera much more usable for video. This price doesn’t include all the regular accessories like memory cards, extra batteries and tripods, etc. I our case we spent over $6000 to make this a usable set up for what we needed, which really isn’t bad at all for pro video.
I know there are many other reviews of this camera out there that give you a great deal of technical detail on how the camera operates, image quality and features. My focus is a little different. I’m taking a simpler approach, I want to give an account of how the camera has performed in various conditions for me.
Adventures in -30 C with the Canon 7D: Winters are cold in Canada, what better venue for testing the 7D in cold weather. I found the 7D did well in around -10 C for a period of 2 hours. Battery life was shorter but lasted longer than I expected. We ran into problems around -30 C, I personally never had the camera out in these conditions but an associate of mine did and he reported that the camera refused to operate after several minutes. I’m going to test the camera myself in -30 C to confirm this, I will post the results. Normally this isn’t going to be an issue for most people but it is good to know if you do a lot of cold weather shooting. Keep in mind most camera’s won’t do very well in -30 C and most people aren’t crazy enough to shoot in -30 either.
To hot to handle: The camera is very sensitive to warm temperatures as well. We were shooting indoors at a location that was very warm, I would say around 25 – 27 C. We were very disappointed that the camera gave us the over heating warning, we had to shut it down several times. At the time we were shooting an Blackfoot elder giving us a story for a documentary and they don’t like to be interrupted so we had no second take, luckily we had a secondary camera which wasn’t prone to over heating. It is important to note that heat issues plague much more expensive cameras like the Phantom HD.
Aliasing: By now you may be aware of moire and aliasing problems DSLR video. I’ve noticed it some of my wide shots with a detailed background. The only way around this huge problem currently is a Caprock filter. I’m hearing a Caprock 2.0 filter is good for the 7D, while the 5D may require a 1.0. I have my Caprock filter on the way and I eagerly await it’s arrival. Read more at Stu Maschwitz’s blog for more information on this issue.
Audio: With only a single track of audio, your options here are limited. For truly pro audio you’ll need to go “old school” and record to a separate device like the superb Zoom H4n Handy recorder. At very least you should have an external mic since the internal mic isn’t that great. Consider the Rode Video Mic or the Sennheiser MKE 400. We use either the Rode or the Zoom H4n depending on the situation.
If you really want to shoot DSLR video and love the creative advantages it gives (like I do) you should be aware of these problems. Despite these issues I still love to shoot with the 7D. Am I disappointed? Somewhat but, we have to remember this is a brand new way of shooting video by that I mean shooting HD video on a large sensor made to shoot stills originally. There are bugs to be worked out. You need to be aware of these issues and decide if this camera fits your situation. Even with the aliasing issues this camera is hard to beat at the $2000 price point.
Photo credit: Check out Ole Jorgen Liodden’s 7D cold weather review.
