Canon 50d vs Canon 7d

jhawkor

New member
I have narrowed my choices down to a 50d and a 7d but I can't decide if the extra $500 for the 7d is worth it. I shoot sports mostly so the extra fps on the 7d could help. Also, I'm into video as well as still photography so the 7d's video feature is a big plus for me. I mostly shoot basketball and football and I have been using my schools 40d for a couple years now and I decided that it was time to upgrade to my own slr. Right now the only thing holding me back from the 7d is the price. Do you guys think it's worth it?
 
Get the 7D.

If you're patient you may find a deal on the 7D via Bing cashback. Recently it's been as high as 20% (eBay and Dell). The 7D kit was going for around $1500 at Dell... but that ship sailed.

If you're not patient Amazon has a decent deal on the 50D going right now.
 
If movie mode matters as much as you say it does, the 7D is the choice.

On the 5D topic, I never put it through anything like that, but when I visited DC, there was a hell of a rain storm that I walked around in for hours and it was as if I was standing in a shower with my camera exposed. It worked like a charm in those conditions.
 
Wow, nice link Doug. I wasn't even aware that the 5d2 could take that type of wet weather exposure. Crazy stuff. Now i won't have to be so paranoid when i'm sitting in the splash zone at Sea World. :rollface:

Make sure the lens is weather sealed as well. ;)
 
Thanks for the tips guys, I think I'll save up for the 7d. I think I'll just get the body only and I'll buy a Canon 85mm f1.8 lens. I heard it was good for basketball seeing as how most of the gyms I shoot in are caves.
 
I'd say if you shoot indoor sports there are two factors: AF speed and high ISO performance. My impression is that the 7D id leaps and bounds ahead of the 50D (and 5D) in terms of AF, ISO appears to be about on par with the 50D, but with slightly higher sharpness (maybe a weaker filter on the sensor). Given that I'd say go with the 7D if you can swing it.

Another fun lens for indoor sports is the 100mm f2, might be a little long on a crop sensor, but it sure is sweet on my 5D II
 
in terms of AF, ISO appears to be about on par with the 50D, but with slightly higher sharpness

Sharpness on the 7D is not better compared to the 50D. Where are you getting this info from? From personal testing I actually think the 50D is a better body for still images. The difference is very minor, but the 50D did have an edge if you were pixel peeping.
 
Sharpness on the 7D is not better compared to the 50D. Where are you getting this info from? From personal testing I actually think the 50D is a better body for still images. The difference is very minor, but the 50D did have an edge if you were pixel peeping.

The problem with most of the reviews on that is that they're applying the same amount of sharpening to both images (usually none at all). The 7D sensor needs more capture sharpening because of it's pixel density but when when processed correctly, it quite sharp.
 
Sharpness on the 7D is not better compared to the 50D. Where are you getting this info from? From personal testing I actually think the 50D is a better body for still images. The difference is very minor, but the 50D did have an edge if you were pixel peeping.

This at least makes the 7D look significantly better. I have not personally used either, so I can't comment from that perspective.
 
Ive owned both and based on what you described above the 7D is a better fit. I will say from my own experience with both bodies the 50D may be a bit sharper at the pixel level but the 7D produces cleaner high iso files.
 
Most of the early reviews used DPP, which appears to be the primary issue.

DPP is a pretty darn good raw converter. From what I've read/seen DPP is pretty close to C1 in sharpness and color. What converter is being advocated for the 7D?
 
DPP is a pretty darn good raw converter. From what I've read/seen DPP is pretty close to C1 in sharpness and color. What converter is being advocated for the 7D?

C1 seems to be the best with LR 2.6RC a close second. I can fully attest that LR does a better job than DPP on 7D files. I expect that Canon will fix that but at least right now it doesn't do a very good job.
 
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