60D or 7D?

[ExclusiveAV]

Hi guys and girls.

Im just trying to decide between the 60d and 7d and i cant make up my mind! Im happy with the price of the 7d but is it necessary? Is it truly a better camera?
I like to shoot - 70% Landscapes, 5% fishing, 5% Macro 20% my golden retriever and eventually kids!
I would love to get a Canon 10-22 wide angle lens for the landscapes and ive been given a 18-55 efs which ill use for general purpose etc. in a few months i would love to upgrade this to a good general purpose L series.
Ive been told the focusing system on the 7D is better? Id love to make a decision tonight and order it tomorrow!
I appreciate any input and recommendations. Thanks Steve

[rowdy23]

7d
all day
best crop sensor on market

[ExclusiveAV]

Thats 1 for the 7D!

[I @ M]

Do you own any Canon lenses AV?

If not, why not consider a Pentax or a Nikon with the "real" best "crop" sensor on the market?

[ExclusiveAV]

Hi Andrew. I have been given 18-55 and 55-250 canon efs lenses. I was going to use these until i can afford an L series upgrade. I also have a canon G12 and i know the manual settings backwards so i thought id stick with canon

[unistudent1962]

7d
all day
best crop sensor on market

EXACTLY the same sensor as the one in the 60D and the 600D.
(And as much a Canon fan as I am, it's not even close to the best crop sensor available at the moment.)
Given what you want to capture, buy the 60D and put what you save towards the 10-22.

PS There's not really a good general purpose L zoom that works on a crop. The 24-70 and 24-105 Ls aren't going to be anywhere near wide enough for the majority of what you want to capture.

[Bennymiata]

Pictures from a 7D or 60D with the same lens will look EXACTLY the same.
They have the same sensor and processor.

The advantages of the 7D over the 60D is that you have more focus points and the 7D has a faster FPS.
If you are shooting lots of action sports, or birds in flight, then the 7D is your camera.
If you are shooting lots of landscapes and general photography, then the 60D will do what you want for less money, that can go towards lenses or a good flash.

Before I bought my 60D, I was in the same quandry, but as I don't do lots of fast action stuff I decided on the 60D, and I've been very pleased with it.
The fast action stuff I've done has actually come out pretty well, so don't dissmiss the 60D as a great all-around camera.

Another thing is that I'm not too keen on metal bodied cameras.
I've owned lots of them, and just find that they are heavier, and more prone to scratches and dents than the good polycarbonate material the 60D is made of.

[fabian628]

if you have bigger hands 7d is nicer to hold

[ExclusiveAV]

Thanks Unistudent and Bennymiata. Its sounding like i should be going the 60D and spending the savings on glass or flash.

Is it just the FPS thats quicker on the 7D or is it the focusing speed aswell? Im not sure if i would ever use the continus shooting mode. Ive never used continus because my G12 does about 1 shot per 3 sec!

[KeeFy]

The 60D has the flippy screen thingy that is really useful if you don't want to strain your neck from a extremely low position, good for landscape. I've handled the 60D and owned a 7D. 7D feels better egronomically and beefier. If you don't need the AF, the 60D is the better choice and put the money towards a nice lens.

7D does 8FPS. 7D also has better AF.

+1 for the 60D over the 7D for landscape.

+1 for 7D over 60D for sports/action photography.

[Speedway]

The 7D sensor is not the same as the 60 or 600D, it has a better (dual) processor, also the 7D's focusing system and frame rate are better, the build quality is more robust with the stainless steel frame, the outer shell is still resin not metal as stated earlier the weight difference is not much (150g) the size difference although slight is more noticeable. I got the 7D over the 50D a few years back and the 60D was a step back from 50D when released so I am still very satisfied with my choice, to me the 7D is a far more versatile camera. Also going by Canon's replacement cycles they are both not far off an update.
Keith.

[Arg]

The pictures won't look exactly the same, but it's not important anyway.

The 7D is harder to learn, and harder to use well. It is more frustrating. It is potentially more rewarding, but only in certain circumstances.

If you want to do video, the 60D's flip screen is a real advantage.

[KeeFy]

The 60D apparently has better ISO control over the 7D, but that's when you pixel peep. Other than that .. the sensor is pretty similar.. but not the same.

[ameerat42]

I thought the 7D had two processors and the 60D only one, them and the sensor being the same. (???)
Am.

[ExclusiveAV]

Thanks heaps for the replys and info guys. Much appreciated.
Aaahhhhhhhhhhhh. Its still such a hard choice! Im liking the idea of more FPS with the 7d (I get real frustrated with the slowness of my G12) but there is a small chance i would miss the flip screen with the 60d. Im going to go and play with both of them in a shop tomorrow and see what i come up with

[rowdy23]

how is the focus system on 60d ??
7d is pretty darn good

[Allan Ryan]

don't know how they compare But i would look into the ISO performance and see which one is best.
Just a thought.

[Ezookiel]

The difference in frames per second isn't that huge.
5.6 frames per second or thereabouts on the 60D versus 8FPS on the 7D would really only matter to a sports photographer.
I took a series of shots on fastest frame rate on my 60D, of a person skipping stones across a river, and was more than happy with the results, and the arm and stone are moving pretty quick when skipping stones.
So personally I think FPS is the wrong reason to choose the 7D unless you really need those extra 2.whatever frames.
Bear in mind, that for really fast FPS rates, you also need to get a pretty fast memory card. Not much point having spectacular FPS if your memory card can't store them fast enough to keep up, and fast cards are definitely not cheap.

I love my 60D, but I chose it over the 7D for the main reason that I'm still really learning my way around DSLR cameras, and the 60D falls into the enthusiast range, where Canon still expect you might need some help, and the camera is designed with that in mind, where the 7D falls into the professional range, and seems to expect you to know a lot more about what you're doing.
For the small differences I'd go the 60D and get it some really good glass.

[Speedway]

Bear in mind, that for really fast FPS rates, you also need to get a pretty fast memory card. Not much point having spectacular FPS if your memory card can't store them fast enough to keep up, and fast cards are definitely not cheap.

I only use 133X Memory cards in my 7d and have had no problem capturing 20 frame sequences, I have not pushed it to it's limit to see how many shots it is capable of before these slow? cards cause problems.
Keith.

[Bennymiata]

The sensor in the 60D is the same sensor that is in the 7D, and even the processor is the same, but the 7D has 2 processors rather than the one in the 60D.
The focussing in the 7D has more points to choose from and is faster, but with a decent lens on it, the 60D focusses in the blink of an eye anyway.

The FPS is quite fast in the 60D, I manage to get good action shots with it, but the 7D has a larger buffer so it can hold more frames when writing back to the card before slowing down.
If you intend on using the motor drive for more than 2-3 seconds at a time, then the 7D has the advantage, but usually, you'll only be pressing the shutter for 1 or 2 seconds at a time anyway.
If you are going to use either camera for HD video or lots of FPS, get yourself the fastest card you can afford, otherwise the video wil skip (on either camera) or it will take along time to write all those frames back to the card from the buffer.