Popular Photography - February 2015 USA

LAB * DSLR TEST CANON EOS 7D MARK II
AMATEUR
PRO
Locking
mode dial
AF area
selection lever
for focusing during video capture
or live-view still shooting. This
required a fundamental change
to the sensor, though there’s
only a modest bump in effective
pixel count, to 20.2MP from its
predecessor’s 18MP. The new
camera’s traditional phase-detect
AF system steps up to 65 selectable
cross-type AF points with a dualcross
type center point when using
lenses faster than f/2.8. Canon
boosted the burst rate to 10 frames
per second from the 7D’s 8 fps. The
body construction remains among
Canon’s most rugged in terms of
weather sealing and the toughness
of the magnesium alloy chassis.
Competitors? It has a few—sort
of. Nikon’s aging D300s is still in
stock at retailers. Pentax’s K-3
and Sony’s Alpha A77 II round out
this category of rugged APS-Cformat
DSLRs, though at vastly
lower prices. Samsung’s NX1, its
flagship interchangeable-lens
compact, came on particularly
strong in our test (see page 69).
In the Test Lab
The Canon EOS 7D Mark II earned
an Excellent rating in overall image
quality from ISO 100 through ISO
1600. As is often the case, part of
this comes from its Excellent score
in color accuracy, with an average
Delta E of 7.5. The Pentax K-3, Sony
A77 II, and the Nikon D300s all
garnered Excellent ratings up to ISO
800; the Samsung NX1 to ISO 3200.
Although the camera’s resolving
power isn’t the strongest we’ve
ever seen, it’s enough to earn an
Excellent rating in this test. At
ISO 100, the 7D Mark II captured
2660 lines per picture height, well
CANON EOS 7D MARK II
WHAT’S HOT
Excellent image quality, rugged body
WHAT’S NOT
No Wi-Fi or articulating touchscreen
WHO IT’S FOR
Shooters looking for the best APS-Cformat
body Canon offers
PHILIP RYAN (LCD IMAGE)
66 POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY FEBRUARY 2015