Upgrade

[Liz22012]

I am looking to upgrade from my t3i. I don't care about video I do mostly old barns, landscapes, wildlife. I am looking at the 70d and 7d.
I know the 7d is being replaced. But which is the better of the two for my needs. The only concern is the cf card with the 7d as they seem to be harder to find.

[RobertTheFat]

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@Liz22012 wrote:
I am looking to upgrade from my t3i. I don't care about video I do mostly old barns, landscapes, wildlife. I am looking at the 70d and 7d.
I know the 7d is being replaced. But which is the better of the two for my needs. The only concern is the cf card with the 7d as they seem to be harder to find.

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Get the 7D Mark II if you're willing to spend the money; otherwise look for a 7D at a discounted price. I own two 7D's and have been happy with them.

Some argue that the 70D is a more advanced camera than the 7D. My take is that to the extent that that argument is valid, most of the advances are in video capability, which you say doesn't matter to you. And while some swear by the 70D, there have been a fair number of complaints about various issues (real or imagined).

Funny you should mention CF cards. There's a parallel thread in progress on that very topic. The bottom line is this: as long as the 1DX uses only CF cards, the big stores (B&H, Adorama, Hunt's, et al) will carry them, even if the mom & pop stores don't.

[Skirball]

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@Liz22012 wrote:
I am looking to upgrade from my t3i. I don't care about video I do mostly old barns, landscapes, wildlife. I am looking at the 70d and 7d.
I know the 7d is being replaced. But which is the better of the two for my needs. The only concern is the cf card with the 7d as they seem to be harder to find.

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I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice for expensive new cameras like the 7D2, or 5d3, or $1000+ lenses that you need; it's what people do here.  But without knowing why you want to upgrade most that information is baseless.  What is your T3i not doing for you?  Neither of those cameras you list with make a significant difference for shooting old barns and landscapes.  Wildlife is a wide category, and it depends on what you mean by wildlife.  If you're chasing little birds then something with a fast AF system like the 7D or 7D2 will make a difference.  If the wildlife is relatively static then again, those two cameras, while better than a t3i, won't have all that significant of an impact in your photography.  Really it comes down to what your t3i is not doing for you, in order to decide where you need to upgrade, if you do at all.

[TCampbell]

If this is wildlife in "action" then the 7D II certainly has an advantage (10 frames per second).  The 70D is 7 frames per second.  And the original 7D (not the II) is 8 frames per second.  These cameras offer quite an advantage for action photography.

You will not notice a huge difference in image quality with the 70D over your T3i (and you wont notice any difference in the 7D over the T3i ... with respect to image quality.)   The 7D II does have improvements in ISO performance (it is noticeably lower noise at high ISO).

Mostly what you'd be gaining with a 70D is body features... number of focus points, better control layouts, better body build and some weather-seal treatments (the cameras are NOT waterproof... weather-seal means they can handle some spray or perhaps light rain.  In a torrential downpour I'd protect the camera... especially since a weather-sealed body doesn't do any good unless you are also using a weather-sealed lens.  Many of the Canon "L" series lenses have the protection... none of the non-L lenses have it.)

The 7D II and 70D also offer a nice focusing advantage with live-view and video but as you don't use the camera for video you may not care about that.

Note that the 7D II is heavily optimized for "action" photography... the focusing system is SIGNIFICANTLY more advanced.  But that also means it's a bit more complicated to learn to use it.  

Your T3i had just 9 auto-focus points, the center is a "cross type" point and you can allow the camera to use any of the 9 points or you can pick just one and force the camera to use it.  You an also use "one shot" focusing or "ai servo" (continous focusing).  That's it... 

The 7D II, on the other hand, has 65 AF points and they really did a great job covering most of the frame.  And like the 1D X and 5D III, the camera has intelligent focus point tracking (if it's in the right mode).  There are quite a number of focus point selection modes to grab specific points, spot (reduced size) points, expanded size points, surround area, "zone" area, etc. and even the tracking behavior can be "tuned" depending on your subject's behavior.  

It is an extremely powerful system, but can be a bit intimidating if you don't invest the time to learn how it works and why you'd ever want to use one mode vs. another.   

The 70D is a big step up... with a 19 point AF system and all points are cross-type... but not nearly as complex as the 7D II.  This camera would probably represent an easier transition.

As for cards... that's not really a big deal.  The CF cards were popular in high-end cameras because they traditionally had substantially faster transfer speeds... although today it's possible to get a high-end SD card with pretty fast transfer speeds.

[ebiggs1]

IMHO, again, the reason for this upgrade is to leave the Rebel world of a general consumer camera in favor of a more professional level.  Personally I see little value in the xxD line so of couse that leads me to reccommend the 7D and/or it's new version 7D Mk II.

A single spec, a camera does not make!  You must weigh the whole package to decide.  The Rebel line is designed to appeal to the masses and the xD line is geared more to the advanced photographer.  It's features exhibit such parameters.

The 7D is one of my favorite camreas and is a best buy in Canon cameras.  The fact there is a newer version does not take that from the original 7D.

I used to keep a stable of Rebels and a couple 7D's when I was active but since I retired I have sold, or given away, all of them. It was hard to let the 7D go.

Skip the 70D and get a 7D.    You will love it.

[Liz22012]

Thanks I appreciate it. The more I read about the 7d it seems to be the best choice. Even though the 70d has all bells and whistles, they are things I don't care about. Touchscreen, wifi, and video which seems this is what the 70d is geared for.