Canon EOS 7D bundle advice !!!

[Shi Luobin]

Hi,
I’m planning to buy the Canon EOS 7D and would like to have an advice on the lens. I’m also planning to use the camera a lot for HD filming.

There are quite a lot of bundles and I would like to have a recommendation, are the bundles the best offers or would you recommend to just buy the camera body and a different lens.

These are the options I have:
- Canon EOS 7D + 18-135 mm for €1599
- Canon EOS 7D + 15-85 mm for €1899
- Canon EOS 7D Body for 1329€ and buy extra lens

Thank you very much for your advice,
Shi

shiluobin@gmail.com

[Francois Poitras]

FWIW, here is my experience. I was in the same situation a few weeks ago. I am a hobbyist, and wanted to get the 7D both for photography and HD video.

I went with the 15-85mm bundle and bought a Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM for lower lighting situation. Both of these lenses are very, very nice, but I already sold the 50mm to get a Sigma 30mm and will sell the 15-85mm to get the Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM. I simply love the bokeh of the 50mm, but on a 7D, it becomes an 80mm, which I find unpractical to frame indoors (I may get an older, cheaper manual Nikon AI 50mm later). The 15-85mm is IMHO a very good lens, but it requires good lighting conditions, being an f/3.5 - 5.6. So I'm trading the zoom range for the faster, constant opening Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM.

It depends on your needs and taste, really.

Good luck

[Andy Wilkinson]

Shi, well everyone has different needs and the camera forums seem to be full of posts similar to yours as it's such a common dilemma...but for me I just went for the 7D body only and used the money I "saved" towards a Canon 17-55 F2.8 IS USM EF-S lens.

It's a great lens (for video) being parfocal (constant F2.8 throughout the zoom range) and is really sharp (for stills) - unless you have it on full wideangle AND at a low aperture (like F2.8 area) where it softens a little, especially away from picture centre. However, you'll only notice this in stills when enlarging photos on a big monitor, rarely if never with 1080p video! (especially as the 7D's resolving power is much, much less than 1080 lines in HD video mode). Nice thing about this lens is that, even with AF on, you can turn the focus ring manually to achieve a preferred focal point easily - if you don't like what AF gives you.

It's a really great walkabout lens for the £800ish it cost me but I'm already finding there are times when I'd like a longer reach and also a faster wideangle lens...

My SUGGESTION (only you can decide) is that you maybe start out with the cheaper bundled lens (18-135mm, as mentioned above by Francios, to get you going) and look to supplement it with a faster lens on the wide side in the medium term, maybe one of the fast wide zooms that we read about, Tokina etc.

However, personally, I decided I'd rather not spend ANY money towards any lens that's not at least F2.8 - which is why I went the route I did (i.e., body only and this specific lens that I chose for my immediate needs). Maybe you should consider this route too...if it's where you think you'll end up it's always cheaper to do it in one jump not two (or more!), in the long run!!! 17-55mm at F2.8 (equals about 28-88mm with the 7D's 1.6x crop factor) is a really useful range and capability for stills and video.

A quick search in google will also find you many, often highly detailed, reviews of every lens available for the 7D to help you decide.

Hope this helps. Good luck and welcome to DVinfo.

[Shi Luobin]

thanks for the comments so far. i'm still not sure but maybe i will just try the standard 18-135mm bundle to get started with.

is anybody using the standard EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens? it is a fixed lens and very cheap, might be interesting to also get this one...
EOS (SLR) Camera Systems - Standard & Medium Telephoto - Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens - EF 50mm f/1.8 II - Canon USA Consumer Products

[Andy Wilkinson]

Hi again Shi. I don't know about that particular 50mm lens... (maybe someone who has it can chime in?) but just to correct one thing I wrote before. The Canon 17-55 F2.8 IS USM EF-S lens I have and wrote about above is constant aperture throughout the zoom range (which is great) but it is NOT parfocal - no idea why I wrote that word in there - I must have been tired. I wish it were parfocal, as that would then be one less challenge (on a list of many!) for shooting in-focus video with a 7D, especially with moving targets/run-n-gun type situations etc. A parfocal lens is one that will remain in focus if you zoom to a different range, something which is common/normal on video cameras.

[Justin Baglo]

The 50mm 1.8 II is cheap for a reason (or many, probably), just be aware of that. Maybe try to figure out if you'll quickly wish you had your hundred bucks back to put toward a better lens. I had the lens in question for about 3 days, and should've gone straight for the 1.4 USM, which I now have and think is pretty groovy. If your gear suffers lots of abuse, and lenses are disposable to you, then in that case I'd recommend it, solely because of it's price. That really is it's only endearing quality.

[Shi Luobin]

Thanks for all the comments, I will probably just get the canon EOS 7d body and use my old Nikon (nikkor af-s nikkor 18-200mm 1 3,5-5.6 G ED) and (if possible) Contax G2 lenses.
If anybody is using a Nikon lens with the EOS 7d, what adapter are you recommending?
Also would be very interesting if anybody here is using a Contax adapter, I have several lenses and it would e interesting if they work on the Canon EOS 7D with an adapter.
http://www.bootek.com/cgi-bin/ut/top...160&pg=1&bpg=1

Contax/Yashica-Objektive - Canon EOS Adapter kaufen im Enjoyyourcamera.com Shop

# Adapter Contax Objektive für Canon EOS 7D bei eBay.de: Adapter (endet 18.01.10 19:02:23 MEZ)

[Jonny Norquist]

Originally Posted by Justin Baglo

The 50mm 1.8 II is cheap for a reason (or many, probably), just be aware of that. Maybe try to figure out if you'll quickly wish you had your hundred bucks back to put toward a better lens. I had the lens in question for about 3 days, and should've gone straight for the 1.4 USM, which I now have and think is pretty groovy. If your gear suffers lots of abuse, and lenses are disposable to you, then in that case I'd recommend it, solely because of it's price. That really is it's only endearing quality.

I only regret getting the 50mm 1.8 because I hadn't factored in the 1.4 crop factor that the 7D has, otherwise I am very happy with it.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Actually, it's a 1.6 crop factor - so slightly worse in making the 50mm more like a telephoto lens...or slightly better if you actually need the longer range :-)

Certainly, for just a walkabout lens, especially indoors, a 50mm on a 7D (which behaves as a 80mm of course) is probably going to be a limiting at times - if it was your only lens. Great for portrait work though!