EOS 7D any good?

[George Gearless]

I'm looking to upgrade my Nikon d40 to a EOS 7D. I can buy it used near my location for €335. No objectives come with the purchase. According to the seller the shuttercount is 6800 and the housing is without a scratch. The seller has a ton of other photographic parafinalia for sale (lenses, mounts, batteries, lights and such), so my guess is he's a semi-pro. So I'm assuming the camera has been treated better than most.

The question is if it's any good for my purpose (purely AP. Nothing else)? Anyone have any experience with this camera? Words of caution? Go for it?

 

[dannybgoode]

The 7D is a nice camera but was very much optimised for being a crop frame fast shooter for action, wildlife etc. I had one and it does take very nice photos but have no idea what it’s like for AP and rarely see anyone using one. It’s also very solid and therefore quite heavy. 

To be honest if it’s for AP only I’d be saving my pennies toward a proper Astro cam. Then you really are stepping up a level. 

[George Gearless]

Thanks Danny.

When you say proper astro cam, did you have anything particular in mind? 

[RolandKol]

He meant something like ATIK CCD or ZWO ASI CMOS camera or similar.

You can find them second hand also... for example at astrobuyselll.

but before you buy anything, check your Field of View at http://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ (imaging Option)

Different sensor sizes give a very different Field of View... be careful

 

[wxsatuser]

6 hours ago, George Gearless said:

I'm looking to upgrade my Nikon d40 to a EOS 7D. I can buy it used near my location for €335. No objectives come with the purchase. According to the seller the shuttercount is 6800 and the housing is without a scratch. The seller has a ton of other photographic parafinalia for sale (lenses, mounts, batteries, lights and such), so my guess is he's a semi-pro. So I'm assuming the camera has been treated better than most.

The question is if it's any good for my purpose (purely AP. Nothing else)? Anyone have any experience with this camera? Words of caution? Go for it?

 

6800 releases is nothing, barely run in. ?.....that's of course if 6800 is real or not.

The single digit Canon's are step-up from the double and triple digit ones.

An excellent 7D with low count in the UK will go for around £290 ish.

[dannybgoode]

2 hours ago, George Gearless said:

Thanks Danny.

When you say proper astro cam, did you have anything particular in mind? 

Depends on budget.  I was going to spend around £4-500 on my first astro cam but saw a mint Starlight Xpress SX674 going secondhand for £799 which is close to half price so decided to go for that.  Really pleased with it - its a lot of work getting everything right and of course mine is the mono version so needed a filter wheel and filters which adds to the cost quite significantly but I will not need to upgrade for a good while.

Pick a budget, decide whether you want one shot colour (OSC) or mono (I'd always go mono - can't see a reason to go OSC - YMMV) and go from there.

[Z3roCool]

I use the 7D Mk1. With BackyardEOS or APT works great. I use a 400mm 5.6 lens mostly but also smaller zooms and primes. My processing could be better!

Will be looking at a ZWO1600MM Pro soon as see this as the natural step from DSLR, really do not want to mod my 7D.

[RolandKol]

1 hour ago, Z3roCool said:

I use the 7D Mk1. With BackyardEOS or APT works great. I use a 400mm 5.6 lens mostly but also smaller zooms and primes. My processing could be better!

Will be looking at a ZWO1600MM Pro soon as see this as the natural step from DSLR, really do not want to mod my 7D.

 

Very very nice pics!  I only can imagine your results with astrocam

P.S. just FYI, ASI1600 discontinued.

[Z3roCool]

16 minutes ago, RolandKol said:

Very very nice pics!  I only can imagine your results with astrocam

P.S. just FYI, ASI1600 discontinued.

Thanks ? Hopefully will get some good ones. 

The MC version is dicontinued. As far as I am aware the MM (mono) is still going. 

[George Gearless]

Thanks every body. This is most helpful.

I think, at least for now, a proper astrocamera is out of the question. It is simply not financially feasible for me right now. I suppose I could get some 'shitty' semi-useful astrocamera within my budget. But considering the fantastic photos that Zerocool posted, I am struggling to see what would be gained from that. And as someone pointed out to me in a different thread; there are no cables on a DSLR :).

Initially, I just wanted a 'nod' from users of this forum that the 7D could cope with the task at hand. And that it indeed would be a step up from my Nikon DX40 (on paper it's a huge step, actually). Somewhere down the line, I'll most likely be looking into another upgrade. But that'll be another time and another fiscal quarter. As of now, I don't think I have the equipment nor the skills to match a semi-professional piece of kit like a €800 astrocamera. But it's something to shoot for.

Edit: Btw, it seems that you can still buy that ASI 1600 Mono. If you have the cash for it. https://www.astroshop.eu/astronomical-cameras/zwo-camera-asi-1600-mm-mono/p,50240

[Z3roCool]

37 minutes ago, George Gearless said:

Edit: Btw, it seems that you can still buy that ASI 1600 Mono. If you have the cash for it. https://www.astroshop.eu/astronomical-cameras/zwo-camera-asi-1600-mm-mono/p,50240

If I do go for one it will be the Pro version with cooling on ot to get the sensor down to -30 below ambient. Kill that noise :0)

[happy-kat]

The great thing is with a Nikon to EOS adaptor (£10 approx) you can use your existing Nikon lenses (in manual mode).

[George Gearless]

On 31/01/2019 at 15:26, Z3roCool said:

Thanks ? Hopefully will get some good ones. 

The MC version is dicontinued. As far as I am aware the MM (mono) is still going. 

I have set up a meet with the seller tomorrow evening. But he mentioned something disconcerting; as far as he knows, the maximum shutter is 30 seconds. If that is the case, I'm gonna bail on it.

The tech specifications do in fact state the the shutter speed range is from 1/8000 to 30 secs. But I am wondering if that is just the maximum choosable automatic shutterspeed? Meaning that anything above that will require manual discontinuation of the shutter. Can you help me out with this question Zerocool? Or, if anyone else owns a EOS7D?

PS: I quoted your post in order to get your attention.

 

[Alien 13]

55 minutes ago, George Gearless said:

I have set up a meet with the seller tomorrow evening. But he mentioned something disconcerting; as far as he knows, the maximum shutter is 30 seconds. If that is the case, I'm gonna bail on it.

The tech specifications do in fact state the the shutter speed range is from 1/8000 to 30 secs. But I am wondering if that is just the maximum choosable automatic shutterspeed? Meaning that anything above that will require manual discontinuation of the shutter. Can you help me out with this question Zerocool? Or, if anyone else owns a EOS7D?

PS: I quoted your post in order to get your attention.

 

As far as I know all Canon cameras have standard shutter speeds up to 30 seconds but have a Bulb mode that holds the shutter for as long as you like provided it is pressed manually or through the ext shutter jack with an intervalometer or over USB using software.

Alan

[George Gearless]

8 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

As far as I know all Canon cameras have standard shutter speeds up to 30 seconds but have a Bulb mode that holds the shutter for as long as you like provided it is pressed manually or through the ext shutter jack with an intervalometer or over USB using software.

Alan

Thanks for the speedy reply. I would have found it odd if the EOS7D wasn't able to manually control the shutter beond 30 secs. Just wanted to make sure, since I'm buying the camera privately, and can't be sure about any 'return policy' :).

[Alien 13]

6 minutes ago, George Gearless said:

Thanks for the speedy reply. I would have found it odd if the EOS7D wasn't able to manually control the shutter beond 30 secs. Just wanted to make sure, since I'm buying the camera privately, and can't be sure about any 'return policy' :).

I just found an old spec sheet for the 7D and Bulb is available..

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos7d/2

Alan

[Z3roCool]

1 hour ago, George Gearless said:

I have set up a meet with the seller tomorrow evening. But he mentioned something disconcerting; as far as he knows, the maximum shutter is 30 seconds. If that is the case, I'm gonna bail on it.

The tech specifications do in fact state the the shutter speed range is from 1/8000 to 30 secs. But I am wondering if that is just the maximum choosable automatic shutterspeed? Meaning that anything above that will require manual discontinuation of the shutter. Can you help me out with this question Zerocool? Or, if anyone else owns a EOS7D?

PS: I quoted your post in order to get your attention.

 

Yep, I use Bulb mode and you can either use remote button to activate or I use Backyard EOS to setup how many shots and time etc and just use the software to let it run ? I take 3-4min shots at a time and could go up to whatever you want. 

[George Gearless]

2 minutes ago, Z3roCool said:

Yep, I use Bulb mode and you can either use remote button to activate or I use Backyard EOS to setup how many shots and time etc and just use the software to let it run ? I take 3-4min shots at a time and could go up to whatever you want. 

Excellent! Thanks.

Was worried there for a bit. So *phew*... :),.