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Is the 7D Mark ii still a good camera for wildlife & bird photography?

The quick answer is a most emphatic YES!

But...It’s getting old.

Summary

The EOS 7D Mark ii has been one of the best wildlife cameras available for a long time. Its rugged magnesium alloy frame and weatherproofing means it can be used in any harsh environment a wildlife or bird photographer will find themselves in.

The Autofocus system is still one of the best and most versatile in the business. The metering system is accurate and customisable. Image quality and resolution are good and noise is well managed.

On top of that the frame rate is still very good at 10FPS and it has built-in GPS.

CHECK USED PRICES

Here are some reasons to buy the Canon 7D Mark ii

You can buy a used 7D Mark ii

I own the Canon 7D mark ii and I love it, but I wouldn’t buy it new right now because it is about to be retired and the price will plummet.

On the other hand, I think it is a great used camera and it will be an even better one once they retire it from Canon’s line-up as the price will drop further.

It’s also a great choice second-hand because a lot of the owners will not be professional photographers, so the camera you find could still have a very low shutter count and have spent most of its life in a cupboard.

The Canon 7D Mark ii is a 1.6 Crop Sensor

We are moving towards a mirrorless world filled with full-frame 35mm cameras.

That is cool, but crop sensors still have something to offer bird and wildlife photographers.

They often have sensors packed with pixels and are therefore useful for bird and wildlife photographers who want to frame their subjects more tightly.

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This ‘effective reach’ is an advantage because it is easier to put the focus point on the right part of the animal but also makes it easier to photograph the distant wildlife and birds we see in the field.

If you photograph from a blind or hide and can control the distance between you and the bird/animal, then it is less important.

But if you are a field photographer and cannot control the distance, then the effective reach can be useful, resulting in more accurate focus and (often) more pixels on the subject than a same - generation full-frame camera.

Use the 7D Mark ii like a Teleconverter

One way I like to use my 7D mark ii is as a pseudo teleconverter.

Teleconverters add real focal length to a camera lens but can also slow down autofocus, make autofocus worse and impair image quality.

There is also a penalty to one of ISO, aperture or shutter speed because the teleconverter will reduce the aperture of the lens.

Instead of fitting a Canon EF1.4 III teleconverter to your lens and losing a stop of light. You can fit a crop sensor camera like the 7D mark ii instead.

This is good for several reasons:

The Autofocus will still be good.

Image quality will be good.

The effective reach will make things easier to focus on and be like adding a teleconverter.

The Aperture of your lens will still be the same (no Aperture penalty)

I use a 7D Mark ii as a very effective ‘low light teleconverter’ on my 400mm F2.8 or for any smaller and more distant subjects.

65 point all cross-type Autofocus system

A good autofocus system is at the heart of any good wildlife or bird camera. Our subjects are fast moving and we cannot miss the crucial moment.

The Canon 7D mark ii autofocus system is still excellent at tracking subjects. Far better, in fact, than most current mirrorless systems. Or indeed, most dslr systems.

The 7D autofocus is still first class and that is one of the the most important features of a wildlife or bird photography body.

Mirrorless cameras often have a hard time when tracking a bird as it moves above and below the horizon, the camera will tend to hunt between the bird and the background.

Mirrorless cameras can also struggle with fast-moving subjects coming straight toward the camera. This will get worse the closer the subject comes.

These problems are still a factor in the 7D, but less so than, for example, the excellent Olympus OMD E-M1 Mark ii. A much newer camera.

10 Frames per second Continuous Shooting

Wildlife and birds move fast. Add to that the difficulty of focusing on the subject and it is no wonder that a lot of the shots are unusable.

A higher frame rate makes it much more likely that you will not only get the shot, but get that shot in a great position.

I’ll never forget a moment in the Kalahari when four cheetahs launched themselves at a springbok. My 5D mark iii felt as if it were working in slow motion at 6 frames per second.

I watched the action through the viewfinder in agony as the frames cycled. I missed so many shots of this once-in-a-lifetime event. At 10 frames per second, I would have got roughly double the output.

31 - RAW Buffer

Another significant feature of the 7D Mark ii is the 31 RAW file buffer. Again there is nothing so frustrating as filling a buffer while the bulk of the action goes unrecorded. 31 images is quite small these days, but it is still plenty for most applications.

Build Quality

Many people don’t consider build quality when buying a camera, but I think it is important that wildlife and bird photographers do think about it.

This is for two reasons. The first is that we take these tools to some rough environments, often they are in less-developed countries without the means to replace or repair your camera.

Think of the frustration of arriving on a two-week African safari and finding your camera fails on day 2. It CANNOT HAPPEN!!!

This is where Canon in general and the 7D Mark ii in particular, with its magnesium alloy and weather-sealed body, come into play. These cameras are solid!

The second reason is that if you buy the camera used, then it is far less likely to go wrong out of warranty. These are safer cameras to buy used - especially with the shutter durability rated to 200,000 on this model.

Pro-features at a lower price

There are a lot of other features packed into the 7D Mark ii. Many of these are important ‘pro’ features.

I’m talking about the little things, like dual memory card slots, the ability to adjust metering sensitivity, set the duration of the bulb timer or perform Micro-focus adjustments.

Then there are the delicate touches. The fact that the higher-rated battery is still compatible with older (and newer) bodies, like the 5D Mark iii & iv. It can also use the older LP-E6 battery too.

It’s also ergonomically consistent with other Canon cameras. This is a massive plus for me personally or anyone who shoots more than one camera. It means they all operate the same way, with most of the same buttons and exactly the same menu system.

This really saves a LOT of time in the field.

Advances in Post Processing Software

This isn’t a specific advantage of the Canon 7D Mark ii, but it is a very important issue to think about because one of the biggest arguments to buying a state-of-the-art new camera is the low-light performance and image quality.

So, the 7D Mark ii is no slouch in this area, but it is getting older and is definitely not in the same class as the newest high-end bodies.

But something has changed. Topaz released a piece of software called Denoise AI. It’s incredible!

It can harness machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve the image quality of your pics.

This means that even ancient cameras like my 2006 6MP Pentax K100D has usable files in a modern context. This is 100 times more true of the Canon 7D Mark ii.

Suddenly, using this software, I can use shots made at crazy ISO’s and exhibiting loads of noise. This software has really granted all the older digital cameras a new lease on life.

Why you should NOT to Buy the Canon 7D Mark ii

It is expensive when bought new.

I cringe when I hear people talking about buying a new 7D Mark ii. It is almost a crime that Canon is still trying to sell them at these prices.

The camera is long past its sell-by date and by rights, it should be heavily discounted as a result.

Now and then I see specials at more reasonable prices, but it is not a good deal new.

Competing cameras

If you are looking only at new cameras, then there are probably better bodies to consider from other brands. If, however, you already have an investment in Canon glass, then you have less choice.

The 7D Mark ii is still at the top of the APS-C crop sensor line-up. The newer but more ‘enthusiast’ or video based 90D is an excellent alternative option, but that camera doesn’t always stack up well against the 7D mark ii. The 90D autofocus system is less nuanced and not as good.

Where the 90D wins is in image quality and it has a better image quality where there are dark backgrounds and low light. It is by far the better choice for video too.

But as I’ve said repeatedly, as a new camera it doesn’t stack up. You can pick up a used 7D mark ii at a fraction of the cost and still get a beast of a camera with plenty of wildlife photography left in it.

Lacking in modern video features

Video is an enormous part of my day. Is it important to you?

The 7D mark ii is still a decent video camera with good colour rendition, video servo autofocus and a decent 1080/60 output.

But it doesn’t have a tilt screen (because it weakens the weather sealing) and doesn’t have the higher resolutions or capabilities of most of its more modern rivals.

The 7D Mark ii doesn’t have a touch screen either - which feels archaic.

For example, the humble M50 is staggeringly good for video by comparison.

Memory Slots

While the 7D Mark ii has two card slots, which many of its competitors do not. One is the older but durable CF card slot and the other a UHS-I SD card. It does not support UHS-II

Battery Life

The 7D Mark ii has an upgraded LP-E6n battery but because the camera has a lot of extras, for example, GPS, the battery life is not that good compared to other DSLR’s like the 90D.

Its popularity and abundance has made third-party battery grips and batteries readily available. This can improve the ergonomic appeal of these cameras for those of us with big hands or those who enjoy shooting verticals.

It is still a very presentable 650 shots from one charge, but that is half the amount of the 90D.

Conclusion

For me, the 7D Mark ii is still ticking what I regard to be the most important boxes for wildlife and bird photography.

Autofocus performance is paramount, and here the 7D still shines. Its durability is also a big feature in its favour as is the good frame rate and reasonable image quality.

In fact, in tests the image still holds up respectably against more modern rivals.

With its lower resolution 20mp sensor, the signal-to-noise ratio is lower than the Nikon D7500, Canon 90D and Sony A6400. (Tests)

It is actually a surprisingly good astrophotography camera. When factoring in the APS-C sensor it is one of the best, especially for night sky panoramas and stitching. (Roger Clark Sensor Analysis)

While signal to noise is impressive, no doubt because of that smaller 20mp sensor, the same is not true of resolution. It’s higher megapixel competitors resolve more.

Mostly in wildlife photography and more particularly bird photography, it is autofocus, frame rate and lastly low light performance that are key.

Although the gap is narrowing, the 7D Mark ii still makes one of the most compelling cases as a wildlife and bird photography camera.

It has some life in it yet, especially if you pick one up second hand.

Canon 7D Mark ii Specifications

Sensor: APS-C format 20.2MP CMOS
Focal length conversion: 1.6x
Memory: SD/SDHC/SDXC and CF
Viewfinder: Pentaprism with 100% coverage
Max video resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 pixels
ISO range: 100-16,000 (expandable to ISO 51,200)
Autofocus points: 65
Screen: 3-inch 1,040k-dot LCD
Shutter speeds: 30-1/8,000 sec plus Bulb
Weight: 820g (body only)
Dimensions: 148.8 x 112.4 x 78.2mm
Power supply: Rechargeable Li-ion LP-E6N battery (supplied)

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