Canon 5d vs 7d

Most comparisons I've found online are absolutely drowning in complex technical charts and really confusing geekery. So this chart breaks everything down into really simple language.

As far as price goes, the clear winner is the 7D. It's almost twice as less than the 5D. The next question then becomes, why is the 5D more expensive, and is the extra $1,600 necessary to get great photos and video?

This is where the extra $1,000+ for the 5D goes. To the Sensor Size and Resolution. The Canon 7D has a very respectable 18 Megapixel Full Frame CMOS Sensor with 5184 x 3456 resolution, but the 5D sports an amazing 21 Megapixel Full Frame CMOS Sensor with a whopping 5616 x 3744 of resolution. Another technical fact I'll explain in a moment: the 7D has a Pixel Pitch of 4.3 micron whereas the 5D has a Pixel Pitch of 6.4 Microns. In plain English, this just means the Pixels (little points that make up the image) of the 5D are almost 30% larger than the 7D.

The 5D is a little clunkier than the 7D (probably because the 7D is a newer model). But the 7D has a lot of cool little doo dads that photographers and videographers really love. The 7D boasts a:

- 19 point autofocus (super fast and nearly mind reading) vs. the 5D's 9 point AF
- A Pop Up Flash
- 8 frames per second shooting (vs. the 5D's much slower 3 frames per second)

For still photographers and videographers, the fast shutter speeds and fast auto focus definitely make the camera more versatile than the 5D.

For a long time the word on the street was that the 7D can do slow motion but the 5D cannot. That's not true. Slow motion is achieved by shooting footage at a high speed (like 60 frames per second) and then slowing it down in a program like Final Cut Pro or Sony Vegas. This can be done with either camera, and both look great. Check out some of these samples:

The 5D was used to photograph President Obama after his election. And the 5D was used to film a super popular Prime Time television show back in May of 2010.

If you are not a hardcore professional, get the 7D. (I'm always in favor of saving $1,000+) The picture quality is amazing and the only people who will be able to really tell the difference are pros who spend their time nit picking those kinds of things. The word is that the 5D is better for low lighting situations (it can go to an ISO of 25000), but take another look at those lighting shots from the 7D, they look pretty great. But if you run a pro photo business and you want the absolute most high res pic you can get, or if you are shooting an indie movie and have the budget for it, you may want to get the 5D. It's like going from Premium to Super Premium Gas. If you're thinking of using one of these awesome cameras to make a movie, and you've thought about film school make sure to check out my other lens here