Canon EOS 7D

Buttons & Dials

The button and dial behavior of the 7D are insanely customizable: no fewer than 10 of them can have their functions reassigned or adjusted. In the table below, we stick with the default configuration.

Picture Styles

Experienced Canon shooters will be right at home with the familiar Picture Styles system, which provides a few basic settings and the option to tweak them to your liking and save the results in three custom slots. Utility software to customize a Picture Style using your computer and upload it to the camera is also provided.

The effects of the six provided Picture Styles are shown below, in a shot including several familiar brand-name colors. The descriptions are quoted verbatim from Canon’s manual.

The five color Picture Styles can be adjusted in four areas, as shown below. The results of your tweaking can then be saved in one of three custom Picture Style slots, which show up in the same menu as the presets.

The monochrome Picture Style can also be adjusted for sharpness and contrast, as shown above. A tone effect can be selected, tinting the monochrome image sepia, purple, blue or green. In addition, you can set virtual yellow, orange, red or green filters, which have the same effect as placing a colored filter in front of the camera lens.

Picture Effect Samples
Standard Portrait Landscape Neutral Faithful Monochrome More...

In-Camera Editing

Images can be rotated in-camera, and video clips can have their beginnings and/or endings snipped. That’s it, thanks for visiting the In-Camera Editing section.

Menu

The Canon 7D menu system includes a wide range of settings and customization options, but it keeps them nicely organized and is easy to control using the two control dials and the SET button (and the joystick multi-controller if you like, though we found the dials easier to maneuver).

The main menu system has a lot of separate tabs (11 in all), which allows all the available choices to be displayed at once on a screen -- there's no need to scroll down to reveal hidden options, which is too often the case with other cameras. the main dial moves from tab to tab, the rear dial moves the cursor up and down through the choices displayed. It's a simple and effective system, with instantly legible type on the handsome high-res screen. The use of color coding to distinguish groups of tabs by function is a nice touch.

In addition to the standard menu system, a Quick Control screen allows ready access to key features, without traveling through the hierarchical menu system. Pressing the dedicated Quick menu access button brings up the rear LCD info display in a navigable format. Use the multi-controller to highlight a setting you'd like to change, then either turn one of the two dials to adjust the setting directly, or press the Set button to bring up the relevant full-screen menu.

Instruction Manual

The 276-page user manual is logically arranged, clearly written and nicely illustrated. What’s more, contrary to common industry practice, Canon offers up a proper, detailed and well thought out index, vital when you’re using the manual as a reference source but so often given short shrift by camera manufacturers.