It’s been too long since my last post. I’ll place the blame squarely on the holidays.
Anyway, I bought the controversial Canon 7D DSLR a few days ago. I say “controversial” because the reviews vary from proclaiming it to be the best crop-factor* DSLR ever to no better than a Canon Rebel that costs about 1/3-third the 7D’s price. (*A crop-factor DSLR has a sensor smaller than a 35mm film frame, and makes the apparent focal length of a given lens longer than what it actually is, i.e., the image is magnified compared to a DSLR with a full-sized sensor or a 35mm film camera.)
That’s one of the problems with the internets: you can easily find the full range of opinions and reviews on absolutely everything. In the coming days, I will add to that morass and provide you with my own review of the camera! I plan on approaching it not so much from a technical, pixel-peeping viewpoint but more of a look at real-world results.
I haven’t done any serious testing of the camera yet, so the review will have to wait, but I have learned one thing about video playback. You can find more than a few complaints about dropped frames online. Quite a few people suggest the problem is using a memory card that’s too fast. Some blame the camera itself. But it appears the actual problem is the computer, particularly the software used for viewing the playback. I was experiencing the same problem — jerky movement caused by missing frames — when watching the playback on my computer. I was using an old (i.e., not the fastest) CF card, so that shouldn’t have been a problem, and then I reformatted the card as suggested. Still had dropped frames, but the playback looked fine on the camera, so the problem had(?) to be on the computer. Then I found a post recommending the use of the VLC media player, a free program, for viewing the video from 5D Mark II and 7D cameras.
After following the instructions in the aforementioned post (you have to make a change to the preferences or it won’t work), the video plays back quite well. Some of the videos I recorded before reformatting the card still drop frames, but I wonder if it’s just that those videos are more demanding and maybe it has nothing to do with the reformatting. Anyway, I just shot a couple more videos. They’re very jumpy when viewed on ZoomBrowser EX, software provided with the camera, but there doesn’t seem to be any hiccups when watching them on VLC.
More to come as the testing continues!