Our friend Rob Galbraith has gone to the trouble of including a couple of test video clips on his site in full res.

Needless to say I am pumped, have already arranged to pre-order and am going to buy this one sight unseen. Fingers crossed it’s the right decision.

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-10042-10239-10240

Couple of things I am super excited about. Max flash sync speed is up 1/50 of a second from what the 500D is capable of to 1/250. Obviously all the frame rate and resolution options. 1080P! NICE! 24P, meh! Yeah, it’s the speed of real film, blah blah blah. . .It’s old. . .I can see why some people who might need a film out would have use for it, but I’m not looking to do a film out. 25P is great plays nice with TV and the footage from my HVX and pretty much every other camera around Australia, so happy days there. In fact I hazard a guess most everybody would actually have trouble telling the difference between 24P and 25P anyway, they are so close it’s not funny.

What I really can’t wait for though is manual colour temperature selection. I loved that capability on the D90, so fantastic for shooting video. Being able to dial in a Kelvin temp to achieve a certain effect is something I’ve really missed, so can’t wait to get that back.

One of the main reasons I keep the HVX around these days is because it shoots slow motion, and records audio well. To be honest, I also prefer the feel of shooting video on the HVX, even though the look of a DSLR is much nicer, you can’t beat a dedicated video camera for handheld shooting. They were designed with that in mind, of course they are going to suit the job better. But now the 7D is going to be able to shoot 50 and 60 frames a second in the 720P mode and have a external stereo in audio jack, there looks to be less and less reasons to keep the old P2 around. I’m not sure what will happen there yet, but if our friend Hudson (the guy who successfully hacked the 5D MKII Firmware to provide audio gain control, Zebra stripe like function and audio level meters) works some magic on the 7D’s auto audio gain control, then I’ll have a serious dilemna on my hands. Anyway, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. . .*shudders*

Well, that’s about it for now. Off to Fiji tomorrow for a 8 day shoot. More on that in the coming days, it should be good!

Turns out it’s spec’d to sit in between the Canon 5D MKII and the 50D. It’s still an APS-C sized sensor with a probably 1.6X crop factor, but it trumps even the revered Canon 5D MKII when it comes to options!

But I digress, here’s the juicy bit for us video lovers. . .

Full 1080P at 24P, 25P and 30P! No more crappy workarounds, useless frame rates or slow conversions! This is fantastic news!

Not only that, but there’s a 720P mode that does 50P and 60P. Basically we’ll be able to shoot slow motion in camera by way of conforming that 50/60P to 25/30P. This is something that I am still lugging my HVX around for, the occasional slow motion shot and to record some audio.

Speaking of recording audio, there is also to be a external stereo microphone input! Hopefully with some gain control available in the menu’s to assist with keeping noise to a minimum.

It seems there is also going to be an SD mode and 480P but there’s not a lot of use for that where I come from, but hey, it’s nice to have.

As you would expect, also full manual control over the aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

This camera may still be rocking an APS-C sensor, but there is much talk over improved Signal to Noise Ratios and also pixel sensitivity, so it will be interesting to see how the 7D holds up against the 5D MKII in low light. Obviously the full frame 5D MKII is going to have a distinct advantage, but I can’t wait to do some tests. . .

Release is expected end of September, but I’m ready! Bring it on Canon! Just show me the pre-order button!