As I blogged about the other day, there’s been a lot of speculation about this camera for a few years and today is finally the day that Canon have announced the elusive 7D.

It fits into an entirely new position in their SLR lineup, right between the current 50d and the 5dMKII and comes in at the VERY attractive price point of $1699 US or $2099 CDN for the body only.

Specification run down:

18 megapixel APS-C 1.6x Crop
8fps
Dual Digic IV, new 14-bit ADC circuitry
New 19-point AF circuitry
100% viewfinder with LCD overlay, allowing a level and gridlines to be projected on the screen
New 63-zone metering system
Exposure compensation is now +/- 5 stops
FULLY weathersealed, Not half-weathersealed like the 5D Mark II
3″ Rear screen, upgraded version of the one in the 50D and 5D Mark II
Video is 1080p at 24, 25 or 30 fps, or 720p at 60/50/30/25/24 fps, has manual controls, gridlines and the virtual level available
ISO 100-6400, extend to 12800
Internal ETTL flash control (this is a big addition!)
Uses the same battery as the 5dMKII lp-E6
New battery grip

Canon has made some extraordinary advances with this camera and I think it’s going to be a huge bit with action sports and adventure photographers such as myself.  Having a camera that shoots with the speed of a 1-series camera but in a smaller, lighter package is something I have dreamed of for a long time.  There are a few subtle differences in there too which are quite exciting.  The 19-point focus system has all 19 points as more accurate cross-type sensors with lenses of 5.6 and up.  Great news for people using f4 lenses, the old system only had cross-type function for lenses of 2.8 and up.  This should mean greatly improved autofocus speed and tracking even if you are using a teleconverter on an f4 lens. The LCD overlay on in the viewfinder sounds like a great way to display info too.  Canon have also finally added ETTL control of external flashes meaning no more ST-E2 transmitter to remotely control and trigger external Canon flashes.  I might finally get some use out of my old 580EX now!

As you can see from the photos there are several ergonomic changes too.  A dedicated button for liveview and video recording is a welcome addition and also a programmable button next to the shutter release which can be assigned to any function such as mirror lockup.

Cramming 18 megapixles into a 1.6 crop sensor has a few people worried though, this has by far the biggest pixel density of any camera out there right now but has apparently been done with some new technology and should not effect the noise levels.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see on that one….

For me this is an exciting introduction.  It improves on my current 1dMKIIN in nearly every way and does so in a package that is half the size.  Alongside my 5dMKII this will make a formidable combination and I have already added myself to the waiting list to receive one of these cameras as soon as they come into Canada in about a months time.

For the video guys out there the 7d finally adds multiple frame rates with 24p, 25p and 30p in HD and 60p in 720p resolution.

Bit of an odds and ends posting this one.  I’ve been shooting a few things up on Blackcomb glacier in the last week or so.  The progression of skiing over the last year is pretty impressive.  It seems everyone has a new variation on a double cork or double flip these days.  Paul Bergeron (photo on the left) is looking particularly impressive.  I also shot a quick video of Peter Olenicks new double which seems to be a kind of misty 5 to switch backflip. Crazy stuff.

Pete Olenicks new dub from Dan Carr on Vimeo.

A few nights ago I went up to Camp of Champions for a sunset shoot with the 4frnt crew.  CR Johnson, Matt Sterbenz and Finn Anderson were on hand along with local skiers Mack Jones and Carl Fortin.  As with this shoot last year , we were blessed with perfect conditions and a beautiful sunset.  The photo on the left shows the collection of Elinchom Rangers set up by myself and a couple of other photogs.  In the last couple of shoots I have been experimenting with some different pocketwizard setups to try and increase the usable range.  What I have learnt is that moving the PW away from the light stand and flash head can make a noticeable difference.  A Manfrotto magic arm with camera plate and a cold shoe provide a useful setup because you can easily move it around depending on what angle you are shooting.  DO NOT be tempted to angle the aerial towards you though.  You must keep the aerial pointing vertically.  Any deviation from the vertical seems to cut down the range again.  This was the first shoot in a long time that I have not experienced major pocketwizard frustrations and in fact I managed to get the new TT1 transmitter to sync incredibly fast with my ranger.

Carl Fortin, Camp Of Champions, Whistler, BC

Canon 1dMKIIN, 1/320, f5.6, 24-105mm at 50mm, iso 400

Coming up this month there will also be a sunset shoot going down at Momentum ski camp and i’m working on the marketing material for a new spa here in Whistler when i’m not shooting skiing.  At the end of the month i’ll be packing up and heading to New Zealand for a team shoot with another ski company.  It’s nice to get back to shooting, the last few weeks I have spent many hours in front of my computer screen sorting through the winter shots and getting them sent off to all the ski magazines around the world.  A necessary part of the job and certainly not my favorite part.

Yesterday was Gaper day here in Whistler.  Blackcomb is now closed and Whistler is open for some limited spring skiing. I have one more snowboard shoot left to do here with the Sandbox crew and it looks like we will get that done towards the end of this week when the current low pressure has cleared out.  Winter is nearly done.

When winter finishes in Whistler though you only get a couple of weeks off before summer camps start up on the glacier.  I’m stoked already, the Blackcomb glacier hosts 2 of the best summer parks in the world.  Momentum Ski camp and Camp of Champions.  Here is a few of the shots from last summer that have been published  recently.

Twitterific, twitastic, tweeps, tweeple, twitterverse.  Confused?  Then skip this post.

If you do know what i’m talking about then read on…  There is a thing called follow Friday on twitter, its an unofficial thing, but people post up twitter names of people they think you should follow.  This is my version of follow Friday, only much bigger.  In the last week or so twitter seems to have hit the ski industry much harder so i thought I would put down a list of some interesting people to follow both from the ski industry and the photographic community.  I’m going to keep it pretty simple just a list…..tweet.  And let me know if i missed people and I can update the list as it grows.

SKI industry twitterers.

@dancarrphoto , @k2ski, @lineskis, @SpyderVenom,@ozskier (digi dave),@jeffschmuck, @IF3,@voleurz, @whistlerparks, @Newschoolers, @Freeskier

SKIERS

@HankLambo (Henrik Lampert), @stoneusbillups (Matt Walker), @danetudor, @codytownsend, @steepskiing (Chris Davenport), @eroner, @MikeDski (Mike Douglas), @sarah_j_burke, @TimDurtschi, @ingridbackstrom, @hathbanger, @MyshellParker, @Schubomb, @NicholasMartini, @greteeliassen, @ABoronowski

SKI/Snowboard photographers

@dancarrphoto, @Kapitolphoto, @annaleah, @nabbott, @dspphoto, @TimZimmerman, @MikeBerard

Its that time again. WSSF. The world ski and snowboard festival.  Live music and the worlds best skiers and snowboarders decend every year on Whistler for the best end of season party in the world.  It’s always a busy couple of weeks shooting the various events and trying to squeeze in shoots with the skiers between events.  I spent the last couple of days shooting with Jossi Wells who is here to compete in the Big Air event tomorrow night.  Practice for that started this evening (see above photo, 5dMKII , 1/320 f7.1, 15mm).

Tomorrow i’m stoked to be shooting with last years Superpipe winner Tucker Perkins, we always get good shots when we work together.  I should have just enough time to get back home, charge batteries and get back to the village for the big air finals tomorrow night.  Sunday is the Orage Masters team competition and then on Monday I will shoot a bit of the pipe competition before packing up all my gear and heading to Vancouver for a couple of days to work on a catalog shoot for the clothing company Orage. Then straight back up to Whis again for one more day with Tucker before he heads back to the US.  Might take aday off after all that…… but maybe i’ll just shoot the snowboard cometitions too as I can always sell a few of those shots to a couple of snowboard mags I do some work for.  When thats all over and done with I have another cool project on the horizon.  Hope to post more details soon and cover the whole thing with some behind the scenes photos……stay tuned.  Busy busy.

twitter.com/dancarrphoto

Well as some of you know, I am originally from the UK.  For a country that doesn’t really have any skiing of it’s own, there is a large and talented ski scene there and several great magazines.  I often shoot stories for a magazine called Fall Line and this month I have an article about summer skiing in there with the added bonus of the cover photo too of rising UK star James Woods.