Canon EOS Rebel T7 is an ideal option for people looking for better image quality than what smartphones and compact cameras offer.
This camera takes pictures just like the Rebel T6, but with an improved 16. It comes with improvements over its predecessor, but it still features a 24 megapixel CMOS sensor. The course starts at $500 and is a great investment, especially for beginners and novices. I have reviewed the Rebel T7. I have discussed its merits and demerits.
Whether new to DSLR cameras or have had your camera for years, this camera is easy to use. It’s the perfect first camera for both casual and serious photographers.
It’s an inexpensive camera with good image quality, which will help you improve your photography skills. It also has many other useful features.
The Canon EOS Rebel T7 bundle includes the EF-S 18-55mm IS II lens. That’s a great deal!
Note: before you decide to buy Canon Rebel T7, you must also consider its successor, the Canon Rebel T8i. It is priced at $749 and $899 for body only and with an 18-55mm IS STM lens respectively. It is a much improved camera a with 24.1 megapixels APS-C sensor, a 45-point autofocus system, 4K videos at 24fps, and an ISO range of 100-25600. It also features an articulating touchscreen, unlike the Canon T7.
Canon EOS T7 Design
DSLR cameras are usually humongous in size but not Canon EOS Rebel T7. The dimensions of only 5.1 x 3.9 x 3.1 inches and weight of 1.75 pounds including the SD card and the battery makes it the smallest DSLR on the market.
One of the best design features of the camera is the comfortable grip. Wrapped in textured rubber, it makes for a solid and cozy handhold. The camera mostly has a plastic body but it is acceptable considering its price.
The body has well-marked dials and buttons even though the four-way controller keys and on/off switch are a bit rigid. The users can have one-touch access to the crucial shooting settings such as ISO, drive modes, focus, and white balance, etc through external controls. There is also a Quick menu (Q button) that eliminates the need to ever enter the full menu system.
The full menu system, however, is well laid out. It has color-coded categories for parameters like shooting, playback, and setup. You can also save the most used settings, up to the group of six, by using the My Menu option.
The camera has a comparatively bright and clear viewfinder and a 3-inch LCD. The screen is fixed though and it is not a touchscreen as well. Most beginners wouldn’t need both the features. But – you must choose the Canon EOS Rebel T7i kit that has both the feature for $300 extra if you cannot survive without them.
Canon EOS Rebel T7 DSLR camera does come with a built-in flash with a range of 30 feet. However, it most effectively covers the subjects within 15 feet only. You should go for an external flash if you need more light. The accessory and integrated flashes also offer flash exposure compensation. It can help you a lot when it comes to adjusting focus.
Users’ Reviews
You can find users’ reviews about the camera here.
Beginner or pro (I’m in-between), this is a great little camera. Too may bells and whistles for me: I keep it on Manual 99% of the time. But the auto features I’ve used work just fine. Great price for sturdy camera. And you get two lenses of pretty good optics.
Canon EOS T7 Image Quality
Next, we will talk about the image quality in our Canon EOS Rebel T7 review. The Rebel series of DSLR cameras are quite popular among beginners and amateur photographers who prefer affordability over fancy features. The Rebel T7 carries the tradition forward by delivering good in-class image quality. It offers superb results and instant satisfaction under proper light.
The camera offers well saturated and bright colors both in Standard and Auto picture modes. It perfectly captures the various shades, hues, and colors no matter you are shooting on a beach or in a park.
Dedicated Modes
It has dedicated modes or styles for Portrait, Landscape, and other photography genres. Similarly, other shooting options include Contrast, Sharpness, Monochrome, Faithful, Neutral, Color Tone, and Saturation. You can adjust every shooting setting in each of these modes. It is also possible to create and save three custom styles for later use. You don’t normally find such advanced features in an affordable camera.
Kit Lens Performance
The images produced using the 18-55mm Kit lens are also detailed and sharp. The camera also balances the exposure impressively using its evaluating metering system. The exposure is excellent in the images produced under bright sunlight with light reflecting from different objects. You may rarely notice slight haloing but most of the images have perfect exposure.
Pop-Up Flash
In our Canon Rebel T7 review, we also tested the camera’s pop-up flash and the results were once again up to the expectations. It can easily illuminate shady scenes such as statues under the trees in the garden. The flash is quite powerful and thus, it can result in extra brightness in some cases. However, you can easily lower the ISO or reduce the flash exposure by going into the menu. All in all, the flash is good enough for most situations.
Special Effects
The T7 also allows you to apply special effects after taking an image. There is a total of five effects that are Miniature, Soft Focus, Grainy B & W, Fish-eye, and Toy Camera. It makes a copy of the original image and gives it a new file number for every effect you apply. Excluding miniature effect, you can also change the effect’s intensity.
Canon EOS T7 Low Light Performance
Canon Rebel T7 does not have mind-boggling ISO options. However, most users should be happy with its ISO range of 100-6400. It excels in places that already have some sort of light such as parties. Similarly, it has a Hi setting of 12800. However, you have to turn on the ISO Expansion in Custom Functions to have Hi on the ISO menu. We recommend using long exposures and a tripod for nighttime outdoor shooting or other extremely dark places.
The camera can competently handle high ISOs especially when you turn off long-exposure noise reduction and ISO. To turn off these settings, you have to go to setup and then Custom Functions. The camera delivers good details while successfully minimizing noise up to ISO 6400. However, the softening and noise become much more apparent at higher ISO such as 12800 or Hi. You can reduce both the noise and softening even at this range by keeping the image size small.
The T7 lacks image stabilization and this is where the 18-55mm kit lens with built-in image stabilization comes to your rescue. The IS from the lens comes in quite handy when you are shooting at slower shutter speeds or taking handheld photos. There is no blur from the handshakes and the images are generally quite sharp and focused even at shutter speeds as low as 1/50 of the second.
Canon Rebel T7 Performance
Next in our Canon EOS Rebel T7 DSLR camera review is the camera’s performance. Keep in mind that it is an affordable or rather cheap camera. Therefore, you cannot expect very high burst rates or hundreds of autofocus points. However, autofocus and continuous shooting speeds are still sufficient for most users or shooting conditions. The 3fps continuous shooting speed prevents the camera from freezing while capturing fast action such as car races.
The 9-point autofocus system seems archaic but it can still sharply focus on the subject, especially in the scenes with high contrast. The T7 does not have the best autofocus and continuous shooting performance. Therefore, you must practice hard to get your timing right.
Canon EOS Rebel T7 specs also include a battery life of 600 images after single charge while shooting in the viewfinder. Its battery life is better than some more expensive cameras. However, the shots per charge drop to 250-260 in the Live View. The battery life also depends on the WiFi, playback, and flash usage.
Canon EOS T7 Video
You may expect modern DSLRs to have at least 4K video resolution. However, the T7 offers the basic SD, HD, and Full HD at 30fps, 60fps, and 30fps respectively. You can easily share the videos as they are shot in MPEG4 AVC H264 that have .MOV file extension. You can also use any editing software to edit .MOV files just like JPEG.
The camera allows some basic edits in the playback mode such as trimming provided the battery is more than 50% full.
It also features a fully automatic mode for easily recording the videos. For more experienced users, it has a manual mode as well where you can control ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. Shooting in the manual mode also requires you to focus on the object manually.
You can also apply different styles to the videos regardless of shooting in manual or auto mode. The camera can select a style automatically or you can choose from different options such as Portrait, Standard, and Landscape, etc.
One of my favorite features during Canon EOS Rebel T7 review was Snapshot. It allows you to record short clips that are 2 to 8 seconds long. Subsequently, you can merge these minimovies and use them as highlights of your trip.
Overall, the Canon Rebel T7 video quality is quite good. The videos are generally sharp and the color reproduction is quite accurate. The audio also delivers decent sound until it gets too windy. The camera does have a sound filter but it is not capable enough of subduing strong winds.
Canon EOS T7 Connectivity Options
Finally, we talk about the connectivity options in our Canon T7 review. The camera has built-in WiFi and NFC and therefore, the connection to other devices is a breeze. Similarly, you can download the Canon Camera Connect app both for Android and iOS to remotely control the camera or transfer images to your smart devices. You can also adjust some settings such as exposure, ISO, white balance, and exposure compensation right from the app.
The app is intuitive to use and the setup is quite easy. You can use the GPS of the mobile device to add location information. It is also possible to adjust the image size in the app.
Canon EOS Rebel T7 Verdict
Is the Canon Rebel T7 a good camera? Well, it is an excellent option for more experienced photographers on a budget and beginners alike thanks to the combination of good image quality, features, and price. It lacks fancy features such as an articulated LCD and a touchscreen. But – it offers a range of advanced and basic features, helping you to take excellent photos without spending a fortune.
However, the Nikon D3400 is still a better option at this price (available for $500 with the 18-55mm lens). It has a 5fps continuous shooting speed and 24 megapixels sensor. It is comparatively more responsive than Rebel T7 besides having a more user-friendly built-in feature guide. Similarly, its full HD movies have more frame rates at 60, 30, and 24fps.
The area where Canon T7 performs better than Nikon D3400 is the connectivity options. The D3400 only has slower Bluetooth connectivity compared to faster NFC, and WiFi connections in the case of T7. Keep in mind that T7 also has a Bluetooth connection. Similarly, the Canon Camera Connect app is much more sophisticated and convenient to use than the SnapBridge app for Nikon D3400. The Canon T7 has a distinctive advantage if you frequently transfer photos from your camera to your smart device.
Concluding our Canon EOS Rebel T7 review, we must say that you will have an affordable and capable camera no matter you go for Canon Rebel T7 or Nikon D3400. Both cameras have their merits and demerits and the decision depends on your requirements. Either way, you will not be disappointed, to say the least.