The big surprise here had to do with softness in two areas: first, in the processing with the Canon DPP software, and with the in-camera JPEGs. Obviously if you’re using either of those workflows you’re going to want to take a good look at your settings to get the sharpening you want. Ironically, when the first big-chip Canon was released, the EOS 1Ds, sharpening was an issue but for the reverse reason- Canon did not allow Adobe access to the sharpening metadata, so ACR files were consistently very soft. Now it’s the opposite. If you want easy, fast and nice sharpening, go to ACR first.

Second was the general sharpness and definition, or lack, of the 7D files. We really expected to see a bit more snap, but again, this may be an issue with working out the processing bugs from a new camera’s files.

On the subject of file quality and color, we’re going to give the 7D a break on that, again since it’s so new, but the 50D files are disturbingly magenta. They’re consistent, so it’s workable, but you have to wonder why the strategy was to give it this much of a cast.

Sensor size was also a surprising issue. It was funny how much the big sensor of the 5D MII was actually a bit of an obstacle, both in focal length, depth of field and also just sheer file size. Between that and the physical size of the cameras, not to mention the great quality of all the files at a practical print size, well, we’re left with the old saying, use the right tool for the job. For the most part, the 5D MII felt a little bit like overkill, and honestly, the 50D was probably the most fun to shoot with. I’m not sure if, on having this assignment and having access to both cameras, I wouldn’t pick the 50D out of the bag as my first choice.

Thanks to the folks at LensProTo Go for their assistance on this article