COMMUNITY : FORUMS : PHOTOGRAPHY

One major difference (aside from price!) is the T2i is much smaller and lighter than the 7D. If you have smaller hands (like I do), you may prefer the T2i over the 7D. For people with larger, man hands, they find the T2i is too small and harder to use. They both offer very similar features, but the 7D options are easier to get to (where on the T2i, you have to press more than one button... again, it could be a problem if you have big man hands.)

The 7D is also a metal body and the T2i is polycarbonate. Some people think it makes the 7D feel more "professional". To me, if that's all your comparing, its foolish to spend hundreds more to get a metal body (but hey, that's just me).

The 7D is a better camera for action shots as you can get more frames per second than the T2i, but if you are really only focusing (no pun intended) on still shots, then I think you need to judge the size and weight difference of the two cameras in store, and decide from there. Obviously, the money you save on the T2i allows you to spend more towards a lens.

lightroom and photoshop offer different purposes. lightroom is useful for processing large amount of photos quickly and to do "basic" editing (exposure/colour correction etc), however photoshop is for more extreme editing on single images. Photoshop maybe the better choice to start, as you can improve your photos in the first step.

I own a 7D and just looked over the features and reviews of the t2i. I see no advantage of a 7D for product shoots where you can control the lighting and exposure. The caveat might be if you plan to create very large prints and need the best ccd available. Also remember a lot of good photography happens after the image is taken using modern post image processing and adjustments.

I'm a professional photographer and use the 7D for a variety of outdoor landscape and wildlife shoots so I need long battery life (a t2i review con) and as much ISO/shutter speed flexibility as I can get, as well as a strong sturdy body for rugged outdoor use. This would be the advantage of the 7D, along with perhaps a slight advantage in image quality, but that would only be apparent with very large prints. BTW: many of my 16x24 image prints are done with 10Mpixel RAW, not 18.

I didn't read that the t2i has a sensor cleaner, which the 7D has. Because I upgraded from a canon 20D (without sensor cleaner) to a 7D (with the cleaner), I found the 20D annoying to manually puff off the sensor, especially in the field ... and if I didn't get it clean my images had to be retouched after I got home. If the t2i doesn't have the auto cleaner it might not be a big issue if you mostly change lenses in a low dust environment, or don't change often.

Hope this helps. Good luck.  - [)oug