Now that the Canon 70D has been announced and set to release at the end of the month, people are getting excited about the Canon 7D II, which I think should be announced early in 2014. That will give plenty of time for people to purchase the Canon 70D, and enough time to phase out the current Canon 7D before releasing its upgraded brother.
The Canon 70D is a worthwhile replacement for the current Canon 7D, so people are wondering what the Canon 7D Mark 2 will have. I am still excited to see what the Canon 70D can do. There haven’t been any real reviews of the body yet, and I don’t expect to see any until early August.
I foresee the following specifications, as they make sense for Canon.
- 20.2mp CMOS Sensor
- Dual DIGIC 5+
- 19pt AF System (All Cross Type)
- 10fps
- Built-in WiFi
- 3″ Vari-Angle Touch Screen LCD
- ISO 25,600 Maximum
- Dual Pixel CMOS Autofocus
- Dual SD Card Slots
The changes are mostly with regards to the image processing, image buffer, image capture frame rate, ISO, and SD cards. You’ll noticed that I foresee them adding another Digic 5+ image processor, increased the frame rate of image capture from seven to ten, and added in a second SD card slot over the Canon 70D. You will also notice that I didn’t change the sensor. I think they’ll use the same one in many of their upcoming cameras. They’ll probably release a big megapixel camera at some point, but I doubt it’ll be the Canon 7D Mark II.
These bumps in specifications will allow professionals to choose what they need. It will likely have a bigger buffer than the Canon 70D and having Dual SD Card slots will make professionals more excited, as it could provide redundancy. I think the best place for the Canon 7D will be the professional sports market that the current Canon 7D is popular in and I think people will flock to it, and as long as the cost isn’t too high compared to the other options available.
I don’t think the Canon 7D Mark II will be a camera that I’ll need. I owned the current Canon 7D for a short while, and while it was super powerful, it was also heavy, and not the cheapest thing I’ve ever purchased. The advances in the Canon 70D make the current Canon 7D obsolete, and the Canon 7D Mark II will potentially be outside of my price range. I also think they really want to push professionals towards their single digit camera bodies, and keep non-professionals in the two or three digit bodies.
If you want more information about Canon camera body numbering, check out the bottom of my post entitled, My Next Camera: Canon 70D.
Malcolm's Ramblings 
2 responses to “What Will the Canon 7D Mark II Feature?”
I predict that the new 7D II will have the same sensor as the 70D, dual Digic 5+, one to run the auto focus and the other for everything else, and the same mag construction as the current model with the auto focus from the iD X. It will add GPS and a second Cf slot. Since I’m not going t pound nails or give the camera the abuse tat a pap would the build quility means nothing to me. It will cost at least $500-600 more quite possibly over $2K. It a better auto focus and build quality worth that to anyone other than a professional shooter. I think not. Sois the better auto focus worth that much of a price increase. Not for me.
The hard part about predicting any of this stuff is that our needs aren’t necessarily what Canon is developing for. When you mentioned pounding nails, my first thought was that Canon does use build quality and materials used to separate their different product lines, so despite you not needing something super durable, they don’t really have a choice but to make it at least as durable as the 7D was because people expect it and would be unhappy otherwise. I also agree that it will definitely be over $2k in price upon release. Probably fairly close to the 6D in price: $2200+ with kit lens. The 7D is supposed to be a professional body, and I think they’ll try to push it towards being one again and push non-pro’s towards the 70D. Just my two cents… Thanks for commenting!