Is it worth keeping an old but good digital camera, or is now a good time to upgrade?

 This is a really good (and very common) question — and it’s one I hear a lot from people who actually use their cameras rather than just read spec sheets. So let us take my old camera and ask the questions.

The short answer is: my Canon 7D is not obsolete — but it is showing its age in specific, very real ways. Whether you keep it or jump ship depends less on the camera and more on what you’re asking it to do now.

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What the Canon 7D still does brilliantly

Let’s give it some respect first.

The 7D was built like a tank and designed for serious photography. Even now it still offers:

• Excellent ergonomics – proper buttons, no menu-diving

• A very usable APS-C sensor for daylight and studio work

• Fast, accurate phase-detect autofocus (for its generation)

• A huge ecosystem of EF and EF-S lenses, many of which are optically superb

• Rock-solid reliability — many are still working flawlessly after a decade+

For:

• Still photography

• Controlled lighting

• Wildlife/sailing shots in good light

• Teaching photography

• Web and social-media output

…it’s still perfectly capable. For blogs, websites, and even print up to sensible sizes, the image quality itself is rarely the limiting factor.

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Where the 7D is now clearly behind

This is where the frustration usually creeps in.

1. Low-light performance

Newer sensors are simply better:

• Cleaner high ISO

• More dynamic range

• Better shadow recovery

If you’re shooting indoors, at dusk, or in winter light — you’ll feel this.

2. Autofocus intelligence

Modern cameras bring:

• Eye AF

• Face tracking

• Subject recognition (people, animals, birds, boats…)

Once you’ve used these, going back can feel like stepping into the past.

3. Video (this is the big one)

By modern standards, the 7D’s video is:

• Limited resolution

• No modern codecs

• No in-body stabilisation

• No reliable continuous AF

If video is now central to your workflow (YouTube, reels, teaching clips), this is where the camera really shows its age.

4. Mirrorless ecosystem momentum

The industry has moved:

• New lenses → mirrorless mounts

• R&D → mirrorless

• Accessories → mirrorless

DSLR development is effectively frozen.

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The real question: replace everything or transition slowly?

This is where people often think in extremes — and don’t need to.

❌ “Sell everything and start again”

• Painfully expensive

• Existing lenses lose value

• Steep learning curve

• Often unnecessary unless you need cutting-edge features

✅ A smarter middle ground

Many photographers are now doing this:

• Keep the 7D for:

  • Still photography

  • Backup body

  • Teaching / experiments

  • Rough conditions where you don’t want your newest kit at risk

• Add one modern body (often mirrorless)

• Use lens adapters so your EF glass still works

• Upgrade lenses only when there’s a clear benefit

This spreads cost, keeps familiarity, and avoids throwing away perfectly good tools.

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A useful way to decide (quick checklist)

Ask yourself honestly:

• Am I missing shots because of autofocus limitations?

• Is low-light noise now affecting real outputs, not just pixel-peeping?

• Is video now as important as photography?

• Do I want lighter kit and better stabilisation?

• Is this a business expense or a hobby cost?

If you answered “yes” to several of those → a partial upgrade makes sense.
If mostly “not really” → the 7D still earns its keep.

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The uncomfortable truth (but also the freeing one)

Most people don’t outgrow their camera’s image quality — they outgrow:

• Autofocus convenience

• Video expectations

• Workflow speed

The Canon 7D didn’t suddenly become bad.
The world around it moved on.

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Bottom line

• Don’t panic-upgrade.

• Don’t sell good glass in a rush.

• Treat the 7D as a reliable workhorse, not dead weight.

• Upgrade when a new body genuinely changes what you can create, not just what the spec sheet says.