Canon 80D First Shots: How does it stack up to the 70D and the D7200? [UPDATED]

posted Thursday, March 17, 2016 at 3:41 PM EDT

[Update 3/21/16: Thanks to our reader Levent Hasanreisoğlu for catching an error on my part in the crop comparisons below. I inadvertantly pulled the Canon 7D ISO 6400 sample, as opposed to the Canon 70D sample, for the comparison. It's now been corrected, my apologies for the error, and a big thanks to Levent for the astute catch!]

The Canon 80D just touched down in our test lab this morning, and our senior lab technician Luke Smith wasted no time in bringing you our Still Life test series known as First Shots. With a few siginificant imaging pipeline upgrades compared to the predecessor, the Canon 70D, this initial round of test shots gives us all a first glimpse as to how much these upgrades will make a difference in real-world images.

This camera line dates back to late in the year 2000 with the release of the D30, but the DIGIC processor era first seen in early 1D full frame models made its way to this line in 2003 with the 10D. The line has since been quite popular for enthusiast Canon shooters, with the 80D being the first in this series to sport the latest DIGIC 6 processor -- also used in the higher-end 1DX Mk II, 5DS/R and 7D Mk II.

The Canon 80D also brings their newer 24.2 MP APS-C sensor to this line, and sports an increased maximum native ISO of 16,000. So with those credentials behind it, how does it stack up in the image quality department? You can use our Lab Samples tab to view Still Life test images directly, as well as our subsequent test images once available, and also use our Comparometer to view side-by-side images across the available ISO spectrum against any camera we've ever tested.

Here are a few 1:1 comparisons from default in-camera JPEGs to get you started at base ISO and ISO 6400 alongside the Canon 70D and its closest rival, the Nikon D7200. You can access the RAW files on the Lab Samples page. (The apparent size difference vs the 70D is due the difference in sensor resolution.)