Just arrived in today’s mail: the brand-new Canon EOS 7D digital SLR (being held by Jennifer to the left). It’s best thought of as the little brother of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR–the primary differences are that the 7D has a smaller image sensor with fewer megapixels, and the 7D also includes a 720p shooting mode (unlike the 5D Mark II, which only shoots 1080p as far as HD video goes.) The 7D is also a grand less, with an MSRP of $1699.

Tom saw a pre-production 7D at a Canon line show a few months back and had liked what he saw. We are eager to put this production unit through its paces, and we’ll share what we find out with you in a timely manner.

Speaking of which, a Canon EOS 5D Mark II firmware upgrade that adds 25fps and 23.976fps modes is slated to be released sometime during the first half of next year.

We just now received word from Canon that manual exposure firmware updates for the 5D Mark II DSLR camera will be coming soon.  Canon says the new firmware update is to accommodate the many user requests they’ve received for manual exposure control while using the 5D it in video mode.

A true video or photographic artist must have complete control over focus, exposure, and shutter, and although the manual exposure control was there when shooting stills, the 5D reverted to auto control when set for video recording. To video producers, “auto” is a 4-letter word!

While being announced today, this firmware will not be available for download until early June. When we know more about it, we’ll let you know.

Meanwhile, watch this beautiful video,Reverie , that we discovered recently on filmmaker Stu Maschwitz’s site, ProLost. The video, by photographer Vincent LaForet, is 3 minutes long, was shot in 72 hours on a borrowed 5D, and demonstrates the capabilities of video production using this camera… and a lot of photographic skill, tools, and support staff.