Canon 77D Performance

Very good performance for its class.

Powering on and taking a shot was very good for a DSLR at about 0.4 second; a noticeable improvement over the T6s' 0.9 second. Switching from Play to Record mode and taking a shot was very fast, at about 0.2 second.

In terms of the Canon 77D's ability to determine that it's properly focused when shooting the same target multiple times using the optical viewfinder with the 18-135mm IS USM kit lens, its full autofocus shutter response was very fast for a mid-range consumer DSLR. We measured only 0.090 second for full AF lag using single point (center) AF, which is very similar to the T6s' 0.089s result. Enabling the flash increased full AF lag to 0.254 second thanks to pre-flash metering, though that's still pretty fast.

Shutter lag with manual focus was faster than with autofocus as expected, at 0.087 second. "Prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure resulted in a lag time of 0.068 second, which is good.

The Canon 77D's prefocused shutter lag in Live View mode was almost as fast as using the optical viewfinder at 0.071 second, which is excellent. (We no longer test full AF shutter lag in Live View mode, as it is usually very lens dependent.)

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance.

Shot-to-shot cycle times were excellent in single shot mode, at less than 0.3 second for Large/Fine JPEGs or RAW+Large/Fine JPEG files. (Note that we no longer test single-shot mode with just RAW files, as the results are usually somewhere in between.)

Full-resolution continuous high mode speeds were good for its class, very closely matching Canon's 6.0 frames per second spec for all file types, which is a nice improvement over the T6s' 4.8 fps rate. The Canon 77D also has a low-speed continuous mode rated at 3.0 fps, however we did not test that mode in the lab.

Buffer depth for best quality JPEGs was excellent at 167 frames before the camera slowed down slightly to about 5.5 fps which is still pretty fast. When shooting RAW files, buffer depths were of course lower than with just JPEGs but still good at 23 frames for RAW files and 21 frames for RAW+JPEG files, compared to only 6 RAW or RAW+JPEG frames for the T6s.

Buffer clearing times were quite good considering buffer depths, ranging from only 4 seconds after a max-length burst of best quality JPEGs, to 11 seconds after a burst of RAW+JPEG frames with a fast UHS-I card, and the camera allows you to make setting changes and shoot additional shots while the buffer is clearing.

The Canon 77D's built-in flash took an average of 3.1 seconds to recharge after a full-power discharge, which is good.

Bottom line, the Canon 77D offers very good performance for a mid-range consumer DSLR, providing quick power-up & mode switching, fast AF speeds, low shutter lag, fast cycle times, and good burst performance. Burst rates and RAW buffer depths are noticeably improved over its predecessor, the T6s.

Battery Life
About average battery life for a consumer DSLR.

The Canon 77D uses a custom LP-E17 rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and ships with a dedicated battery charger. Battery life is significantly improved over the T6s and is now about average for a consumer DSLR when using the optical viewfinder, but keep in mind Live View mode draws more power reducing battery life considerably. We recommend you pick up a spare battery and keep it freshly charged and on-hand for extended outings or when using Live View mode a lot.

The table above shows the number of shots the Canon 77D is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))