A question for Canon 7D owners (mainly)

[RobDickinson]

M-J-B said:

I love the 50D, high iso however has always seemed disapppointing, other than that it does a pretty good job. What would a 7D give me over the 50D?

A better viewfinder (100/100) with LCD overlay
A better , much more configurable 19 point AF system
8 fps vs 6.3
1080 video
Flash comander
Spirit level
More pixels and a touch better high ISO (1/2 a stop I recon)
Better controls and UI

[M-J-B]

RobDickinson said:

M-J-B said:

I love the 50D, high iso however has always seemed disapppointing, other than that it does a pretty good job. What would a 7D give me over the 50D?

A better viewfinder (100/100) with LCD overlay
A better , much more configurable 19 point AF system
8 fps vs 6.3
1080 video
Flash comander
Spirit level
More pixels and a touch better high ISO (1/2 a stop I recon)
Better controls and UI

Oh bloody hell :slaps head in thought:

[RobDickinson]

Oh forgot the better weathersealing too..

[M-J-B]

RobDickinson said:

Oh forgot the better weathersealing too..

tt

[MonkeyHanger]

RobDickinson said:

Oh forgot the better weathersealing too..

To be honest i would take that with a pinch of salt.

On last year's Grizedale Stages Rally my 7D got water in the Multi-controller. The focus point shifted to bottom centre and wouldn't move. A quick blow out sorted it, but since then there's a Storm Jacket on the camera at all times.

It has some seals, but it's not a 1-series.

As for ISO, my 1DMK2N goes in the bag at 1250. The 7D will happily go to 2000

Edited by MonkeyHanger on Wednesday 1st September 22:09

[pernod]

MonkeyHanger said:

RobDickinson said:

Oh forgot the better weathersealing too..

To be honest i would take that with a pinch of salt.

On last year's Grizedale Stages Rally my 7D got water in the Multi-controller. The focus point shifted to bottom centre and wouldn't move. A quick blow out sorted it, but since then there's a Storm Jacket on the camera at all times.

It has some seals, but it's not a 1-series.

I always take 'reasonable' care to protect mine in a down pour as I'd prefer not to find out first hand whether the sealing is 100%!

Although the field testing seems to suggest it's better than not having any sealing.

[MonkeyHanger]

pernod said:

I always take 'reasonable' care to protect mine in a down pour as I'd prefer not to find out first hand whether the sealing is 100%!

Although the field testing seems to suggest it's better than not having any sealing.

I got caught out that day. It was a typical Lake District day, Sunny one minute, then throwing it down the next.

For what it's worth, exactly the same thing happened to my old 20D at Oulton Park a few years ago

[RobDickinson]

Had mine out in rain/snow a fair bit, seems ok but yeah the 1D series are definatly better built. And 3 * the price...

[LongQ]

MonkeyHanger said:

LongQ said:

Any observations about what focus settings seem to work well for moving subjects would be welcome - I'll try them out.

This is the post i made on another Photography Forum after my first shoot with the 7D last October. I'd been out of action over a month with a Torn Bicep so i'd had plenty of time to read the Manual and set it up as near as possible to my 1DMKIIN.


These are the AF settings i used for the majority of the day...some fine tuning/experimenting is still to be done.

CFn III.

1 Between 0 and Slow. I found slower is better...
2 0 : AF Priority.Tracking Priority
3 1 :Continuous AF Track priority
4 1 :Focus Search Off
5: 0 : Disable
6: Single point, Spot AF and Zone AF enabled.
7 0: Stops at AF area edges (i found Continuous to be rubbish from a quick try)
8 0:Auto
9 1: Enable
10 : 0 Enable
11 1: Disable
12 0 : Same for horiz/vertical

Hope that helps

Thanks for the list.

Just checked. Much the same except for

1. Set to 0 at the moment. I'll experiment with slower.
4. Focus search ON. Not sure what the effect will be under good conditions.
5. Adjust by lens - though I'm not sure this matters at all and it was only set for one lens.
6. I have a few more registered but that is not material for the actusal shots afaik.
9. Disabled - but again not an issue for image quality afaik.


Playing with the 70-300 DO today and I realised that at up to 200mm it is as sharp as anything (almost) but somewhere between 200 and 300 it goes a bit soft UNLESS focussed at infinity (or maybe close to infinity) when it seems to be sharp again. It's due a service anyway so I'll ask them to check it over. However it certainl makes for confusion when just looking at results in the absence of all the shooting information.

Also, shooting a sequence of the same stationary target the focus is not quite the same for each shot - notably the first looks better than the second. This is much more obvious when pixel peeping at the higher resolution of the 7D compared to the 400D.

I also suspect that one loses a tad of sharpness with IS - but on balance better to have it than not.

Thanks again.

Edited by LongQ on Thursday 2nd September 17:39

[RobDickinson]

If your shooting a stationary target then AI Servo is the wrong mode, pretty simple.. AI servo is expecting a moving target and trying to predict where it will move too.

[LongQ]

RobDickinson said:

If your shooting a stationary target then AI Servo is the wrong mode, pretty simple.. AI servo is expecting a moving target and trying to predict where it will move too.

That's a fair comment Rob but I can't see people chopping and changing their focus mode second by second at, say, a sports event. My guess is that they set up (as I do) for mainly moving subjects and then leave it like that most of the time. Or maybe use the

To be honest I have not really considered what that effective differences would be in practical use, other then the potential for unwanted re-focusing on a stationary subject (or something that appeared to be stationary to the camera's systems) and additional battery drain. Maybe responsiveness as well. In fact the main reason, in AF terms, for using One Shot AF seems t be the ability to pre-ocus and then move to different framing, suggesting that the servo mode is the main AF system design objective. That in turn suggests there is nothing much to be lost by using AF servo all the time, given a fast focusing system and a responsive lens.

I don't think the checks I ran today would have been influenced much, if at all, by the mode since they seemed to be consistent with the results on the day.

A quick re-check this evening clearly showed the 70-300 DO being sharp enough at 200mm but much less so just past that on its way to 300mm. If the light is good tommorrow I'll check at different apertures but, from memory, the shots from Monday already offer the evidence for the softness at different apertures.

I have a 70-200 f2.8 Mk 2 to play with for the weekend.

And a 14mm f2.8 L.

Thought I might as well go for it whilst some opportunities for interesting pics have arisen suddenly.

[RobDickinson]

I use single point singe AF 90% of the time, often for moving subjects, and have the af-on button for focus , no focus on shutter release.

I guess that would work with AI servo too just press af on untill it focuses (but you never get confirmation in AI servo) then stop focusing rather than leaving it pressed.

Theres some good info on B&H and canon on the 7D focusing and it realy does sugest you shoudl switchmodes.

You can map singe/AI Servo to DOF preview etc if you need quick switching.

[M-J-B]

Good thread and sorry to change the subject, but I've pushed the button and gone for a 5D MKII....

I'm sure the 7D is a great camera, but reflecting on the shots I take (and the fact I own a canvas printing company) FF was the option I wanted. I also think it will compliment the L glass I use.

I have a 24-70L and a 70-200 L IS (with a 1.4II if need be). I'll probably keep the 50D for macro using the 100 2/.8 and wide using my Sigma 10-22, that is unless someone would like to make me a sensible offer

I hope I won't be disappointed!

[LongQ]

M-J-B said:

Good thread and sorry to change the subject, but I've pushed the button and gone for a 5D MKII....

I think the 2 cameras are entirely complementary from what I can gather talking to a few people who have access to, and use, both. In fact I was chatting to a chap at the weekend who was carrying a 7D, 5D2 and 1D4, each with different lens categories fitted in order to be ready for whatever came into view. Given the amount of long L glass in view I was impressed with his strength, stamina and bank balance! Nice guy too.

If I could justify it I think I would be tempted to have both bodies for shooting varied subject matter.

[S47]

Slightly off topic, Just returned from a wet 3 day assignment, when the 7d cried enough after it got damp, whereas my 50D took everything in it's stride thankfully
ANyone else had damp problems with their 7D??

[LongQ]

Well, I'm still processing the stuff I took with the 7D and I have to say that it is impressive - ridiculously so with a 70-200 f2.8 Mk2 attached.

However I have been lucky enough to pick up a very nice lightly used 1D Mk3 so the 7D may need to wait a while. The saving on the memory card budget should allow me expand the L spec lens collection quite considerably.

If anyone has a spare 24-105 I could be interested.