Canon announces EOS 7D ***Official Discussion thread***

Paul Philpott said:
Even though I got my 7D at a bargain £1060

Where from and how please!!!:thumbs:
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7D kit (with EF 28-135mm IS) bought from BH PhotoVideo for $1899 (£1250 incl) whilst I was in New York last week. I sold the EF 28-135mm for £200 yesterday, but it cost me £6.70 to post, so total cost for the 7D was around £1060.

Before anyone says it does not have a UK warranty, I go to the USA regularly and BH Photo will replace it for me should it go wrong. The only difference between the US and UK 7D's is the charger, which works perfectly well when connected to a $4 US-UK adapter. The fact that Canon UK asks £1699 for a body only is an absolute ripoff. No wonder stock is easier to find in the UK than in the US.

If you cannot travel to the US, I recommend OneStop-Digital.com who have bodies and kits available at tax-free import proces. They are Hong Kong based but are extremely reliable. I have ordered many lenses from them.
 
Tobers said:
Folks - anyone used a 7D with a 300 2.8 or 70-200 2.8 for sports under floodlights at ISO1600 or 3200? I'm very interested in feedback, especially compared to a 1DIII.


Tobers
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I'm going to take mine down to the speedway on Friday evening and will have a bash.

I have just got a 1DMkII and my first impressions are that although the build quality is better, in use the 7D seems to be similar in AF speed and drive speed, but blows the 1DMkII away in terms of high ISO image quality.

To be fair, it is early days yet and I will have a much more in depth test of the 1DMkII against the 7D later.
 
Orville said:
I like my 7D, but do not love it yet. I was expecting high-iso performance to be better than my outgoing 40D but to be honnest it is pretty similar. On a per-pixel level the 7D has a very slight edge, but the extra 8MP's do a good job of making things seem better than they are. I would say the 7D is usable at iso 3200 vs 1600 for the 40D. AF is where the largest gains have been made and the 7D is much better at tracking small moving objects. The viewfinder is better, but that does not really help take better pictures. Sealing is sopposedly better but I have not dropped it in a puddle yet to test (my 40D survived the puddle test). The LCD is better, 8fps vs 6fps is better (but I never needed 6fps and have not even tried 8fps). Handling is the same. As for HD Video - I have a camcorder for that!

I know the 7D is a good camera, but it just does not have the same wow factor I experienced when I opened the box of my 40D. Perhaps the 40D spoiled me because it was really ahead of the game two years ago. The 7D just adds bells and whistles.

Oh, nearly missed out micro focus adjustment. This is one really neat feauture that has helped me get the best out of my slightly back-focusing EF-S 17-55mm. Setting MFA to +5 has removed the odd mis-focus I was getting with this superb IQ / average build quality lens.

Even though I got my 7D at a bargain £1060, I am not 100% sure it was money well spent. Even with pretty sharp lenses (EF-S 17-55mm F/2.8, 70-200mm F/4L IS) the final results are not much better than on my 40D. Most of this is probably due to poor user ability where even the 40D surpassed my skill.

So IMO the 7D is good, but not as good as the 40D was two years ago, or as good as many people suggest. DSLR's appear to be evolving at a much slower rate now, so maybe I will not feel the urge to upgrade for another 3 or 4 years. Manufacturers really should concentrate on IQ and high-iso performance rather than squeezing more and more megapixels onto a postage stamp. I hate to think how much glass will cost to get the absolute best out of such high density sensors.
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Got mine for £1,021.00 with everything paid friend in states has 4 stores he routed it in via there european business even wangled uk warranty
Regards
Lost
 
lost said:
I would be interested to see how many owners of 7d's think that the camera isnt as good as they thought it would be.
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I went in with relatively low expectations and I have to say that, on that basis, I'm pretty content. I think the image quality with good glass is superb and that the auto focus system for relatively slow moving objects is spot on. I particularly like the fact you can map different AF points between portrait and landscape orientation and like the bigger buffer than I am used to.

However, I do not believe the AF is better than on my 1DsII (and I am surprised that people think it beats the 1DII). For tracking birds in flight, it is an improvement on a 50D but I still can't get such consistent results as I can with the 1DsII. I appreciate that some of this may be user issues as there are many more options but it's not quite there for me.

However, for me the combination of 17Mpx FF and stunning AF and 18Mpx APS-C and good AF seems pretty powerful. I know a 1DIV might provide the same capability in one body but I would lose the option to frame differently by camera, lose the backup camera and be £1k-£2k worse off. A no-brainer for me and I'd buy another 7D tomorrow if mine wasn't around...

Paul
 
Paul, if your quote about the 1DII was aimed at me, I said I thought the AF and drive on the 7D against the 1DII seemed similar, although the high speed ISO of the 7D beats it hands down.

It is early days for me with the 1D series body and I am still playing with it. It also has to be remembered that the 7D has dual digic 4 processors whereas the 1DII only has a single digic 2 and that the technology of the 1DII is at best 5 years old.

Although I am really impressed with the 7D and it suits my needs, I bought the 1DII with a view to just trying a 1 series body and if I liked it had toyed with the idea of selling the 7D and the 1DII and the 10-22mm and putting some money to them and buying a 1DMkIV and a 17-40L.

I have since changed my mind and I think that it is more likely that I will sell my 300mm f2.8 ATX Tokina SD and put the same money that I would have spent to get the 1DMkIV to buying a Canon 300 f2.8 IS, thus keeping the 1DII and the 7D for the time being.
 
Just noticed this over on DPReview....

Service Notice: EOS 7D: Residual Image in Picture



Thank you for using Canon products.

We have confirmed that in certain camera settings and shooting conditions, the phenomenon described below may occur in images captured by the EOS 7D Digital SLR camera.

Canon is currently investigating and analyzing the cause of this phenomenon, and we are planning to release a firmware update to address this issue.

Once the support measures have been established, we will post the relevant information on our Web site.

We offer our most sincere apologies to customers using this product who have been inconvenienced by this issue. Going forward, we will spare no effort in our quality management to make sure our customers can use our products with confidence. We hope our efforts will earn your understanding.

Phenomenon
In images captured by continuous shooting, and under certain conditions, barely noticeable traces of the immediately preceding frame may be visible. This phenomenon is not noticeable in an image with optimal exposure. The phenomenon may become more noticeable if a retouching process such as level compensation is applied to emphasize the image.

Affected Product
EOS 7D Digital SLR

Support
This contact information is for residents of the United States and Puerto Rico only. If you do not reside in the USA or Puerto Rico, please contact the Canon Customer Support Center in your region.
Thank you,
Customer Support Operations
Canon U.S.A., Inc.
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No complaints from me so far with the 7D - I'm pretty chuffed with it. I still haven't had a chance to test the AF system on BIF shots, real life keeps conspiring to stop me getting out there. :gag:

There are so many AF setup options, but my initial feelings having played with it and tested as much as I can, is that probably the best option for BIF is the expanded centre AF spot, and with the tracking speed set to the slowest where the bird is against any sort of background, and set to the fastest where the bird is against the sky with no danger of anything coming between the subject and the camera. Just theories though for now - time will tell. :shrug:
 
EdBray said:
Paul, if your quote about the 1DII was aimed at me, I said I thought the AF and drive on the 7D against the 1DII seemed similar, although the high speed ISO of the 7D beats it hands down.

It is early days for me with the 1D series body and I am still playing with it. It also has to be remembered that the 7D has dual digic 4 processors whereas the 1DII only has a single digic 2 and that the technology of the 1DII is at best 5 years old.
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Ed, no in the original question, lost said he thought his 7D beat his 1DII for AF performance. I've just reported that this isn't my experience with the specific situation of birds in flight, but acknowledged it could be user error as I am very used to my 1DsII after taking 50,000 frames on it...

I bought the 7D as a stop gap for the 1DIV potentially but I have no plan to change. Good glass is a much better investment and now pro camera bodies have a worse depreciation than cars, I want to get out of the game of always wanting the newest 1-series.

I still think, Digic2 or Digic4, the 1Ds can hold its head high in current company and is the camera I pick if I want ultimate quality (although some of that may be that it puts less strain on the lenses)

Much of the Digic processing is about getting images off the chip and video, the things I largely bought the 7D for. My 1Ds produces roughly the same res. images as the 7D but only at half the rate, and when the buffer fills up it takes an age to empty. But, the output is still the best I have seen from any D-SLR (although I haven't played with 1DsIII or 5DII in anger)

Paul
 
EdBray said:
I'm going to take mine down to the speedway on Friday evening and will have a bash.

I have just got a 1DMkII and my first impressions are that although the build quality is better, in use the 7D seems to be similar in AF speed and drive speed, but blows the 1DMkII away in terms of high ISO image quality.

To be fair, it is early days yet and I will have a much more in depth test of the 1DMkII against the 7D later.
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Looking forward to the results of the speedway....
 
grumpybadger said:
Ed, no in the original question, lost said he thought his 7D beat his 1DII for AF performance. I've just reported that this isn't my experience with the specific situation of birds in flight, but acknowledged it could be user error as I am very used to my 1DsII after taking 50,000 frames on it...

I bought the 7D as a stop gap for the 1DIV potentially but I have no plan to change. Good glass is a much better investment and now pro camera bodies have a worse depreciation than cars, I want to get out of the game of always wanting the newest 1-series.

I still think, Digic2 or Digic4, the 1Ds can hold its head high in current company and is the camera I pick if I want ultimate quality (although some of that may be that it puts less strain on the lenses)

Much of the Digic processing is about getting images off the chip and video, the things I largely bought the 7D for. My 1Ds produces roughly the same res. images as the 7D but only at half the rate, and when the buffer fills up it takes an age to empty. But, the output is still the best I have seen from any D-SLR (although I haven't played with 1DsIII or 5DII in anger)

Paul
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At first i did not think there was any difference between them but the more i get to understand the 7d and play about with the af and custom functions in varying conditions and comparing them both side by side the 7d is just edging ahead for me it may be a personal thing in that respect i just like the ability Canon has given us to tweak things .
 
Don't get me wrong, for many things I shoot I've found it to be stunning but for birds in flight, it still isn't as good as my 1Ds on the settings I've tried (one of the problems I have is that I need lots of time to try all the settings and check the results)

The spot-AF seems a very good addition for static subjects.
 
grumpybadger said:
Don't get me wrong, for many things I shoot I've found it to be stunning but for birds in flight, it still isn't as good as my 1Ds on the settings I've tried (one of the problems I have is that I need lots of time to try all the settings and check the results)

The spot-AF seems a very good addition for static subjects.
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I know what you mean i think it will be another couple of months before i am completelty happy with it myself but im impressed so far. I like it when i can pick up a camera and use it without having to stop and think about how do you do that. Dont get me wrong im not getting rid of my mk2 i still like it to much for that it will probably never get sold and join my eos 600 and eos3 on the shelf and just come out on odd days to me those 3 cameras are old friends who won't ever be sold. By the way i liked your Starling shots
Regards
Lost
 
I am happy with my 7d. I have been able to take shots which I could not have taken before.
Also, the battery life seems to be a lot better than the Canon quoted one too (which was dire on my previous camera).
Using live-view sparingly, I shot >370 shots some days on a single charge (and that is some days, as in most days I didn't change batteries, and 370 is what I shot most in a single day). With IS on , and on all of the lenses I was using (28-135, 70-300, 100-400). The noise is a little more than I expected (I'll try and upload a tiger@1600 I took), but I was in a very hot environment, and without any NR. The noise is significantly less than I could have expected with the previous camera, and still I think that this particular shot is usable.
 
Another plus for the 7D. Was shooting tethered on Tuesday night with the camera inaccessible and using external flash.

The ability to pop up the flash via the laptop and then set up the ST-E2 functionality and play with the flash balance etc was very useful and saved me lots of time. I'm still very impressed with the remote flash stuff and can see it being used quite a lot...

Paul
 
tdodd said:
Apologies if this has already been posted (I did not spot a link and searching does not turn it up) but here is an assessment of the 7D's AF performance for BIF - http://www.stanford.edu/~ahazeghi/Photos/EOS7DAF/
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Quality link that Tim :thumbs:

So, 7D's AF tracking for BIF is better than the 50D, but not as good as the 1D(s)III or Nikon D700/D3. I guess that shouldn't be any surprise really, even if it's a bit of a disappointment.

I have a theory that crop sensor cameras will always be at a disadvantage compared to full frame (and 1.3x crop to a slightly lesser extent) because the dimensional element of the phase-detect sensors is physically reduced by the format. I think the same thing might be behind the reason why 1-Series cameras will AF at f/8 vs f/5.6?
 
HoppyUK said:
Quality link that Tim :thumbs:

So, 7D's AF tracking for BIF is better than the 50D, but not as good as the 1D(s)III or Nikon D700/D3. I guess that shouldn't be any surprise really, even if it's a bit of a disappointment.

I have a theory that crop sensor cameras will always be at a disadvantage compared to full frame (and 1.3x crop to a slightly lesser extent) because the dimensional element of the phase-detect sensors is physically reduced by the format. I think the same thing might be behind the reason why 1-Series cameras will AF at f/8 vs f/5.6?
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That doesn't explain why the 5D & 5DMkII only AF up to f5.6.
 
EdBray said:
That doesn't explain why the 5D & 5DMkII only AF up to f5.6.
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LOL see what you mean Eddie, but format and lens are not the only determining factors - there's good AF which is surely in the 7D but it's small format, and then there's average AF in the 5D/5D2 which is maybe less good even though it's full frame.

Here's a thought - isn't the AF system basically the same in the Nikon D300 and D700? But it works better in the full frame camera?
 
EdBray said:
Paul, if your quote about the 1DII was aimed at me, I said I thought the AF and drive on the 7D against the 1DII seemed similar, although the high speed ISO of the 7D beats it hands down.

It is early days for me with the 1D series body and I am still playing with it. It also has to be remembered that the 7D has dual digic 4 processors whereas the 1DII only has a single digic 2 and that the technology of the 1DII is at best 5 years old.

Although I am really impressed with the 7D and it suits my needs, I bought the 1DII with a view to just trying a 1 series body and if I liked it had toyed with the idea of selling the 7D and the 1DII and the 10-22mm and putting some money to them and buying a 1DMkIV and a 17-40L.

I have since changed my mind and I think that it is more likely that I will sell my 300mm f2.8 ATX Tokina SD and put the same money that I would have spent to get the 1DMkIV to buying a Canon 300 f2.8 IS, thus keeping the 1DII and the 7D for the time being.
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Not been on for a couple of days so missed this post of Ed's, but Ed you'll love the 300 2.8, it's one of the sharpest lenses I have, on the 7D it is pin sharp even with a 2x TC...but you probably know that..
George
 
George said:
Not been on for a couple of days so missed this post of Ed's, but Ed you'll love the 300 2.8, it's one of the sharpest lenses I have, on the 7D it is pin sharp even with a 2x TC...but you probably know that..
George
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Well my plan didn't last too long, I'm about to buy a 1DMkIII I think as i love the ergonomics of the 1DMkII and I like the fact that the 1DMkIII has similar functionality to the 7D.

I will sell the 1DMkII now and in a while the Tokina 300mm f2.8 and then buy the 300L f2.8 IS
 
Can i ask a question about Video on the 7D.
I was wondering if anyone can comment on the quality of sound when you take video. I've looked at lots of footage on vmeo and it sounds great but I cant tell if external mics have been used or not.

I'm not wanting anything amazing but would like to know how it compares to a standard camcorder.
 
Deano_uk said:
Can i ask a question about Video on the 7D.
I was wondering if anyone can comment on the quality of sound when you take video. I've looked at lots of footage on vmeo and it sounds great but I cant tell if external mics have been used or not.

I'm not wanting anything amazing but would like to know how it compares to a standard camcorder.
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I'm not into video, but Id say it's a racing certainty that the vids you've seen with the better quality audio have been done with an auxilliary mic plugged into the camera. The tiny mic on the camera itself isn't going to give that quality of sound. I think it's just mono too?
 
Well I was in my local Jessops today and had a play with the 7D.

Really impressed, although they didn't have an awesome lens like the 300 f2.8 L IS to go on it :(

Of course, the tests I carried out were very limited (in a shopping mall) but I loved the way the camera handled, the burst speed, the built in spirit level, more non menu controls and the crisp screen.

I want, I want I want :lol:
 
I am beginning to think that the AF on the 7D is going to take a little getting used to. This is due to the amount of user configurable options available and most users (me included) being used to having the choice between AI servo or one shot.
 
I hope to try the video out soon, bought a sennheisser MKE 400 which fits on the hot shoe. Am in Ecuador at the moment.
 
Has anyone seen any protection screens/films suitable for the 7d? I meant to get one early on. Not quite quickly enough though :(
 
For both screens? Would you mind posting a link, as I can only find them for the main LCD.
Thanks
 
HoppyUK said:
I have a theory that crop sensor cameras will always be at a disadvantage compared to full frame (and 1.3x crop to a slightly lesser extent) because the dimensional element of the phase-detect sensors is physically reduced by the format. I think the same thing might be behind the reason why 1-Series cameras will AF at f/8 vs f/5.6?
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Sorry to mention the dreaded "N" word but the D300 will AF up to f8....
 
The battery grip just arrived. Very nice I must say, with a good quality finish which matches the camera body. I got it from Park Cameras who have just dropped the price to £159.99, which seems to be the best UK price. If you know different don't tell me! ;)
 
No issues here Kaz, although I'm not getting to do much togging at the moment - I'm into a never-ending round of hospital vists with ny bro who seems to reaching the end of a long losing struggle.

I understand Canon are working on a firmware fix anyway.
 
kaz10 said:
Sorry if it as already been mentioned but as any one had any ghosting issues it seems that when high speed shooting, the sensor is not cleared of the previous image just wondered if anyone as had the problem
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yes im getting it , it is only faint but to show it more iv put it in cs3 .the ghost is from the image before this one.
Rob.
opps.jpg
 
And in the specs it sais the 7D doesnt do multiple exposures :bonk:
 
GyRob said:
yes im getting it , it is only faint but to show it more iv put it in cs3 .the ghost is from the image before this one.
Rob.
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What ISO was that on Rob? Did you have to bump the exposure much? I haven't seen it on shots I have looked at myself
 
CT said:
No issues here Kaz, although I'm not getting to do much togging at the moment - I'm into a never-ending round of hospital vists with ny bro who seems to reaching the end of a long losing struggle.

I understand Canon are working on a firmware fix anyway.
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Sorry to here that CT hope everything works out and hope you don t get any probs with yours then
 
GyRob said:
yes im getting it , it is only faint but to show it more iv put it in cs3 .the ghost is from the image before this one.
Rob.
opps.jpg
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Thats a shame GyRob hope you get it sorted like CT said canon are working on it had read about it and that is why I asked about it it is sort of putting me off getting one with some of the points that ahve been made
 
coldpenguin said:
What ISO was that on Rob? Did you have to bump the exposure much? I haven't seen it on shots I have looked at myself
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Rob's put that image through PS's Equalizer filter to better demonstrate the problem. It's not as obvious in the proper image.

I've been looking at my BiF shots to see if I can find any like this, and have found nothing. But that may be because I tend not to shoot Bifs against a clear blue sky (mainly because I rarely see a CBS).
 
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