Tony, it might be worth taking a look at this video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sWIqzcSs4s - and maybe checking out some other videos on metering and exposure compensation. Despite what you may wish, cameras can sometimes need a helping hand to get things right.
I've been searching further on the subject of 7D overexposure and came across this review, which I've not seen before -
http://www.neocamera.com/review_canon_7d_more3.html. Here's a small quote from it....
Exposure is metered using one of 4 patterns. Spot and partial behave exactly as expected. Center-weighed is reasonable but is subject to the usual overexposure when the background is brighter than the center of the frame. This is the reason multi-segment metering was invented. Unfortunately, the Canon 7D's new metering is overly influenced by the point of focus. Most bright backgrounds become over-exposed in an effort to keep the subject bright. Typically, the Canon 7D overexposes by ½ EV but it too frequently does so by more, up to 3½ EV at times. It does not help that the LCD is overexposed by default but after closer inspection, this DSLR still burns highlights 5% of the time. This is higher than recently tested DSLRs other than the Nikon D60. A firmware fix could certainly fix this, but at the moment the evaluative metering system is not working out.
Now that seems to line up with the demonstration I performed and posted here -
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=2618734&postcount=21. One could make the argument that the camera is not exposing correctly, but that is the nature of autoexposure, especially with evaluative metering, if the meter zone identified as your subject, and neighbouring meter zones, as well as the scene overall, have an unusual imbalance of tones then problems are likely. i.e.....
- dark subject and light background = potential for trouble;
- light subject and dark background = potential for trouble;
- dark subject and dark background = potential for trouble;
- light subject and light background = potential for trouble;
- backlit subject = potential for trouble;
- extreme dynamic range = potential for trouble;
- mid tones throughout = reliable automatic exposure.
Now, often scenes will be easy enough for the camera to read and autoexposure will do a pretty fair job of delivering something you can use right away, but as soon as things begin to get tricky it is the photographer's duty to step in and take control if necessary. Fortunately, with image previews, highlight alerts and histograms, this ought to be a darn sight easier to do today than 10+ years ago.
To be honest I don't have a problem with the metering and exposure on any of my cameras. Why? because I don't leave it up to autoexposure to guess at what I need. I'm fed up with the scatty results produced by autoexposure and I'd rather just remove the camera's brain from the decision making process. I don't blame the camera for iffy results. I accept the practical limitations of these things. I almost always use spot metering and make my own decisions about where to place a tone within the dynamic range of the camera. I then set my exposure manually to lock it into place and avoid the irritation of having the exposure jiggle about as I adjust my composition. If there is a mistake in the exposure the mistake is mine and mine alone. I certainly wouldn't blame the camera, unless the metering was genuinely FUBAR.
