Canon 7D mk2 owners thread.

I had a superb day yesterday with the red kites at Harewood, and the 7D2 continues to impress, the tracking is superb, still a while to go till I get the settings spot on.
With a 300mm F2.8 +1.4TC



7D2_4655s.jpg
 
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A very battered, wet box has just been delivered by FedEx :(. Got to wait until 5 to be home and check it too!
 
Funny that, I've got one waiting for me too, I'll be home at 1 pm tho :)
 
Mmm quite tempted by that. UK stock etc and I've dealt with Park before. I've been looking at Panamoz where it's approx £1050... much cheaper but I've not dealt with them before so bit uneasy. Can't be good for UK stores with those kind of import companies. I suppose that's a debate for another thread :p
 
Does anyone know of any particularly good 7D Mark II guide books now that it has been out for a few months, please?

The sort of guide which is real-world and with tips etc which Canon haven't covered in their manuals.
 
RedRobin said:
Does anyone know of any particularly good 7D Mark II guide books now that it has been out for a few months, please?

The sort of guide which is real-world and with tips etc which Canon haven't covered in their manuals.
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I've literally had mine in my hand for 2minutes if not less and am thinking the same. A night just flicking through the camera for me tonight I think to familiarise myself with the menus.
 
Got mine from portus digital, I got a Lowepro bag free, they are giving a Sandisc 16gb cf. Card free now
 
Ben6 said:
I've literally had mine in my hand for 2minutes if not less and am thinking the same. A night just flicking through the camera for me tonight I think to familiarise myself with the menus.
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....It's very customisable with both button allocations and autofocus fine-tuning. Having so much choice is what creates the learning curve but it probably depends which Canon camera you come to the 7D2 from.
 
RedRobin said:
....It's very customisable with both button allocations and autofocus fine-tuning. Having so much choice is what creates the learning curve but it probably depends which Canon camera you come to the 7D2 from.
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I'll hopefully get a basic set up for it this evening and try it out in better light tomorrow. I've upgraded from a 60D so hopefully i'll find it quite a good leap. I know af is going to be much better (which is why I upgraded) but hopefully it'll be better in other areas too.
 
I've found by far the most useful setting is switching AF zones using the flick switch thing mounted over the joystick. Excellent feature.

Any other top tips?
 
One thing im missing already is there a button I can set to just press it once and auto select all af points? I had my 60D set that way so if I just needed to quickly focus and shoot I used to press the top right focus point button.
 
Ben6 said:
One thing im missing already is there a button I can set to just press it once and auto select all af points? I had my 60D set that way so if I just needed to quickly focus and shoot I used to press the top right focus point button.
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....Go to MENU > AF tab 4 > Select AF area selec.mode > SET >

and tick only the 65 pt AF (being the one you want to toggle to) and one other and then the lever around the joystick can only scroll between the ticked AF areas.

By default the 7D2 uses the AF-ON button to Back-Button-Focus which is invaluable.
 
madmackem said:
Not showing that price now Robin, £1429
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....It definitely was £1,299 when I visited the page earlier via a post by Marc Read (who works at Park) on his facebook page. In fact it's still stated as £1,299 on Marc's page and must be a mistake.
 
RedRobin said:
....Go to MENU > AF tab 4 > Select AF area selec.mode > SET >

and tick only the 65 pt AF (being the one you want to toggle to) and one other and then the lever around the joystick can only scroll between the ticked AF areas.

By default the 7D2 uses the AF-ON button to Back-Button-Focus which is invaluable.
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Thanks robin. I had thought of doing it that way but then i'll loose the other af modes/options. I'll have to see which ones I like the most over the next few days then i'll de select the ones I don't.

Have you left focus and meter linked to both your shutter button and the AF-ON? Or have you turned focus completely off on the main shutter button?
 
Ben6 said:
Thanks robin. I had thought of doing it that way but then i'll loose the other af modes/options. I'll have to see which ones I like the most over the next few days then i'll de select the ones I don't.

Have you left focus and meter linked to both your shutter button and the AF-ON? Or have you turned focus completely off on the main shutter button?
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....I have turned Focus completely off on the Shutter button which now just meters and shutters.

Another option which I haven't tried yet is to select different sets of settings (including AF pt areas) in your C1/C2/C3 modes.
 
Ben6 said:
Thanks robin. I had thought of doing it that way but then i'll loose the other af modes/options. I'll have to see which ones I like the most over the next few days then i'll de select the ones I don't.

Have you left focus and meter linked to both your shutter button and the AF-ON? Or have you turned focus completely off on the main shutter button?
Click to expand...

As well as setting the AF-ON button for focus, set the AE lock (*) button to focus also, but set it to use whatever AF point you want, such as 65 point auto selection.
 
You can register the 65 points as a registered AF point and then put that on the DOF button
 
Gaz J said:
You can register the 65 points as a registered AF point and then put that on the DOF button
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....I noticed that but the problem with the DoF button is that you have to keep your finger on it to maintain the registered function (AF pts area in this discussion) and that can be worse than awkward in many shooting conditions. I tried setting the DoF button for another function and quickly gave up on it.

The DoF button would be great if it was a punch on/off toggle switch but it's not.
 
jm2 said:
As well as setting the AF-ON button for focus, set the AE lock (*) button to focus also, but set it to use whatever AF point you want, such as 65 point auto selection.
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That sounds like a great solution, i'll look into that thanks.

Edit. Just set that up and it works well i'll give it a try for a few days.
 
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Ben6 said:
That sounds like a great solution, i'll look into that thanks.

Edit. Just set that up and it works well i'll give it a try for a few days.
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RedRobin said:
....I noticed that but the problem with the DoF button is that you have to keep your finger on it to maintain the registered function (AF pts area in this discussion) and that can be worse than awkward in many shooting conditions. I tried setting the DoF button for another function and quickly gave up on it.

The DoF button would be great if it was a punch on/off toggle switch but it's not.
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Without trying to be a smart ass here Robin the DOF button has two settings for a registered AF point. One which only changes when, as you say, it's held in and one that changes each time the button is pressed.

What it does do is mean that you cannot set the AF button or AE lock button to a specific AF point or zone. If you do it overrides the registered point. You can however have, for example, the AF button with a normal, freely selected AF point or points and utilise the DOF button to switch to all 65.

It's very versatile and depending on your needs can be set up to utilise several AF points or zones.
 
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Oh, regarding batteries I bought the 7dayshop ones in the end, both work perfectly and I can even register them to the camera. They're of a slightly lower capacity (1600MaH I think) than the Canon ones but 2 for £12 isn't bad!

In honesty I got a whole day out of the Canon one driving my 500 F4 IS (and the IS was working hard, crap light!) so they're really just for backup!

Harry.
 
Gaz J said:
Without trying to be a smart ass here Robin the DOF button has two settings for a registered AF point. One which only changes when, as you say, it's held in and one that changes each time the button is pressed.

What it does do is mean that you cannot set the AF button or AE lock button to a specific AF point or zone. If you do it overrides the registered point. You can however have, for example, the AF button with a normal, freely selected AF point or points and utilise the DOF button to switch to all 65.

It's very versatile and depending on your needs can be set up to utilise several AF points or zones.
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....Thanks, Gary! That's very helpful information - I had missed the DoF button setting flexibility which you describe and will explore it for myself.

Currently I have the AF-ON button dedicated to back-focus and the adjacent star * button toggled between ONE SHOT and AI SERVO so I can slide my thumb onto it while still controlling autofocus at the same time with both under my thumb.
 
I think I might have set a record, 100 shots out of a fully charged LP-E6 in my 7D2, mind you I've been going through the menus constantly.
 
RedRobin said:
....Thanks, Gary! That's very helpful information - I had missed the DoF button setting flexibility which you describe and will explore it for myself.

Currently I have the AF-ON button dedicated to back-focus and the adjacent star * button toggled between ONE SHOT and AI SERVO so I can slide my thumb onto it while still controlling autofocus at the same time with both under my thumb.
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I've got my DoF button set to switch between one shot and ai servo if that helps Robin.
 
I've configured the AF-ON button to toggle between one-shot and AF-SERVO. I could never get used to disabling AF on the shutter release, so this is a good compromise that works well.
 
Im currently running mine with AF ON set to Case 2, with AI SERVO and 5 point expansion. AE LOCK set to Case 1, with ONE SHOT and no set AF point so I can choose my own point. Then I have the DOF set to switch to registered AF point on each press. I have a seperate registered AF point in both orientations as I regularly use a higher point in the frame point to avoid focus and recompose.
 
Gaz J said:
Im currently running mine with AF ON set to Case 2, with AI SERVO and 5 point expansion. AE LOCK set to Case 1, with ONE SHOT and no set AF point so I can choose my own point. Then I have the DOF set to switch to registered AF point on each press. I have a seperate registered AF point in both orientations as I regularly use a higher point in the frame point to avoid focus and recompose.
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:agree: seems to work ok for me as well.
 
Gaz J said:
Im currently running mine with AF ON set to Case 2, with AI SERVO and 5 point expansion. AE LOCK set to Case 1, with ONE SHOT and no set AF point so I can choose my own point. Then I have the DOF set to switch to registered AF point on each press. I have a seperate registered AF point in both orientations as I regularly use a higher point in the frame point to avoid focus and recompose.
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....So am I right in thinking that you don't use a Back-Button-Focus at all and leave AF combined with the Shutter button? If so, that wouldn't suit me at all as I want Back-Button-Focus.

The fact is that Canon have offered the user more than one way to achieve their preferred camera actions and that is a very good thing.
 
No Robin I'm using BBF on both the AF ON and AE LOCK buttons with AF switched off on the shutter button. Only the AF ON button has a full set of AF Case, AF point/zone, one shot/AI servo registered to it. The AE LOCK button has everything except the AF point/zone registered. This allows me to use two other seperate registered AF points in a different part of the frame, in my case the top of the frame in both horizontal and vertical orientation when I use the AE LOCK button by pressing the DOF button. If that makes sense.
 
RedRobin said:
The fact is that Canon have offered the user more than one way to achieve their preferred camera actions and that is a very good thing.
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The amount of customisation on this camera is awesome and one of the things I love most about it. I have all 3 custom modes set for different events (motorsport, daytime action, night action) and different button configurations and function settings for each of them. I know you can do this with a lot of the other cameras too but there's just more options to play with on the 7DII (and 1DX).
 
Gaz J said:
No Robin I'm using BBF on both the AF ON and AE LOCK buttons with AF switched off on the shutter button. Only the AF ON button has a full set of AF Case, AF point/zone, one shot/AI servo registered to it. The AE LOCK button has everything except the AF point/zone registered. This allows me to use two other seperate registered AF points in a different part of the frame, in my case the top of the frame in both horizontal and vertical orientation when I use the AE LOCK button by pressing the DOF button. If that makes sense.
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....I haven't managed to fully understand - I would say that is my fault rather than yours.

I don't feel I have a need to register AF points in different parts of the frame and so my way of shooting is different to yours.

I don't want my AF-ON button to do anything at all other than to focus. But I would like to use the DoF button to toggle between ONE SHOT and AI SERVO according to which is already globally set. Ideally I would like the DoF button not to need to be held depressed to maintain the option, but to act as a switch but I suspect this is not possible. At least the DoF button is easy to reach and action with my right hand.

Have you set more than one function to one button? That's the part I don't understand how to do (assuming I want to do so).
 
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I don't have any button set to more than one function. The AF ON is just set to a particular AF CASE, AF POINT (5 point expanded) AI SERVO which is my preferred options for birds in flight.

It's possible to set the AE LOCK button to do the ONE SHOT/AI SERVO CHANGE. I'm
sure you already know that though Robin.
 
I have mine set bbf i use the af on and i set that for what case i need at the time and i set the ae lock next to it for centre single point focus one. that way if im shooting bif and they land its a slight move to one centre focus
 
That's pretty similar to my set up but I set an expanded AF point and AI servo on the AF on button. when I use the AE LOCK I have the choice of using a registered AF point in both horizontal and vertical format by pressing the DOF button
 
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I think this shows that there is no right or wrong way to set it up and to be honest i am still learning and trying as this is a major step up from my 550/t2i that i have been using
 
wave01 said:
I think this shows that there is no right or wrong way to set it up and to be honest i am still learning and trying as this is a major step up from my 550/t2i that i have been using
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Absolutely. My aim when setting custom functions is not to have to take the camera from my eye to change any settings if possible. I don't focus and recompose hence the registered AF points on the DOF button. There are custom functions on the 7D MkII that I wish I had on my 1DX and vice versa.
 
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