Canon 7D mk2 owners thread.

Cheffievrs said:
Well I find this all very interesting as so far people are saying how good they think it is, however I have a friend who has boxed his back up and it's being returned tomorrow..!

He's no idiot either, published wildlife tog.. He didn't feel the images were sharp or in focus.. Preferred his mkiv

I'm a little disappointed as it was on my radar, time will tell..!
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Could be a bad one

Could be a micro adjust issue

I posted a few shots soc with no sharpening up the thread that I felt were fine

I wouldn't say its any different to my 5d3 wrt sharpness or focus
 
Gaz J said:
Well first indications are that image quality especially re noise is easily better than the MkI.

If the AF is as good as the 5D3, which it should be, then its hard to see what advantage a 1D MkIV would have over the 7D MkII apart from build quality.

The 5D3's AF is better than a MkIV's.
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The noise seems to be finer, I'm waiting to see how LR handles it all. It's better, but it's marginal so far.

People are loving the AF, putting it up there with the 1Dx. So looks good. 1D4 looks to have better high ISO still. Hopefully 2nd hand prices will drop now.

Depends on who you talk too, I haven't used either so couldn't comment. I can't afford long glass so FF isn't an option. If I stay with Canon the plan is to get a 5D3 once 2nd hand prices hit 1k to replace my current FF.
 
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The MkIV is faster to lock on but it can't match the 5D3 for tracking after that. I almost stopped using my MkIV when I got the 5D. Only used it when I wanted the frame rate and the light was decent. Over about ISO 2500 the MkIV starts to struggle while the 5D will go to 4000 quite nicely.

Also the FF against the 1.3 crop isnt such a big drop with the extra pixels of the 5D allowing you to crop in a bit more.

MkIV is still a fine camera and until the 5D3 and 1DX came out would blow every other Canon body away without too much bother.

One of the downsides of buying new cameras early is you don't get too much chance to see real world images to help you make up your mind.
 
ISO 3200
21 by c0rb, on Flickr

I've gone from a 550D to this, so a huge improvement all round to me. Just need to use it more and read the manual more. Does the tracking only work using live view?
 
Gaz J said:
The MkIV is faster to lock on but it can't match the 5D3 for tracking after that. I almost stopped using my MkIV when I got the 5D. Only used it when I wanted the frame rate and the light was decent. Over about ISO 2500 the MkIV starts to struggle while the 5D will go to 4000 quite nicely.

Also the FF against the 1.3 crop isnt such a big drop with the extra pixels of the 5D allowing you to crop in a bit more.

MkIV is still a fine camera and until the 5D3 and 1DX came out would blow every other Canon body away without too much bother.

One of the downsides of buying new cameras early is you don't get too much chance to see real world images to help you make up your mind.
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Yeah I'm in no rush, just impatient. I've got a 1Ds2 and 7D at the moment (as well as a Fuji kit) so plenty to play with. I had a 1D3 previously as well. I'd be happy to replace both with a 1D4...

This shows the improved noise control well, but like a lot of samples so far there isn't much in the way of improved detail:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisbainbridge1/15489959720/
 
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mipevo6 said:
Could be a bad one

Could be a micro adjust issue

I posted a few shots soc with no sharpening up the thread that I felt were fine

I wouldn't say its any different to my 5d3 wrt sharpness or focus
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I believe he tried some micro adjusts, so yeah it could have been a bad one, who knows..?

Gaz makes some interesting comments in his last post, I have a 1dx and a mkiv with the intention to trade the iv, but it's still a great camera, I may just hold on
 
I'm about to pull the trigger and buy one of these, however I'm unsure what my options are going to be with regards to RAW processing. My editing computer is still running XP with PS CS5 and Camera Raw 6.0.0.205 and works great for me, so I believe in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"... However, looking at my options for software I'm struggling. It seems the new DPP requires windows 7, as does the latest versions of lightroom. Anyone care to share some options please?

Regards,
Ryan
 
Gaz J said:
Well if its that close to the 1DX then it should be a winner for Canon. I think though that it will lose out a bit using the superteles when the extra speed from the bigger battery of the 1Dx will come into play.
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The larger battery improves the acquisition speed but the tracking should be the same in theory.

Bob
 
Ryan.S said:
My editing computer is still running XP with PS CS5 and Camera Raw 6.0.0.205 and works great for me, so I believe in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"... However, looking at my options for software I'm struggling. It seems the new DPP requires windows 7, as does the latest versions of lightroom. Anyone care to share some options please?
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I had a similar issue when I started using a 6D earlier this year. My version of Lightroom wouldn't support the 6D, so I had to upgrade. But the new Lightroom wouldn't run on XP so I had to upgrade the OS. And my PC wouldn't run W7 happily so I had to upgrade that. (All my kit - camera, Lightroom, OS, PC - was essentially from about 2009 or 2010.)

You might have to do the same. Or, for a little bit more work but a lot less cost, get the free Adobe RAW-to-DNG converter, convert your 7D2 RAWs to DNGs, and your existing editing setup should be OK.
 
StewartR said:
Or, for a little bit more work but a lot less cost, get the free Adobe RAW-to-DNG converter, convert your 7D2 RAWs to DNGs, and your existing editing setup should be OK.
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....Unfortunately Adobe's RAW-to-DNG Converter isn't compatible with Canon 7D Mark II RAW images yet. But I expect it may not be too long before Adobe release an update.
 
Thanks :)
I was pleased! I didn't really do a lot of fiddling about, I just set the tripod up, mirror lock, manual focus, 10s timer and clicked half a dozen off. I only looked at that one and it was in focus so I kept it. Hardly any PP either except for a tiny bit of brightness and sharpen in photoshop.
 
Canon Bob said:
The larger battery improves the acquisition speed but the tracking should be the same in theory.

Bob
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Yes you're right Bob but it should still drive the lens to where it needs to be faster. Probably more use when you're changing focus distance.

The bigger battery was probably the reason that I always felt the MkIV snapped into focus faster than the 5D3 initially.
 
Well tomorrow if the postman is a good lad ill have my 7D MkII. And Wednesday is forecast to be nice so hopefully will get some comparisons against my other bodies.
 
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Gaz J said:
Well tomorrow if the postman is a good lad ill have my 7D MkII. And Wednesday if forecast to be nice so hopefully will get some comparisons against my other bodies.
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A couple of samples with a Barn Owl flying straight at the lens in low light might convince me :thinking:
 
No problem Neil. I will knock a couple out for you Wed night :confused:

I've got a better chance of photographing hens teeth. I've only seen 3 barn owls in the last 5 years down here and all very late at night

I'm not expecting 5D3 levels of noise but i think that AF will be fine given its essentially the 5D3/1DX. I think for me a 1DX and a 7D MkII will be a more versatile set up than a 1DX/5D3.

I will still be picking up my 1DX for first choice but having a crop body with say a 300+1.4 or a 400 f5.6 in the bag ready to go might be handy.
 
Seems like the general feedback has been positive so look forward to seeing your own verdict (y)
 
jj_glos said:
1D4 looks to have better high ISO still.
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The 7D2 high ISO knocks spots off my 1D4 where I felt uncomfortable going above 2500. I shot at 4000 ISO on the 7D2 at the weekend without any concerns at all. I do feel the image quality is still better overall on the 1D4 but the 7D2 isn't supposed to be a 1D4, 5D3 or 1Dx replacement - it is still a 1.6x crop and costs about what I would want for my 1D4 if I sold it. The 7D2 is a 7D replacement and in doing that it knocks spots of the 7D - if fps and reach isn't so important and image quality is then the 5D3 is the better camera - but then you're still paying a lot more for it. I think for the market and price point of the 7D2 it's a stunning camera. I think the fact that people are even comparing it to the 5D3, 1D4 and 1Dx shows just how good it is!
 
I think the fact that its being compared to the 5D3 and 1DX is because a lot of people went the 5D3 route because of the shortcomings of the 7D MkI. It wasn't until the 70 D that Canon had a 1.6 crop body that showed a modest improvement over the 7D in some respects.

For those, like myself, who own a 5D3/1DX the comparison is really about noise at higher ISO. The AF should perform well as its essentially the same, few more points but didnt get the 5 dual cross points, the customisation of the camera which is good if you're trying to set up both bodies as closely as possible.

From what I've seen on the Internet the MkII is showing some improvement in noise but I will conduct my own tests across the ISO range this week hopefully and make my own mind up on it. Hopefully it will show the improvements that will make it a viable companion/replacement for a 5D3/1DX.
 
tophatter said:
The 7D2 high ISO knocks spots off my 1D4 where I felt uncomfortable going above 2500. I shot at 4000 ISO on the 7D2 at the weekend without any concerns at all. I do feel the image quality is still better overall on the 1D4 but the 7D2 isn't supposed to be a 1D4, 5D3 or 1Dx replacement - it is still a 1.6x crop and costs about what I would want for my 1D4 if I sold it. The 7D2 is a 7D replacement and in doing that it knocks spots of the 7D - if fps and reach isn't so important and image quality is then the 5D3 is the better camera - but then you're still paying a lot more for it. I think for the market and price point of the 7D2 it's a stunning camera. I think the fact that people are even comparing it to the 5D3, 1D4 and 1Dx shows just how good it is!
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Any examples to show this? All the others I have seen show the 1D4 still has the edge, not being over a stop worse?
 
Gaz J said:
I think the fact that its being compared to the 5D3 and 1DX is because a lot of people went the 5D3 route because of the shortcomings of the 7D MkI. It wasn't until the 70 D that Canon had a 1.6 crop body that showed a modest improvement over the 7D in some respects.

For those, like myself, who own a 5D3/1DX the comparison is really about noise at higher ISO. The AF should perform well as its essentially the same, few more points but didnt get the 5 dual cross points, the customisation of the camera which is good if you're trying to set up both bodies as closely as possible.

From what I've seen on the Internet the MkII is showing some improvement in noise but I will conduct my own tests across the ISO range this week hopefully and make my own mind up on it. Hopefully it will show the improvements that will make it a viable companion/replacement for a 5D3/1DX.
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I look forward to hearing what you think when you do the comparisons, although aren't crop sensors inherently noisier?
 
My first try with the camera this morning over all im pleased with it.
Rob.
 
GyRob said:
My first try with the camera this morning over all im pleased with it.
Rob.
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....Nice one! Did you do a bit of post-processing sharpness on the bird? I'm still trying to find my way around some of the settings.
 
Yes pp work done I too am am working on the settings, just takes a bit of time .

Rob.
 
GyRob said:
Yes pp work done I too am am working on the settings, just takes a bit of time .

Rob.
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....I'm glad you said that! It's taking me a bit of time too (same as my 70D did) but lots of very experienced full-frame guys here who are already familiar with 5D3 and 1DX types of settings. Methinks that the 7D2 is just a crop-sensor version of its bigger brothers.

What lens did you use for that lovely Long-tailed Tit shot, Rob? I have been probably been making focussing trickier for myself by using my 400mm F/4L. Going out to try some 100mm Macro tripod shots today just to regain my confidence in sharp focussing.
 
Only got occasional internet access this week, been interesting to read others comments.
So far I'd say the AF is indeed excellent, very similar to my 1Dx (as you'd expect) and a big step up from the mk1.
Also the noise performance is I'd say at a guess, at least 2 stops better than the mk 1.
Bit of a concern however is the battery capacity........I suspect a grip will be an essential accessory....otherwise I can configure most settings and controls so they are similarly placed to the 1 Dx.....but why can't Canon standardise on where they put the button to illuminate the top screen?...it's at the right hand end of the buttons in the 7D2 (as it was with the mk1) and at the left hand end on the 1 series cameras?

More to follow..

George.
 
I know someone has done a comparison between 7D MK I and 7D MK II with jpegs, any chance of someone doing the same with Raw images at high iso?
 
I used a 600f4isLMKii and 1.4MKiii TC I do have a 1dx so use to the AF style .
Although it is a very similar AF system it still needs to be learnt as to what is best for me .

But I do know there is not one setting that does all as there is too many things to consider for birds. light/ contrast /colour/ BG / size of bird / how close it is /tone of bird against BG /speed of bird -yes still a bit to play with lol

Rob.
 
Michael D Beckwith said:
I know someone has done a comparison between 7D MK I and 7D MK II with jpegs, any chance of someone doing the same with Raw images at high iso?
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As far as I know the Canon DPP software is the only app that can currently read the 7DII Raw files, and seeing as the DPP software opens the RAW file with the JPEG in camera settings applied, so not much can be learned until Adobe update their compatibility.
 
If you set the JPEG setting to faithful that will apply zero sharpening so when you open it in DPP no sharpening is applied by the software. If you want to run it through NIK or similar for noise reduction then also make sure that DPP doesn't apply any sharpening as you convert.
 
Gaz J said:
If you set the JPEG setting to faithful that will apply zero sharpening so when you open it in DPP no sharpening is applied by the software. If you want to run it through NIK or similar for noise reduction then also make sure that DPP doesn't apply any sharpening as you convert.
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....So far on my 7D2 I have been using 'Picture Style > Standard' setting (not 'Faithful') and, because JPEG results looked a bit soft I increased the sharpness on the slider. I have set the camera to shoot both JPEG and RAW but am not opening the uploaded RAW images until Apple and Adobe DNG or Photoshop have updated their compatibility software (I am not using DPP).

So, following the same principle of always leaving any sharpening of a post-processed image to be the very last step before saving for output, am I right in interpreting your post, @Gaz J, to advise that all 'Picture Style' sharpness settings are best set at 0 on the sliders?

Am I right in thinking that all the RAW captures don't apply any 'Picture Style' settings anyway? Or do the 'Picture Style' menu settings apply to both JPEG and RAW?

On my 70D I only shoot RAW and post-process in Aperture and then apply Imageonic Noiseware filter in Photoshop CS to the background only, before sharpening as final step.

Thanks for any advice :)
 
I think Robin that its a quirk of DPP. If you have a JPEG setting in the camera such as STANDARD that applies sharpening then DPP will take that setting and apply sharpening to the RAW image which is undesirable in that it sharpens noise which is what you don't want.

LR to the best of my knowledge ignores any JPEG settings.

By setting it to faithful which doesn't apply sharpening then DPP doesn't apply it. To be honest im waiting for either LR to update for the MkII or for Adobe to update its DNG converter. Until then I will shoot like you in RAW and JEG to separate cards and convert them in LR which is my preferred software.

I find the noise reduction in LR to be pretty good and the ability to mask the sharpening that you have set very easily in LR is another bonus that speeds up PP.
 
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Well the postie did his job and my MkII has arrived. Pity its been persisting down all afternoon. So spent a bit of time configuring it as closely as I can to my other bodies.

So for what its worth this is how I've set it up for wildlife.

Exposure change 1/3 stop increments.

ISO 1/3 stop increments.

High speed shooting 10 FPS.

Low speed shooting 9 FPS.

Silent shooting 4FPS.

Metering and AF start to AF-ON button.

Metering start only to shutter button.

Joystick to direct AF point selection.

Rear dial exposure compensation.

DOF button set to switch between AI servo & one shot or vice versa when pressed.

Lever around joystick to switch to registered AF point each time it is operated (I register a higher AF point in both horizontal and vertical orientation to allow different compositions especially with taller birds).

Image zoom button set to actual size so it zooms on the AF point that achieved focus.

Tomorrow supposed to be a nice day so will get my 500 on it and see how it performs.
 
Gaz J said:
So spent a bit of time configuring it as closely as I can to my other bodies.

So for what its worth this is how I've set it up for wildlife.
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....As far as I am concerned that's worth a lot! I already have some of the same setups but there's some potentially very helpful ones in that list. I may have to ask for some help if I can't figure out some of them for myself.

Cheers! :)
 
Gaz J said:
I think Robin that its a quirk of DPP. If you have a JPEG setting in the camera such as STANDARD that applies sharpening then DPP will take that setting and apply sharpening to the RAW image which is undesirable in that it sharpens noise which is what you don't want.
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....Yes, if DPP behaves like that then I will now shoot on 'Faithful' Picture Style. Sharpening any noise is exactly why sharpening should be done as the very last step and later than any noise reduction.

By the same principle, is it best to set the 7D2's 'High ISO speed NR' to 'Disable-OFF'? My thinking is that I don't want to apply NR in camera and hence risk over-smoothing on the main subject such as a bird's plumage. Personally, I dislike so much NR on a bird's plumage to the extent where it looks waxy or smeared - That's why I only apply NR to a background. Sometimes a little noise on plumage (or similar such as fur) can add to the texture without screaming out "Noise!!".
 
@RedRobin - I believe that all oem RAW converters work like DPP by assigning standard settings during conversion. The beauty of RAW is that you can override them at will. I always keep sharpening and NR switched on just in case I need to make a quick in-camera jpg, but reduce them to 0 in DPP and apply the correct USM and NR in Photoshop as the last stage. I think you may be missing out by not using DPP at this time.
 
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