Canon 7D mk2 owners thread.

RedRobin said:
@George - More grip battery info for you (and anyone else interested) - Now 5 sessions :

LP-E6N battery 1 - 89% / 19 shots >> 79% / 71 shots >> 56% / 185 shots >> 45% / 232 shots >> 21% / 353 shots
LP-E6N battery 2 - 96% / 10 shots >> 83% / 56 shots >> 62% / 166 shots >> 51% / 217 shots >> 34% / 333 shots

All images erased from CF card before each session.

Note that I don't use a card reader (long story) and so some battery juice (fairly insignificant) will get used uploading via USB direct to my Mac.

I don't quite understand what this tells us, but no matter.
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Thanks Robin, sorry didn't reply sooner but was taking advantage of a few sunny days in Portugal to get away from the current Scottish gloom!!

I was watching the battery usage while away, and on mine to start with, the first battery seemed to be having a shutter count almost twice that of the 2nd one, (up to about 40 shots or so on 1st) but since then it's evened out....currently 85 on 1st and 70 on 2nd....so it seems that it is not constantly using the 1st one more, and your data seems to also bear this out.

I'm not sure either what this tells us, except that in the long run, they seem to be evening out but with a bias toward the first one.

Will keep an eye on it.

Thanks again, George.
 
donetello said:
Camera is on the 1.0.2 firmware and googling round seems a few have had lockups after updating to the 1.0.4 version.Anyone here had issues on the new one ?.
Also looking into screen protectors any recommendations ?.
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I was a bit concerned about lockups when I read the article I quoted above, but I haven't experienced any problems and have taken about 200 shots since the upgrade....but I did have what I thought was a major problem after I updated the software...the camera just seemed randomly to completely shut down!!
After a few minutes of blind panic, logic took over and I found the problem was my battery grip had loosened and the contacts were intermittent.....and a tightening sorted everything out!!

Regarding the AF improvement, I can't say it's been any better or worse since the upgrade.

The screen protector I always use on all bodies is the GGS glass one, hardly noticeable and effective.....can look up a link if you want!

George.
 
I've got a ggs glass set for top and rear screens too. Much better than the cheap film ones.

I've been holding out on the firmware update until after my holiday next week. Didn't want the chance for it play up while away while it seems fine at the moment.
 
@George - Final is 6 sessions logged and now time for me to change a battery.

LP-E6N battery 1 - 89% / 19 shots >> 79% / 71 shots >> 56% / 185 shots >> 45% / 232 shots >> 21% / 353 shots >> 15% / 382 shots
LP-E6N battery 2 - 96% / 10 shots >> 83% / 56 shots >> 62% / 166 shots >> 51% / 217 shots >> 34% / 333 shots >> 24% / 348 shots
 
George said:
I was a bit concerned about lockups when I read the article I quoted above, but I haven't experienced any problems and have taken about 200 shots since the upgrade....but I did have what I thought was a major problem after I updated the software...the camera just seemed randomly to completely shut down!!
After a few minutes of blind panic, logic took over and I found the problem was my battery grip had loosened and the contacts were intermittent.....and a tightening sorted everything out!!

Regarding the AF improvement, I can't say it's been any better or worse since the upgrade.

The screen protector I always use on all bodies is the GGS glass one, hardly noticeable and effective.....can look up a link if you want!

George.
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Link would be great,and thanks to all who answered.
 
RedRobin said:
@George - Final is 6 sessions logged and now time for me to change a battery.

LP-E6N battery 1 - 89% / 19 shots >> 79% / 71 shots >> 56% / 185 shots >> 45% / 232 shots >> 21% / 353 shots >> 15% / 382 shots
LP-E6N battery 2 - 96% / 10 shots >> 83% / 56 shots >> 62% / 166 shots >> 51% / 217 shots >> 34% / 333 shots >> 24% / 348 shots
Click to expand...

360 odd averaging per charge isn't that brilliant, think I bet to order some more batteries :D
 
Quick numpty question relating to battery life based on above, I understood and I'm probably wrong... But if the lens is IS then battery life is considerably less, so battery life would therefore also be dependent on lens choice... Yes/No???
 
I am impressed with the AF on the 7D2 (especially compared to the original 7D). One the the best challenges for the bird photographer is Swallows in flight as they are so fast and erratic flyers. But I have had more success for this type of shot with the 7D2 than any other Camera I have owned. Attached shot was taken with a cheap(ish) third party zoom lens at 600mm.
View attachment 38338
 
Spiderdudeuk said:
Quick numpty question relating to battery life based on above, I understood and I'm probably wrong... But if the lens is IS then battery life is considerably less, so battery life would therefore also be dependent on lens choice... Yes/No???
Click to expand...
IS, focus motor size and image review time all have an impact on battery life.

Bob
 
Canon Bob said:
IS, focus motor size and image review time all have an impact on battery life.

Bob
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Though so Bob, so all the analysis of battery life and amount of shots taken is pretty much irrelevant then....:banghead:
 
Spiderdudeuk said:
Though so Bob, so all the analysis of battery life and amount of shots taken is pretty much irrelevant then....:banghead:
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It's only really relevant to the individual and their style of shooting/reviewing. Some people will spend a while tracking (with focus) and not shoot whilst others will pop off speculative shots. There's far less focusing involved in a burst of 20 shots than there is for 20 individual shots that each require new focus acquisition. A burst of 20 shots only reviews the last one (if selected) whilst 20 individual shots gives 20 reviews.

Bob
 
RedRobin said:
@George - Final is 6 sessions logged and now time for me to change a battery.

LP-E6N battery 1 - 89% / 19 shots >> 79% / 71 shots >> 56% / 185 shots >> 45% / 232 shots >> 21% / 353 shots >> 15% / 382 shots
LP-E6N battery 2 - 96% / 10 shots >> 83% / 56 shots >> 62% / 166 shots >> 51% / 217 shots >> 34% / 333 shots >> 24% / 348 shots
Click to expand...


Thanks again, Robin, and of course I agree with Bob's comments re usage and battery life, but in general, the 7D2 battery life life is such that I for one wouldn't just rely on 1 battery.

However it does seem that the grip usage is biased towards the first battery.
 
Well just a quick update after two days of work for British Superbikes.

Just under 3000 shots on the 7D MKII with the latest firmware and no sign of lockup.

Focus has improved a great deal when used with the 70-200 F2.8 IS L MKII which was the one lens i found terrible with this body and the recall names as being effected.

On another note i have also found that the shots from the 400 F5.6 have also improved in the fact that before a fair amount were just a little soft or missed focus between frames but now are bang on.

So far so good :)
 
Just received mine back after having focus issues. Service sheet says recalibration of AE and AF. Still got to try it out but had issues with both 70-200 f2.8 L Mkii and 400mm f5.6. Waiting for rain to stop.
 
Received my Canon 7D Mark II this morning, updated the firmware from 1.0.2 to 1.0.4 didn't test it on 1.0.2 just upgraded straight away, the camera is performing extremely well no lock ups etc. AF is a real joy to use! I have tested it out this morning with a 17-40mm f/4L, 70-200mm f/2.8LISII, 400mm f/5.6L & 500mm f/4L and the results are coming out really nicely. As I have just moved from Nikon simply for this camera I can say I am highly impressed with it so far for wildlife from what I have seen. Auto Focus is simply superb. 10fps is heaven, I haven't been able to give it much of a test in the field yet but below is a shot I just quickly took in the lane next to my House, (sorry about the compression straight upload) Using the 500mm is going to give me a lot more reach as it is 800mm f/4 with 1.6x crop which makes a huge difference!

Overall enjoying the camera and can't wait to take it abroad in a few weeks to photography some stilts and other tropical wildlife :)

Image Below Exif :
7D II & 500mm f/4
f/5.6 - 1/1600 - ISO 250
Handheld.


View attachment 38346
 
Looking good Joe, met a photographer in Mallorca the other week, he was using the 7D II & 500mm f/4 + 2x extender & getting very good results.
 
Roy C said:
I am impressed with the AF on the 7D2 (especially compared to the original 7D). One the the best challenges for the bird photographer is Swallows in flight as they are so fast and erratic flyers. But I have had more success for this type of shot with the 7D2 than any other Camera I have owned. Attached shot was taken with a cheap(ish) third party zoom lens at 600mm.
View attachment 38338
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Great shot! Out of interest which AF case did you use, and how many focus points?
 
MadWoman said:
Great shot! Out of interest which AF case did you use, and how many focus points?
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Yes, I'd be interested in the settings as well!!

On another battery grip related matter, I went today to do a bit of af checking, with 2 full batteries, and my usage was 239 shots on the first battery (89%) and 136 0n the second battery (94%).

Seems a bit funny!!

George.
 
Bempton Cliffs - 30th May 2015 (73) by Mark Gledhill, on Flickr

This was taken with the 400mm F/5.6 plus x1.4 II Convertor... Very little done to this, a tweak on the colour and thats about it... Had one or two issues finding the right setting for tracking the birds in flight, but got there in the end more through luck than judgement. The flight ones are on the Flickr feed.
 
George said:
On another battery grip related matter, I went today to do a bit of af checking, with 2 full batteries, and my usage was 239 shots on the first battery (89%) and 136 0n the second battery (94%).

Seems a bit funny!!

George.
Click to expand...

....I have come to the conclusion that the 7D2 decides how to draw its battery juice in such a way which appears random although it's doubtless decided due to what delivers battery power most efficiently at the time of the shot or shots (on fps).

One of my batteries flashed empty while the other still had 13%. This was on the same equal basis tests I posted earlier, George, and concludes my test.

The bottom line is that having 2 batteries onboard is both more practical and convenient and that's quite apart from the physical ergonomic benefits of having the Canon grip attached.
 
Finally made the plunge and bought the Canon BG-E16 from Castle Camera for £189.99, cheapest price I could find around, after shooting again with the 500mm f/4 today the camera is so badly balanced with the lens compared to the 1Dx, was only a matter of time before I hit the button for one...
 
Canon Bob said:
Strange things going on here. I had to choose an elevated target to avoid the heat haze (28 degrees and sunny) and one shot looked good at around 350-400 metres. The same target locked with AIservo was less clear despite allowing sufficient extra time. I noticed something strange with the AF point switching in that it was frequently shifting (albeit very briefly) to an off target AF point so I set up something a little more (but not very) scientific.

I set up a series of coloured targets about 20 metres away (rectangular lids off old Tupperware containers..bright and vibrant in the sun). Red, white, yellow, blue and green. These lids covered an array of AF points 3 tall by 2 wide at this distance with the 600/4. All locked precisely in one shot and the focus was good....AFMA has been done using Reikan Focal.
I then switched to AIservo and selected the 25 AF points of the centre group. Shooting the white target resulted in very minor twitching of the lens focus motor as the active point shifted from one to another (case 2 was selected) but it was always constrained to one of the six points covering the target. Same with the red, same with the yellow. However with the blue and green targets it was very obvious that something different was occurring. The target was picked up (as per the other colours) but the AF motor twitches were far more pronounced. I then saw that AF points not covering the target were being highlighted very briefly and the focus position started to move off target before switching back again...the focus never achieved the distance covered by the new AF point but it simply moved the focus enough to soften the target before quickly regaining it. I repeated this numerous times and each test produced the same result....red, yellow and white targets cause the AF point selection to stay within the target boundary but blue and green targets cause the AF point selection to wander off target (for a few 1/10ths sec at least) long enough to cause the lens motor to "spoil" focus but no where near long enough to acquire the distance that was covered by the 'errant' AF point selected. It was always a point adjacent to the six covering the target and I confirmed this by moving the target around the array. The distant backgound colour was a mid-brown.

I'll have a try with the 1Dx and 5D3 tomorrow (adjusting the target distance to replicate the same AF coverage) and see how they cope.

Is the 7D2 colour blind?

Bob
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I was just conversing with George and thought it'd be a good time to update this post with the results of some further tests and conclusions.

My initial thoughts were that the (my) 7D2 was colour blind or at least biased towards certain colours. I've played around (in a controlled manner) for a while I now have some conclusions and it's not a colour issue.

Hopefully you can all follow this and it makes some sense.
Test #1.......Light subject against darker background......the automatic AF point selection moves around from the centre point (acquisition point) but will always stay on the light subject and never steps outside the lighter region into the dark background.
Test #2.......Dark subject on lighter background....the automatic selection seems to want to sample the lighter part of the scene....ie, it wanders off the dark subject and back again.

My earlier tests with the vibrant Tupperware lids pushed me towards a colour issue but it was the green and blue that caused the problem (and they were darker than the background I had at the time....the white, yellow and red were brighter and worked okay.

I've done these test with the 600/4 and 300/4 (locked firmly on a big Gitzo tripod) and they're conclusive and repeatable with the 7D2 and it's not an issue with either the 1Dx or 5D3. I then cast my mind back to the football and rugby shots that just ended in frustration and realised that both my local teams play in dark blue shirts and the stadia both give me white concrete fences as backdrops (for the best part).

So blackbirds with a leafy background is a waste of time but seagulls against a blue sky will be fine. (with appologies to George who's already read most of this)

Does anyone else have the time to see if their 7D2 performs similarly?

Bob
 
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Canon Bob said:
I was just conversing with George and thought it'd be a good time to update this post with the results of some further tests and conclusions.

My initial thoughts were that the (my) 7D2 was colour blind or at least biased towards certain colours. I've played around (in a controlled manner) for a while I now have some conclusions and it's not a colour issue.

Hopefully you can all follow this and it makes some sense.
Test #1.......Light subject against darker background......the automatic AF point selection moves around from the centre point (acquisition point) but will always stay on the light subject and never steps outside the lighter region into the dark background.
Test #2.......Dark subject on lighter background....the automatic selection seems to want to sample the lighter part of the scene....ie, it wanders off the dark subject and back again.

My earlier tests with the vibrant Tupperware lids pushed me towards a colour issue but it was the green and blue that caused the problem (and they were darker than the background I had at the time....the white, yellow and red were brighter and worked okay.

I've done these test with the 600/4 and 300/4 (locked firmly on a big Gitzo tripod) and they're conclusive and repeatable with the 7D2 and it's not an issue with either the 1Dx or 5D3. I then cast my mind back to the football and rugby shots that just ended in frustration and realised that both my local teams play in dark blue shirts and the stadia both give me white concrete fences as backdrops (for the best part).

So blackbirds with a leafy background is a waste of time but seagulls against a blue sky will be fine. (with appologies to George who's already read most of this)

Does anyone else have the time to see if their 7D2 performs similarly?

Bob
Click to expand...

Strangely enough I received mine back from recalibration earlier this week and today I tried it out on a blackbird on the lawn, quite a few of the shots were out but the grass either side of the bird was in focus. I had updated the firmware to 1.04 and was using a 70-200mm f2.8 L ii which was the lens the firmware was supposed to improve.
 
JackBarley said:
Strangely enough I received mine back from recalibration earlier this week and today I tried it out on a blackbird on the lawn, quite a few of the shots were out but the grass either side of the bird was in focus. I had updated the firmware to 1.04 and was using a 70-200mm f2.8 L ii which was the lens the firmware was supposed to improve.
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Well that hints at similar behavior to that which I'm seeing, Jack.

Bob
 
Has anyone used the Canon 100-400mm Mki L USM with the 7d2 and what results have they had. I was impressed with the Swallow shot on here but I have achieved nothing as good as that so far. I have still not upgraded my firmware since I bought the camera new two month ago.
 
My 7D2 is performing extremely well with AF, got it customised now to how I like it and it is deadly quick, my model certainly doesn't have this issues some are reporting, tested it against a 1Dx which in all honestly is a fraction quicker but its hard to call.
 
Joeturner11 said:
My 7D2 is performing extremely well with AF, got it customised now to how I like it and it is deadly quick, my model certainly doesn't have this issues some are reporting, tested it against a 1Dx which in all honestly is a fraction quicker but its hard to call.
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Joe, would you be kind enough to share your settings please. It'd really be appreciated.
 
Joeturner11 said:
For Birds in flight I'm using the below setup, and for faster moving subjects i'm using 1,0,2

Tracking Sensitivity -2
Accel./decal. Tracking 0
AF pt auto switching 0

Hope this helps

Joe
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Thanks Joe. Which case number are you using ?
 
Phal said:
Since he's specifying the actual numbers, he's probably edited the standard one (I can't remember any -2,0,0 cases off the top of my head)
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Thanks...so many options I'm confusing myself.
 
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