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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tdodd" data-source="post: 1861276" data-attributes="member: 55450">The 7D is very unforgiving of underexposure. I always endeavour not to underexpose, preferring when it makes sense to expose to the right. If I had been shooting those terns with my 7D and 100-400 I would have tried my luck at 1/800, f/5.6 and 100 ISO, or maybe 1/1000, f/7.1 and 200 ISO, or something like that. That would have given me the extra stop of brightness that you were missing, and dramatically reduced noise. The question then is how skilled/lucky are you when shooting at "only" 1/800 or 1/1000 with a long lens? Remember as well that the DOF is reduced greatly when you view a 7D file at 100%. The huge enlargement that 100% viewing causes means that the usual DOF tables (unless they allow you to specify viewing distance and reproduction size) are way off track. Your AF calibration needs to be bang on and your AF tracking must be faultless. I've attached a shot from my 7D at 3200 ISO, no edits except WB and crop. EXIF is intact. IQ seems acceptable to me, although some tweaks might improve it. Certainly you can use higher ISOs with the 7D, but there are practical constraints on how large you can go with your files when you care capturing less and less light with each pixel.</blockquote>