Canon 7D Mk II is announced and available for pre-order (1 Viewer)

[PeterBird]

I tried out some BIF shots with the 7DII and the 100-400II, with all 65 points active, just to see what it did. Well not bad at all. The photo of the Shoveler was against reed beds (pretty close) and, though it took a little time to pick up the approaching duck, it kept on it without being distracted by the background. . With the Wood Pigeon the distance between bird and background was greater. The Swallow picture is just for fun and for the moment. These were all with case 1, nothing changed. Using the centre (with expansion points) may be more of a certainty in the conditions, but I liked how it performed.
Peter

 

[Roy C]

I tried out some BIF shots with the 7DII and the 100-400II, with all 65 points active, just to see what it did. Well not bad at all. The photo of the Shoveler was against reed beds (pretty close) and, though it took a little time to pick up the approaching duck, it kept on it without being distracted by the background. . With the Wood Pigeon the distance between bird and background was greater. The Swallow picture is just for fun and for the moment. These were all with case 1, nothing changed. Using the centre (with expansion points) may be more of a certainty in the conditions, but I liked how it performed.
Peter

Very nicely done on these Peter :t:

 

[Colin]

I tried out some BIF shots with the 7DII and the 100-400II, with all 65 points active, just to see what it did. Well not bad at all. The photo of the Shoveler was against reed beds (pretty close) and, though it took a little time to pick up the approaching duck, it kept on it without being distracted by the background. . With the Wood Pigeon the distance between bird and background was greater. The Swallow picture is just for fun and for the moment. These were all with case 1, nothing changed. Using the centre (with expansion points) may be more of a certainty in the conditions, but I liked how it performed.
Peter

Don't you just hate it when......

I spent hours trawling the internet finding opinions on various settings, evaluating the findings, programming buttons, testing the camera out in various configurations, searching for subjects, waiting for best weather conditions etc., trying to remember all of what is needed to be done in a hurry to make adjustments when an opportunity suddenly presented itself, took out gym membership to build myself up (Charles Atlas refunded my money - remember him) to handle the hardware and a whole host of other things and then....

Peter, John and others just get the camera out of the packaging and zonk, great images from the start.

Seriously, Peter and John excellent pictures.

 

[Farnboro John]

Don't you just hate it when......

I spent hours trawling the internet finding opinions on various settings, evaluating the findings, programming buttons, testing the camera out in various configurations, searching for subjects, waiting for best weather conditions etc., trying to remember all of what is needed to be done in a hurry to make adjustments when an opportunity suddenly presented itself, took out gym membership to build myself up (Charles Atlas refunded my money - remember him) to handle the hardware and a whole host of other things and then....

Peter, John and others just get the camera out of the packaging and zonk, great images from the start.

Seriously, Peter and John excellent pictures.

Thank you ever so much. I have to be honest, I ripped the packaging to shreds, snapped a lens onto the front of the camera, fired up this thread and utilised the accumulated experimentation of the pioneers on here to short-cut my own set-up - and it was pretty effective as you can see!

Many thanks to all who went before me.... :t:

Cheers

John

 

[Colin]

This 7d2 is going to cost me money. My ancient laptop is so old that it struggles and often freezes for a while before continuing and stuttering when trying to process the big RAW file of nearly 30mb produced by this snapper. I am thinking of getting a new puter.

 

[Owen Krout]

Worth the investment

I took the plunge and bought a 7d mkii and a Canon 100-400 mm mki lens. Amazing improvement over my old XT!

Of course the weather hasn't cooperated yet but I managed to sneak in a short visit during a brief spell of sunshine to the local lake. Not many birds in evidence (except for the 100+ Canada Geese that are always present). Also the salesman had been showing off the high ISO performance and I pretty much was done before I realized it was set for 1600 ISO. A really long range, heavily cropped Red-bellied Woodpecker was still better than anything I had managed for that species with the XT. Would have been even better had a lower ISO.

I was engrossed in taking a shot of a Baltimore Oriole when a movement in my peripheral vision proved to be a Red Fox wondering what I was up to. She stayed and watched me from close range for the next 15 minutes. Later I found her kits playing.

 

[lewis20126]

TC 1.4 mk3

I'm using this with the 7Dmk 2 and the 100-400 IS mk2. At present I am really struggling! Aside from the expected (much) slower AF, there is a huge drop off in IQ in anything but the best light; the images are almost all blurred - nothing at all is pin sharp (or even close). This was still the case when photographing a stationary raptor, using a tripod. Basically, I was better off using a bigger crop without the TC.

Any ideas why this might be the case?

cheers, alan

 

[Owen Krout]

More properly a Naturalist than just a birder so I also tried a few extreme close-ups. (Can't say macro from 2m away) An unidentified beetle and a dragonfly.

Finished the outing with a deer out in broad daylight. (With the RAW file I can enlarge and see the mosquito and even make out a couple of ticks on the deer)

This all started with out of the box - charge the battery and shoot. Still figuring out the settings. Will be taking a vacation trip from Kansas City, KS to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway up the heart of the Appalachian mountains in mid June. Looking forward to really giving the new snapper a workout there!

Love the big, bright viewfinder and not missing shots while the lens noisily struggles with focus. I was really pleased when the GPS had not only given coordinates, but showed a map and had labeled the photos as being "Wyandotte County Park, Kansas City, United States. Since I might commonly snap shots in the USA, Canada or China (and seriously considering Russia and Mongolia), it is was a pain to have to keep track of where that photo was taken.

Now if I just had that teleconverter....

 

[Barred Wobbler]

TC 1.4 mk3

I'm using this with the 7Dmk 2 and the 100-400 IS mk2. At present I am really struggling! Aside from the expected (much) slower AF, there is a huge drop off in IQ in anything but the best light; the images are almost all blurred - nothing at all is pin sharp (or even close). This was still the case when photographing a stationary raptor, using a tripod. Basically, I was better off using a bigger crop without the TC.

Any ideas why this might be the case?

cheers, alan

Did you do a microfocus adjustment with the converter fitted Alan?

When I use my 400/F5.6 prime with the 7DII it needs no microadjustment, but when I put a 1.4 MkIII behind it I found I had to set the microadjustment all the way down to -14 to get a reasonable image.


Just after I did the adjustment I got a Sigma 150-600 and the 400, 1.4x combo hasn't been used since, but I'm not convinced that even at -14 I went far enough with the microadjustment and I might need to have another look at it.

 

[Owen Krout]

TC 1.4 mk3

I'm using this with the 7Dmk 2 and the 100-400 IS mk2. At present I am really struggling! Aside from the expected (much) slower AF, there is a huge drop off in IQ in anything but the best light; the images are almost all blurred - nothing at all is pin sharp (or even close). This was still the case when photographing a stationary raptor, using a tripod. Basically, I was better off using a bigger crop without the TC.

Any ideas why this might be the case?

cheers, alan

Sorry to hear that, Alan. I was getting what I considered great results right out of the box. Focus is quick and even through the leaves and branches did a good job of picking out the right thing to focus on, which the XT did not do.

I know there is a fine adjustment to match a lens to yours camera if necessary. If you purchased through a local retailer, you might take the kit into them and ask for help with the process. I should do even better as I get used to using the manual settings.

 

[lewis20126]

All

Thanks - I've not tried micro-adjustments. Unless I set up one of the pres-sets C1-C3, this is unlikely to be feasible for me as I'm changing lenses in the field and it's yet more fiddling about I could do without. I rather suspect the TC will remain in the bag and wheeled out only for very stationary (dead?) birds.

cheers, alan

 

[davethebird]

All

Thanks - I've not tried micro-adjustments. Unless I set up one of the pres-sets C1-C3, this is unlikely to be feasible for me as I'm changing lenses in the field and it's yet more fiddling about I could do without. I rather suspect the TC will remain in the bag and wheeled out only for very stationary (dead?) birds.

cheers, alan

Hi Alan,

Any MFA is lens specific and stored in the camera. Once the MFA is done you do not have to think about it again. Same if you use an extender with the lens and redo the MFA that stays with the lens/extender combination.

 

[lewis20126]

Hi Alan,

Any MFA is lens specific and stored in the camera. Once the MFA is done you do not have to think about it again. Same if you use an extender with the lens and redo the MFA that stays with the lens/extender combination.

Dave

Thanks - I'll give it a try.

cheers, alan

 

[Roy C]

I usually use the 5D3 for macro but gave it a whirl on the 7D2 today for the first time. Way too windy really but managed a few lucky shots. I like to use Av mode, AI servo and auto ISO for macros when hand holding and was Quite impressed with the 7D2 for this work, the 1.6 crop comes in handy for sure and the images were fairly clean. I just hope the wind abates over the next few days.

 

[Russ Telfer]

Hi Alan,

Any MFA is lens specific and stored in the camera. Once the MFA is done you do not have to think about it again. Same if you use an extender with the lens and redo the MFA that stays with the lens/extender combination.

One thing I did notice, when I upgraded the firmware it appeared to 'zero' all the stored MFA adjustments. I have not re-tested yet, but for expedience just dialled in the old lens specific values from the original tests.

 

[john miller]

I usually use the 5D3 for macro but gave it a whirl on the 7D2 today for the first time. Way too windy really but managed a few lucky shots. I like to use Av mode, AI servo and auto ISO for macros when hand holding and was Quite impressed with the 7D2 for this work, the 1.6 crop comes in handy for sure and the images were fairly clean. I just hope the wind abates over the next few days.

Nice shot, what was the lens you used please?

John

 

[Roy C]

Nice shot, what was the lens you used please?

John

It was the Canon 100mm L IS macro John. Although you do not get the full 4 stop IS when shooting at near macro distances I still find it very useful for hand held macro shots.

 

[SC2birders]

One thing I did notice, when I upgraded the firmware it appeared to 'zero' all the stored MFA adjustments. I have not re-tested yet, but for expedience just dialled in the old lens specific values from the original tests.

Please see my previous post. Do not assume the values will be the same. You will have to redo MFA settings, at least that is my experience.

 

[Owen Krout]

Tried a few macro (1.6 m is close focus) with my 7Dmii and Canon 100-400mm. Mind you all are hand-held. Just saw something interesting and snapped a quick shot. I am still learning the camera. Only the beetle is cropped and no other processing other than the reduction to make them work here. Image stabilization mode I on the lens and AF on.

 

[Owen Krout]

And three more: