Canon 7D: The New Firmware v2

By now, everybody knows that Canon has released the new firmware v2 for the Canon 7D. It's available on the US website and on the Canadian website where I downloaded it from. It should be available from the other Canon websites too.

  • THERE IS NO GOING BACK TO THE PREVIOUS VERSION. It's a one way upgrade. I have tried it (on one camera) and so far no major problem. To be safe wait for a week or two to see if any big problem shows up.
  • USE A FULLY CHARGED BATTERY. It took 3½ minutes to upgrade the firmware. I suspect that the speed will vary depending on the speed of the card. Not enough “juice” and the camera will become an expensive brick.
  • DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING during the firmware upgrade. If you touch any “wrong” button during the firmware upgrade, the camera could become an expensive brick.
  • When the upgrade is finished and you have entered the new date and time, remove the battery for a few seconds for the new firmware to be loaded on the next start.
  1. The new firmware v2.0 is 16.7 Megabytes for the Canon 7D. The serie 1.2.x firmware for the 7D was 12 Megabytes. That's a 39% increase in size.
  2. The AutoISO function can be set in the 3rd from the left menu, and you only set the maximum. It's not a range “from — to.” It's from ISO 100 to a max of 800/1600…
  3. The increased buffer. I “only” got a 24 frames buffer with a 233x CF card. Close enough and darn good, especially when doing BIF when I will be using my 400x cards. Side effect of the increased buffer, now I should be able to take 1170 continuous photos on a 32Gb 400x card at low speed, that's 3 frames per second for 6½ minutes in RAW and 26 minutes in JPEG. That's going to be great for making time-lapse motion videos.
  4. If you use Canon's software like EOS Utility, DPP… you should also upgrade them.

I have not yet tried the other new features of the new firmware like the custom name instead of IMG_…

Now my complaint. Too bad Canon didn't include the 5 and 7 exposures bracketing in this upgrade. One can always dream, do I hear v3?