Canon

According to the manual, the Canon 7D has 3 customs settings: C1, C2 and C3. Contrarily to the manual, I use 6 custom settings.

1. I paid full price when the Canon 7D came out in September 2010.
2. I want to get my money's worth.
3. I'm special ;)

Like everybody else, I first used the C1, C2, and the C3 Camera User settings.

• C1: My basic Av default setup, ISO 400, f/6.3, Daylight, Zone Af, and High speed continuous.

Canon has extremely sophisticated focusing systems, but there are still people that can't make them work. Most of the problems are due to the fact that they do not understand how Canon has designed them to fit all the various possibilities/combinations. I explained it on DPReview.com. Here it is in a slightly different format.

One Shot

The AF assumes that the subject is static

• If the subject is static, The AF will achieve focus immediately and that's it, you can remove your finger from the back button, it won't keep on focusing.
• If the subject is moving, the photos will be out of focus.

AI Servo

One of the common problem with the Canon 7D, 60D and 1DMk4… is that the first couple of photographs are fuzzy, and all the other photos after that are sharp and crisp.

The 2 major causes are:

1. The IS/VR, in the Canon lingo: Image Stabilization, in the Nikon lingo: Vibration Reduction in the Nikon world
2. The focus

Image Stabilization/Vibration Reduction

In Canon and Nikon cameras, the image stabilization (VR in Nikon) is in the lens. The other camera manufacturers followed Olympus' lead when it created the image stabilization directly in the camera body.

The image stabilization/vibration reduction uses some motion sensors and 1 or 2 micro-gyroscopes to shift, either some element of the lens, or the CMOS/CCD sensor. Basically, it introduces another movement to counter-act your movement. You can see it in action if you mount a “not a new generation” IS/VR lens on a tripod with mode 1 enabled with the head slightly loose, then the camera will start to drift.

It takes half a second for the Image Stabilization/Vibration Reduction to kick in. This means that the IS/VR engages half a second after the focus has been engaged. The IS/VR has started, but it hasn't achieved stabilization yet. It can take between another ½ sec to another full second to achieve stabilization. With the new Canon L lenses and the new Nikon VRII lenses, when the IS/VR has been achieved after another second, the IS/VR reaches the Lotus position and achieves “nirvana” to give the full 4 or 5 f/stop of improvement.

This is the equivalent of using a tripod.

Focus mode

The prism contains a lot of "stuff." It's the top of the camera and houses the flash, the hot shoe for the external flash and inside, it contains the pentaprism which is according to Canon gives a vertical/horizontal coverage of approximately 100% (p253 of the manual). The prism also contains a lot of electronics and sensors like the AF sensors and the exposure control.

The pentaprism is designed so that the eye is 22mm away from the eyepiece.

Here's a 41 megapixels photo:

Here is the screen capture of the photograph size: