Canon 7D

The Canon 7D camera

Canon 7D: Shutter Count vs Battery Count

“Jimbo”, a friend of mine just bought an almost new Canon 7D for $1,275 which is $300 less than the full list price in Canada and $120 less than the “regular” street price. The camera had only 481 clicks. At least that's what the sales guy told Jimbo, his real name is Richard but everybody calls him “Jimbo.” Then Jimbo came to see me and asked me what I thought about it. The camera did look used, not too bad, but definitely a lot more than the 481 exposures claimed. He bought it from a local dealer that showed him the number of exposure:

Battery Menu

Battery Menu

Micro Focus Adjustment Revisited

I was in the Eastern Arctic. It's a very harsh and rough environment. It's cold, it's windy, it's dry, it's windy, it's dusty, (did I say that it's very windy with a very cold wind from the North Atlantic?), very wide temperature difference... There is a reason why professional bodies are so much more expensive than "regular" cameras. The sealing, the weather proofing is very expensive with Canon and Nikon cameras.

Canon 7D: The Perfect Focus

I took about 70 photos and in spite of the very difficult conditions all of them are in "perfect" focus.

Eepeebee carving a drum dancer

Eepeebee carving a drum dancer, Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada

First some technical information:

  1. I asked for Eepeebee's permission, which he gave me.
  2. We are in the middle of June in the Eastern Arctic and it's cold, around 3°C or 36°F.
  3. It's very dusty, sand...

Canon: Cancelling the AE Lock

There are two ways of locking the exposure settings:

  1. Do nothing, it's already done for you if:

    • You are using Evaluative and
    • You are using One-Shot AF

    Whenever you are pressing the shutter half-way in evaluation and one-shot modes, all Canon dSLRs (to date) do an AE Lock. You can see it in action by moving the camera around and you will see that the exposure settings will not change.

Canon 7D: 6 Customs Settings

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: 7DMk2 Wish List

I have from good authority that the gnomes, aka engineers, at Canon are working on the 7D's successor. Since, to my greatest dismay, they didn't ask from my opinion, I will still give it to them.

  • Resolution: 18 megapixels is enough. An increase of the resolution to 24 megapixels doesn't look good. When I compared my 18 megapixels photos with a Sony α77 and its 24 megapixels, the quality of the photos was not to my liking. Obviously, it must not be to Nikon's liking either, they still haven't come out with their D400 and the 24 megapixels sensor which has been shipping since Oct-2011 on the α77 and the NEX-7 (19-Apr-2012: Nikon just announced the D3200, with the Sony 24 megapixels sensor, to replace the D3100 but still no D400).
  • Speed: I'm happy with the 8 frames per second.

Canon: Focusing Modes: Why & When

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

Canon 7D: Why is my 1st Photo Fuzzy?

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.

Image Stabilization Canon calls it: Image Stabilization, Nikon calls it Vibration Reduction, Sony calls it SteadyShot, Pentax calls it Sensor-shift Image Stabilization, Sigma call it Optical Stabilization and so on.It's very much black magic. It's based on between two to as many as six tiny gyroscopes that track the pitch and the yaw to compensate for the pan and tilt either on the CMOS/CCD sensor or on one element in the lens. They will give you between 2 f/stops to as many as 5 f/stops, it depends on the technology and the circumstances.The secret to using the IS/VR/SS… is keep engaging it, usually by keeping the finger half pressed on the shutter for more than ½ of a second to ¾ of a second and keep it there, then use the continuous shooting. The IS/VR/SS… keeps improving as you keep on shooting, especially if you are steady.Overall, the image stabilization is more effective when it's built-in the lens instead of the camera. When it's in the lens, the image stabilization is done before the focus and this help with the auto-focus. When the image stabilization is done in the camera bodyimage-stabilization.jpg — ©2011 Syv Ritch -- foto-biz.com: http://www.foto-biz.com/usageterms

2 photos taken 0.125 sec apart with Image Stabilization on for both photos

This is the equivalent of using a tripod.

Focus mode

Lightroom 4: The "Proper" Camera Defaults

I really don't like the defaults with the Process: 2012 for my Canon 7D. The Tint is too warm for my taste, the Exposure is always -0.56 and the Contrast is +24 while the Tone Curve is linear. The White is either -35 or +35 or +54.

Lightroom 4 Defaults for Canon 7D

Lightroom 4 Defaults for Canon 7D

I don't like them, so I created my own defaults for the Canon 7D in Lightroom 4.

Canon 7D: The Dioptre Adjustment

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.

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