Canon 7D

The Canon 7D camera

2011 Resetting The Clock to Standard Time

Today is Sunday 6-Nov-2011. In Canada and the US, the first weekend after Halloween is when we go back to the “standard time.” All my computers, cell phones and telephones changed the time by themselves. My home appliances and my car do not reset the time by themselves, I had to change them manually.

But this blog is not about cars or phones… This blog is about photography. There's no camera, that I know of, that changes the clock back and forth automatically for the daylight saving time and the standard time.

Why is it important to have the clock properly set on your camera?

Canon: Inconsistent Exposure, Why?

These 2 photos are 2 photos of flying Sandhill Cranes. Sandhill Cranes are big and heavy birds. They fly slowly. I took these 2 photos less than ½ sec apart. Take a look at the skies. Zero processing, just the defaults applied. So it should be the same. Noooo. Why? Because of the “big because”

These 2 photos are 2 photos of flying Sandhill Cranes. Sandhill Cranes are big and heavy birds. They fly slowly. I took these 2 photos less than ½ sec apart. Take a look at the skies. Zero processing, just the defaults applied. So it should be the same. Noooo. Why? Because of the

Canon 7D: AEB, The Auto Exposure Bracketing

With the AEB, Auto Exposure Bracketing, you can take automatically three or more photos with a different exposure for each photo. The Auto Exposure Bracketing is most often used for HDR.

AEB was not designed for HDR but to get the “right” exposure.

Canon 7D: Lens Peripheral Illumination Correction

There are 2 types of lenses (very simplified):

  1. Lenses for full frame cameras
  2. Lenses for APS-C cameras

The 7D has a setting to correct the light fall off at the corners with the Lens Peripheral Illumination Correction.

How to Make the Auto Lighting Optimizer Work

I was “playing” around, and decided to try the Auto Lighting Optimizer on my Canon 7D. Guess what? Nothing!

Was it a problem with the camera or a problem with the operator? Turned out that the problem was that I didn't RTFM (Read The “Fucking” Manual or in a more polite way: Read The Fine Manual), meaning that the the problem was with the operator.

On page 75 of the manual, Canon mentions that the Auto Lighting Optimizer works only with JPEGs. The Auto Lighting Optimizer doesn't do anything in RAW.

Canon 7D: Secret of the Zone AF Focus

The Zone AF is a “mini” version of the Automatic AF Point Selection, the default AF mode. It works in the same way as the Automatic AF point selection except that it restricts the AF points to a small cluster (zone) that is selected.

Within this zone, the system will focus on the closest subject with adequate details, even if you're in Servo AF Mode.

You can select from one of five zones: the nine-point cluster in the center of the viewfinder or one of the a four-point triangular cluster to the left, right, above, or below the center zone.

Canon 7D: Changing the Focus Mode

One of my favorite feature of the Canon 7D is the orientation linked AF points. This means that the default AF points are selected depending on the orientation of the camera.

My base setup is the Zone AF. Horizontally (landscape mode) I use the center zone. Vertically (portrait mode), the 7D changes to the top zone (for the face.)

The problem is that now I have to be careful when I use the Quick Screen and the AF focus selection mode. To change the AF focus selection mode:

  1. Hold the camera horizontally, with the lens pointed forward

Canon 7D: Camera User Setting C1 C2 C3

The Canon 7D has the capability of storing all of your settings into one shortcut, the C1, the C2 or the C3. It will store all of the settings from the Q, the Quick Control Screen, the menus, the custom functions…

  1. Set all of your settings to exactly like you want
  2. Menu → 3rd yellow config tab → Camera user setting → Register → and select the mode dial C1, C2 or C3.
  • It's an all or nothing system. You cannot edit or change just one item of the user setting.
  • Saving the settings wipes the previous setting and writes the new one.

Camera User Setting Bug

Canon 7D: Limits of Evaluative Metering

Lately, I've been doing panoramas. I could be using a wide angle lens, or an extra wide angle lens and “chop” aka crop. The problem with cropping is that I would be left with an image that between 500 pixel to 1000 pixel tall. It's puny, it's small, and it doesn't look good. So instead, I'm doing panoramas, from 12 to 21 photos to be compiled together to give me the “monster” that I want, a 400Mb to 600Mb image! Huge and very detailed. It's somewhat better on the web, but on a print! Wow!

C.Fn III -2 AI Servo 1st/2nd Image Priority

Canon 7D: C.Fn III -2 AI Servo 1st/2nd Image Priority

Canon 7D: C.Fn III -2 AI Servo 1st/2nd Image Priority

Which function has priority when you are pressing on the shutter release when you are using AI Servo? Is it the auto-focus, the AI servo or is it the shutter release? This is where you configure your 7D for your preferences.

AI Servo is the most CPU intensive operation.

Syndicate content