Enough Full Frame Talk: Where are the 7D II Rumors?

[unfocused]

Tongue in cheek, yes...but now that we've dispensed with the entry-level full frame camera, how about something I care about – the 7DII.

Anyone looking at the features of the 6D can see it pretty much guarantees that Canon has no intention of dropping the 7D. So, trying to be realistic here: what features do you expect/hope to see in the 7D?

My list is short: Less noise at ISO 1600-6400; an even better autofocus; a little more weatherproofing; CF Card slot (don't care if they also include an SD, but I wants my CF); and that ability to control the camera through your smartphone using WiFi.

Give me that, and I'll call it good. Bonus points for a touchscreen interface (know this isn't popular with the Luddites, but I find the current menu/click wheel system painfully slow and not intuitive. I presume Canon would keep the click wheels, but give users the option to control the setting from the touch screen as well. It's no longer new technology – we are on the iPhone 5 for God's sake)

Sadly, I expect the infrared pop up flash controller to disappear as Canon tries to move everyone to the next generation of Speedlites.

They can leave the swivel-screen and the new on-sensor autofocus to the 70D as far as I'm concerned, but I'm not going to pitch a fit if one or both show up.

What makes your short list?

 

[Canon-F1]

next photokina..... until then canon will release firmware updates.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Canon made it clear some time ago when the announced the big firmware upfrade for the 7D that a 7D Mark II was not coming soon... if ever. Nikon has also killed off the D400 with their D600.
Personally, I think a 7D Mark II is coming, but not this fall.

 

[unfocused]

I'm sure we will be well into 2013 before we see a 7DII. That shouldn't stop anyone from speculating.

I wouldn't be surprised if it comes one year after the 5DIII, just as the 7D came a year after the 5DII. But, from the specs of the 6D, I just don't see how there will not be a 7DII. There are too many people who won't consider the 6D because of the compromises it offers and don't want to invest in a 5DIII, even at $2,700.

As I've said before, some people buy the biggest car they can find, even if it is underpowered and stripped down. Others go for the compact car with all the extras. Two different markets and two different products. Neither would be satisfied with the other choice, even if the prices are the same.

 

[ScottyP]

My list is short: Less noise at ISO 1600-6400; an even better autofocus; a little more weatherproofing; CF Card slot (don't care if they also include an SD, but I wants my CF); and that ability to control the camera through your smartphone using WiFi.

What makes your short list?

I would buy if they only addressed the noise at 1600-6400, even if that was the only change. SOLD. DONE. HAPPY. If 3200 or 6400 could look like 400 looks today on my T3i, say. What's 3 or 4 stops of improvement between friends, hmm?

 

[daniela]

NO 7D Mark II @ photokina????

Does Canon introduce only the 6D? No 7D Mk2?

What a pity.
6D with only 11 AF filds and an slow sensor....
I am looking for an new FAST camera.

Canon does it not have by now

 

[crasher8]

You just got firmware, enjoy it for a while.

 

[dash2k8]

I want video record start and stop via remote cord. Would a flip screen mess things up a bit? I like the flip screens on the lower ends, which allow me to go wet-belly.

 

[bdunbar79]

Re: NO 7D Mark II @ photokina????

Does Canon introduce only the 6D? No 7D Mk2?

What a pity.
6D with only 11 AF filds and an slow sensor....
I am looking for an new FAST camera.

Canon does it not have by now

A slow sensor? What does that mean?

 

[coreyhkh]

if the only think them improved was lower noise and tweaked the AF that I would be happy to buy a new one.

 

[dtaylor]

My wish list?

* Cleaner and more detailed 1600/3200; consistently usable 6400. I would love to see a 1-2 stop improvement in noise at the high end and a 1-2 stop improvement in DR at the low.

* 63-point AF from 5D3.

* ETTR metering option in RAW that lets me set the percent of the frame that can blow to white. The meter should then intelligently expose to the right for me. The percent-white option is critical to prevent specular highlights from killing the attempt to ETTR.

* Kill the mode dial. Let me choose the mode on the screen and thereby have unlimited named custom modes. Heck, let me assign default modes to memory cards, i.e. if I insert this card I want to default to "My Landscape" or "My Surf Settings".

* Aperture based micro adjustment profiles for lenses. In other words, let me fine tune the AF at each aperture through f/5.6. Properly used this would make AF with fast primes much more reliable. (Their focal plane shifts as the aperture stops down.)

* Infrared and radio flash control.

* Even better weather sealing. (I've had one failure under conditions where my 7D was soaked, but it came back to life after an hour in the sun. Still it was very unnerving. I'm pretty sure the point of failure was the rear joystick. Admittedly the joystick on mine was a bit touchy from day one, so maybe the seal just isn't right on my copy.)

* Flip screen would be nice IF it did not compromise weather sealing.

* 10 fps would be nice but not necessary, 8 fps is very good.

* Touch screen would be nice but not necessary.

* Dual card slots would be nice.

If Canon has a clue, they will get Apple to let them install iOS and open their DSLRs to apps. If they can't get Apple to do it and/or Apple costs too much, Android is fine to. If I were high up in Canon corporate I would make this happen ASAP. But as a user it's not as critical to me as the rest. I just think it's a major missed opportunity among all the vendors. No camera made has a UI or feature set that can touch what's possible once you open the camera hardware up to one of those two OSes.

 

[unfocused]

My list is short: Less noise at ISO 1600-6400; an even better autofocus; a little more weatherproofing; CF Card slot (don't care if they also include an SD, but I wants my CF); and that ability to control the camera through your smartphone using WiFi.

What makes your short list?

I would buy if they only addressed the noise at 1600-6400, even if that was the only change. SOLD. DONE. HAPPY. If 3200 or 6400 could look like 400 looks today on my T3i, say. What's 3 or 4 stops of improvement between friends, hmm?

Hah! Well honestly, ISO 800 isn't terrible. If 3200 looked like 800 that would be great in my book and I would probably be content with just one to 1 1/2 stops (but I don't want Canon to know that's all they have to do.)

 

[dtaylor]

Since I'm obviously dreaming (some of my wishes will never come true)...

I suppose this would have to go on a flash, but...I want to have user selectable (on/off), IR rangefinder AF for the center AF point, just like on the old 35mm P&S bodies from the 1980's. This type of AF system is 100% spot on accurate in total darkness and the time to compute distance is identical regardless of lighting or subject contrast. This would be killer when using fast primes in dim light.

This single feature would give Canon such a huge advantage for weddings, concerts, clubs, and street that people would literally jump to Canon just for this feature. I can't figure out why this old but reliable technology has completely escaped the notice of today's engineers. (Note: I'm not talking about faint red lines to assist the camera's AF module. I'm talking about bouncing an IR beam off the subject to find the distance to target.)

 

[Rockets95]

So, trying to be realistic here: what features do you expect/hope to see in the 7D?

My list is short: Less noise at ISO 1600-6400; an even better autofocus; a little more weatherproofing; CF Card slot (don't care if they also include an SD, but I wants my CF); and that ability to control the camera through your smartphone using WiFi.

What makes your short list?

Everything on your list plus more Dynamic Range, and I'd be good!

 

[Helevitia]

Better AF, usable ISO above 400 up to 6400 would be nice, real autofocus for movies. 1080p @ 60fps, USB 3.0(or thunderbolt), 8-way multicontroller within its rear dial just like 60D and 6D, and dual CF/SD slots.

That's pretty much my dream camera.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Re: NO 7D Mark II @ photokina????

Does Canon introduce only the 6D? No 7D Mk2?

What a pity.
6D with only 11 AF filds and an slow sensor....
I am looking for an new FAST camera.

Canon does it not have by now

Did you expect a new 7D? Did you expect a Nikon D400? Maybe in 6 months or maybe never. Canon just did something they haven't done before, they completely updated the 7D Firmware. This is telling us not to expect a new body in the near future.
APS-C sensors do not play well at high ISO's, there is no new technology to magically change that. Tiny improvements happen with lower noise amplifiers and better noise reduction, but don't expect any substantial improvements in ISO capability.
The 6D goes to ISO 25600, thats as good as anything in that price range.

 

[DB]

With regard to timing - a new 7D2 announced in September 2013 and a new crop-sensor flagship body in March 2013 first, don't know if it will be called the 70D especially not if Canon also release their annual xxxD/xxxxD spring offerings around the same time i.e. 700D/1200D. I cannot see Canon launch a 70D and a 700D - the difference of just one numeral (zero) would be too confusing. Instead we could see a 60D Mark II

Either way, I do not believe that the next variant of the 7D will be an APS-C camera. I believe that it will be an APS-H 27MP or 40MP sensor with dual DIGIC5+ chips, a fixed 3" 3:2 LCD, but with Wi-Fi & GPS onboard, usable 6400 ISO (possibly 12800 ISO for video purposes), very fast high speed shooting say 12 fps and it will have to have a new AF system, but could be very similar to the 45-point AF used on the 1DIV. Initial price circa $2,500

With the improvement in teleconverters and telephoto lenses (such as 300mm & 400mm @ f2.8 and the 500mm & 600mm @ f4) a reduction in the crop focal multiplier from 1.6x to 1.3x will not matter that much to wildlife and sports action shooters -> they'll still have extra reach + extra megapixels for additional cropping in post.

I think that this would round out (complete) the Canon EOS Digital Interchangeable Lens Camera line quite nicely.

 

[meli]

Canon made it clear some time ago when the announced the big firmware upfrade for the 7D that a 7D Mark II was not coming soon... if ever. Nikon has also killed off the D400 with their D600.
Personally, I think a 7D Mark II is coming, but not this fall.

true, i do believe though that there is a place & a market for pro APS-Cs

As for wishlist, a full stop in noise & DR and clean 100, dual drive and some mini tweaks (damned spotlinked metering ffs!)

 

[dr croubie]

Re: NO 7D Mark II @ photokina????

Thank god they upgraded the 7D firmware.
Although, even without it, the 7D is still a fine camera.
And i'm glad it is, because there's nothing I can afford that's an upgrade (5D3 is a nice low-light event upgrade, 1D4 is a nice sports-upgrade, but they're both $3k. D600/D800 are also nice upgrades, but they'll cost a lot more than $3k to replace lenses).

And i doubt the 7D2 is going to be a 'groundbreaking' upgrade, probably not enough to justify any more than a $few hundred nett.
So my current 7D is going to have to last a long long time, probably at least another 3-4 years.


It reminds me of the first computer I bought, it had a Pentium 2 350MHz, 64MB of PC100 RAM, on a 440BX Chipset. I didn't know it at the time, but that chipset took every processor for years. That motherboard lasted me for 6 years, until it ended life as a Tualatin 1.4GHz overclocked to god-knows what, 1GB of PC133 RAM (one of the IDE controllers died, but it had on-board SCSI to tide me over).
I think my 7D is exactly in the same boat. I planned to buy the best that I could afford at the time, which was the 7D. I knew it would last a few years (it's been 2 already), but it's got at least that again before it goes on fleabay (or becomes 'backup').

Long live the 7D mk1.

 

[ScottyP]

Re: NO 7D Mark II @ photokina????

Does Canon introduce only the 6D? No 7D Mk2?

What a pity.
6D with only 11 AF filds and an slow sensor....
I am looking for an new FAST camera.

Canon does it not have by now

Did you expect a new 7D? Did you expect a Nikon D400? Maybe in 6 months or maybe never. Canon just did something they haven't done before, they completely updated the 7D Firmware. This is telling us not to expect a new body in the near future.
APS-C sensors do not play well at high ISO's, there is no new technology to magically change that. Tiny improvements happen with lower noise amplifiers and better noise reduction, but don't expect any substantial improvements in ISO capability.
The 6D goes to ISO 25600, thats as good as anything in that price range.

The speedometer on our old 1970's station wagon went to 140 mph when I was a kid. THe car wouldn't actually do that speed unless you drove it off a cliff, and the twisted smoking results would have looked about the same as the 6D will at 25600.