7D Mark II Firmware update??

[East Wind Photography]

Same here, I rarely use my 7DII unless absolutely necessary. People STANDING STILL in AI-Servo are severely out of focus???

This was an example from today, but sometimes it's a person standing on base talking to the coach and I'm not switching to single shot to get a standing still person just to switch back to servo..

And then there are shots in focus in the same series. So nothing moved, but the camera went from in focus to out and then back in again. Frustrating as all hell.

This happened with my old 7D. It's the only camera I've had that would rack back and forth that severely. Unfortunately I have not had the chance to shoot extensively enough with the 7D2 to know if it's been fixed...but that was my NUMBER ONE beef with the original.

This was the case with mine until they replaced the mirror box and AF sensor. It is rock solid now in ai servo. All as good as my 5d3. In fact the only time I use one shot now is when I'm shooting in low light.

 

[machx0r]

Same here, I rarely use my 7DII unless absolutely necessary. People STANDING STILL in AI-Servo are severely out of focus???

This was an example from today, but sometimes it's a person standing on base talking to the coach and I'm not switching to single shot to get a standing still person just to switch back to servo..

And then there are shots in focus in the same series. So nothing moved, but the camera went from in focus to out and then back in again. Frustrating as all hell.

This happened with my old 7D. It's the only camera I've had that would rack back and forth that severely. Unfortunately I have not had the chance to shoot extensively enough with the 7D2 to know if it's been fixed...but that was my NUMBER ONE beef with the original.

This was the case with mine until they replaced the mirror box and AF sensor. It is rock solid now in ai servo. All as good as my 5d3. In fact the only time I use one shot now is when I'm shooting in low light.

This is what concerns me. I'm hopeful that a firmware update improves my situation but I keep hearing stories of replaced mirror boxes which a firmware update certainly could not fix.

I wouldn't be able to ship my camera for the warranty service until Tuesday anyway so maybe I'll get lucky and the new firmware will come out before then giving me a little bit of time to better decide if I should ship it off or not...

 

[RodS57]

I contacted canon Canada about my camera in early March and sent in the requested pictures. None of the shots were in focus but they said nothing was wrong with my camera. In the course of the correspondence they never suggested I should send it in to be checked. Due to possible time frame for repair and upcoming trip I will wait until probably this fall to send it in. Trying to give this camera every chance to prove I am the problem. Not impressed with camera or canon so far.

Rod

This is what I see with your statement.
I contacted Canon and told them there was an AF issue and I was sending it back for warranty. Clear directions, no questions, box it up and send it is the response I got.
It appears you called Canon and tried to resolve your issue remotely.
Perhaps it is the business I am in that has taught me to be demanding and specific. But in general when you tell someone a specific action you want and the course you want them to take you will not get run in circles as much because you are guiding the direction.

When you contacted them they didn't want to take ownership of the problem. Bad customer service sure, but typical of many customer service departments.

I think they could have met me half way by saying we don't think there is anything wrong but please send it in if you feel there is a problem. They are not admitting to an issue but are offering something to the customer. Right now it is more like, "We got your money, go away!"

Rod

 

[JimKarczewski]

Same here, I rarely use my 7DII unless absolutely necessary. People STANDING STILL in AI-Servo are severely out of focus???

This was an example from today, but sometimes it's a person standing on base talking to the coach and I'm not switching to single shot to get a standing still person just to switch back to servo..

And then there are shots in focus in the same series. So nothing moved, but the camera went from in focus to out and then back in again. Frustrating as all hell.

I was sitting in the car, not moving at a redlight, AI-SERVO shooting people standing still does this to me all the time. I have some shots of them in focus, then they go out of focus (70-200/2.8II which is just find on the 1Dx) and then back into focus, so I'm not sure if the "blur" is from the focus moving while taking the shot by my right arm was firmly planted on the center console supporting the camera and nobody was moving.

I am constantly having focus issues in servo with people NOT moving. Refs in basketball, players sitting on the bench in basketball. 1Dx, same lenses, no issue. And I never get a perfectly sharp image with the 7DII. I have FoCal, but it's been that way since I got it and while I'm thinking of sending it back in, I might wait to see what happens with this firmware.

Jim,
When I take a close look at your example picture it looks like camera motion blur to me (look at the edges of the sign boards). Nothing is in focus. Is there any chance the camera did move during this shot?
Cheers,
djd

 

[Deleted member 7828]

Same here, I rarely use my 7DII unless absolutely necessary. People STANDING STILL in AI-Servo are severely out of focus???

This was an example from today, but sometimes it's a person standing on base talking to the coach and I'm not switching to single shot to get a standing still person just to switch back to servo..

And then there are shots in focus in the same series. So nothing moved, but the camera went from in focus to out and then back in again. Frustrating as all hell.

This happened with my old 7D. It's the only camera I've had that would rack back and forth that severely. Unfortunately I have not had the chance to shoot extensively enough with the 7D2 to know if it's been fixed...but that was my NUMBER ONE beef with the original.

This was the case with mine until they replaced the mirror box and AF sensor. It is rock solid now in ai servo. All as good as my 5d3. In fact the only time I use one shot now is when I'm shooting in low light.

Well, all this talk convinced me to pull out the 7D2 and fire off some test Servo shots (I just haven't really got a chance to put it to much real world use yet, although with the weather improving, I expect that to change). It was not perfect every time, but the variation seemed to be within the tolerances of the system...In other words, it's DEFINITELY more consistent than my old 7D was. MUCH more so. In fact it is pretty close to my 5D3, or so it seems.

Sorry to hear that's not the case for everyone... :-\

 

[Canon1]

Same here, I rarely use my 7DII unless absolutely necessary. People STANDING STILL in AI-Servo are severely out of focus???

This was an example from today, but sometimes it's a person standing on base talking to the coach and I'm not switching to single shot to get a standing still person just to switch back to servo..

And then there are shots in focus in the same series. So nothing moved, but the camera went from in focus to out and then back in again. Frustrating as all hell.

Jim,

What was your shutter speed? You mentioned that you were sitting in a car at a redlight. There is a ton of vibration to contend with when shooting from within a running vehicle. Also, there is the potential for heat shimmer. A lot of variables going against you with this situation, and can explain why some shots in aburst are better than others.

I don't doubt that you are having problems with the camera. I think mine has issues, and it is at CPS right now. Hopefully there is something they can do to improve the image quality... otherwise I'll let it go. I have owned mine for 5 months, and never use it because the IQ is lousy. Hoping it's not the norm.

Good luck with yours and I'll update once I hear from CPS...

Happy Shooting.

 

[hd02fatboy]

I purchased mine mid January. I had a indoor college track and field event to shot about two weeks after receiving the new camera. This gave me time to do a micro adjust between the camera and the lens. I was excited to use the new 7D II. That was until I got home and downloaded the photos. It was pretty much a disaster with only very few keepers. The lighting in the arena was bad and didn't help matters. I was not allow to use strobes or flash. I shot with the Sigma 120-300 2.8 Sport lens. I have not complained or posted anything until I seen this post about a possible firmware upgrade. I have only used the camera a few times since then for non sport type of photos. The inital results left me a bit frustrated, but with a busy schedule there was hasn't been time to dig into it. I finally have time this weekend to take it out and do some shots outside and recheck my micro adjustment settings on the camera as well as the Sigma lens. I am hoping its just a micro adjust/configuration issue on my part. Thanks for all the insight to what you've run into with this camera model. In the end, if I am facing the same focus problem when using the AI Servo, I would welcome a firmware upgrade.

 

[MichaelTheMaven]

I had to replace two 7Diis before I got a good copy. No issues since. Glad to see it is being addressed by firmware.

Michael

 

[belopar8]

I've never posted here, but I have to chime in on this one. For the past 6 weeks I've been pulling my hair out trying to get this 7D2 to focus correctly. The Canon support people have been frustratingly difficult to deal with...not at all what I've experienced on the rare instances I've ever used them, and not exactly the level of service I expect after plunking down $300 for the "Platinum" CPS level.

After several weeks of playing with this thing and using AFMA on every piece of glass I own my frustration level reached the point where I took a Diet Dr. Pepper can outside in the bright light and shot a tripod mounted series of shots with the 7D2 and my 10 year old's Rebel XSI. The XSI blew them out of the water. I burned that set and an extensive set with a LensAlign and boxed everything up and sent it to Canon.

My 7D2 is just back from it's 3rd trip to Virginia or wherever they shipped it. It's had a new mirror box and AF assembly (whatever that is, exactly) because according to them the original was installed incorrectly.

My images were (some still are) incredibly soft, particularly in Servo. At this point a moving subject seems to have a much greater chance of being sharp and in focus than a stationary one shot in Servo. To get the best AF results in a variety of situations I have re-programmed the DOF preview button to the right of the mount to toggle between One Shot and Servo. If my subject is momentarily stationary, I hold the button down switch to ONE SHOT, then release and go back to Servo if it starts moving again.

The results are better, but still not where they should be. I'm just curious here...what's the firmware version your cameras shipped with? My 7D2 is showing Firmware version 1.0.2 I was curious as to whether they might have slipped the new firmware in there and not mentioned it.

 

[East Wind Photography]

Same here, I rarely use my 7DII unless absolutely necessary. People STANDING STILL in AI-Servo are severely out of focus???

This was an example from today, but sometimes it's a person standing on base talking to the coach and I'm not switching to single shot to get a standing still person just to switch back to servo..

And then there are shots in focus in the same series. So nothing moved, but the camera went from in focus to out and then back in again. Frustrating as all hell.

Jim,

What was your shutter speed? You mentioned that you were sitting in a car at a redlight. There is a ton of vibration to contend with when shooting from within a running vehicle. Also, there is the potential for heat shimmer. A lot of variables going against you with this situation, and can explain why some shots in aburst are better than others.

I don't doubt that you are having problems with the camera. I think mine has issues, and it is at CPS right now. Hopefully there is something they can do to improve the image quality... otherwise I'll let it go. I have owned mine for 5 months, and never use it because the IQ is lousy. Hoping it's not the norm.

Good luck with yours and I'll update once I hear from CPS...

Happy Shooting.

It's not the norm. CPS fixed mine and replaced the mirror box and AF sensor then recalibrated everything back to factory spec. I've been using it almost exclusively now shooting soccer and rarely get an out of focus image. I still have to apply a decent amount of post sharpening but that is due to the low pass filter on this model. Images are tack sharp one after another now.

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

At this point a moving subject seems to have a much greater chance of being sharp and in focus than a stationary one shot in Servo.

Curiously I noticed that my 5D3 has always seemed a bit similar. It would nail soccer players charging down the field, spinning and leaping and turning and so on, but then try to get a shot of the goalie slowly walking the ball out and 50% would be OOF, sometimes, despite center cluster 100% within the players body and on defined markings, it would leap a shot or two back to something 100 yards away before instantly getting back close to target.

The same scenario for birds on the ground. They constantly move about just enough one shot isn't so hot, but AI servo seems unstable, worse than my 7D was (although for sports, other than for surfing where it did at least as well, the 7D was generally much worse, for some soccer games I'd just give up and quickly put it away and go 5D3 all the way as it would be doing no better than an old 50D, at best).

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

I had to replace two 7Diis before I got a good copy. No issues since. Glad to see it is being addressed by firmware.

Michael

The thing is all three copies had the same firmware and yet you found two to be poor and one fine so I wonder about a firmware fix. Perhaps it's to deal with troubles if there is any slight imperfection to AF sensor or something? Or maybe just an additional stability fix, but you still need solid HW.

 

[JimKarczewski]

Same here, I rarely use my 7DII unless absolutely necessary. People STANDING STILL in AI-Servo are severely out of focus???

This was an example from today, but sometimes it's a person standing on base talking to the coach and I'm not switching to single shot to get a standing still person just to switch back to servo..

And then there are shots in focus in the same series. So nothing moved, but the camera went from in focus to out and then back in again. Frustrating as all hell.

Jim,

What was your shutter speed? You mentioned that you were sitting in a car at a redlight. There is a ton of vibration to contend with when shooting from within a running vehicle. Also, there is the potential for heat shimmer. A lot of variables going against you with this situation, and can explain why some shots in aburst are better than others.

I don't doubt that you are having problems with the camera. I think mine has issues, and it is at CPS right now. Hopefully there is something they can do to improve the image quality... otherwise I'll let it go. I have owned mine for 5 months, and never use it because the IQ is lousy. Hoping it's not the norm.

Good luck with yours and I'll update once I hear from CPS...

Happy Shooting.

1/1600 @ f4, ISO 160.

 

[justaCanonuser]

Thx for this important info and the very interesting thread. I got my new 7D2 just yesterday and will try it today afternoon for the first time (birding with 500mm tele w/o TC) and check its AF performance. I will use the same settings I discovered to be the best with my 5D3 for birding, and I may not have the time to do a proper AF micro adjustment of my lens(es) before. Look forward to the first results with the 7D2 just out of the box.

 

[East Wind Photography]

With the 500 f4 you will at least need to check afma and adjust first before making any claims about af performance.

Thx for this important info and the very interesting thread. I got my new 7D2 just yesterday and will try it today afternoon for the first time (birding with 500mm tele w/o TC) and check its AF performance. I will use the same settings I discovered to be the best with my 5D3 for birding, and I may not have the time to do a proper AF micro adjustment of my lens(es) before. Look forward to the first results with the 7D2 just out of the box.

 

[dolina]

Got my 7D2 from the Canon Service Center. I can confirm the firmware will be out next week. Everyone who complained about the AF were bird photogs and the adjustments made was purely software.

I will test tomorrow if the improvements stuck.

 

[Lee Jay]

Got my 7D2 from the Canon Service Center. I can confirm the firmware will be out next week. Everyone who complained about the AF were bird photogs and the adjustments made was purely software.

I will test tomorrow if the improvements stuck.

What's the new firmware version number?

 

[dolina]

Got my 7D2 from the Canon Service Center. I can confirm the firmware will be out next week. Everyone who complained about the AF were bird photogs and the adjustments made was purely software.

I will test tomorrow if the improvements stuck.

What's the new firmware version number?

Lee and in_04 I do not have the new firmware.

Looking through the menu it states that I am using 1.0.2

What CPS did was manually adjust my camera's firmware as the AF wasn't hitting it's mark.

I was told to expect the new firmware next week.

Amongst photojournalists who got the 7D2 none of them returned their units to CPS for error correction.

All of those who had their 7D2 serviced were bird photogs.

 

[belopar8]

Got my 7D2 from the Canon Service Center. I can confirm the firmware will be out next week. Everyone who complained about the AF were bird photogs and the adjustments made was purely software.

I will test tomorrow if the improvements stuck.

What's the new firmware version number?

Lee and in_04 I do not have the new firmware.

Looking through the menu it states that I am using 1.0.2

What CPS did was manually adjust my camera's firmware as the AF wasn't hitting it's mark.

I was told to expect the new firmware next week.

Amongst photojournalists who got the 7D2 none of them returned their units to CPS for error correction.

All of those who had their 7D2 serviced were bird photogs.

Well they've had mine 3 times and I am a photojournalist. I got a new mirror box and AF assembly. It's better than it was, but if the new firmware doesn't fix the remaining servo problems I'm dumping this thing.

 

[takesome1]

With the 500 f4 you will at least need to check afma and adjust first before making any claims about af performance.

Thx for this important info and the very interesting thread. I got my new 7D2 just yesterday and will try it today afternoon for the first time (birding with 500mm tele w/o TC) and check its AF performance. I will use the same settings I discovered to be the best with my 5D3 for birding, and I may not have the time to do a proper AF micro adjustment of my lens(es) before. Look forward to the first results with the 7D2 just out of the box.

Not so, if he takes it out and hits critical focus on the birds eye over and over no AFMA adjustment required.