RodS57 said:
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
I love my country but if Canon Canada was a auto repair facility I would not let them put air in my tires. They always want pictures, they are difficult to talk to and generally not interested in fixing your camera, particularly when on warranty. They automatically assume it is your fault and treat you like a 5 year old. I would not even think of sending mine without CPS due to the embarrassing turn around. As a CPS member the turn around is faster but all the other things I mentioned still happen. I cancelled my CPS membership.
As for the 7D2. I have read about how complex it is and the learning curve required. While it is complex when you look a the the big picture it really isn't. We make it complex for ourselves. Based on reading multiple forums IMO the Case numbers made this camera more confusing that it needs to be. I'm not saying that they are not a good thing. They are very valuable but tend to be over analyzed and often blamed for poor performance. If you think about it what did people do before Case numbers?
We as users have actually have limited control. Our biggest part is selecting appropriate camera settings like shutter speeds and correct technique when tracking moving objects.
Either the system works or it doesn't.
AF lock. We have some control over this with 1st and 2nd image priority but all this does is control how many times the system will recheck AF before locking. It has nothing to do with the actual focus acquisition and lock. The system and the algorithms do this behind the scenes which is the bulk of work. If you have tried changing those settings yo will notice this camera is so fast it is difficult to tell the difference. Even if you set it t release instead of focus the system does one quick AF check before firing. I just set mine to release and moved the camera around and AF still works, it just does reconfirm AF lock several times like when in Focus which I would never be able to tell if it is doing this. So in conclusion we really have no control over AF acquisition and lock, we can only tweak it's performance a bit.
AI Servo. Once AF locks then regardless which case number you are in the system is tracking and applying it's predictive focusing algorithms. Again as users we have no control over that. We can only tweak to optimize how the predictive AF reacts for the situation we are shooting. I had my 7D MK1 parameters set to the same settings as Case 2 so as to ignore background objects. I shot like that for 5 years. Could I have changed the parameters? Sure but unless you have a photographic memory you need too experiment and write it down on a note pad. Who actually does this? This is the beauty of Case numbers. You can quickly and easily tweak in the field and markers indicate the factory settings if you want to go back. Now these settings are permanent and easily accessed.
Even Canon says this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sgRZBo-WKI
I sent my 7D2 to Canon USA in December because it was awful in AI Servo. We went in a vacation in January and I was supposed to go to a bird preserve south of Albuquerque but got hit by those winter storms. Back home I was frustrated and got tired standing outside in freezing weather hoping for a bird fly by so I shelved it until a few days ago. I finally got out and whatever adjustments Canon made worked well. I did not shoot BIF for 4 months, I was rusty and did well. Tried different Case numbers, single point, expanded, zone and did pretty good in all of them. Most OOF shots were my fault. Before shooting I was prepared to send it back but I'm not done testing yet.
There is no reason a person who has some experience shooting in AI Servo cannot put a lens on, select an appropriate shutter speed, single point focus and nail images right out of the box with factory settings. 1st and 2nd priority in equal and case 1 for most situations and get a high keeper rate. Of course if you are trying to shoot small fast birds or fast sports with many directional changes you will to work at it. A larger slow moving bird, etc should be a cakewalk with factory settings.
Case numbers tweak and optimize and it takes time to experiment and learn but otherwise the system either works or it doesn't. There is no grey area. However I am anticipating the FM update. Anything that helps performance is a good thing.
Feeling buyers remorse and thinking the grass isn't greener with the Mark II. My 7D worked flawless. Could trust that when you got home you would have something of value.
