7D Mii - Custom Settings Bug

[flooder]

I have found a software bug in the 7DII and I just want others to know about it, if they happen to stumble into it and not understand what is going on.

Background: In late Nov I finally got a change to shoot some basketball and in the first game I got back home and the WB in every other picture was off. Way off. Yellow, normal, yellow, normal etc.. I brought it up a few places and most pointed to flicker or setting the WB with an expo disk with a high shutter speed. None of this rang true with me, so I kept plodding on. The WB was not messed up all the time.
With the 7D I had only shot RAW, but with the 7DMii I wanted to get more comfortable with jpeg, so I was making several adjustments to the picture styles, and on another occasion I noticed that my jpeg info would change every other picture. (+1 to -1 Saturation for every other picture.)

I finally had enough and over the holidays spent a day tracking down what would cause it happen and what did not.

The bug is in Custom Modes while using User Def Picture Styles or Custom White Balances settings.
If any changes are made to those settings and re-registered or auto updated, the settings will alternate between the old and new settings with each picture - after a sleep cycle.

Basic Setup:

M or Av mode - Pick an accurate exposure

Auto Power Off - 1 Min

JPEG

User Def Picture Style (I set User Def. 1 to Faithful and left all other detail default)

Register those settings in a Custom Shooting Mode (C1)

Set the Dial to C1

Change the User Def Picture Style details to Monochrome

Re-Register the Custom Mode you were using. (C1)

Allow the camera to Sleep Cycle

Wake up the camera and fire off a burst.

For me ever other pic is in Monochrome

I am able to duplicate for any User Def Picture style setting detail and Custom WB as well.

All other settings do not seem to matter.

 

[Loswr]

If you have not done so already, please report this to Canon. They are the only ones who can fix it (with a firmware update).

You're shifting white balance in the basketball game was due to the flickering illumination common to gymnasiums and some industrial environments, when a fast shutter speed means the exposure lasts for only a part of the AC-driven cycle of the lights. It is that exact issue that the anti-flicker feature of the 7DII is designed to overcome.

 

[flooder]

I did talk a CPS support engineer through the process and he was going to write it up - although he felt it wasn't too important and similar to a Konami Code that wouldn't affect normal users.

I disagreed but I don't think I presented the best use case over the phone. Since then I have reasoned out why it happened to me and why it would be reasonable to happen to others. By goal was to have my standard shooting settings stored in C1 and when I walked into a gym I would adjust the Custom WB, ISO and possibly Shutter Speed and I would be good to go. When I did this it alternated the Custom WB between the old settings and the new one.

In the case of the first time it happened, I have shot this gym 1000 times with 7D, 1DIV and 1DX. I know this gym and the WB issues was not a lighting or flicker issues. It was clearly two different Custom WB values.

 

[takesome1]

Following your directions exactly, I was unable to replicate this bug with my 7D II.

 

[flooder]

Interesting - This is what I am looking for, as I only have the access to 1 body. Although I did get CPS to replicate it.

One note would be making sure you are in a user defined Picture Style and using the INFO button to set the detail to Faithful and Monochrome (or whatever setting you want.) and not just setting it to Faithful or Monochrome.

Also make sure that you register it to C1, C2 or C3 AND change to that mode, and then change a setting in that User Defined Picture Style and re-register or take a few shots with Update Enabled.

The next key step is allowing the camera to go to sleep.

 

[AndyB]

I just replicated this by accident. When I saw the results, I remembered seeing this post, so thanks for posting the bug. Otherwise, I think I would have spent a long time figuring out what happened.

In short, I created a new custom white balance setting (using a shot of a grey card) and then set my C2 to use custom white balance. The camera did go to sleep after that. I did not change the picture style. I do have automatic update enabled.

More details: I've been using C1 as my (outdoor) soccer setting: AV mode (f 4.5 for my 70-200II with 1.4x), AWB, disable flicker detect. I manually adjust ISO to get the shutter faster than 1/1000 on cloudy days, 1/2000 when sunny (usually ISO 320-800)
C2 is my (indoor) basketball setting: P mode (1/640, f 2.8 on the 70-200II), flourescent WB, enable flicker detect. I set the ISO so a closeup of the players' faces has the right exposure (usually ISO 3200 to 8000 depending on the gym).
Both are JPEG only (I don't want RAW for hundreds of pictures per game)

Friday night my daughter had an outdoor soccer game on a lit field. It seemed like the basketball settings were appropriate for the artificial light, but I wasn't sure what color temperature was appropriate for those lights. I wasn't sure I could trust AWB because the background illumination varied so much. That's why I used custom WB. Every other shot had WB way off. It wasn't due to flicker, because exactly every second shot (out of several hundred) was off, regardless of whether they were single shots or parts of bursts. In Aperture, I could get the colors to be somewhat close by setting every other shot to 4500 or 8800 degrees respectively. I suppose I should use RAW next time I am doing something new with the WB

 

[flooder]

Custom WB was how I first found the issue. But custom picture styles is easier to replicate than two custom wb settings.

My goal was to do the same thing I did with the 7D for years, is to have a Cx setting for sports (Back Button Focus, Burst Mode, etc) and leave Av and M with everyday day settings (front button focus etc).

What I hoped was I could walk in a gym and adjust my SS and ISO depending on the exposure and than do a quick custom WB with a gray card or expodisk and I would be ready to go.

Now I stay in M mode and always have to make settings changes for non sports shooting situations.

 

[gqllc007]

Interesting stuff. I originally set my 7D Mk II the same as you. I set the custom shooting mode 1-3 for various styles of shooting. I also use custom white balance and user picture settings. However I ended up using M instead and never used the C1. C2 or C3 button. So I never experienced this issue but I am sure it would have happened.

 

[KurtB]

I did talk a CPS support engineer through the process and he was going to write it up - although he felt it wasn't too important and similar to a Konami Code that wouldn't affect normal users.

I disagreed but I don't think I presented the best use case over the phone. Since then I have reasoned out why it happened to me and why it would be reasonable to happen to others. By goal was to have my standard shooting settings stored in C1 and when I walked into a gym I would adjust the Custom WB, ISO and possibly Shutter Speed and I would be good to go. When I did this it alternated the Custom WB between the old settings and the new one.

In the case of the first time it happened, I have shot this gym 1000 times with 7D, 1DIV and 1DX. I know this gym and the WB issues was not a lighting or flicker issues. It was clearly two different Custom WB values.

After making the change and saving it, if you power off the camera instead of just letting it go to "sleep", does the problem still happen? I am just looking for a simple work around. I am just starting to get the C1-C3 set up the way I want them, so I will be making quite a few changes to the settings as I try different things. It only takes a couple seconds to power cycle the camera after making the change, and if that prevents the issue, that is what I will be doing.

 

[flooder]

After making the change and saving it, if you power off the camera instead of just letting it go to "sleep", does the problem still happen? I am just looking for a simple work around. I am just starting to get the C1-C3 set up the way I want them, so I will be making quite a few changes to the settings as I try different things. It only takes a couple seconds to power cycle the camera after making the change, and if that prevents the issue, that is what I will be doing.

I never thought of trying that. I'll try some things this evening and let you know what I find.

Again the only settings I found that were affected are:
Custom WB
User Defined Picture Styles

All other settings were not affected.

 

[flooder]

After making the change and saving it, if you power off the camera instead of just letting it go to "sleep", does the problem still happen? I am just looking for a simple work around. I am just starting to get the C1-C3 set up the way I want them, so I will be making quite a few changes to the settings as I try different things. It only takes a couple seconds to power cycle the camera after making the change, and if that prevents the issue, that is what I will be doing.

Unfortunately powering down the camera does not cancel the problem. In fact that is a much easier process than waiting for the sleep cycle to cause it to happen.

One solution I am going to start using is, if I want to change the user def picture style or custom white balance is to:
make the change
clear the custom mode for one of the other Cx modes
Register my settings for that Cx mode
Use that Cx mode

Kind if defeats the purpose of have 3 Custom Modes, but it will let me keep my sports settings separate from my everyday settings.