I'll share my experience. I got the 7DMII about three weeks ago. I took my body back for exchange this past Wednesday.
For the two weeks that I had the first body, the photos shot on one-shot, indoors, ISO < 800, or on a tripod were "fairly" sharp. I was a bit annoyed that I didn't get the usual clarity in my cat and dog pictures (normally I can see sharp light reflection in the eyes when I hit the correct DoF and focus) , and I wasn't seeing that and didn't find the images very impressive. I didn't buy this camera for portraiture though so I didn't really inspect the images pixel-level.
I bought it to shoot outdoors with my dogs and to get nature shots (birds, flowers, wildlife...) as my old camera just couldn't keep up with the running pups and it took a *lot* of setup and frustration to get even two or three BIF photos. When I tested this thing on my pups at 10fps... I didn't get a single one in focus. Case 1... Case 2... didn't matter. Every one of them looked like someone had smeared petroleum jelly on my lenses. On
all my lenses. I tried every single setting in the book. I tried various MFA techniques. I was practically ready to start ritual sacrifice of oats and grains to any god that might listen to my plight.
After looking deeply and carefully at every image I took, I realized *none* of them were in focus. At all. Even the ones I thought were sharp when I first took the images had signs of vibration. Even images shot at 1/2000+ with F5.6-F11 on bright days with low ISO were out of focus. It was most notable in specular reflections. The only thing that I could think of was that the sensor was physically moving while the shutter was being triggered, or I was just
that bad with this camera.
I took the body back to the store on Tuesday and asked if I could get a replacement. I showed them my outdoor shots, and they looked skeptical, claiming not to see a problem. But they said that they'd reserve one for me. There was this nagging voice inside my head that said: "its just your ignorance, not the camera." and I felt like a heel for complaining about something that was likely my own fault. I came back on Wednesday and talked to the guy that originally sold me the camera (he wasn't there the previous day). I took the new body and put my old lens on it (just to keep things scientific) and went outside for some shots. I had to prove to myself that it wasn't just *me* and that I wasn't wasting the dealer's time.
I took the photos, came back in, and pulled up the images on my MBP in Adobe Camera Raw... and they were razor freaking sharp. I started giggling hysterically in relief, practically crying and thanking the guy profusely.
Since the exchange I've successfully caught birds in flight at the kind of shutter speeds I'm used to from my old camera (10D), but now with 10fps I can actually get a series instead of just one or two before the bird's out of range. This weekend I plan on photographing the pups as they run around.
I'm glad Canon is admitting the problem. If they can come up with a firmware that really does improve the quality of focus, that would be awesome. I've not tested it on the new body, but some of the AF points really don't lock well enough for my taste in AF servo. I'm used to reacquiring though, so its not *that* big a deal, especially considering how fast reacquisition is on this thing. I tend to start center point and move from there. As for the other points, the locks don't always select the subject that I like. That's probably where canon can make the most improvement in their firmware and software.
I am hoping that things stay working well. This camera is an amazing camera.
