Canon EOS 7D Mark II Specifications Confirmed

[joejohnbear]

Oh schnap. Now I want one. I only have the 5D Mark III and they didn't release the same firmware fix to it as they did with the 1Dx, probably because of hardware limitations. I'll get a chance to use a 1DX in a couple months when I start shooting some rehearsals as primary. Thanks for the ultra-helpful info, neuro!

Nikon's autofocus is better in the dark because of their built-in af-assist light, and their autofocus points blink red compared to the 1dx system which stays black.

Have you used a 1D X? You can turn on red AF point illumination if you want, all the time or auto (they light up only when the camera think the light level is dim enough to warrant it). In AI Servo mode, they blink on and off as the camera focuses.

 

[Vgramatikov]

I do not need more DR.

www.500px.com/vgramatikov

I need better lens if i can afford it.

Good luck!

 

[crashpc]

Do you make money from your photography? True, Canon doesn't do mirrorless that well now. It's just a matter of time before Canon and Nikon pay attention to it with great products, but for now they see sales in DSLR's still sustaining them, so you may look into another mirrorless camera system if you're shooting for fun or your own pleasure, more power to you. Expect to pay $1000+ for a decent mirrorless camera and another $800-1500 for decent lenses. Let's be real here, a $200-300 EOS M doesn't compete with an OMD or an Xt1 or a7/s/r. Btw, does your friend shoot with a 70-200 IS II, a supertelephoto or any of Canon's L primes? If not, you really haven't seen the 5DIII in its full potential. The 50 1.4 while good for beginner standards is pretty outdated.

I OWN the 135L and off topic, I really stress that this lens is best enjoyed on full frame. You really need good glass to appreciate Canon and Nikon cameras, let alone any camera system. That means 85LII, Sigma 35, Sigma 50, Canon 24LII, not any of Canon's older lenses like 35L, 50L, 85non-L(it's good, but too much CA and not as accurate as 135L at AF), plus their mark II f/2.8 zooms, 16-35f/4L, mark II supertelephotos, etc. They are LIGHTYEARS ahead of things like Nikon's 58mm f/1.4, although Nikon offers competitive offerings in their f/2.8 zooms and supertele's.

Yeah, ergo's are subjective, but I feel ya brah, I liked Nikon for a while. Stick with their pro controls on their D300,700-800,3-4's, and you are solid if you go that route. Their D90-style controls on the D7000,7100, and 600/610 are not my cup of tea and not in any way a leg up over Canon's equivalent pro control competitors (7D,5DIII,1D).

No, I don´t make money with my gear. What does that mean? Cannot I have good cam, good car, sharp knife or whatever? Where is this going?

Yes, I´d like to have better Canon mirrorless. I shoot more than for fun, I just don´t get money from my job, and I believe for what I really need from that cam I all have it already (product photography with lower requirements on quality). For my work, I can only put in use the glass and the sensor for stills. I don´t care about anything else. That way OM-D and X-T1 with additional value, better settings, controls, handling and stuff is NO better than that poor EOS M in my eyes. Sony A7R is different beast for me...
As far as I know, my friend shoots only L lenses. Haven´t seen any non Canon and any without red ring in his "bag". But I don´t have to own it to see what it can do, right?

Maybe I should keep the M for mobility and buy bigger cam for "real work", but I don´t know. Kinda "didn´t find myself yet". 6D would be cool, but it´s quite big. Then I also hope for FF cam in EOS XXXD package and size...

About the lenses: Once there is AA filter, it´s not that visible, but once you see moire in the image (where it should be), the lens clearly outresolves the sensor. That way I´m pretty sure all of these older primes are still very usable, and we really need better sensor, as it is waaaay cheaper to have ONCE, while you need to buy best lens (anyway) for milking that not really stellar sensor, no matter what format it is. With 18MPx Canon sensor I´m sure that with primes the sensor is clearly that weaker point. Best lenses would help of course, but not enaugh in this case.

 

[gsealy]

Clean HDMI out would make a difference for me. I also agree with video comments below. We have yet to learn a lot about the camera's video functionality.

Sounds like you know your stuff about video. Very good points on how 4k is not necessarily better than 2k, and well-articulated to include the nuanced differences of what makes or breaks a video camera.

That is not true at low ISO when shooting scenes with a lot of DR. In those cases Canon is like 2-3 stops behind and that amounts to a heck of a lot more than a dime.

Eagerly awaiting your real world sample photos which illustrate this ;D

So am I. I hope the prove is not DxO scores though. I challenge anyone to find me an example where the 70D's sensor is outperformed by any APS-C sensor from any manufacturer by 1 full stop in terms of anything, lowlight performance, dynamic range at any ISO, and resolution. Just one stop, not 2 or 3 as you people claim.


____________________________________

Regarding video: Do we know anything about the 7D's video to the point of determining it's a bad video camera and crippled and not suitable as a hybrid?

No. We don't know squad about the 7D's video. Nothing. Just that it does 60p. that's it.

The factors that will determine whether this is an awesome video camera or nor are all unknown:
What exactly is the sensor?
How does the camera downscale the full resolution to 1080p? Line skipping or pixel binning?
How does the processor compress the feed to H.264, what's the codec, bit rate, 90mbits ALL I or higher, or less?
How fast does it read the sensor lines for the rolling shutter effect?
Does it have a clean HDMI output? Or not?
Does it have a headphone jack, good preamps? Are the audio meters controlled whilst recording or just prior to?
Is reading the sensor at 60p going to introduce worse IQ than normal speed, or will it be just as good for slowmotion?
Are the new processor affecting the noise performance by two stops as Canon claims? Are they affecting the downsampling process therefore the detail?
How well does the autofocus work in video mode?

Come on this is just getting ridiculous, you're concluding somehow that it's bad and crippled for video based on having 60p? That's all you've got about the 7D mk II video mode!

and concerning 4K, just because it's not 4K doesn't mean it's a bad video camera. This is ridiculous. 4K is the next step forward but there still is a place for a great 1080p camera in the market for the next few years.

What is the most successful camera in the video world? The Canon C300. It dominates the broadcast/news/rournalism industry, and the documentary world. Is it a 4K camera? No. 1080p. It does perfect 1080p. And the highest-end professionals are fine with that, but not consumers on the forums, for some reason.
Another example, the Arri Alexa? The most successful cinrma camera in the industry. All the films you see in cinema are shot on the Alexa, is it 4K? No. 2K. The Arri Amira, which is a 60 thousand dollars professional camera that's announced this year, is it 4K? No, 1080p. Yet it's creating the biggest interest among video professionals, but not us. 1080p is too little for us.

All things being equal, do I want 4K vs. 1080p? I do. It's better.
But all things are rarely equal, and many times perfectly done 1080p is way better than poorly done 4K. A GH4 at 4K is not a better video image than a 1080p C300. Not by any means. There are MANY different aspects to image quality than just resolution. There is dynamic range, sensor size, noise charachter and pattern, high ISO performance, colour depth, colour science, etc.

There are certain things the 7D need to nail to be a great video camera, but 4K is not one of them. There still IS a place for a great 1080p camera other wise they wouldn't be selling 1080p cameras at 10K$ to 60K$!
Just give me a perfect 1080p image on the 7D mk II and I am VERY happy. The sensor size in the 7D is more suitable for video/cinema applications than the 5DIII, APS-C equals super 35mm which is the absolute professional standard in the video world. I want the 7D to be a perfect s35 video camera upgrade for all Canon video shooters. It really makes sense. But we don't know a thing. Nothing.

 

[unfocused]

Maybe the DR guys wouldn't get driven to act like such pests if you your ilk wouldn't constantly toss nonsense all over the place and would be able to just admit that there is a single thing that your precious Canon is not the best at.

My Canon is not precious. It's just a frigg'n camera. And, I have no problem admitting that there are differences between all brands and no brand is better at everything.

But, I for one, get very annoyed at people who are fixated on their one favorite thing and insist that it should be the ultimate determinate of quality in any product...that seem to think that anyone who doesn't see it their way is somehow less discerning...and that if a company doesn't happen to emphasize their little fixation, then the company is doomed and anyone who doesn't agree must be crushed under encyclopedic posts that repeat the same worn-out whines over and over again and again.

Furthermore, as a long time reader of this site, I know that whatever changes Canon may make it its products, it won't ever silence the critics.

When Canon offered the cameras with the highest pixel counts in the world, we endured endless posts about how all Canon cared about was megapixel count. Until Canon switched it strategy and started emphasizing ISO performance over high megapixels. Now we get complaints about Canon not having enough megapixels.

At one point, the complainers targeted autofocus. Then, when Canon started providing the best autofocus of any camera on the market, that suddenly became unimportant.

In recent months, the critics have become fixated with "dynamic range." It's simply the latest thing to complain about. But the funny thing is that with each generation of improvements, the areas to complain about become increasingly narrow and esoteric.

When we point out that the market doesn't agree with your assessment, the reaction is "we don't care how many cameras they sell, we just want our personal needs met, even if no one else cares about what we want."

So, I'm more than happy to admit that there are many things my camera is not the best at. Now, will you please admit that hardly anyone gives a rat's rear end about the things you find to complain about.

 

[gsealy]

Has anyone heard about the shutter counter rating? I assume it is 200K+.

 

[PureClassA]

Video side of this piece... yeah it would just be nice to get RAW output as we discussed earlier. But that is very unlikely. 4k Whatever. If the compression is so bad internally that it sucks anyway, who cares. ;-)

 

[jasonsim]

Just as I posted in earlier threads. Same old sensor from 70D and priced around the same as the last 7D at launch (that was 1699.00). Sucks that we waited so long in anticipation for this? Nikon has had 24MP Dx sensors for years!

There might still be hope if the thing can focus like a 1Dx.

Lets see.

-Jason

 

[Don Haines]

But, I for one, get very annoyed at people who are fixated on their one favorite thing and insist that it should be the ultimate determinate of quality in any product...that seem to think that anyone who doesn't see it their way is somehow less discerning...and that if a company doesn't happen to emphasize their little fixation, then the company is doomed and anyone who doesn't agree must be crushed under encyclopedic posts that repeat the same worn-out whines over and over again and again.

Furthermore, as a long time reader of this site, I know that whatever changes Canon may make it its products, it won't ever silence the critics.

+1

I am on record as saying that as long as the 7D2 has a greatly improved AF system to the 7D, that I will pick one up. My expectations are that everything else will be marginally improved over the 70D. The specs so far are that my expectations are slightly exceeded.... but we shall know for sure once the real specs are announced....

So far it looks like I will be getting one, and voting with the wallet is far more meaningful than internet gripes.

 

[Don Haines]

Just as I posted in earlier threads. Same old sensor from 70D and priced around the same as the last 7D at launch

The thing is.... we don't know yet!

It is quite possible that Canon is using the exact same design for the photocells on the sensor, yet has moved the A/D on chip..... and that would give far better noise performance.

Until the real announcement is made and someone looks at the images, everything is rumour and supposition. Facts are absent.

 

[joejohnbear]

Reliability of equipment, i.e. consistent acquisition of autofocus, is more important if you're paid to shoot and expected to turn around with a certain product or service within a limited amount of time.

Do you mean product photography with less features? I'm sure commercial product photography requires great IQ, but shooting for an ebay business against a white backdrop doesn't as much.

So you're into the sensor. If you can afford the a7r, then go for it. The other cameras are good enough for plenty of people. No need to complain why the EOS M doesn't give you the same quality as a $2000 camera.

Not all L lenses are created equal. If he shoots with 17-40 f/4 and older lenses, they're not quite the same as the sharp primes. Red ring is just a bare minimum.

Define your "work" and then go with the camera that lets you do your work best. It's simple as that. An EOS M and a DSLR is way cheaper than a full pro mirrorless setup (or awkward manual focus adapters) that would necessitate you buy new lenses instead of continuing to use your friend's. Nothing's going to give you better IQ in a compact package than an EOS M and a 22mm STM for $200-300 any time soon.

There is a huge difference between individual lenses, regardless of the AA filter. If you can pixel peep and tell the difference on a Nikon or Pentax AA-free camera, like I said, spend your money switching systems and stop complaining. You'll be more than happy with the test charts.

It's usually lens first, then sensor. If you go the opposite way, you're wasting the potential of the sensor, and you may as well just have bought a cheaper camera body to start with. When was moire a good thing? You have some funny priorities. Up to you though. If you want to spend more time in post-process on eliminating moire, go for it. Or if you just like the look, more power to you, leave it in the photo. If you don't have a client to worry about, your opinion is more important than anyone else's. That's the luxury of having a different income source than photography.

Clean HDMI out would make a difference for me. I also agree with video comments below. We have yet to learn a lot about the camera's video functionality.

Sounds like you know your stuff about video. Very good points on how 4k is not necessarily better than 2k, and well-articulated to include the nuanced differences of what makes or breaks a video camera.

That is not true at low ISO when shooting scenes with a lot of DR. In those cases Canon is like 2-3 stops behind and that amounts to a heck of a lot more than a dime.

Eagerly awaiting your real world sample photos which illustrate this ;D

So am I. I hope the prove is not DxO scores though. I challenge anyone to find me an example where the 70D's sensor is outperformed by any APS-C sensor from any manufacturer by 1 full stop in terms of anything, lowlight performance, dynamic range at any ISO, and resolution. Just one stop, not 2 or 3 as you people claim.


____________________________________

Regarding video: Do we know anything about the 7D's video to the point of determining it's a bad video camera and crippled and not suitable as a hybrid?

No. We don't know squad about the 7D's video. Nothing. Just that it does 60p. that's it.

The factors that will determine whether this is an awesome video camera or nor are all unknown:
What exactly is the sensor?
How does the camera downscale the full resolution to 1080p? Line skipping or pixel binning?
How does the processor compress the feed to H.264, what's the codec, bit rate, 90mbits ALL I or higher, or less?
How fast does it read the sensor lines for the rolling shutter effect?
Does it have a clean HDMI output? Or not?
Does it have a headphone jack, good preamps? Are the audio meters controlled whilst recording or just prior to?
Is reading the sensor at 60p going to introduce worse IQ than normal speed, or will it be just as good for slowmotion?
Are the new processor affecting the noise performance by two stops as Canon claims? Are they affecting the downsampling process therefore the detail?
How well does the autofocus work in video mode?

Come on this is just getting ridiculous, you're concluding somehow that it's bad and crippled for video based on having 60p? That's all you've got about the 7D mk II video mode!

and concerning 4K, just because it's not 4K doesn't mean it's a bad video camera. This is ridiculous. 4K is the next step forward but there still is a place for a great 1080p camera in the market for the next few years.

What is the most successful camera in the video world? The Canon C300. It dominates the broadcast/news/rournalism industry, and the documentary world. Is it a 4K camera? No. 1080p. It does perfect 1080p. And the highest-end professionals are fine with that, but not consumers on the forums, for some reason.
Another example, the Arri Alexa? The most successful cinrma camera in the industry. All the films you see in cinema are shot on the Alexa, is it 4K? No. 2K. The Arri Amira, which is a 60 thousand dollars professional camera that's announced this year, is it 4K? No, 1080p. Yet it's creating the biggest interest among video professionals, but not us. 1080p is too little for us.

All things being equal, do I want 4K vs. 1080p? I do. It's better.
But all things are rarely equal, and many times perfectly done 1080p is way better than poorly done 4K. A GH4 at 4K is not a better video image than a 1080p C300. Not by any means. There are MANY different aspects to image quality than just resolution. There is dynamic range, sensor size, noise charachter and pattern, high ISO performance, colour depth, colour science, etc.

There are certain things the 7D need to nail to be a great video camera, but 4K is not one of them. There still IS a place for a great 1080p camera other wise they wouldn't be selling 1080p cameras at 10K$ to 60K$!
Just give me a perfect 1080p image on the 7D mk II and I am VERY happy. The sensor size in the 7D is more suitable for video/cinema applications than the 5DIII, APS-C equals super 35mm which is the absolute professional standard in the video world. I want the 7D to be a perfect s35 video camera upgrade for all Canon video shooters. It really makes sense. But we don't know a thing. Nothing.

 

[PureClassA]

Just as I posted in earlier threads. Same old sensor from 70D and priced around the same as the last 7D at launch

The thing is.... we don't know yet!

It is quite possible that Canon is using the exact same design for the photocells on the sensor, yet has moved the A/D on chip..... and that would give far better noise performance.

Until the real announcement is made and someone looks at the images, everything is rumour and supposition. Facts are absent.

Bingo!! It's been said several times in official CR rumor posts that it is not the same chip. And if it were, you're now pairing it with, what? 10x the processing power? Yeah it's 20.2MP, but that doesn't mean it's identical or even just a "minor tweak". Just wait and see. If it is, then we can all bitch and moan together about it. That aside, the autofocus system is intriguing enough for what I would buy it for, but this sucker is gonna show a lot better than what some people on here on giving it credit for based purely on what us still effectively hearsay right now. Chill. Wait. 8)

 

[Lee Jay]

...but this sucker is gonna show a lot better than what some people on here on giving it credit for based purely on what us still effectively hearsay right now. Chill. Wait. 8)

I would argue that it's not going to be "a lot better" based on the fact that the maximum ISO was increased by "only" 1/3 of a stop. If the sensor were "a lot better", I'd expect to see the maximum ISO go up by 1 stop or so.

 

[dtaylor]

Then why can't any of the DRones produce real world examples for the rest of us? :

We did in the other thread.

Because so many photographers severely underexpose Diet Coke boxes then push 3 stops with no NR :

Try again.

 

[x-vision]

I'm laughing at the people saying its a new sensor. Makes no sense to have a new fabrication process and keep the same pixel count. From a marketing perspective, it is a nightmare. It is the same sensor as the 70D maybe with some software tweaks. Overall quite disappointing for five years of work.

+1000

 

[dtaylor]

I didn't have one with me on that trip.

Please stop making these claims until you have these shots.

But it's easy to know what 2-3 stops better looks like

No it's not. The human eye is terrible at judging scene DR precisely because it's so amazing at capturing everything and leveling out a scene regardless of DR.

Don't beg the question. Post photos. Don't have photos? Then stop complaining until you do.

Maybe the DR guys wouldn't get driven to act like such pests if you your ilk wouldn't constantly toss nonsense all over the place

YOU DON'T HAVE PHOTOS. Until you HAVE photos that clearly back up your claims it is you who is posting nonsense.

Photo up or shut up.

 

[x-vision]

I see no reason why this camera wasn't released two years ago... max, one year ago.
While this is a nice camera, it is long, long overdue(7D was released in '09.)
It seems Canon is dragging their heels as slowly as possible on releasing technology in new bodies.
At this point, it's not really so much impressive, as simply.... expected.

+1000

 

[dtaylor]

And when Fred posted same shots, same time, same cam and showed a big difference then you just had more excuses for why the differnce was not really there.

Fred who? Miranda? When you use NR on the Canon RAW the difference is inconsequential. While pixel peeping the hard pushed sample the Nikon file had a little more detail and less noise. But the actual DR range was the same, and you would be hard pressed to notice detail/noise differences even in a large print. Especially since the scene was artificial as you would never push the shadows that hard in that example.

Your side by side redwood examples that are evidence for your conclusion of a 2-3 stop shortfall, please. Because absent those you are wasting everyone's time.

 

[RickWagoner]

Upon reading the specs i must admit the AF at F8 thing if true would be amazing! Actually it would be a birders dream and if it is fast enough it may be worth the $2k price alone.

400mm 5.6 + 1.4 ii Extender + AF f8 + 10fps + large buffer = Bird photography love fest!


I guess i'll just buy a Camranger later.

 

[AccipiterQ]

To much talking here.

1. Nobody will buy a 7d ii instead of 6d for portraits, landscape, studio work and so one.
2. Nobody will but 6d for sport, action and wildlife photography.

(when i say nobody mean most of the normal thinking people)

3. Before a year there was no 7d competitor for sport, wildlife action crop camera.
-Now we have pentax k-3 and Alfa but who cares about them they do not have the system/lenses.
-Mirrorless are useless for sport and action and they do not have the lens to.

4.Nikon have some...d7100 with weak buffer and slow frame rate.7d and 70d are better like cameras but yes weaker like sensor IQ but only at base iso/DR who cares for sports and wildlife AF performance ,frame rate and buffer is much important.

SO?

7d ii come in time that even the 7d and 70d almost do not have real competition like camera system and performance.

7d ii is ground breaking crop body for sports and wildlife with the 10 fps, this new af module and the ITR.

So that whats up....

May be we all needed just a better sensor from Canon. This part missing to many years. But 70d is not bad at all...it will be enough just 7d ii to be little better ))

I'm going to disagree.

That's the thing...I shoot wildlife/sports/action photography. I use a T2i right now when I'm shooting with a crop. Know why? My glass is all Canon. If it wasn't for that I'd have switched. The 70D offers absolutely no improvement in image quality over the T2i. It's the same flippin sensor, just using new technologies to squeeze a .001% image quality improvement out of it. Now this is coming out with the SAME F'ING SENSOR. The sensor is about 80% of the reason you'd buy a camera, once you choose your subject matter. The 7Dii is going to be a glorified T2i. Same old ancient sensor technology, with a few useless bells & whistles, none of which get down to the root: THEY HAVEN'T MADE A SINGLE INNOVATION IN SENSOR TECHNOLOGY IN YEARS. It's the same mediocre sensor, just rehashed. This is why they're starting to, or will continue to lose market share to other companies. Absolutely insane that it took a half decade to refresh, and it's basically going to be the exact same camera with the exact same sensor, just with a tiiiiny bit extra squeezed out of that sensor. Absolute garbage. I can't tell you how pissed off I am right now.