Canon EOS 7D Mark II Specifications Confirmed

[Tanispyre]

Question on one of the specs listed: what is "Lens electronic MF"

Lens Electronic MF means you can change the focus using the camera body and the AF motors, instead of switching to MF mode on the lens, and turning a ring

 

[DominoDude]

I'm not in the market to buy one, but I certainly look forward to see the real deal being handled and mistreated in a few reviews soon. Spec's is one thing, now they'll have to deliver also. (And I think it will.)

Still hoping that the earlier mentioned SD card slot is a mistake, and that it'll be CF only.

 

[Loswr]

What's with the bulge in front of the hot shoe, btw ??

I am pretty sure it is the GPS antenna

If they can put a GPS antenna on the outside, why not a WiFi antenna? The frequencies aren't far apart.

My guess (and it's nothing more than an educated such) is that GPS is a passive receiver, and it won't need to draw much juice from the battery. Any built-in WiFi would need to have electronics for both receiving and sending data, and it would suck out the available juice much quicker.

My guess is Canon wants to sell you the WFT-E7 II.

I still want to know how it will sync time between cameras without WiFi.

The same way...buy the WFT-E7 II. I wish I could say I'm being facetious, but unfortunately I'm not.

 

[Loswr]

Question on one of the specs listed: what is "Lens electronic MF"

Lens Electronic MF means you can change the focus using the camera body and the AF motors, instead of switching to MF mode on the lens, and turning a ring

What makes you believe that? That's not how the setting by that same name works on the 1D X and 5DIII (where it works as I previously described).

 

[lintoni]

What's with the bulge in front of the hot shoe, btw ??

I am pretty sure it is the GPS antenna

If they can put a GPS antenna on the outside, why not a WiFi antenna? The frequencies aren't far apart.

My guess (and it's nothing more than an educated such) is that GPS is a passive receiver, and it won't need to draw much juice from the battery. Any built-in WiFi would need to have electronics for both receiving and sending data, and it would suck out the available juice much quicker.

My guess is Canon wants to sell you the WFT-E7 II.

I still want to know how it will sync time between cameras without WiFi.

The same way...buy the WFT-E7 II. I wish I could say I'm being facetious, but unfortunately I'm not.

Buy 2x WFT-E7 IIs!

 

[PureClassA]

If $1799 is fairly accurate, then game on. Yes it's 20.2 MP sensor. Same pixel count as 70D, but wasn't it said before that it is NOT the same sensor as the 70D? So we don't know squat yet. The RGB+IR is very intriguing. The 65AF + 10fps... awesome. Love it. By the way... the last 7D sensor has 18.1 MP and two Digic 4s. Dual Digic 6 processors could well translate into significantly cleaner high ISO images even if they stuck the same old sensor in there.

If this camera comes out at $2500 like folks initially assumed, it's far less exciting to me and probably most folks. I'm looking forward to the official announcement and some side by side to old 7D (which I own). I don't care what Samsung and Sony have. They have a sensor. Canon makes Cameras. And Lenses. This system in my opinion and for my uses is vastly superior to other options. I'm looking forward to this.

 

[Tanispyre]

Question on one of the specs listed: what is "Lens electronic MF"

Lens Electronic MF means you can change the focus using the camera body and the AF motors, instead of switching to MF mode on the lens, and turning a ring

What makes you believe that? That's not how the setting by that same name works on the 1D X and 5DIII (where it works as I previously described).

It was something I had read on a DP forum, as a way of doing focus pulls in video, and it made sense to me. Honestly, I have not used a 1D X or a 5D III so I admit I am probably regurgitating wrong info. But that is part of the fun of these forums.

 

[DominoDude]

Neuro & Lintoni - Yupp, I can't object to that.

 

[Loswr]

Question on one of the specs listed: what is "Lens electronic MF"

Lens Electronic MF means you can change the focus using the camera body and the AF motors, instead of switching to MF mode on the lens, and turning a ring

What makes you believe that? That's not how the setting by that same name works on the 1D X and 5DIII (where it works as I previously described).

It was something I had read on a DP forum, as a way of doing focus pulls in video, and it made sense to me. Honestly, I have not used a 1D X or a 5D III so I admit I am probably regurgitating wrong info. But that is part of the fun of these forums.

I agree that it would be a nice feature. But this isn't it.

 

[Barrfly]

Intervalometer

Hopefully existing Canon cameras will get this through a firmware update. Magic Lantern has already added the feature to my 5D III but it would be nice to access it without using third party hacks .

 

[unfocused]

...as someone who shoots a lot in ISO-challenged circumstances (sports at night, evening weddings with existing light), along with better AF, I was hoping for another stop or more of usable ISO... Now I wonder if I should just buy the 2.5 year-old 5D3

Nicely played, Canon.

The 7DII was never going to be a low light king or competitor to the 5DIII in ISO performance. It's not possible with a APS-C sensor to achieve the same performance as a full frame sensor. It will be slightly better than the 7D and better than any of the 24mp competitors, but it's not going to gain you a full stop or more.

So, yeah, you need to buy a 5DIII.

I doubt Moore's law will continue to apply in photography as there's a "good enough" point just like computer power for word processing.

Yes! Someone else gets it.

Beyond a certain point, miniscule differences in sensors aren't going to sell cameras. But, 10 fps, 65 autofocus points, GPS, weather resistance, intervalometers, etc. will.

 

[Lee Jay]

Beyond a certain point, miniscule differences in sensors aren't going to sell cameras. But, 10 fps, 65 autofocus points, GPS, weather resistance, intervalometers, etc. will.

More than tiny differences are available. The A7S sensor has a 1/3 stop advantage in QE and around 1 1/2 stops in read noise at high ISO. That's not "miniscule".

 

[Ebrahim Saadawi]

It's very strange to me this is not exciting people. This is the highest-speced camera in the market and the highest-end crop body ever made.

If you don't already own a DSLR, particularly a crop-sensor, this is a pretty nice camera. But speaking as a 7D owner, I'm a bit underwhelmed after 5 years. 5 Years is a long time for what is basically a piece of consumer electronics. With most other products, we would expect a pretty big leap in this time (long enough that some products have almost come and gone, e.g. BluRay players). For most purposes, my 7D is fine, particularly when I can de-focus/re-focus a few times to give the AF a few tries to get it right (or use live-view). But as someone who shoots a lot in ISO-challenged circumstances (sports at night, evening weddings with existing light), along with better AF, I was hoping for another stop or more of usable ISO. Without that, they could have brought out this model 2.5 years ago with the 5D3 AF. Now I wonder if I should just buy the 2.5 year-old 5D3 (1DX isn't practical, particularly when you include the cost of the divorce).

I think this slow pace of innovation reflects the capture effect of a lens collection. Once you have a sizable lens collection, it's not really feasible to sell everything and re-buy another brand with it's own set of shortcomings. (I'd be interested in hearing from people who have done this and what the total $ cost was to switch.) So we just take what Canon gives us, letting them make us their bitch :-\.

Granted, for the vast majority of uses and users (most of whom are still shooting in P), the current technology is pretty great and beyond what most people take advantage of. It is only a tiny minority of us that are whining. In fact, if you believe Reichmann over at LuLa (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/cameras/the_mirrorless_revolution.shtml), in 5 years, the masses will have switched to mirrorless, small-sensor cameras, and we will be left behind like MF, paying more and more for glacial innovation. Well, "in the long run, we are all dead." In the meantime, I guess I'll just make some more pictures and focus on the majority of situations where it's not my camera that's holding me back. (Still thinking about that 5D3, though...)

then what were actually people expecting from the 7D replacement? What would it take to be exciting? More than 10 frames-per-secons, perhaps more the the 1DX? A better AF system than the 1DX? A stop or two of ISO performance, again making it better in low-light than the fullframe 1DX?

It went and became the fastest, most advanced, toughest crop sensor camera ever made. It's ridiculously highly speced. It improves on every single feature of the 7D by a great margin.

It's just really shocking how such ridiculously high specs are still bashed and considered disappointing. This makes me believe that some people really do bash a company for the sake of bashing a company. (Not meaning the person I qouted here, he has legitemate need and concern for higher IQ)

No other camera on the market under 7000$ does what this camera does, not by any manufacturer, it seems very strange it's still disappointing people.

 

[lintoni]

Intervalometer

Hopefully existing Canon cameras will get this through a firmware update. Magic Lantern has already added the feature to my 5D III but it would be nice to access it without using third party hacks .

The thought struck me that Canon are paying attention to what Magic Lantern are bringing to users... intervalometer, RGB raw metering, etc., I'm going to take a wild guess and say that it also has a programmable bulb timer and some other useful functionality that ML users enjoy.

 

[Don Haines]

It looks reasonable.... more or less what I expected they would release, except I still can't believe they left out WiFi and touchscreen. One of the great strengths of Canon is the user interface and this seems like a step backward from the 70D.... And we still don't know if the sensor is new tech or the 70D re-used....

I won't believe that these are the real specs until there is an official announcement by Canon....

 

[unfocused]

Beyond a certain point, miniscule differences in sensors aren't going to sell cameras. But, 10 fps, 65 autofocus points, GPS, weather resistance, intervalometers, etc. will.

More than tiny differences are available. The A7S sensor has a 1/3 stop advantage in QE and around 1 1/2 stops in read noise at high ISO. That's not "miniscule".

At 12 mp. Meh.

 

[PureClassA]

It looks reasonable.... more or less what I expected they would release, except I still can't believe they left out WiFi and touchscreen. One of the great strengths of Canon is the user interface and this seems like a step backward from the 70D.... And we still don't know if the sensor is new tech or the 70D re-used....

I won't believe that these are the real specs until there is an official announcement by Canon....

Don,

Was there not some issue with trying to put an articulating touch panel in a body designed to be weather/bullet ;D proof? The yes, we have GPS, but No. not Wifi is a bit weird. I'm waiting to hear Canon's official rationale, but then again... they may just pull a giant gotcha.

 

[Canon1]

then what were actually people expecting from the 7D replacement?

My guess is something better than a 1DX in all aspects but with a crop sensor camera.... priced at below $2k... and yes they also want to eat their cake too...

 

[HurtinMinorKey]

I thought we were getting some innovative video features too. I'm not seeing it here, Floyd.

 

[Lee Jay]

Beyond a certain point, miniscule differences in sensors aren't going to sell cameras. But, 10 fps, 65 autofocus points, GPS, weather resistance, intervalometers, etc. will.

More than tiny differences are available. The A7S sensor has a 1/3 stop advantage in QE and around 1 1/2 stops in read noise at high ISO. That's not "miniscule".

At 12 mp. Meh.

This same basic performance should scale with pixel size. In other words, the well capacity would go down but so would the read noise, and the QE should stay about the same. Together, that would be a pretty big advantage over current crop sensors - 1-2 stops at high ISO, and 1/2-1 stop at low ISO. That's a pretty big deal.