EOS 7D Mark II Basic Specs [CR2]

[AlanF]

Jrista, I gave up waiting for the 7D II at the new year and have had 7 great months with the 5D III. As I wrote, I'll buy a 7D II if it is good but it is not worth hanging around for years or many months in expectation.

 

[jrista]

Jrista, I gave up waiting for the 7D II at the new year and have had 7 great months with the 5D III. As I wrote, I'll buy a 7D II if it is good but it is not worth hanging around for years or many months in expectation.

I agree. The original rumors stated the 7D II was due in August, but as that is clearly not going to happen, I'm going to get a 5D III. I already have the 600/4 II, and I'll order the 2x TC along with the camera, and I should be set (and if I do end up deciding to get the 7D II, I can take my time and wait to buy at the most opportune time when it drops for a deep sale.)

 

[docsmith]

Jrista, I gave up waiting for the 7D II at the new year and have had 7 great months with the 5D III. As I wrote, I'll buy a 7D II if it is good but it is not worth hanging around for years or many months in expectation.

Exactly what I did. I took advantage of the combo discount with the 24-105 that ended Feb 2. My only complaints:

• The weight
• I miss the range of the 7D with the 15-85
• I am sometimes less comfortable walking around with $3,500 around my shoulders
• Surprisingly infrequently, but sometimes I do miss the fps and reach

Other than that, it's been great to be shooting with the 5DIII.

 

[Krob78]

Jrista, I gave up waiting for the 7D II at the new year and have had 7 great months with the 5D III. As I wrote, I'll buy a 7D II if it is good but it is not worth hanging around for years or many months in expectation.

I agree. The original rumors stated the 7D II was due in August, but as that is clearly not going to happen, I'm going to get a 5D III. I already have the 600/4 II, and I'll order the 2x TC along with the camera, and I should be set (and if I do end up deciding to get the 7D II, I can take my time and wait to buy at the most opportune time when it drops for a deep sale.)

I think the rumor was originally that it would be "announced" in August or late fall. Hearing that, I knew it would be a 2014 release date at best, probably not till end of summer... I jumped on the 5D III instead right at last Christmas and held on to my 7d.

Six months later I sold the 7d that I swore to keep forever and haven't looked back. The 5d3 is a phenomenal camera, you'll love it! ;D

And you're right, that's my plan too, if the Mk II is worthy, I can now wait for a year for the price to drop or take advantage of another Christmas sale for the 7D MkII in December of 2014!

 

[RLPhoto]

10 FPS and 61pt AF. This will dominate the side lines. 8)

 

[Orangutan]

What I meant was that I think it's unlikely that they can lock down all the specs of the individual components a year or more in advance so that each component group (sensor, firmware, AF, physical controls, body) can have exact specs to work toward.

Unlikely? How?

Components move from R to D at different rates. It would be a major marketing disadvantage to be unable to respond to market conditions, or to adjust components, for such a long time. Here's a video of teardown of a 5D2. It looks very modular to me. Canon 5D Mark II Camera Teardown and Rebuild

Consider that the production line will need to be setup, inventory needs to be ordered, etc.

That seems clear enough. But I still believe they can't lock down all their specs a year before they set up the production lines and order inventory. Some components have longer lead times than others.

You can't start writing the software until you know what the hardware platform (i.e CPU) that you are targeting is known.

It happens all the time for embedded systems using cross compilers and simulators. If they didn't write the basic software/firmware in advance they'd have no way to test prototypes. Also, it would be inefficient to write the firmware from scratch for each camera, though that would be a good question for the Magic Lantern folks (how similar is the code base between models). The "Digic" processors are not unique to each model: almost certainly they have some kind of common code base, even if it's just libraries. They'll add or tweak the code base to accommodate the new attributes and go from there. Much of the operation can be simulated using synthetic input data (mechanical features being a notable exception.)

No, it doesn't work like that. There will be performance goals, sure, but they need to be delivered upon much earlier. Consider that the camera needs to go through a testing phase to ensure that it won't melt or otherwise self destruct as a result of the owner using it in (say) Death Valley in the middle of a summer's day at maximum fps.

Sure, but they can simulate some aspects of torture testing by adding some internal heat sources to the prototypes. For the sensor, I'd bet they can do a pretty good job of calculating the thermal characteristics from known engineering data.

 

[tnargs]

The erratic AF is the worst feature of the 7D and I have the same habit of taking multiple shots to get one in focus. I still take too many on the 5D III, quite unnecessarily because of habit, as the focus is bang on every time. If the 7D II just has AF as good as on the 5D III and an upgrade in sensor noise, then I'll rush out and buy one.

I agree. If the new 7D has its viewfinder AF as CONSISTENTLY focused as the 5D Mark III, it would be the single best improvement. The lens rentals blog showed the 5D Mark III viewfinder focus is as consistent as live view, which is a lot better than the current 7D (or 5D Mark II).

 

[greger]

This is an interesting post. The other 7Dll post is not dead yet and is at page 18. I wonder how many posts will be started
before there is something more realistic than these sporadic faint hope posts. We will all be shooting with full frame and
won't care when new crop cameras are released. I haven't tired of my gear yet to upgrade anything so will coast along
improving my pics and reading new posts that are informative.

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

Of course this entire source could be some random whatever. But "I asked about the video and was told that the new sensor can easily best the C100/500, but won't be allowed to." Nice. As soon as they realize they have something big they go an squander it. Maybe in the 5D3 video pipeline they actually DO apply a Gaussian blur at some stage. How else to explain why the RAW liveview feed is 10x crisper than even clean HDMI uncompressed out?

 

[jrista]

Of course this entire source could be some random whatever. But "I asked about the video and was told that the new sensor can easily best the C100/500, but won't be allowed to." Nice. As soon as they realize they have something big they go an squander it. Maybe in the 5D3 video pipeline they actually DO apply a Gaussian blur at some stage. How else to explain why the RAW liveview feed is 10x crisper than even clean HDMI uncompressed out?

Aye...its very curious. The fact that ML managed RAW output, yet Canon decided to skip it, also speaks volumes in and of itself. Canon could be trouncing the entire market...I wonder why they don't.

 

[GMCPhotographics]

I'm not that particularly thrilled with the 7DII leaked specs. I think it's a camera I'll pass on and stick to my 5DIII's. Iso ability at 2 stops below a 5DIII? Nah....Same DR as all the other current Canon chips....double Nah!

 

[Snapper02]

I'm sure Canon is looking closely at the feedback of the Semi and Pro community on the 70D tech. What I am looking for is an electronic viewfinder, ideally an On/Off scenario where the mirror could be locked up and an electronic viewfinder would allow for a constant view of the subject during rapid fire shooting. 10-12 fps is almost useless when you loose sight of the subject.
I'm not looking for these features in a full frame either, the 1.6 crop allows my 70-200 to be a lighter weight 320mm zoom and this is something Canon cannot make. Secondly I'm hand holding down to an 10th of a second for some shots and that is something you cannot do on a full frame.
I could go on but the point is that the tech is now here to do these things and my 7D is way over it's rated shutter count and I want a replacement. PLEASE!

 

[jasonsim]

My two cents...I think Canon is being very cautious with a potential 7D successor, so that it will not cut into their 1Dx profits. If a 7D II has 10FPS and the same basic AF as the 1Dx/5D III, I can foresee many sports pros getting one and possibly ditching the 1Dx or those still using a 1D IV will skip over a 1Dx all together. The same might apply to the wildlife crowd.

I know for myself, that if a 7D II is released with the same 5D III AF (sans the f/8AF) and 10FPS, I would seriously consider selling my 1Dx. There is very little that would keep me from selling the 1Dx and 'hopefully' pocketing some good chunk of change ($$).

The only feature that might not make it to a 7D II are:

1. f/8 AF
2. AF point tied spot metering
3. 1D type body with larger battery and therefore faster AF on certain lenses like the 85mm f/1.2.
4. Slightly more weather sealing
5. Higher rated shutter life
6. The two programmable buttons

I might be missing some, but those are the ones that come to mind.

--Jason

 

[whothafunk]

sure. because 7D2 will bring FF features to the table as well, superior ISO on par with 1dx and overall IQ. oh yea, we must not forget more rugged body and high shutter life count. AF as well..











bollocks.

 

[dgatwood]

I'm sure Canon is looking closely at the feedback of the Semi and Pro community on the 70D tech. What I am looking for is an electronic viewfinder, ideally an On/Off scenario where the mirror could be locked up and an electronic viewfinder would allow for a constant view of the subject during rapid fire shooting. 10-12 fps is almost useless when you loose sight of the subject.

That's exactly what live view on a DSLR already does. What's the benefit of an EVF when you already have a perfectly good rear screen? Also, if you have an EVF, you don't have a mirror, hence the reason we call those mirrorless cameras.

 

[schill]

I'm sure Canon is looking closely at the feedback of the Semi and Pro community on the 70D tech. What I am looking for is an electronic viewfinder, ideally an On/Off scenario where the mirror could be locked up and an electronic viewfinder would allow for a constant view of the subject during rapid fire shooting. 10-12 fps is almost useless when you loose sight of the subject.

That's exactly what live view on a DSLR already does. What's the benefit of an EVF when you already have a perfectly good rear screen? Also, if you have an EVF, you don't have a mirror, hence the reason we call those mirrorless cameras.

A view finder, OVF or EVF, is much easier to use in bright sunlight and for many people having a camera "stuck" to your face is a lot more stable than out at arms length. There are real benefits to either of these over the back LCD.

The quoted post talks about sliding/rotating a display into the OVF light path when you want EVF capabilities. This would potentially give you the best of both worlds in a single camera. OVF when you want it, EVF when you want it. I've been thinking about this myself. I doubt there are any technical reasons why this could not be done. Squeezing it in to a current body design and making it cost effective might stand in the way.

 

[GMCPhotographics]

My two cents...I think Canon is being very cautious with a potential 7D successor, so that it will not cut into their 1Dx profits. If a 7D II has 10FPS and the same basic AF as the 1Dx/5D III, I can foresee many sports pros getting one and possibly ditching the 1Dx or those still using a 1D IV will skip over a 1Dx all together. The same might apply to the wildlife crowd.

I know for myself, that if a 7D II is released with the same 5D III AF (sans the f/8AF) and 10FPS, I would seriously consider selling my 1Dx. There is very little that would keep me from selling the 1Dx and 'hopefully' pocketing some good chunk of change ($$).

The only feature that might not make it to a 7D II are:

1. f/8 AF
2. AF point tied spot metering
3. 1D type body with larger battery and therefore faster AF on certain lenses like the 85mm f/1.2.
4. Slightly more weather sealing
5. Higher rated shutter life
6. The two programmable buttons

I might be missing some, but those are the ones that come to mind.

--Jason

Yep, that'll be about it Jason...although I seriously doubt that the per pixel quality of a 7DII will be anywhere near that of a 1Dx or even a 5DIII. The files from the old 7D are the real weak point of the current camera and the high ISO ability is almost embarrassing in a modern context. Sure the 7DII can improve, but the recent 70D results weren't anything particularly impressive.

 

[pedro]

Slightly different spec's form NL yesterday:

Some suggestions of a 20MP or 24MP 7D2 [CW]
~24MP sensor with Dual Pixel CMOS AF
Auto-Focus system similar to the EOS 5D Mark III (61 points)
High frame rate, 10-12 fps
“high grade” weather sealing, like Canon’s professional DSLRs
Dual Digic V+ processor
Single card slot
WiFi & GPS
Innovative video features
Price around $2000
Very good ISO performance
Looks to be broadly similar to what's been doing the rounds of late, although thats mostly been assuming a derivative of Canon's new 20MP dual pixel design.

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/cameras/Canon_7dmk2.html

Just hope, Canon remain at their 20-22 MP concerning the 5Ds...

 

[candyman]

Slightly different spec's form NL yesterday:

Some suggestions of a 20MP or 24MP 7D2 [CW]
~24MP sensor with Dual Pixel CMOS AF
Auto-Focus system similar to the EOS 5D Mark III (61 points)
High frame rate, 10-12 fps
“high grade” weather sealing, like Canon’s professional DSLRs
Dual Digic V+ processor
Single card slot
WiFi & GPS
Innovative video features
Price around $2000
Very good ISO performance
Looks to be broadly similar to what's been doing the rounds of late, although thats mostly been assuming a derivative of Canon's new 20MP dual pixel design.

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/cameras/Canon_7dmk2.html

Just hope, Canon remain at their 20-22 MP concerning the 5Ds...

Looking at it again....that is an impressive improvement for a price around 2000 dollar

 

[Don Haines]

sure. because 7D2 will bring FF features to the table as well, superior ISO on par with 1dx and overall IQ. oh yea, we must not forget more rugged body and high shutter life count. AF as well..
that will be the day

bollocks.

If they dropped the number of megapixels down to 5 or 6, they could have SUPERIOR ISO performance to the 1DX... but we can all guess how likely that is With the same level of technology FF will always have 1 1/3 stops advantage over APS-C. Keep in mind the marketing people talk about Jpeg images.... I have no problems that an out-of-camera Jpeg from a brand new design with newer algorithms and more computing power (7D2) will get close to that of an older design, like a 2 year old 1DX (and it will be two years old or more by the time a 7D2 is released). BUT!!!! Take the RAW image from the 1DX and process it like the 7D2 RAW image, and your stop or so FF advantage is back. Even if they came out with great advances in technology that moved the 7D2 to 1 stop (or the almost impossible 2/3 stop) away from the 1DX, by the time the 1DX2 comes out, that same technology would restore the 1 1/3 stop advantage of FF, or if more advances have been made, make the gap wider.

And as far as shutter count life goes, don't forget that an APS-C shutter is smaller and lighter than a FF shutter. If all else was equal, it should be faster and last longer than an equivalently built FF shutter..... so yes, I CAN believe an 7D shutter that lasts as long as a 1DX shutter.

Weatherproofing? The only competition the 7D has in the Canon lineup is the 1DX, so having a 7D2 come close to a 1DX is reasonable.

FPS? The 60D and the 5D2 came out around the same time.... guess which one had more FPS? Heck, the 60D at 5.9 is almost as good as a 5D3 at 6.0....