Upgrading - What To Expect

[Sabaki]

After a magnificent 2.5 years spent with my amazing EOS 500D, I will be upgrading to the 7Dii when it launches.

I've taken a few decent to good pics with the 500D but my growth as a photographer meant that I needed something a little bit more advanced for what I would like to shoot, namely birds in flight and wildlife in general and the 7Dii definitely has what I'm looking for.

ITR. 65 points. Advanced AF modes. 10fps. Intelligent viewfinder. Up, down, left, right. Tracking sensitivity. Lens group designations... Uhm, wow! All of a sudden, upgrading seems rather daunting.

I just got done reading a post on Facebook where somebody upgraded from a 650D to a 7D about 3 months ago but is finding his pics from his 650D sharper. The lenses were calibrated against both bodies yet the results stay the same.

Can an upgrade of this nature be too much for some photographers?

Regarding an upgrade of this magnitude, what would you folks see as being the three most difficult to grasp features?

 

[Sporgon]

After a magnificent 2.5 years spent with my amazing EOS 500D, I will be upgrading to the 7Dii when it launches.

I've taken a few decent to good pics with the 500D but my growth as a photographer meant that I needed something a little bit more advanced for what I would like to shoot, namely birds in flight and wildlife in general and the 7Dii definitely has what I'm looking for.

ITR. 65 points. Advanced AF modes. 10fps. Intelligent viewfinder. Up, down, left, right. Tracking sensitivity. Lens group designations... Uhm, wow! All of a sudden, upgrading seems rather daunting.

I just got done reading a post on Facebook where somebody upgraded from a 650D to a 7D about 3 months ago but is finding his pics from his 650D sharper. The lenses were calibrated against both bodies yet the results stay the same.

Can an upgrade of this nature be too much for some photographers?

Regarding an upgrade of this magnitude, what would you folks see as being the three most difficult to grasp features?

The 7D has quite a strong AA filter than requires subtle sharpening to give optimum results, un-sharp mask 100% at about 0.3 does the job. The 650D was a much later incarnation of the 18mp sensor and didn't require a great deal of sharpening.

I think the 7DII sensor will be much better sorted, year for year, than the 7D was.

Trust me, you are going to love the 7DII after the 500D.

 

[tayassu]

You have to accommodate yourself to the camera, the length of which depends on how often you use it
I have always said: Art can only be created when you know the craft asleep, everything else happens by accident.
So, learn your craft and you will love this, I believe truly great body!

 

[StudentOfLight]

As Sporgon has mentioned AA filters on the older-gen bodies are much stronger than on most newer-gen bodies so learning how to sharpen properly can give you much more pleasing results. The same skillful usage of sharpening also applies when compensating for diffraction when using slightly smaller than ideal apertures. The 7D-II and the 70D are in the newer-gen category and I should be similar in terms of image quality and sensor sharpness. People don't complain of the 70D looking softer than 650D so I wouldn't worry.

 

[skoobey]

Top LCD and all those buttons are not to be forgotten. I switched to a bigger body just so that I can actually use the camera.

 

[candyman]

I would say
1. AF system
2. Ergonmics (and where to find what setting and what it does - more advanced)
3. AFMA

I once went from 550 to 7D. It took me time to get used to the AF system and different modes / when to use what. I remember that people complained about not getting sharp results with the 7D. But very often it came to how to use it.

 

[Sabaki]

AFMA is something I'm a little trepidacious about.

Can the adjustments be undone? Is it possible to totally screw the lens/body calibration up?

Watching the B&H infomercial/hands on, it seems you can do in camera aberration correction. Is this identical to what Photoshop does or is it a massive plus for ultimate image quality?

 

[DominoDude]

AFMA is something I'm a little trepidacious about.

Can the adjustments be undone? Is it possible to totally screw the lens/body calibration up?

Watching the B&H infomercial/hands on, it seems you can do in camera aberration correction. Is this identical to what Photoshop does or is it a massive plus for ultimate image quality?

Yes, the AFMA can be undone. You either adjust the body for all lenses, or you adjust all individual lenses that need to be tuned. Even if you had done tunings and selected the appropriate values, you can go into the menu and turn it off. It's all up to you when you want to have it applied. However, you can't undo the setting on a shot after it's been taken.

On the aberration corrections: I don't know how PS does it, but I would assume that Canon could be doing it a little bit better since they should know in better detail how the actual lenses differ from the theoretical lens design it's been built on.

 

[Sabaki]

Thanks DominoDude, appreciate that

Candyman, that top LCD panel is gonna be very new to me. lol always imagined it looked rather hi tech on those pro bodies.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Don't expect images to be noticeably better. You are buying additional mechanical features, such as top LCD, joystick, long life shutter, more fps, etc. In addition, there are the dual processors which allow the fast data flow and image processing. Dual Cards.

The new sensor will have a little better high ISO, maybe 1/4-1/2 stop.

If you obsess over defects at the pixel level, there should be less, but a large print is not going to be any different.

Have fun with it, its a nice camera, but realize that its about sports features more than any big jump in IQ. All DSLR's produce excellent images when a user exposes properly.

 

[Sabaki]

Don't expect images to be noticeably better. You are buying additional mechanical features, such as top LCD, joystick, long life shutter, more fps, etc. In addition, there are the dual processors which allow the fast data flow and image processing. Dual Cards.

The new sensor will have a little better high ISO, maybe 1/4-1/2 stop.

If you obsess over defects at the pixel level, there should be less, but a large print is not going to be any different.

Have fun with it, its a nice camera, but realize that its about sports features more than any big jump in IQ. All DSLR's produce excellent images when a user exposes properly.

For sure.

What I am expecting is that the mechanics may help realise more keepers.

When I started bird photography, I was happy to snap them perched. I'm at the stage now where I want to take crisp, sharp BIF images. The AF system on my 500D is unfortunately just not capable enough to realise this.

DIGIC 6, improved noise performance and other technologies never had me expecting image quality vastly superior to what I'm currently getting.

But it should be better though