Huge dissapointment in 7D

tlbjornson wrote in post #15388389
Long story short... they excanged camera bodies with me. So I am sitting here typing with a new(used) 7D body that seems to be functioning much better than the original.

Glad that you are happy now that you've got your camera swapped. It would be interesting though to see you take some more of the same pictures tonight and to see the results. My guess is that they will be pretty much the same.

As lots of people have said, there were issues in the first batch of pictures, (like WB settings, focus, shutter speed etc) and unless you change your settings, you will invariably end up with the same. However, this is where the step up in camera kicks in ... you have to learn/know how to get the results that you're looking for, by adjusting the controls to suit a particular situation. I recently stepped up from a 550d/T2i to a 7d myself and am still not in control of the 7d. However, the fact that I had learned all the controls on the 550d and experimented with different situations helped me a lot and put me in a good position to make the step to "the next level". I have a friend that had the 600d for a year and just bought a 7d because he "liked the feel of mine"! He is struggling with it and is complaining to me that he wasted his money! When in fact, if he had taken the time to learn his way around around his 600d instead of using the auto/assisted modes all the time, he'd be happier now.

Anyhow, enough of my rambling. Get out there and practice, practice and then practice some more.... but most importantly, enjoy yourself!

As others have said, it is a white balance problem. I was playing around last night taking pictures of our Christmas tree, in awb , they look very similar to yours. I did custom white balance using a piece of white paper, and they look great....was on my 50d, but same deal.
The other pictures I looked very quickly, and they are underexposed.

Scrumhalf wrote in post #15388359
I picked up my 7D at the Canon Thanksgiving refurb sale. It had about 140 clicks on it. I wonder how many of these 7Ds were returned by people frustrated when the camera refused to cooperate right out of the box.

I think 99 percent are exactly this, or Johnny Vacation, and taking advantage of a 30day return policy, returns it after a trip, and those you see have 1000 clicks.....

It's a win win for everyone

tlbjornson wrote in post #15388389
So the girlfriend took the camera to the shop that I bought it from. I managed to get off work early so I went down there to meet up with her and see what they had to say.

Something I might not have mentioned was that this was a used body. It's in beautiful shape but was used.

I handed it over to a couple of the guys there to look at the pictures. They agreed that the red's looked a bit high in places. We took a bunch of test shots of things with red and things without red. The camera functioned perfectly until red was introduced into the picture.

I know I am a total newbie when it comes to histograms but I did do some reading today so I know that the further right on the histogram the more over exposed it is. Every thing that we shot that had red in it, the red channel in the histogram would be much more weighted towards the right side while the green and blue seemed to track fairly consistant.

The store had another used 7d sitting there so we grabbed that. Set all the settings the same and took a few reference pictures with that body. WOW what a difference. The reds were more true to what the naked eye saw, when looking at the histogram there wasn't the shift to the right with the red.. It was amazing. The employees at the store saw it as well and couldn't explain what was going on.

Long story short... they excanged camera bodies with me. So I am sitting here typing with a new(used) 7D body that seems to be functioning much better than the original.

Is there still user error???? Of course. I know I have a long long way to go before I can say I know how to use this new camera. I'm just hoping that the big fat guy in the red suit looked at my amazon wish list..... (books about the camera)

The only thing I could think was wrong is the ifcl metering was off on the first camera, thus creating a more pronounced white balance issue. Some of your other issues, like christmas tree lights looking like blobs is purely CA, and that has nothing to do with the camera, but rather your lens. When you have that kind of stark contrast, especially if lights are LED, you are going to have CA with most lenses, especially if shot wide-open.

I also have to argue a bit with all those that say the 7D has a learning curve. In just picking up the camera, setting center AF point, going to Av and setting up parameters to shoot at, and your ISO values, etc, there is no learning curve. Exposure is exposure, regardless of camera, and the 7D isn't any more elaborate, one should be able to just pick it up and shoot it. The learning curve that exists is around the other focus modes not found in the prior models or on the Rebel line, the CF settings that control AF, the nuances of noise and how to reduce your noise by using certain procedures and settings, etc.

tlbjornson wrote in post #15388389
Every thing that we shot that had red in it, the red channel in the histogram would be much more weighted towards the right side while the green and blue seemed to track fairly consistant.

This is normal... Every DSLR I've used you have to watch the red channel because it usually blows out first. This is why just exposing based purely on luminosity will not always yield the best processed image. The picture style settings could affect how the color is handled. Comparing RAW images should have avoided that. Would have been interesting to post a RAW file of the same composition from both bodies.

If you are happy with the new 7D, then problem solved... enjoy learning and shooting with it. Yours is the only opinion that matters.

Well, the 7D is the first EOS with the iFCL metering system, and I'm of the opinion that it behaves a bit different from my earlier Canon EOS cameras. So there's a certain learning curve there too. What an exposure metering system shows and what it means is usually not the same all the time.

apersson850 wrote in post #15388869
Well, the 7D is the first EOS with the iFCL metering system, and I'm of the opinion that it behaves a bit different from my earlier Canon EOS cameras. So there's a certain learning curve there too. What an exposure metering system shows and what it means is usually not the same all the time.

All Canon cameras seemingly underexpose a bit regardless of the metering systems (even though it could just be the users' wrong usage of metering modes, etc), and I have found the 7D to be no different. Both my 7D and 1D4 I have exposure compensation always set to +1/3 at a minimum, and a bit more at very high ISOs. I did the same with the 30D/40D/50D though too, even the 5D series.

And the T2i uses the same metering system... so there should be no issue here at all in relation to this subject.

There's nothing to suggest that any other body would have done much better (if at all).

tlbjornson wrote in post #15388389
...The store had another used 7d sitting there so we grabbed that. Set all the settings the same and took a few reference pictures with that body. WOW what a difference. The reds were more true to what the naked eye saw, when looking at the histogram there wasn't the shift to the right with the red.. It was amazing. The employees at the store saw it as well and couldn't explain what was going on.

Glad it worked out. Unsubscribing

convergent wrote in post #15388789
This is normal... Every DSLR I've used you have to watch the red channel because it usually blows out first. This is why just exposing based purely on luminosity will not always yield the best processed image. The picture style settings could affect how the color is handled. Comparing RAW images should have avoided that. Would have been interesting to post a RAW file of the same composition from both bodies.

If you are happy with the new 7D, then problem solved... enjoy learning and shooting with it. Yours is the only opinion that matters.

I have some of the test shots from the camera store. I didn't pull them from the camera last night. I will try and remember to tonight. It's not a huge difference but it was enough that the people at the camera store suggested the body swap and the other camera is going in for repair.

To the op, I'm glad to hear you got your issues sorted out. I'm having some problems with my 7D as well. It was verified as we tested it with another 7D. I have to send it back to have it looked at, but I need it for the holidays. Just my luck!

T2i , T3i and the T4i for easy using
7D not easy from the first shot
must shoot and shoot and learning
after that you will like this camera so much

moltengold wrote in post #15389253
T2i , T3i and the T4i for easy using
7D not easy from the first shot
must shoot and shoot and learning
after that you will like this camera so much

If there is a lady in front of a tree, and you had all the cameras with you, you would set center AF point, go to Av, set the same ISO across all, set your aperture on all, and you should end up with the same result. There would be nothing special to do with the 7D to get the same results as you would have from the others.

Again, the learning curve is around the 3 new AF modes (spot, zone, etc), the CF settings around controlling AI Servo, button placement/customizatio​ns allowed, burst capacity and fps, etc.

ljason8eg wrote in post #15388439
1) Shutter speed too slow and white balance too warm.

2) Same as 1; shutter too slow and WB off.

3) Same, shutter too slow and WB off.

4) The lights look overexposed so they lack detail.

5) Underexposed and you missed focus (assuming you wanted to focus on the face).

6) Looks front focused.

I'm not sure any of these are a fault of the body, or that your other camera would have produced a different outcome.

I couldint agree more. The Op's profile says he has a 50mm 1.4... This should be of great use in these low light images. I know mine works amazing indoors on iso400 in such conditions.All of these errors look to be due to settings to me and not any camera malfunction. One way to test it would be to just turn it on auto and snap away. If it is any processor or sensor issue then those would probably show it.