Slight upgrade from 7D?

I'm thinking of maybe stepping up a little from the 7D. I do like this camera, but I'm finding issues with landscapes in particular. Anyone seen muddy looking trees in landscapes? Every shot of a landscape/mountains the trees are just terrible. Sometimes happens with background to. I'm also a bit letdown at the amount of noise even at low ISO. What would be something in the $400-$600 range used(body only) that you might recommend? I tend to prefer primes, so I was even thinking of going with an older Full Frame again. But, I'd end up losing my Sigma 17-50mm if I did that. I mainly shoot watches for work with extension tubes with the 50mm STM and family/kids and nature/landscapes up here in the North Georgia mountains.

Hrm,

I've only seen muddy stuff out of every sensor on this forum based on exposure values & processing.

Here's a recent 7D example of trees:

https://photography-on-the.net …showthread.php?​p=18365326

Seems great to me?

At $600, you won't find something that truly is an improvement. You'd need to save up closer to $800 and go for a 5D2 or 6D or 80D. But honestly, that's still not going to make monstrous improvements. Just take a look at the landscape produced by the 60D/T3i/7D in their threads by people who are good at it, the sensor is not holding you back.

Very best,

I owned the 7D for years..it was probably one of the only cameras I owned I never really liked. I only kept it because i kinda slumped for a while and didnt take many phots so it didnt get alot of use so i never cared. The 7D has a stupid strong AA filter and in turn makes alot of things look much softer then they should be. its high ISO wasnt anything to get excited about either. The 7DII is a pretty good step up. the AA filter isnt as strong so images dont look so mushy, ISO is alot better as well. faster frames and your burst wouldnt be limted by certain lighting situations. like the 7D if it was lower light the burst wouldnt give you the full 8fps even if you had the shutter speed to support it. Now you get 10fps, better menu, better sensor, better weather sealing.
as far as 400-600 not really going to find anything. if you sold your 7D and added 500 you could get a used 7DII

The 7D does have a strong AA filter however upgrading is not going to make a massive improvement as all Canon cameras have AA filters of varying strength, the 5Dsr being the exception with its self cancelling filter. You might see more improvement in sharpness by upgrading your lenses. That 17-50 is a good lens but you might see better results with something like a Canon or Sigma 24-105 or the Canon 15-85 or the Sigma 18-35. I use the 7D with all of the lenses in my signature and they are all pretty sharp with the exception of my Tamron 70-300 which is inherently soft even on FF cameras.

Edit: What shutter speeds are shooting at? Is this all photos or just some. If parts of the trees are in shadow then they will appear soft as well.

It's not really a shutter problem. I'm thinking it may be smaller apertures when doing landscapes? F/7.1 on one photo shows it. Maybe I'm being finicky, I don't know. Everything else seems spot on with the Sigma though. I think I may deal with it unless I decide to go Full Frame and get rid of the 7D and Sigma together. I did have a chance to use a Tamron 85mm VC and it was incredible, so I know the body has to be decent.

I tried out a full frame recently and loved the landscape capability. And I loved how a wide angle lens was truly wide angle.

Is it just the 50mm showing it? f/7.1 shouldn't be showing diffraction, I shoot up to f/13 frequently and I see no loss in sharpness.

Is your Sigma the version with or without image stabilization?

lvph2 wrote in post #18366572
I'm thinking of maybe stepping up a little from the 7D. I do like this camera, but I'm finding issues with landscapes in particular. Anyone seen muddy looking trees in landscapes? Every shot of a landscape/mountains the trees are just terrible. Sometimes happens with background to. I'm also a bit letdown at the amount of noise even at low ISO. What would be something in the $400-$600 range used(body only) that you might recommend? I tend to prefer primes, so I was even thinking of going with an older Full Frame again. But, I'd end up losing my Sigma 17-50mm if I did that. I mainly shoot watches for work with extension tubes with the 50mm STM and family/kids and nature/landscapes up here in the North Georgia mountains.

The t2i/t3i/t4i/t5i/60D/7D all used the same sensor. The 70D introduced a new sensor that is better, and that sensor was enhanced slightly for the 7D II. The 80D introduced another new sensor, and the 77D improved a bit on that one.

To get the modest increase in image quality that you are seeking, a used 70D would do the job and be in your price range. My wife still shoots 2 70Ds and has no desire to change (I shot a 70D and 7D2 until I went to full frame 9 months ago). Both of my adult children also use 70Ds. We like them.

Here are a couple of my 70D photos:

It's the OS version.

Been thinking about what I shoot, and now having battery trouble with the 7D. It's saying "cannot communicate with battery" every time I turn it on. I've been watching youtube vids and reading and comparing shots, and I'm thinking of even going for a 5D Classic. With the sale of the 7D and my MINT Sigma I should be ok. I would probably go back to the all prime setup like I've had in the past. 28mm, 50mm, & 85mm. I may be able to push for a 5DII, which I would be more than happy with. I have to say though after owning a Rebel XT, 20D, 40D, & 5DII in the past this 7D has been the biggest let down even from the beginning. Maybe I got a lemon?

UPDATE: Thanks to a youtube video I was able to fix the Battery communication problem. 2 screws on the circuit board fell out. Put them back and camera works like normal. So, some good news...yay!

So what lens are you using? Gear wise, glass and a rock solid tripod/head are the single most important items, followed by getting into full frame. But there are a ton of great crop sensor landscape images, it's just less room to recover and tweak in post.
I remember when the 7D came out though, people were saying they had to sharpen more than before. I didn't find that an issue on my 7D2.

Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 OS and 50mm STM are my only two lenses. Seems ok now since fixing the battery issue.

Your battery was causing the blurry image?

No. I was only speaking about the battery issue alone. I don't think I mentioned, but it seemed like batteries were dying while sitting in the camera after having that error message. Just turned it on this morning, and battery is full.