Feeling Better About My 7D . . . Finally

So last night I shot a couple of musician friends of mine and finally felt that my shots were attaining the IQ worthy of all the 7D talk. I took it out this morning and shot a raging creek here in my hometown (we are in the beginning of melt season) and was way stoked with what I'm seeing on my LCD. I am going to throw them up on the computer this afternoon but I know I'm going to be pleased.

FWIW: I am shooting spot AF now (just decided to try it last night for the first time and it made a difference to my eye), MF'd my Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8 to +15, and increased the in camera sharpening from the default.

Your mileage may vary and, honestly, I don't really care to know how awful I am for not shooting in RAW. I am happy with my results and thought others might care to know how I am arriving at happiness with my 7D. It has been at least 5 weeks of working with this camera.

That's great that you're enjoying it. It makes me pretty nervous that it took you so long to get the hang of it, though. I just ordered one yesterday. :/

I'm hoping to avoid a 5-week learning curve.
Do you think it was mostly your AF technique that was throwing the IQ off?
Did you read the manual?

I did read the manual, online set up tutorials, etc. etc. It just took a while for me to really get comfortable with it coming from a 30D. I've heard a lot of people say the learning curve is a long one with this body. I knew I would get there though.

Good to hear that you're getting comfortable with the 7D. It's a heck of a camera once you get everything sorted and as long as you are happy with your results that's what counts.

I love my 7D. I didn't find much of a learning curve at all. I needed to make a few trips to the nomenclature manual, very informative and simple. If you have any issues at all, I recommend getting back to the basics of photography. Shoot your 7D in manual mode, make your own aperture and shutter settings. Not only will it make you a better photographer, but it will force you to master the manipulation of your camera. After all its just a fancy box that allows light to forge an image on your sensor (or like film emulsify your negative). Good luck and enjoy! As an old skool shutterbug take this bit of advise from me .. Take your gear everywhere and capture time. It will make you Immortal.

andrewq wrote in post #11962038
I did read the manual, online set up tutorials, etc. etc. It just took a while for me to really get comfortable with it coming from a 30D. I've heard a lot of people say the learning curve is a long one with this body. I knew I would get there though.

Maybe I sound dumb because I do not have 7D but what is so great difference between 7D and your 30D ? You know how to set the aperture and exposure and you know how to focus. In my many many years of using different models I never found a great difference in any of them from my very first cheap all manual camera. The same basic principle you just need to learn different goodies in each model, which honestly does not make your photos drastically better in most cases.

The 7D is a very different beast from the xxD and even 5DII cameras. The focus system with its myriad of customization features needs time to get used to. Depending on your needs you can change the configuration completely.

I know it has been said many times here on POTN - most 7D issues are user related problems.

Refresh Image wrote in post #11962327
Maybe I sound dumb because I do not have 7D but what is so great difference between 7D and your 30D ? You know how to set the aperture and exposure and you know how to focus. In my many many years of using different models I never found a great difference in any of them from my very first cheap all manual camera. The same basic principle you just need to learn different goodies in each model, which honestly does not make your photos drastically better in most cases.

Soft images. Lots of them. I found it to be a combination of necessary sharpening, figuring out which of the AF modes works best for my given situations, and then micro-adjusting my go to lens. All of these, over the course of some time, has helped to bring my 7D into what I always figured it would be. I still have things to learn but it is a different animal from the 30D. I found layers of options to maximize image quality that I didn't have in the 30D. Honesly, it made me love my 30D even more.

I've had my 7D for about a year now (purchased April 2010) and my previous camera was a Sony A200 before that. I found using the 7D focus system was much easier. I mostly keep it on single point AF and with back button focus using One Shot. To be honest I have never used Zone or Area AF to this date ( maybe I'm just shooting the wrong things). I will say that the very first thing I did was set the joystick to direct AF point selection (C.FnIV - Custom Control) - something that really should be factory default.

I quite like my 7D, but I love the 30/40/50D simplicity in my wife's 60D. It just works without any of the niggles people seem to have with their 7D's.

Congrats, Andrewq. It's been three months for me and I'm still trying to find what works best for me. Yes, I've read the manual and a book dedicated to the 7d twice. Still experimented, but learning a lot!

Looking for your pictures..............​.

Hmm, so most people end up using spot AF with this camera that has highly sophisticated AF system?

I have had my 7D for I would say 9 months as an upgrade to the xti. I found that the AF system was a vast improvement over it and the spot AF helped tremendously.

However I'm no professional so I dont go shooting every week so I'm still learning a bit on this camera. Is there any tips that people could offer to help with settings?

I'm trying to decide on which body to upgrade to - the 60D or the 7D. After reading this thread - I'm nervous about a 7D - if spending so much money, I'm not sure I'm okay with that learning curve. I'll have to spend some time looking at 7D images compared to a 50D/60D. -Brian

^ to my understanding based on tech specs alone, the 60D is quite similar to the 7D for a few exceptions. I havent played with a 60D so I wouldn't know but if anyone could elaborate on it I think it'd be interesting to learn the overall pros and cons