First time shooting with 7d

Seems like everyone and their brother says a 5dc is no good for motorsports. Was pretty happy with mine until the mirror fell off. Decided after sending it to Canon to be fixed I would take the plunge and get a 7d.

A local wedding photographer and I made a trade so the 5dc has a new home. I spent the last few days learning it. Today I took it to the track.

Some things right away stand out for me on the 7d:

It LOVES my 70-300L. So far it has never had to hunt the focus, it is just there.

100% viewfinder. One of my complaints with the 5dc, what you see is not what you get.

Quicker shutter. Camera is ready for the next shot much faster than the 5dc.

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Yeah, my plan is to upgrade to the 7D as soon as I can, and then my 60D can be relegated to doing the pit work. But first, upgrading to either the 100-400 L or a 70-200 L. My only issue would be that the 7D still lacks the weather sealing of the XD series bodies. Around here, as you noticed today, having weather sealing might be nice. That being said, the only FFs that can compete with the speed of the 7D would be the 5Diii or the 1Dx (both well out of my price range).

On a side note, how do you like the 70-300? I've been told that the focus motor is slow. Several of the other motorsports shooters in the area suggested a first gen. 70-200 2.8 L and use the 1.4x tele adapter.

I've come across situations where my old MkIIN outperforms the 7D. Not to say the 7D is bad but it isn't as good as I expect it to be.

Bicknell55 wrote in post #15119148
I've come across situations where my old MkIIN outperforms the 7D. Not to say the 7D is bad but it isn't as good as I expect it to be.

Curious as to what those situations are. Looking at the stats, the 7D blows away the 5Dii for motorsports. The AF system on the 5Dii is about the same as my 60D, and the frame rate on the on the 5Dii is only slightly faster then my T3i/600D and much slower than the 60D. The 7D has a better AF system and a much faster frame rate. I can see how the better ISO performance and such of the 5dii would help out in low light, night races, but that's about it.

I don't know about the other guys, but even on my 5dc the 70-300L focused faster than the 70-200 it replaced. From what the Canon rep told me the 70-300L and the 70-200 2.8L mkII have the same focus and IS hardware.

If next saturday is halfway decent I'll come out to the ridge and you can borrow it.

bigVinnie wrote in post #15120181
I don't know about the other guys, but even on my 5dc the 70-300L focused faster than the 70-200 it replaced. From what the Canon rep told me the 70-300L and the 70-200 2.8L mkII have the same focus and IS hardware.

If next saturday is halfway decent I'll come out to the ridge and you can borrow it.

That would be cool. One of the biggest selling points of the first gen 70-200 2.8 L is the price. I've seen a couple on craigslist for well under $1000.

So did you notice the extra "reach" of the 70-300 when you moved down to the 7D?

Definitely. In a good way.

All of the shots posted from yesterday are 100%. I did not do any cropping. With this combination I was able to wait until the car filled the frame where I wanted and shoot. That is where the 100% viewfinder of the 7d really makes a difference.

With the 5dc even when the car filled the viewfinder I still wound up doing some cropping.

That particular corner I could not get the angle I wanted and still fill the frame with the 5d. I have planned on getting a 400mm but even that is not quite enough on the 5d. The camera switch was a better bang for the buck.

When you shoot motorcycles, do you prefer the t3i or the 60d?

bigVinnie wrote in post #15120686
Definitely. In a good way.

All of the shots posted from yesterday are 100%. I did not do any cropping. With this combination I was able to wait until the car filled the frame where I wanted and shoot. That is where the 100% viewfinder of the 7d really makes a difference.

With the 5dc even when the car filled the viewfinder I still wound up doing some cropping.

That particular corner I could not get the angle I wanted and still fill the frame with the 5d. I have planned on getting a 400mm but even that is not quite enough on the 5d. The camera switch was a better bang for the buck.

When you shoot motorcycles, do you prefer the t3i or the 60d?

I use the 60D for pretty much everything. It is definitely faster than the T3i. Sometimes, if my daughter isn't with me (shooting with the T3i), then I can use the T3i for my "pit camera". The nice thing about that is then I don't have to keep swapping lenses. Plus, it looks pretty cool to walk around with two cameras hanging off your neck.

With the bikes, and the EF-S 55-250, I'm doing a ton of cropping to fill the frame from that corner. And since I'm zoomed all the way out, it can get kinda soft. That's why I want to go with the "L" and the teleconverter. Then I should also have the reach to get the top of the hill from that spot. If you look at my stuff, pretty much everything is shot from that corner.

My plan is to rent both the 70-200 2.8 (and 1.4x tele) and the 100-400 L for one of the events early next year before I go buy one.

And yeah, I hate the non-100% viewfinder of both the 60D and T3i.

I've been using a 7D for motorsport for 18 months now, coupled with a 100-400L and have been 100% happy with the results. The focusing needs to be understood, but once you've got it it's awesome.
My set up tends to be spot focus, (often moved to a lower position if I want some sky as a backdrop) with back button focusing. Excellent article here, with full credit to the author. http://www.deepgreenph​otography.com …ing-up-your-new-canon-7d/

That pretty much echos how I have my camera setup.

I played with center point focus and expansion points on and could not tell any difference. Decided to leave it on.

Only real issue I had was I should have switched from Av to M. Headlights played havoc with metering. Nothing that can't be fixed, but better to have it right. Lesson learned.

veritasimagerynw wrote in post #15119261
Curious as to what those situations are. Looking at the stats, the 7D blows away the 5Dii for motorsports. The AF system on the 5Dii is about the same as my 60D, and the frame rate on the on the 5Dii is only slightly faster then my T3i/600D and much slower than the 60D. The 7D has a better AF system and a much faster frame rate. I can see how the better ISO performance and such of the 5dii would help out in low light, night races, but that's about it.

Just to help out, the camera the post by Bicknell55 refers to is the 1D MKII N not the 5D.

bigVinnie wrote in post #15120181
I don't know about the other guys, but even on my 5dc the 70-300L focused faster than the 70-200 it replaced. From what the Canon rep told me the 70-300L and the 70-200 2.8L mkII have the same focus and IS hardware.

If next saturday is halfway decent I'll come out to the ridge and you can borrow it.

Well, the event for next weekend at The Ridge just got cancelled due to the weather forecast. Total bummer.

The biggest issue I've noticed is with cars moving away from me. I just could not get the AF to lock onto the car. Things got better as I upped the AF speed however it still didn't help 100%. There's just something about the AF on the MkIIn that in my mind makes it superior to the 7D. I figured given the AF specs on the 7D that it would blow away my older body. I'm still hit and miss when not using single point AF during side pans but I'm able to deal with it thus far. I've read elsewhere that the AF point expansion on either the MkIII or MkIV isn't very good and I feel that is the same for the 7D.

bigVinnie wrote in post #15126136
Only real issue I had was I should have switched from Av to M. Headlights played havoc with metering. Nothing that can't be fixed, but better to have it right. Lesson learned.

Headlights will always throw off the metering system, especially if they are extremely bright.

I'll be at the F1 race in Austin (the track is not 10 miles from my house), and would really love the framerate of the 7D. If the price came down a bit more, I'd be really tempted... but for now my 550D will have to do!