Difference between 60D and 7D images

I've recently switches from a 60D to the 7D camera, and I now find that he 7D pictures are not coming out as evenly lit as my previous pictures did. On top of this, the 7D seems to overexpose many shots taken in the shade. Is this normal for 7D, or is there a setting somewhere that I need to adjust?

My old 60D is with a friend, and we took these pictures together recently. The top two are from the 7D (shot in burst mode, spot metering, most turned out to be too light for me, and one about right):

Heya,

Looks like metering to me. Try doing it in a controlled environment, not outside, with changing light.

Very best,

...if ever there was an animal that didn't need burst mode, it would be the tortoise!!!

Do you understand how the meter in your camera works and what it is showing you? Understanding what the meter does is key to understanding what is happening to your images, but it helps to find out what you understand first.

I'm guessing you are using one of the auto modes, either AV, TV, or something else. Spot metering is a difficult mode to use if you don't understand what the meter in your camera is doing: and it is extremely tricky to use in an auto mode coupled with the fact you don't know what your meter is doing!

This video is a good primer.

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=Jh_Fc4JKOBw

Moving the spot from the eye or a bit in shadow to the skin of the tortoise would result in widely different exposures: which is what we can see in your images. If you had used evaluative metering mode you would probably would have gotten a more consistent exposure, but not necessarily a "correct" one. (With "correct" being subjective.)

So in short: the images you got would be exactly what I would have expected with your settings: using either camera. If you are only shooting casually and not able to invest a lot of time to learning I would recommend using a different metering mode, probably evaluative. If you do want to invest a bit of time, then sing out and I'm sure someone will pop along and give you a better explanation than me on how your in-camera meter works.

I use spot metering because I mainly do bird photography, and they are typically far away. (Thus also the burst mode.) I usually do not care about the background lighting as much as the subject lighting. I do understand that if I train the "spot" on a minute dark place on the subject, then the rest of the subject will be overexposed. I do use mostly AV mode - for moving subjects, I need as short an exposure as I can get, so I set the aperture to the widest possible. My problem is not as much that the metering gets the exposure wrong sometimes, but that - given whatever exposure the camera decided to set - the 60D camera had the lighting on the picture much more even than the 7D.

osprey11 wrote in post #16778248
the 60D camera had the lighting on the picture much more even than the 7D.

Again,

Test in controlled lighting environments. That one photo doesn't mean that the 60D is simply metering for a better exposure 100% compared to the other camera(s). Do it in the house some where with controlled lighting. Then you can test and see which meters better, and that will result in a well exposed image.

Also, I wouldn't use Av mode for moving objects. Even when you want wide aperture. It will meter incorrectly, or it will drop the shutter speed so slow that you capture blur. You're better off with Tv mode for that, with a set shutter speed to ensure action is caught. Then simply allow aperture & ISO to be adjusted by the meter. That said, really, manual mode is better for a good exposure even in action shots, where you pre-meter the setting, set your shutter where you want it for freezing the action, set aperture to what you want it (wide open maybe depending on needs/goals) and then set ISO to auto and give it an upper limit so that you can keep hard settings and simply let the meter guide ISO where it needs for proper exposure.

Very best,

Understood. I have many more comparison pictures like this, not just the turtle picture that I posted, so I don't think it's a fluke. Given that I employed the same technique (right or wrong) on both cameras, I have observed consistently that 7D pictures come out more contrasty than the 60D pics. I am assuming it's not the difference in camera sensors but maybe some setting that I can adjust on the 7D. Would anyone have a suggestion of what to check?

osprey11 wrote in post #16778315
Understood. I have many more comparison pictures like this, not just the turtle picture that I posted, so I don't think it's a fluke. Given that I employed the same technique (right or wrong) on both cameras, I have observed consistently that 7D pictures come out more contrasty than the 60D pics. I am assuming it's not the difference in camera sensors but maybe some setting that I can adjust on the 7D. Would anyone have a suggestion of what to check?

I think you are not "listening"..
Someone told you to do a controlled tests and then compare. That's where people will be able to really help you.

What processing was done on the images? In particular, are these all jpegs from the cameras, and if so, what style settings were being applied?

xarqi wrote in post #16778458
What processing was done on the images? In particular, are these all jpegs from the cameras, and if so, what style settings were being applied?

I was thinking the same. It would seem different style setting are being used if they are jpegs out of the camera.

You are right. Yes, these are JPEG out of the camera. The 7D was set to Standard, the 60D was set to Landscape. Do you think this is what caused the difference?

According to the 60D manual---
Landscape picture style incrases saturation of blues and greens, increases color and sharpness for more vivid images.
Standard applies it's own set of parameters - boosted sharpness.
So if the picture style settings are different, the images should be different.
Not sure if that is what is going on for you.

osprey11 wrote in post #16778560
You are right. Yes, these are JPEG out of the camera. The 7D was set to Standard, the 60D was set to Landscape. Do you think this is what caused the difference?

It's where I'd start looking, assuming the lighting conditions are very similar for the shots with each camera. Remember too that within each of the defined modes (like "Landscape") it is possible to tweak the individual parameters (e.g. saturation).

Shoot raw and tweak the file to your heart's content with DPP or similar. If you get a recipe you like, try to set corresponding parameters for one of your in-camera picture styles.