7D Mark II - Focus Discussions

It sure is luck of the draw sometimes, Glenn is only one more guy with a 7DmarkII, its hard for people to have such trouble and not get a little bitter.

I was talking dollars not shots

nsnqst wrote in post #17350674
Glad to know the third one might be a keeper. There are times when I wonder if I should try out my third copy but with the soft focus issues with my 70D and the two 7DM2s I've tried, I no longer have the patience. Time will tell.

I also agree that anyone who gets good results with a 5D3 should get similar results with the 7DM2; unfortunately I did not.

I was not looking forward to testing a third one, so I know what you mean.

nsnqst wrote in post #17350674
Glad to know the third one might be a keeper. There are times when I wonder if I should try out my third copy but with the soft focus issues with my 70D and the two 7DM2s I've tried, I no longer have the patience. Time will tell.

I also agree that anyone who gets good results with a 5D3 should get similar results with the 7DM2; unfortunately I did not.

For what it's worth, if you can get a sharp one, it's worth it. 1.6 more pixels on the target can be a wonderful thing...

I pretty much decided that if my third one wasn't sharp, I was going to have to throw in the towel So I know where you are...

I wish you success.

Pondrader wrote in post #17350433
This it a brand new camera that must be learned not setup like the 1Dx or the 7D or the 5DIII because its not any of those. learn the camera....make super images....

I'm going to have to setup out on a limb here and disagree with this statement. Canon has said that all 3 cameras have the same AF system with only minor tweeks. Whether that is accurate is another debate. Given the same system, you should actually be able to set them up exactly the same and get relatively the same results. You may change the customization of buttons or how things record differently, but the the AF system should be the same.

Pond, I'm not questioning your results as they have been mighty fine, but they have all been of relatively static subjects. I, for one, returned my first 7D2 due to poor tracking and soft focus when shooting BIFs. I've done this with 40ds, 50ds, 70ds, 5d3s (my least favorite), 1D3s and 1D4s. I currently use a 1Dx which has been bang on out of the box. My 7d2 produced results that would have been unacceptable to anyone - a mallard at 30 yards, tripod mounted and nothing in the picture in focus. That's not reasonable.

So, can you share anything with a subject that is truly moving and share your settings AF wise for the shot?

What's funny is, I've gotten shots IN-focus with the Mark II that I really didn't think I would.
But shots that I probably SHOULD have gotten in focus/weren't challenging at all, it missed/screwed up. Like static shots.

But I've had it get sharp/in focus BIF shots on dim days, in-front of busy backgrounds, or when the bird was almost outta frame, but using center points.


Looking closer at Glenns shots, unless he wasn't trying to be super accurate/the bird moved or he moved,
it sees like there's some focus stuff going on as well?

It's hard to say though. But in the one shot, the nose is more in focus, and the other, the eye is in focus and it is quite a bit sharper overall.

https://drive.google.c​om …WWxlXeHRoYmxWTn​E1OFU/view

https://drive.google.c​om …WWxlXQVVtdEFndF​FOeUE/view

KatManDEW wrote in post #17350689
I positively would not waste my time taking 10's of thousands of shots until I was sure my equipment was working properly.

Spot on. I second that. The moment I noticed focus issues with my second copy, I tested the lenses with dot tune and they were off on the 7D2; exact same lenses performed flawlessly on the 5D3/

KatManDEW wrote in post #17350779
For what it's worth, if you can get a sharp one, it's worth it. 1.6 more pixels on the target can be a wonderful thing...

I pretty much decided that if my third one wasn't sharp, I was going to have to throw in the towel So I know where you are...

I wish you success.

Tell me about that 1.6X; that, excellent video performance, AF in video, among others that make me want to try another 7DM2. I guess 5DM4 is not too far so I'll probably wait for it

huntersdad wrote in post #17350787
I'm going to have to setup out on a limb here and disagree with this statement. Canon has said that all 3 cameras have the same AF system with only minor tweeks. Whether that is accurate is another debate. Given the same system, you should actually be able to set them up exactly the same and get relatively the same results. You may change the customization of buttons or how things record differently, but the the AF system should be the same.

Pond, I'm not questioning your results as they have been mighty fine, but they have all been of relatively static subjects. I, for one, returned my first 7D2 due to poor tracking and soft focus when shooting BIFs. I've done this with 40ds, 50ds, 70ds, 5d3s (my least favorite), 1D3s and 1D4s. I currently use a 1Dx which has been bang on out of the box. My 7d2 produced results that would have been unacceptable to anyone - a mallard at 30 yards, tripod mounted and nothing in the picture in focus. That's not reasonable.

So, can you share anything with a subject that is truly moving and share your settings AF wise for the shot?

Exactly. It's not radically different stuff which requires massive studying to learn to utilize, as some have suggested.

You certainly sound like you have lots of experience, and I don't understand why anyone would question your results with the 7D2.

KatManDEW wrote in post #17350635
The point is that is just not really much different from the 7D2 from a user perspective. With the exception of a few things like iTR, and the ability to customize back button focus more with the 7D2, the AF menus are shockingly similar.

You can't really say they are much different if you haven't used both of them.

There are only two differences. The obvious that is iTR. In single shot it face recognition and in AI Servo it along with whatever system it uses to acquire and lock AF it also remember colours.

Unfortunately canon provides very little information about pros and cons. Art Morris tried it and thought it worked well and others were not impressed. On another site someone mentioned it would be nice if someone like Art would do a write up on it.

The other non obvious is camera shake. Due to pixel density the 5D3 is more forgiving so the 7D2 requires the shooter to be more aware of that. A term they coined at FM as micro blur. Liquidstone commented a about that on that thread. Not a huge factor but a person should be aware you need to be steady.

The AF menus are identical with both bodies except for the processor speeds with 7D2, etc that the user has no control over.

Personally, I think iTR is a joke and have it turned off on both bodies. Why would I need the camera to pick out a face? Isn't that what the view finder and your eyes are for? As for it'd uses in tracking, try tracking a mallard at 40 across a treed background and see if it does any good. My experience there is a solid negative.

KatManDEW wrote in post #17350841
Exactly. It's not radically different stuff which requires massive studying to learn to utilize, as some have suggested.

You certainly sound like you have lots of experience, and I don't understand why anyone would question your results with the 7D2.

I don't think anyone is questioning my results. Heck, my first body did well with birds on the water in excellent sunlight. However, when the moved into and out of varying light, the camera went haywire. Now, I know my 1Dx would have stayed solidly locked on with the same setting I had on the 7d2, so why such a big difference?

I will say again, in limited testing of a 4 tear old running straight at the camera, the replacement body never missed in 8-10 different tests made up of small bursts of 3-5 shots ranging from direct sunlight to completely backlit and everything in between.. First one could not have handled that.

Oh yes. Like Kat stated some of the programming that makes it easier to operate the camera but has no real effect on how the AF works in regards to AF aquisition and lock.

The superior microprocessor makes the 7D2 closer if not the same as the 1DX when it come to AF speeds, etc.

digital paradise wrote in post #17350842
There are only two differences. The obvious that is iTR. In single shot it face recognition and in AI Servo it along with whatever system it uses to acquire and lock AF it also remember colours.

Unfortunately canon provides very little information about pros and cons. Art Morris tried it and thought it worked well and others were not impressed. On another site someone mentioned it would be nice if someone like Art would do a write up on it.

The other non obvious is camera shake. Due to pixel density the 5D3 is more forgiving so the 7D2 requires the shooter to be more aware of that. A term they coined at FM as micro blur. Liquidstone commented a about that on that thread. Not a huge factor but a person should be aware you need to be steady.

The AF menus are identical with both bodies except for the processor speeds with 7D2, etc that the user has no control over.

iTR isn't used in all focus configurations. I turned it off with my first two 7D2's but it didn't help. I used it successfully with my third 7D2.

I personally don't think the pixel density presents much more of a problem than the original 7D. It's only 20 versus 18. And Nikon folks seems to be doing OK with 24 MP APS-C.

I've been shooting my third 7D2 successfully with shutter speeds as low or lower that what I use with my 5D3. 1/320 second at 800 mm is pretty low in my book, even for the 5D3, but I've been doing it repeatedly with the 7D2 (dog gone cloudy weather). At that point subject movement is as much of a problem as camera shake.

Yeah. iTR, when enabled only activates when in zone AF.

I asked the question before about how much of an impact percentage wise would 18 vs 20 megapixels make and got the same response - not much.

The 5D3 is still more forgiving.