So my 7d2 arrives, first and second impressions

After watching several threads on the new 7d2 i decided to pull the trigger and purchase one.
I have been put off a bit with all the oof shots and reports of missed focus etc but on the flip side of the coin there were some very good shots published on here and other forum groups.
Right, down to my findings from day 1
Battery charged, ready for off. I must point out at this point that the weather has been dreadful with gales very heavy rain with dark grey overcast skies, the kind of weather you only ever get when you buy a new camera.
First shots were very disappointing, i was devastated with what i had produced.
First pic and crop

In the garden on smaller sparrows.

What are your AF settings?

Are you asking for advice?

If so, the problem I see with that photo is that it is very soft, most likely on account of some camera shake. Whatever lens you used, does it have image stabilization? Even with IS, 1/80 is pretty slow to select as a shutter speed with a 400mm lens handheld.

I would suggest testing your camera out in better light, or with a shorter focal length if you are going to shoot in that light level. Testing a new camera while at the limits of handholding skill (and at high ISO at the same time) is probably not a great assessment of the body itself. At the very least, open up the lens to f/5.6 and use that stop to gather more light.

Day 2.
Again in the garden shooting the small sparrows, and once again rain and gales with grey overcast skies.
This time i had a look at my shooting technique and changed to TV mode to get shutter speed up to 1/800 with my 400mm F5.6
These are shot at F5.6 (wide open) 1/800 iso 1600 +1 stop.

This is the trouble with new cameras coming out during the gloom of high latitude winter! When I got mine about a week or so ago in Alaska I got a similar result as as I used aperture priority and auto ISO. You can set the max auto ISO to less than 6400, which I did, and the results are much better IMHO. Though 6400 is useable, the lower ISOs are much better. As well, keep in mind that when you are looking at 100% it is a very big blow up.

Cheers guys, as you can see things are looking up by changing one thing from AV to TV and setting the shutter speed to give good results with the 400mm lens and altering the iso to an acceptable level im heading in the right direction.

Tomorrows forecast is frosty and sunny, i hope to be able to get out and have another go in decent conditions.

bx338 wrote in post #17347372
Cheers guys, as you can see things are looking up by changing one thing from AV to TV and setting the shutter speed to give good results with the 400mm lens and altering the iso to an acceptable level im heading in the right direction.

Tomorrows forecast is frosty and sunny, i hope to be able to get out and have another go in decent conditions.

Hopefully you will get some sun!! Since I am traveling for the holidays and temporarily using an older laptop computer that will not take LR5 (It has LR4 on it instead) or the DPP that came with the camera I have been playing around with the in-camera jpegs controls (Picture Style). Had a blast playing with monochrome mode and adjusting some of the controls - maxed out the contrast and got a decent jet aerial though it was cloudy for most of the trip from AK to the east coast. Have fun!

Yep having the right settings selected certainly helps a lot. I gave up on Av mode in the end because I got fed up with the shutter speed dropping to a point that was unusable.

One thing for certain the 7d2 is not a point and shoot camera.
I think its got great potential once you spend some time with it and learn how to use it for each type of photography you are doing.

Looking at some of my BIF seagull shots most of them are poor quality, it looks like two reasons are to blame, one operator error for not nailing the shot bang on the bird and 2, it looks like a shutter speed of 1/800 might be enough, so next time i will try it at 1/1000 or above, weather conditions permitting.

Nice to see you resolved it. It can be pretty close to P&S if you choose appropriate shutter speeds for the lens and shooting environment

A couple of good videos when you get into AI Servo.

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=u466WL71J1E

When it is time to experiment in zone AF.

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=u466WL71J1E

Thats great DP and very helpful.
There are some very good tutorials on how to get the best from my technique and camera settings.
I hope to be able to give some examples on what didnt work and now what does work with the new settings.