7D2 - Question on Case Selection

I tried to search but couldn't find an answer to this one.

I'm setting up my new 7D2 and I had a question about Case selection. It looks like the only way to choose what Case the camera uses when it is in AI Servo is through the Menu. You go to the 1st page of the AF Menu and use the joystick to get to the desired Case and press SET and that's the case the camera uses in AI Servo, right?

This seems like a lot of work and very inconvenient to do on the fly. One of the greatest things I like about the 7D2 viewfinder displays all important information like shooting mode, drive selection, etc. and how the M-Fn button can be set up to cycle through the settings so that everything can be adjusted on the fly without taking one's eye off the viewfinder. But for the life of me, I can't seem to find any way to change the Case without getting into the menu.

Am I missing something? This seems like a miss on Canon's part when such a powerful feature is buried in the menu without any other shortcuts. Is this in F/W 1.0.4? My brand new 7D2 (arrived last Thursday) is on 1.0.2.

Thanks!

It isn't any different in 1.04. Just set the AF-on or * button to change the Focus Case when pressed.

Since the Case # isn't even shown in the viewfinder you will have to interact with a menu regardless (except for the above).

Thanks! I read about the AF-ON option, but I've assigned that button to exposure lock and the *button to BBF, as it is more ergonomic for me to do BBF with the middle button instead of the left button.

I may have to look into juggling things around then - use AF-ON for the Case switching and use maybe the DOF preview button for Exposure lock. I don't know if that is possible - will look into it when I get home from work this evening.

Thanks again!

After playing around with it for a while, I concluded that the simplest option is just to leave the menu on the Case selection page so that pressing the Menu button gets you to that page right away. In the process, I also made the personal discovery that when in Menu, pressing the Q button cycles between the first page of each major tab in the Menu. So, the Case selection page is at most a few clicks away even if I left the menu on a different page. i use BBF all the time and trying to repurpose the AF-ON button was too detrimental for my setup that I have used for years on all my bodies.

You can install the AF case selection on a custom menu and have the custom menu show up first, when pressing the menu key.

You can have one AF case when focusing with AF-ON and another when focusing with * button.

Your camera may allow other keys to change AF case, but I don't know for sure (don't have any 7D Mark II).

apersson850 wrote in post #17700786
You can install the AF case selection on a custom menu and have the custom menu show up first, when pressing the menu key.

OK, I looked through the options to register commands in the custom menu but the only things I seem to be able to register in the custom menu are the individual items in each Case settings, i.e. tracking sensitivity, accel/decel tracking and AF pt auto switching. Is there a specific menu item I can register to My Menu that will get me to the AF Case menu page?

I guess I've got to figure out how to do this. If I have the AF-ON button defined in the Custom Menu to do Metering and AF start, which is what I have for my BBF setup, I don't know how I can force it to a specific Case. I think perhaps it may be easier to define a specific case on the C1/C2/C3 modes and switch that way.

It just seems like Canon has given us all this flexibility in setting up cases but hasn't made it particularly easy to switch on the fly.

On the 1DX, you can change to a different case by holding AF-ON or *, or both. I thought the same thing was possible with the 7D Mark II. As I don't have any, I just looked in the user's manual. If you do the same, and look at how to set up the AF-ON button, you'll see how to do that. It's on page 450 in the edition of the manual I have downloaded. You use the INFO button to access further details for AF settings.
This implies that you can have AF with one kind of characteristics with the trigger button, a second set of characteristics with the AF-ON button and a third setup with the * button. One of these could of course be "no AF at all", like on the trigger button, if you want back button AF only.
This makes it very easy to switch AF case on the fly, but also the AF point used, Servo/One Shot and the AF point selection mode (single point, zone etc.)

Yet another option you have is to allocate the Switch to registered AF function to a button. Unless you have a supertelephoto lens, the "cheapest" today being the EF 300 mm f/2.8L IS II USM, your only choice there is the depth of field preview button. This option implies that you can specify a set of AF setup details to be active as long as you keep this button pressed. Hence this can be combined with any of the trigger, AF-ON and * buttons used for focusing.

A third option is to apply the Register/recall shooting function setup to AF-ON and/or * buttons. You'll have to check in you camera which settings can be included there. I don't think they are listed in the manual, so I can't see what applies to the 7D Mark II.

OK, so My menu doesn't allow case selection, just the internal parameters. Well, if the change of case you want to do implies changing more than one of the inside parameters at the same time, then it's not convenient, of course. But perhaps some of the solutions provided in the paragraphs above will be sufficient?
It all implies learning a new method for working, but after a couple of thousands of practice shots with the 1DX, I think it was well worth rethinking a bit how I use my equipment. I spent a day at a racetrack a few days ago. Several hundred pictures, but in a way that was a waste, since only a single one was out of focus. That's not the kind of result I used to get a few years ago.

Canon keeps making good improvements but there are little things that could make it better.

First off you may want to try using the C1-3 modes for this. Second like the members stated there are the custom controls "detail set".

I still like to use the shutter button and one shot for static shots. I set the AF-ON so AI Servo activates. I set the * button to AI Servo, Case 6, 65 point zone activate.

I leave the AF mode on One shot and the drive on High Speed Continuous. The only glitch is it would be nice to have the drive mode option in the detail set so I could leave it on Single Shooting. The little things but it is easy to delete duplicate static shot images in PP which are not many. I know there are other ways around this but still too hooked on the shutter for stills.

Thanks, guys! Yeah I know, I love everything Canon brought to the table with the 7D2 and it seems churlish of me to complain about some little things, but that's what enthusiasts do, right?

I have set it up so far as follows:

The camera will be in Case 1 by default.

The AF-ON button will do Metering Start at AF (BBF) in the current case with the current drive settings and focus points.

The * button will will do Metering Start and AF (BBF) in Case 2 (tracking sensitivity dropped to -2) in AI Servo and focus point expansion.

I have also set up C1 in Manual with 1/1500 sec, F8 and Auto ISO with the AF-ON button in Case 6 and the * button in Case 2.

I might tweak things as I go along, but for now, this is probably everything I need.

That sounds good. I may have to look into setting up C1 for my single shooting. Thanks

Won't work for me. Drive stays on single shooting. Common Canon. Where is the FW update for that? Can't be that hard to program. Is there somewhere you can make these requests at Canon?