Unpacking my 7D now.....

zuluart wrote in post #8714539
I was hesitant about getting the 7D with one of the kit lens as I had my eye on the 17-55mm L lens but now looking at the performance of the 18-135mm I am really happy with it. Seems to be a great walkabout lens to have it with me.

Just took this one a few minutes ago while testing the lens. Got the bigma to try tomorrow, and fingers crossed if the weather is good will be playing around with it for a few hours .

This one was from RAW conversion. True, the RAW files are huge, around 24MB each and the jpg ones also around 17MB. But I love the possibilities it gives to crop the images aggressively. Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw what the image was giving after cropping it heavily still

http://www.aminstar.co​m …orums/IMG_0015r​esized.jpg

Yeah, that's one advantage of more MP's...provided they are quality MP's I suppose.

24MB, Ouch.

I definitely feel the file size of my 5DMKII. Double the file size of the 1DMKIII.

Ugh...

nicksan wrote in post #8714552
Yeah...I know.
Just curious to see what Canon actually did.
Did they take the xxD AF system and added the extra points while the speed/accuracy remaind the same, or did they actually base it off the 1 series.

What it sounds to me is that it's an entirely new system. It sounds like it's closer to the 1 series than anything else, at least on paper.

I remember, pre 50D launch, there were at least a few people claiming that the AF was actually better than the 1 series. We all know how that turned out.

It's undoubtedly a new system, possibly a slimmed-down version of what's to come in the new 1 series...

zuluart wrote in post #8714539
I was hesitant about getting the 7D with one of the kit lens as I had my eye on the 17-55mm L lens but now looking at the performance of the 18-135mm I am really happy with it. Seems to be a great walkabout lens to have it with me.

The 17-55 should be an "L" lens but it's not, it's priced like one and matches or exceeds optical performance of L series zooms.

10megapixel wrote in post #8714577
The 17-55 should be an "L" lens but it's not, it's priced like one and matches or exceeds optical performance of L series zooms.

I guess I should be still aiming at the 17-55 then . Might consider selling off the 18-135 and go to my original idea of getting the 17-55 and 70-200 f/2.8 .

For now I will put the 18-135 through some more tests, it certainly feels good handling it and carrying around, so light and its quite nice locking the AF also. Will have to weigh up the pros and cons between the image quality and price etc between them

Thanks for your input, I need as much advice as possible as I am stepping into a totally new system here from my previous one.

Thanks

Simon Harrison wrote in post #8714143
Here's a couple of shots from today......

| Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Cheers,

Simon.

Evidence tells me that the focus is spot-on! NIce shots, BTW. I know that the camera didn't do this by itself!!

nicksan wrote in post #8714552
Yeah...I know.
Just curious to see what Canon actually did.
Did they take the xxD AF system and added the extra points while the speed/accuracy remaind the same, or did they actually base it off the 1 series.

They didn't do either. They took both systems produced a composite of both. The only thing that didn't make it from the 1D series is the center horizontal line sensor that works until f/8, besides that the sensor cells are better specified across the board against the 1D series... If you want some more information I gathered then please read my musings that I posted over at DPreview:
http://forums.dpreview​.com …rum=1019&messag​e=33054300

zuluart wrote in post #8714604
I guess I should be still aiming at the 17-55 then . Might consider selling off the 18-135 and go to my original idea of getting the 17-55 and 70-200 f/2.8 .

For now I will put the 18-135 through some more tests, it certainly feels good handling it and carrying around, so light and its quite nice locking the AF also. Will have to weigh up the pros and cons between the image quality and price etc between them

Thanks for your input, I need as much advice as possible as I am stepping into a totally new system here from my previous one.

Thanks

Don't ignore the new EF-S 15-85mm IS USM... should be out in about a month or so... $800 but if it comes close to the 17-55 in image quality it may be worth the money.

nicksan wrote in post #8714501
Simon, IIRC, you do own a 1 series body right?
So would you say the AF on the 7D is on-par, or at least very, very close?

I'll reserve final judgement on that until I have fully explored all the AF options and tuned them in to how I shoot. I am, however, very impressed so far.

Simon.

Simon Harrison wrote in post #8714648
I'll reserve final judgement on that until I have fully explored all the AF options and tuned them in to how I shoot. I am, however, very impressed so far.

Simon.

Thanks for the shots. But you did all that shooting without one video. Shall we run over to youtube and wait!?!

Simon Harrison wrote in post #8714648
I'll reserve final judgement on that until I have fully explored all the AF options and tuned them in to how I shoot. I am, however, very impressed so far.

Simon.

Cool.
Thanks for all the info Simon!
It seems like a lot of the Custom Functions were carried over from the 1DMKIII. They looks very familiar to me, at least on paper that is...

charlyw wrote in post #8714637
They didn't do either. They took both systems produced a composite of both. The only thing that didn't make it from the 1D series is the center horizontal line sensor that works until f/8, besides that the sensor cells are better specified across the board against the 1D series... If you want some more information I gathered then please read my musings that I posted over at DPreview:
http://forums.dpreview​.com …rum=1019&messag​e=33054300

Wow...I'm shocked. Something actually useful on dp...

Thanks for that informative writeup!

madhatter04 wrote in post #8714076
I think you may find it hilarious that before I spent a month in the UK earlier this year, someone told me to make sure I talked to my doctor about the vaccines I needed to get before traveling to England

You think that's bad? How about American universities sending foreign student applications to kids applying from New Mexico? There's a reason their license plates say "New Mexico USA"...

Simon Harrison wrote in post #8714143
Here's a couple of shots from today......

Great shots, Simon. I thought you weren't allowed to have that much sun in England!

nicksan wrote in post #8714552
Just curious to see what Canon actually did.
Did they take the xxD AF system and added the extra points while the speed/accuracy remaind the same, or did they actually base it off the 1 series.

What it sounds to me is that it's an entirely new system.

Looking at the AF sensor, it's an entirely new system.
Canon never had an AF sensor like that.

Don't know about the AF processor. Could be the same as in the 1-series - maybe even the new one that's coming.

Rgarding the tech summary at dpreview: It is almost correct, too. The only thing that's wrong is the description of the three additional high-precision linear AF-detectors at the center, top and bottom. They are not high precision, but the zig-zag type of sensors that are better off to detect extreme defocus (think long telephoto focused on close distance, but aimed at infinity).

I've not seen any specification for the AF processor for the 7D yet, but Canon has stated that just like the 1D Mark III, the 7D has a separate CPU dedicated to AF calculations. In the 1D Mark III, the AF processor is a 48 MHz, 32-bit RISC-architecture CPU. Performance of the AF processor in the 7D remains to be seen.
At least the image processing capability should be better, since the 1D Mark III has a tandem setup of Digic III processors, but the 7D has dual Digic 4.