First College football game with the 7D

Thanks everyone.

Andy Z wrote in post #10868419
Here are some settings to consider:

Picture Style - Standard (but sharpness upped to 4)

C.Fn III: Autofocus Drive
1 - AI Servo tracking Sensitivity: Set to -1
2 - AI Servo 1st/2nd img priority - Set to 0 - AF priority/Tracking Priority
3 - AI Servo Tracking Method - Set to 0 - Main Focus point priority (that way the camera focuses on what you want, not what it wants)
4 - Lens Drive when AF impossible - Set to 0
5 - AF Microadjustment - Set to 0
6 - AF area select mode - Been shooting mostly on single point w/expansion for sports.
7 - AF Manual pt. selection pattern - Set to 1 (Continuous)
8 - VF display illumination - set to 1 (Enable)
9 - Display all AF points - Set to 0
10 - Focus Display in AI Servo/MF - Set to 0
11 - AF-assist beam firing - set to 2 (Enable to external flash only)
12 - Orientation linked AF point - Set to 0
13 - Mirror lockup - Set to 0 (Disable)

C.FN IV: Operations/Others

Shutter button is set to Meter only

I tried AF expansion but went back to single point. That and Manual settings and I had more keepers this week than last.

Taken CPN website:

0: Main focus point priority – with this setting, the camera will focus on any subject that appears under the main focus point, even if it is closer than the subject you were tracking.

1. 1: Continuous AF track priority – as long as one of the expanded AF points can still detect the subject, the camera will continue to focus on it, even if there is a different subject covering the main, selected focus point.

Continuous AF track priority is effective for sports such as football or slalom skiing or anything where subjects are likely to enter the AF area in front of the subject being tracked.

Football players often cross in front of each other, which can distract the AF system. If you are tracking a player with automatic AF point selection and another player cuts in front of your main subject to tackle him, the player in front could distract the autofocus. With automatic AF point selection, the camera will select a different autofocus point in order to maintain focus on the first target subject. If the player appearing in front of the first target is at almost the same distance as the first subject, the camera may not be able to distinguish the distance difference and might lose the target subject

This setting confuses me. Is selection 1 only effective with expanded AF points enabled? It seems like selection 0 would be grabbing everything that passes in front of the selected AF point rather than try to continue to track your original subject.

10Meg or Andy Z; Maybe a dumb question but do any of the CFN 's each of you provided apply to the 1DMKII or 1DMKIIN. I bought both bodies used. Obviously, the 7D is newer with more bells and whistles. Please provide any advice. Thanks in advance.

I feel I should clarify... I always shoot in AI Servo with high speed "burst" and center point focus, but I have not played around with the C.Fn's yet. Providing it's not rained out, I will try the settings suggested by 10megapixel at tonight's soccer games and post my experience. Hopefully the "keeper" count will go up, however I know in my case anyway, there's more than C.Fn adjustments separating the "men from the boys", "women from the girls", or in this case "pro's from the rookies" ...

Coldwater282 wrote in post #10868789
10Meg or Andy Z; Maybe a dumb question but do any of the CFN 's each of you provided apply to the 1DMKII or 1DMKIIN. I bought both bodies used. Obviously, the 7D is newer with more bells and whistles. Please provide any advice. Thanks in advance.

1dmk2 and 1dmk2N are different.

Great images 10mp! You're freaking killing me with those! I so want a 7D to replace my aging 40D. Basketball season happens right after football and that higher quality, high ISO ability would be a God-send in some of those crappy MS gyms.

As for your images, if it were me, #2 would get the yellow hanky, That's freaking holding and it never gets caught my the zebra crew, only the dad photog. Nicely done, I bet he loved that one!

And the other thing I noticed: Obviously this is a small college, the QB (#12) has to play ironman? Damn that's rough at that level.

You captured the light wonderfully as well. Now I have to start scraping my pennies together to get a 7D.

Coldwater282 wrote in post #10868789
10Meg or Andy Z; Maybe a dumb question but do any of the CFN 's each of you provided apply to the 1DMKII or 1DMKIIN. I bought both bodies used. Obviously, the 7D is newer with more bells and whistles. Please provide any advice. Thanks in advance.

The way I have set up the AF on my 7D is very close (If not the same) to the way I shot with the 1D2, The two cameras share some of the same CF's but they are sometimes worded a little different and obviously in different locations on the menus. The 7D has more set-up options with the AF system, which I guess makes it more advanced...but, most of those options I will probably never use, and to be honest I think are overkill for most people.

ChasWG wrote in post #10871634
Great images 10mp! You're freaking killing me with those! I so want a 7D to replace my aging 40D. Basketball season happens right after football and that higher quality, high ISO ability would be a God-send in some of those crappy MS gyms.

As for your images, if it were me, #2 would get the yellow hanky, That's freaking holding and it never gets caught my the zebra crew, only the dad photog. Nicely done, I bet he loved that one!

And the other thing I noticed: Obviously this is a small college, the QB (#12) has to play ironman? Damn that's rough at that level.

You captured the light wonderfully as well. Now I have to start scraping my pennies together to get a 7D.

Thanks! The ref actually caught that holding there and threw the flag believe it or not

#12 was on both sides of the ball some that game...but it's J.V. so they are "Paying their dues" I suppose

The 7D performs well for me in good light, but like I said in an earlier post, when the sun goes down or when the camera gets in lower light the FPS drop dramatically. I don't know how it's going to behave in our horribly lit H.S. gym. That's the one thing that really SUCKS about the 7D and I hope it can be fixed somehow in the near future.

I haven't tried this out yet as I just purchased my 7D, but I read here(http://www.foto-biz.com/Canon/Silent-shooting) that if you leave the Silent Shooting set to the default mode the 7D shoots less fps. If you disable the Silent Shooting the 7D will shoot in full speed - more fps.

kbent wrote in post #10873777
I haven't tried this out yet as I just purchased my 7D, but I read here(http://www.foto-biz.com/Canon/Silent-shooting) that if you leave the Silent Shooting set to the default mode the 7D shoots less fps. If you disable the Silent Shooting the 7D will shoot in full speed - more fps.

I disabled mine first thing when I bought it and it does nothing to help keep up the FPS in poor light unfortunately.

Coldwater282 wrote in post #10868789
10Meg or Andy Z; Maybe a dumb question but do any of the CFN 's each of you provided apply to the 1DMKII or 1DMKIIN. I bought both bodies used. Obviously, the 7D is newer with more bells and whistles. Please provide any advice. Thanks in advance.

Check out this page, http://www.siphoto.com​/?canon1DM2N.inc

I hadn't noticed my FPS dropping in low light but focus seems slower.

I shot two night games this season thus far. In the first I was mostly in Av mode and expanded focus points. In week 2 I cranked the ISO all the way up and used single point focusing and had decent shots, 1/1000 speed and went Manual. My keeper rate improved.

Here is a shot SOOC except for resizing and sRGB color space conversion.

1/1000, ISO 12,800, 7D, 300mm 2.8

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Great pictures. What settings were you shooting. I have a 70-200mm 2.8 with a 7D. Were you shooting on AV, TV or P? - Thanks Jill

Manual. I started that this season and enjoyed it.

10 Megapixel, first time or not those are some great images. Just think you will get better as you find other ways to set the camera up. I know it must have been a pround moment for you to shoot your sons first high school games

^^ It Sure was (College games btw). I cant wait till next season I plan on having either a 300L f/4 or 100-400L 4.5/5.6 to add to my toy box.