7D Surprises me again

[Stephen]

This camera can produce some unbelievable results in harsh conditions. I was surprised the AF could keep up with the swimmers doing both the breast stroke and butterfly. Shooting indoor swimming @ f 2.8, ISO 5000, 1/500.

[Tom]

Very nice, Stephen. I have a love/hate with my 7D.

[Stephen]

I'm the same way Tom, that's why I hesitated to pull it instead of the MK III for this shoot. I was a pleasantly surprised the AF kept up in the low light.

[craig_k]

Originally Posted by Stephen

I'm the same way Tom, that's why I hesitated to pull it instead of the MK III for this shoot. I was a pleasantly surprised the AF kept up in the low light.

i just got a 7d 3 weeks ago to replace one of 50d's ... i shoot lowlight arenas for rodeo weekly but have yet to use the 7d... i believe i have tweaked the cnf settings to hopefully allow for reasonable captures ...(ie:wrap-around af - slow setting for interference, new subject items popping into frame, ect) i have spent a few hours going over the canon videos covering the new af .... i historically used "spot af" on the 50d..... with the 5 AF zones on the 7d, for this particular swim shoot, which one did you employ? spot, zone?.. just curious as swimming with everything in total focus would be close to rodeo action whre i want everything in my viewfinder to be clear , barrels, roughstock events ect...thank you .... nice work as well

[Sonny]

Dang...I am contemplating selling/trading my Canon 1D3 for a 7D. I have been shooting middle school basketball and the gyms are so dark. I had to use ISO 6400 just to get shutter speeds of 1/400 - 1/600ish at a f/2.8 aperture. The noise on the photos is horrible.

[andyz]

I have max'ed my ISO when shooting football at the local HS stadium. Noise Ninja cleans it up well enough. I'm very pleased with mine but still want a ID Mark III just because I do.

[Stephen]

For 80% of the shots I used the 5 zone AF. I used the spot AF for the breast and fly strokes. I had to track the water because it would not AF quickly enough in the 5 zone mode.

[craig_k]

stephen, spot and zone...ok, thnks...now what have you found the af point expansion mode to be suitable for? initially that looked to me like a nice sports option...thanks again

[Stephen]

I usually use zone 90% of the time when shooting fast moving sports. However, zone was hit or miss with my old 70-200 2.8 IS but with the new version II it has been dead on.

[craig_k]

thank you sir, thats somewhat encouraging as i just replaced that lens too,with the newer version and sent my 2 year old lens in today for cps service. i had moved out to + 7 on micro-adjust to get a sharp image...according to the tech at cps i spoke with yesterday a lens is backfocusing if its on the + side and i assume front focusing if you have to use -side of slide adjustment....that lens was 2 years old, used daily w\o any prior servicing

[Photogdude]

you could use manual focus if i was swimming :)

great shots

[rhoffart]

Originally Posted by Tom

Very nice, Stephen. I have a love/hate with my 7D.

Boy, ain't that the truth

[Sonny]

I'm renting a 7D this weekend for another basketball shoot. What do you hate/dislike about your 7D?

[craig_k]

sonny: while waiting for ups\fed ex delivery of that, i spent alot of time at this link.....Canon DLC: Article: EOS 7D: Sophisticated, Customizable AF System

the 7d AF is explained indepth......i ordered my body then immediately found all the dislikes of the AF on various notable sites ...well i panicked...in those reviews were postings by pros\sucessful users that overcame the "complained of AF discrepancies" .....band h has 3 vidoes by canon reps of af as well.....A Look at The Canon Autofocus System | B&H Photo Online Videos | Podcasts

i set my custom functions to allow for more desirable end usage as suggested in the tutaliges but only shot about 150 shots of some outside basketball players.......i rotated thru my 5 AF selections to see what would be desirable for sports shooting overall under optimum lighting anyway for an initial feel.......i came away with either of the 2 spot selections or the zone feature, i dont recall what the AF point expansion selection weakness was .....i was mainly going for being able to discern the " intuitive factor" of the imporved high powered AF feature over what my 50d's had .........i havent shot anything else that "moves" to date but i feel i avoided some immediate aggrivation by supplying myself with some valuable technical input beforehand so as to cut down on the learning curve associated without reading any manual jagon, which is a huge mistake and getting familuar with the new body style and all its tricked up internals that will work in ones favor should they employ the technology you just paid for, if that makes sence........i have no problem in saying i am very glad i spent the hours i did on this learning class instructional videos including stopping and replaying what i didnt get at the time it went thru.....save the aggrivation and at least run em thru once.......

[Corvee]

The AF always performs better with good contrast, which you get with those white caps. When my girls wear their dark blue caps, God help me.

During the breast/fly, I'll usually center spot where the top of the cap is supposed to be, which helps avoid misfocuses due to the splashy splashy.