Canon 7D MKII review

It's been a while since Canon updated their top of the line Crop Sensor DSLR the 7D, Thursday October 30, 2014, I received the latest version the 7D MKII. 

My first impression, solidly built body with the magnesium alloy body gives a good weight to the camera, not too heavy, but it feels to be able to withstand the pro use but at a consumer price (1899.00 Canadian body only).  Sets up easy but there are a number of additional functions not previously available on the original 7D.  I do have to thank Scott Kelby for some tips on setting up the Canon7D MKII, it saved a lot of time.

But in the end it all comes down to the pictures.  So this weekend we had the chance to shoot football minor league, now please note the 7D MKII is not only for football, with 65 cross hair Dual Layer AF points, and a 20.2 mp sensor and dual digic 6 processors this camera is able to handle anything you can throw at it.  Wedding Photographers Note here: the camera scene detect is able to ascertain flourescent lighting and adjust for flickering......

These were all taken with the 7D MKII at 1/1000 f3.5 ISO 640, using the A function under ISO letting the camera determine lighting with evaluative metering.  I selected cross hair single point for focus and was in high speed shutter mode.  Faces are sharp and absolutely amazing color even with the sun moving in and out of the clouds.  WB was set to auto as I wanted to see if the scene detect worked as well as it said.  It did and then some.

Now for an amazing feat let me grab an SOOC 16000 ISO image.

This is one of my my test pictures, from the night I picked up the camera, and, I am a photographer with a new toy like any one, started to play with it. this is f2.8 1/250 wb is auto (under fluorescent lighting the flicker detect came on) and ISO 16000.  Although a little blown out I didn't change the settings from when I shot this test shot except for ISO now 5000.

Wedding photographers take note 16000 ISO not 1600.  Now I do have to do some tweaking as I get to know the camera for custom settings but remember this is straight out of the box, there are a lot of functions to this camera and I have barely even scratched the surface with it.

First off make sure that you familiarize yourself with the functions there are a few more buttons but every button is programmable, I used the switch to change ISO instead of the default setting on top of the camera because now my thumb can adjust ISO by holding down the button and turning the dial on top of the camera.  Each to his/her own based on how you shoot.

So what else is new on this amazing camera, Dual layer AF for video, (Video will be posted later) 10fps with a large buffer, so no more waiting for the buffer to empty.  Time lapsed photography for you the landscape crew especially night shooting, the 7D MKII has an intervolometer for time lapsed photography.  Geotagging with the new GPS system built in, this is turned off by default.

But if that wasn't enough at all, the 7D MKII is native to 16000 ISO which expands to 52000 iso, This camera will be able to handle everything from sports to nature and everything in between.

Now just a caviat, for lightroom and Photoshop users, you will have to use the Canon Software located here http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/slr_cameras/eos_7d_mark_ii#DriversAndSoftware to convert the Raw images until Adobe Camera updates to include the 7D MKII CR2 codec

I am also glad to see the new Digital Photo Professional from Canon is now 64 bit and works much faster.

I would suggest installing the disc first then downloading the October 27th version of EOS Utility 3 and DPP 4.1

Now let me get this out there before i get accused of anything, I do not nor have I ever worked for Canon or its distributors.  I am a photographer and enthusiast, have been shooting for over 30 years.

Over the next few days I will be providing some low light images (concerts) to compare against the 7D the predecessor to the 7D MKII.