Hello all,
I've just purchased a new 7D to use alongside my 5Dii, and i have a quick couple of questions.

On my 5Dii i can put it on Av and control the aperature which i film at, whilst still giving an automatic ISO value and the camer setting the shutter speed around the aperture i pick.
However on my new 7D if I put the setting dial on the top on anything other than Manual, the only thing that i can control is the exposure value with one of the dials and with the other is the shutter speed. I cannot see anyother way of controlling the apperture other than in manual. ISO is automatically on AUTO but this is the same as on the 5Dii

Am i doing something wrong or is this a difference bertween the 7d and 5dii..

Also can i just confirm that the latest firmware is 1.2.5 and there are no glitches with this, it ahs been out since march last year so should be ok?

Sorry for the mistakes, i am writing this on my lunch hour so have to be quick.
also i thought i would write this here as this is usually the forum i come on and also i am guessing that a lot of you would be using both a 7d and 5dii.

many thanks
David

Hi David,

When filming with DSLRs I strongly recommend always running them in full manual, no exceptions.

If you can master this skill your work will change in amazing ways. At first it seems daunting but once you understand the basics your whole world will change.

We use both the 5d and 7d but cant answer your question as we have never used anything but manual. In manual they work the same.

David,

That latest firmware is fine. I've been running it on my 7D from about 2 weeks after it was available last year [I always wait a couple of weeks to see if problems get reported by those "who just can't wait"]. UPDATE NOTE: I just checked and mine is currently on 1.2.3. I must have missed another increment if its now 1.2.5. Not seen any issues reported so I'm sure its fine.

I strongly second Danny's comments about using it in Full Manual, BTW. The quality of his work speaks volumes about this being the right way to go...

Enjoy your 7D. It's a fine cam with stunning build quality. I'm still amazed how well it worked even when covered in ice and snow when I used it in the Arctic at -45C about a year ago! Whilst the 60D etc. offer some improvements in ergonomics etc. for video over the 7D those cheaper Canon's really can't match its build quality (which is noticeably better than the 5DMkII too - certainly when compared to the one my mate has).

Thanks Danny,
I do normally shoot in Manual but for some reason it was one of the first things I noticed when I was playing around with the camera.

It's going to take me a while to get used to some of the button changes....especially the record button !!

One of the reasons we got the 7d was because of the 50fps which should hopefully complement the 5dii. Would you have the 7d permantently on set at 50fps 720p on the 7D or just depends on what you are shooting etc. and is there any issues having both bits of footage from the 5dii (1080) and 7d (720) in the same timeline, or does FCP just cope with it ? that is if you are using FCP?
Just thinking off the top of my head.
thanks
Dave

Love your work by the way !!

Hi David,

Our 7D and 5D are always in 1080 25p mode. Sometimes we switch the 7D upto 50fps if we think we will use it slo mo but this really is only once or twice in a day. We have setup the custom menu (green one with a star, far right) with all the things we could change in a day including framerate so making the switch is 2 clicks instead of a million.

Never had a problem with mixing footage. We use Vegas but our editor uses FCP. Most outputs are for vimeo or DVD anyway so the only time you may notice is when it upscales for 1080p blu-ray but Vegas does an awesome job of that and so does FCP. Its only ever a few seconds of footage at a time anyway.

Thanks Guys.

We've got the next wedding on Valentines day in which we will trial it out.

Dave