7D arrived!

Jeff Wisener · October 8th, 2009, 04:24 PM

FYI guys:

I got my 7D a few days ago & popped in my Extreme III 8 GB flash card. The video came out jerky. I had already ordered a 8GB Extreme IV card & got it 2 days later. Lesson = for video, Extreme III is not fast enough.

Hope this helps!

Kirk Graham · October 8th, 2009, 05:10 PM

i put in my 16gb kingston 133x and it worked great shot some interviews today and played them back and all was well.

Jeff Wisener · October 8th, 2009, 11:08 PM

I am glad you are getting good results with your card. I looked on B & H photo reviews & it is either they love it or hate it. I noticed a number of people had issues with failure & it going in sleep mode etc. Lets hope you don't ever have these issues.

Kirk Graham · October 9th, 2009, 04:26 AM

i have used this card for a year in my sony MRC1k and it has always worked great never had a problem

Ty Haegele · October 15th, 2009, 04:31 PM

can't wait to get mine. Selling my Sony gear (sony a700|sony 70-200 G) as I speak.

Roger Shealy · October 16th, 2009, 06:17 AM

Just got my 7D 18-135 kit in. Lens looks good; I have to agree on the zoom being a little sticky. I was very pleased with the kit coming with extra battery, UV filter, and hood. Definitely like the wide 18. I shot a little with an old Pentax 50mm/2.0 and DOF is incredible. I was able to totally blur out an object 8 inches behind the primary subject which was crystal clear @f2.0 then make both acceptably clear at f22. I have a Takumar 50mm f1.4 in the works, I'm building a UV irradiation fixture to recondition the rear glass that has yellowed. The Takumar lenses are absolutely fantastic (I also have the 135mm f3.5 also - which is phenomenal).

I purchased 2 Kingston 32GB 133X CF cards and ran one for the full 12 minutes on 1080 30P without a hitch. Gave the other a long, but shorter run without a hitch. I think I paid $79 each, so I can wait an extra 1.5 minutes for download on a full card for that price. I'll probably buy two more after I give the first two a workout. The full 12 minutes measured just over 4 GB, so we're around 0.35GB/min in 1080-30P. Haven't tried 24P or 60P yet. Mounted up the Tokina 11-16, and it's plenty wide and crisp and only enough zoom to help fine tune composition or "breathe zoom" during a shot. I found that the 5D Zeikos battery grip does not fit the 7D, so don't try. Nice quality device. I will buy one again for 7D if they offer it. Working on simple way to mount Hoodman that will work with a battery grip, otherwise I would have bought the IDS set-up.

My first shots around the house in darkness in full auto weren't very inspiring, lots of artifacting at ISO 6400! Yeah, I had to hit the record button at least once before going to bed! I haven't even begun the journey into "DSLR Land" to learn how to set this thing up properly. I can see it will be a learning curve in similar magnitude from stepping up from a handycam to my XHA1.

Michael Middleton · October 16th, 2009, 10:04 PM

Hey Kirk, I'd be interested in getting your thoughts on how well this camera works in a hunting environment, especially with regards to focusing, length of zoom (as I understand, you're solely using the 135?). Do you anticipate that a 200mm will give you enough length for most situations (I have a 70-200/4) for my 20D, and do you think IS is imperative for longer focal lengths, especially hand held (unfortuantely, my 70-200 is non IS).

I'd love to see some sample footage if you have any!

Michael

Michael Middleton · October 17th, 2009, 07:41 PM

Well, I couldn't wait! After searching around all week and not finding anybody that had the camera in stock, I made one last ditch effort and called Competitive Camera in Dallas again (they said yesterday they had a few in stock, but all were spoken for). Today they said they'd sell one to me, so I got them to hold it for me and made the 120 mile drive to pick it up!

I had to leave immediately when I got home to take my wife to a banquet, so I didn't get a chance to field test anything yet, but I'll try to get some footage (hopefully of deer!) in the morning before church.

BTW, I have the Extreme III 8G seems to be working fine for the few indoor clips I've taken so far, but I've only recorded very short clips.

Man, I'm excited to have this thing in my hands!

Michael

Phil Hoppes · October 23rd, 2009, 03:58 PM

I have a Sandisk 8Gb Extreme UDMA 60Mbps (says so right on the label) and my video is still coming out jerky. I have AutoISO, I locked the exposure switch, Auto Lighting Optomizer is off, WB is set to outdoors, AF Quick mode, 1920x1080 30p in manual mode with shutter set on 1/60 and F14.

Any ideas would be much welcome as at the moment, I'm quite frustrated. The sticking is periodic and it acts like about every 15th frame repeats or stick. About 2/second.

Update: I will admit, this is my first time working in HD, been shooting all SD up until now. Part of the issue I believe was I had AF and IS turned on. Turned them off and footage looks ok. Funny that Quicktime still won't play it without jerks. I load it into AE, to a RAM render and it plays fine. I'm guessing the raw data rate off the drive is too much for my MBP so it is getting buffered.

Kirk Graham · October 23rd, 2009, 04:22 PM

mike

no hunting footage yet i have shot a bunch with it and you wouldnt want to shoot the 200 is or non hand held. wiggles too much i am looking at a sigma 70-200 2.8 that will be a great lens for low light hunting situations.. as for now i am in front of the camera for the season and i will not get much time with it to film hunts i need to get shows done and my camera man cant figure out the 7D!!!

Neil Grubb · October 24th, 2009, 01:04 AM

My 7D finally arrived yesterday. I'm using it as a second camera, along with a Canon XL-H1A, for wildlife film-making. I tried the camera out at night last night, using the ISO expansion setting and a 100-400 f4.0-5.6 IS lens. My intention was to film barn owls. Unfortunately the target owl didn't co-operate but I was impressed with the camera and its low light performance. At ISO 12800 images are noisy, and at 6400 are noisy but quite useable; using the lens at a relatively slow f4.0, objects illuminated by a small torch or in the periphery of the headlamp beam were captured well.

I found the controls straightforward to use in a dark environment; the movie mode switch and record start/stop button are in sensible positions and easily found by feel. It was also straightforward to adjust the shutter speed and aperture in the dark.

If I have better luck tonight with the barn owls I will post an example on the sample clips gallery.

Neil

Bill Pryor · October 24th, 2009, 10:16 AM

Somebody above mentioned the Extreme III card caused jerkiness...be careful in that there are two different Sandisk Extreme III cards. One is Extreme III, the other is Extreme III 30MBs. If the card does not have the 30 on the front, then it is not a UDMA card and should be avoided. I have two of the 30MBs cards and they're great.

October 8th, 2009, 05:10 PM	#17
Kirk Graham Regular Crew Join Date: May 2007 Location: Lowell MI Posts: 137	CF Card i put in my 16gb kingston 133x and it worked great shot some interviews today and played them back and all was well.

October 9th, 2009, 04:26 AM	#19
Kirk Graham Regular Crew Join Date: May 2007 Location: Lowell MI Posts: 137	card i have used this card for a year in my sony MRC1k and it has always worked great never had a problem

October 23rd, 2009, 03:58 PM	#24
Phil Hoppes Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Phoenix Arizona Posts: 47	Jerky video I have a Sandisk 8Gb Extreme UDMA 60Mbps (says so right on the label) and my video is still coming out jerky. I have AutoISO, I locked the exposure switch, Auto Lighting Optomizer is off, WB is set to outdoors, AF Quick mode, 1920x1080 30p in manual mode with shutter set on 1/60 and F14. Any ideas would be much welcome as at the moment, I'm quite frustrated. The sticking is periodic and it acts like about every 15th frame repeats or stick. About 2/second. Update: I will admit, this is my first time working in HD, been shooting all SD up until now. Part of the issue I believe was I had AF and IS turned on. Turned them off and footage looks ok. Funny that Quicktime still won't play it without jerks. I load it into AE, to a RAM render and it plays fine. I'm guessing the raw data rate off the drive is too much for my MBP so it is getting buffered. Last edited by Phil Hoppes; October 23rd, 2009 at 09:04 PM.

October 23rd, 2009, 04:22 PM	#25
Kirk Graham Regular Crew Join Date: May 2007 Location: Lowell MI Posts: 137	hunting mike no hunting footage yet i have shot a bunch with it and you wouldnt want to shoot the 200 is or non hand held. wiggles too much i am looking at a sigma 70-200 2.8 that will be a great lens for low light hunting situations.. as for now i am in front of the camera for the season and i will not get much time with it to film hunts i need to get shows done and my camera man cant figure out the 7D!!!

October 24th, 2009, 01:04 AM	#26
Neil Grubb Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Roslin, Scotland Posts: 65	Low light performance My 7D finally arrived yesterday. I'm using it as a second camera, along with a Canon XL-H1A, for wildlife film-making. I tried the camera out at night last night, using the ISO expansion setting and a 100-400 f4.0-5.6 IS lens. My intention was to film barn owls. Unfortunately the target owl didn't co-operate but I was impressed with the camera and its low light performance. At ISO 12800 images are noisy, and at 6400 are noisy but quite useable; using the lens at a relatively slow f4.0, objects illuminated by a small torch or in the periphery of the headlamp beam were captured well. I found the controls straightforward to use in a dark environment; the movie mode switch and record start/stop button are in sensible positions and easily found by feel. It was also straightforward to adjust the shutter speed and aperture in the dark. If I have better luck tonight with the barn owls I will post an example on the sample clips gallery. Neil

October 8th, 2009, 04:24 PM	#16
Jeff Wisener Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Oceanside Ca & Bali Indonesia Posts: 158	FYI guys: I got my 7D a few days ago & popped in my Extreme III 8 GB flash card. The video came out jerky. I had already ordered a 8GB Extreme IV card & got it 2 days later. Lesson = for video, Extreme III is not fast enough. Hope this helps!

October 8th, 2009, 11:08 PM	#18
Jeff Wisener Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Oceanside Ca & Bali Indonesia Posts: 158	I am glad you are getting good results with your card. I looked on B & H photo reviews & it is either they love it or hate it. I noticed a number of people had issues with failure & it going in sleep mode etc. Lets hope you don't ever have these issues.

October 15th, 2009, 04:31 PM	#20
Ty Haegele New Boot Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 21	can't wait to get mine. Selling my Sony gear (sony a700\|sony 70-200 G) as I speak.

October 16th, 2009, 06:17 AM	#21
Roger Shealy Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: Fayetteville, GA Posts: 772	Just got my 7D 18-135 kit in. Lens looks good; I have to agree on the zoom being a little sticky. I was very pleased with the kit coming with extra battery, UV filter, and hood. Definitely like the wide 18. I shot a little with an old Pentax 50mm/2.0 and DOF is incredible. I was able to totally blur out an object 8 inches behind the primary subject which was crystal clear @f2.0 then make both acceptably clear at f22. I have a Takumar 50mm f1.4 in the works, I'm building a UV irradiation fixture to recondition the rear glass that has yellowed. The Takumar lenses are absolutely fantastic (I also have the 135mm f3.5 also - which is phenomenal). I purchased 2 Kingston 32GB 133X CF cards and ran one for the full 12 minutes on 1080 30P without a hitch. Gave the other a long, but shorter run without a hitch. I think I paid $79 each, so I can wait an extra 1.5 minutes for download on a full card for that price. I'll probably buy two more after I give the first two a workout. The full 12 minutes measured just over 4 GB, so we're around 0.35GB/min in 1080-30P. Haven't tried 24P or 60P yet. Mounted up the Tokina 11-16, and it's plenty wide and crisp and only enough zoom to help fine tune composition or "breathe zoom" during a shot. I found that the 5D Zeikos battery grip does not fit the 7D, so don't try. Nice quality device. I will buy one again for 7D if they offer it. Working on simple way to mount Hoodman that will work with a battery grip, otherwise I would have bought the IDS set-up. My first shots around the house in darkness in full auto weren't very inspiring, lots of artifacting at ISO 6400! Yeah, I had to hit the record button at least once before going to bed! I haven't even begun the journey into "DSLR Land" to learn how to set this thing up properly. I can see it will be a learning curve in similar magnitude from stepping up from a handycam to my XHA1.

October 16th, 2009, 10:04 PM	#22
Michael Middleton Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Paris, TX Posts: 71	Hey Kirk, I'd be interested in getting your thoughts on how well this camera works in a hunting environment, especially with regards to focusing, length of zoom (as I understand, you're solely using the 135?). Do you anticipate that a 200mm will give you enough length for most situations (I have a 70-200/4) for my 20D, and do you think IS is imperative for longer focal lengths, especially hand held (unfortuantely, my 70-200 is non IS). I'd love to see some sample footage if you have any! Michael

October 17th, 2009, 07:41 PM	#23
Michael Middleton Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Paris, TX Posts: 71	Well, I couldn't wait! After searching around all week and not finding anybody that had the camera in stock, I made one last ditch effort and called Competitive Camera in Dallas again (they said yesterday they had a few in stock, but all were spoken for). Today they said they'd sell one to me, so I got them to hold it for me and made the 120 mile drive to pick it up! I had to leave immediately when I got home to take my wife to a banquet, so I didn't get a chance to field test anything yet, but I'll try to get some footage (hopefully of deer!) in the morning before church. BTW, I have the Extreme III 8G seems to be working fine for the few indoor clips I've taken so far, but I've only recorded very short clips. Man, I'm excited to have this thing in my hands! Michael

October 24th, 2009, 10:16 AM	#27
Bill Pryor Contributor Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 4,449	Somebody above mentioned the Extreme III card caused jerkiness...be careful in that there are two different Sandisk Extreme III cards. One is Extreme III, the other is Extreme III 30MBs. If the card does not have the 30 on the front, then it is not a UDMA card and should be avoided. I have two of the 30MBs cards and they're great.