7D II Reviews and Comments from those who now own it

[HDNitehawk]

Mike,

Go to the Share Photo icon on the pic and choose BBCode "Medium" size.
Then paste it here.

Personally I like this one better than the one you linked;
Nice eagle pics;
Bald Eagle Canon 7D Mk II Mark 2 @ 800mm by Mike Black photography, on Flickr

[Kayaker72]

Rick,

If interested, here is a link to some else comparing the 1DIV to the 7DII. Also, where I saw the original link. After a few complaints about initial softness out of the 7DII, he seems to have come around to the 7DII (example here, here, and here), although I haven't seen what I would consider a final opinion.

[HDNitehawk]

With everything going on I haven't had time to make the resolution comparisons I want to make.
Maybe this weekend.
My impression so far is that the 7D II is not soft. Everyone I have seen that made the claim ended up doing an AFMA and then were fine.

The 7D II has already lost the normal AF battle, for instance the turkey shoot in the rain. With the 1D IV I would have been sorting equally sharp pics and ended up choosing for pose. With the 7D II it was more like the old 7D II or the 5 D II, I was sorting for sharpness and accepting the poses that were sharp.

Another thing I want to do is play with live view focus more. I think there may be some techniques that will not be able to be matched with the 1D IV.
In video mode the recognition tracking seems to work great.

[shutterdown]

If interested...

Kayaker, you're torturing the poor guy!

[Kayaker72]

Kayaker, you're torturing the poor guy!

HA...



Am I? If so, Rick's tough, I am sure he can take it.

[HDNitehawk]

A little more torture then;

The question if you shoot a 5D II at 10 feet how will it compare to a 7D II at 16 feet. About the same framing right? Sort of at least at the distance you are focusing.

In this case a 5D II at about 20 feet and a 7D II at 32 feet in real life overcast shooting mid day with an eagle that was very cooperative.

The 5D II;

5D II (1 of 1) by hdnitehawk01, on Flickr

The 7D II at 1.6 times the distance.

7D II 1.6x (1 of 1) by hdnitehawk01, on Flickr

Forgive the colors, the 5D II did much better in this situation. I didn't adjust the color much at all, just minimal white balance.
Similar settings, however I could have went deeper with the sharpening on the 5D II.

Notice the focus point is the eagles left eye, using the 500mm on my Gitzo legs with a 10 second delay. Rock solid support.

The conclusion. Of course the FF is sharper on the critical focus area, has more bokeh. The 7D II has a deeper DOF and more area in focus but isn't critical sharp.
For me critical sharp and great bokeh are more important,(if the eyes are sharp the picture just doesn't make it for me) but there is something to be said for having a whole critter in focus at once.

Edit; DOF calculator shows the 5D II at .21' vs the 7D II at .36'

[HDNitehawk]

Now the 1.6 resolution question at the exact same distance, is it 1.6x better? 1.19x better?
There is a crop benefit in this controlled test. It is much better than the old 7D II performed. 5D II vs the 7D II.
I think it is closer to being a reality rather than a spec number game like it was before.



5D II eye (1 of 1) by hdnitehawk01, on Flickr

7D II eye (1 of 1) by hdnitehawk01, on Flickr

[HDNitehawk]

This one to, is the eye at 32' with the 7D II. Compare it to the 5D II eye above, equal framing.

7D II eye x1.6 (1 of 1) by hdnitehawk01, on Flickr

[Kayaker72]

Thanks for the comparison Rick. I was wondering about the difference between the 100% crops of the 7DII. Is 7D II eye (1 of 1) taken at 20 ft and 7DII eye x1.6 taken at 32 ft?

If I were to rank resolution only, it would be 7D II eye x1.6 (1 of 1) >> 5D II eye (1 of 1) >> 7D II eye (1 of 1)

But, you are illustrating one of my points. There is "effective" pixels on target (whether it be 1.19x or 1.6x), but then there is also the quality of those pixels you are putting on the target.

You also make a good point about a bit extra DOF under reach limited conditions is not necessarily a bad thing.

[Joel Eade]

A question for you folks. When you move the camera and lens further away how much of the difference in detail seen is a result of the lens not being able to resolve the now apparently smaller details to a level that the finer pitch sensor can actually utilize?
A follow up question would be if you folks know of any sites that have line pair resolution data for a variety of lenses that isn't tied to use on specific camera bodies? Interested in determining if 7D2 might be useful to me at times but not entirely sure that even my best primes will deliver enough resolution.

Lensrentals.com has a lot of resolution data for lenses but I think they have even found some variation from copy to copy of the same lens.