Wellfleet

Long time user of Canon 7D and thinking about buying 7Dmkii. I'm interested in anyone's input about an ISO comparison between the two cameras. Is the 7Dmkii considerably better? I'm thinking about selling my Canon 70-200 f2.8 and buying the Canon 70-200 f4 and wondering if the better ISO in the 7Dmkii will compensate for the loss of speed in going from a f2.8 to a f4. Thank you for your thoughts.

crazydaddio Loc: Toronto Ontario Canada

Keep the 2.8 no matter what you do....
ISO performance from 7d to 7dii wont overcome the stop of light lost between the 2.8 and 4. imho.
(also the 2.8 will give you better background blur/seperation for more creative options)

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

The 7D II is better but not by a lot - the 80D is better yet ! The new 70-200 f4 II is the sharpest of all the the 70-200's by objective testing.

..

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

What subjects are you shooting? If subjects that benefit from 10 fps, consider waiting into 2019 for a pending 7DIII release announcement.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

If you believe the tests, the 7D2 is about 3/4 of a stop better than the 7D in terms of high ISO low noise performance, so not quite enough to make up for the difference between the 70-200 f2.8 and f4, but the f4 is certainly lighter if that’s your goal. Tell us more about the type of shooting you do and what other lenses you have and we may have other suggestions.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I used a pair of 7D for about five years and took around 150,000 images with each of them. I would sometimes use them as high as ISO 3200 or 6400, though the images would need quite a bit of noise reduction in post-processing. ISO 800 and 1600 were more usable, still needed some NR.

Now for the past couple years I've been shooting with 7D Mark II. My main reason for the "upgrade" was the high mileage on the original 7Ds (although both still work fine, they are only seeing light use as backup cameras).

I've used 7DII to ISO 12800 and even ISO 16000... both with similar NR to what I needed with 7D at 3200 and 6400. So I'd "rate" the 7DII as about one and a third stop "better" at high ISO than the 7D. I rarely use my 7DIIs at ISO lower than 400, in fact.

I have both 70-200/2.8 IS USM and 70-200/4 IS USM.... I use 70-200 a lot and several years ago bought the f/4 lens as a backup for the f/2.8. But I find that I actually use the f/4 lens more. It's about 2/3 the size an weight of the f/2.8 lens and I ain't gettin' any younger! Every little bit helps during an 8 or 10 hour shooting day! (And I usually have either 300mm f/4 or 100-400 II on my other camera. I sometimes put these on a tripod w/gimbal during long shooting days.)

Below is a test shot made with one of my 7DII at ISO 16000....



Furry critters help hide noise, but this was shot RAW (no in-camera NR) and post-processed with Lightroom alone, at it's default NR setting. I did reset the black point and boost the contrast a little (dynamic range and resolution both are also reduced at higher ISOs). But there's no special NR like I'd normally do in Photoshop, usually with an Imagenomic Noiseware plug-in. In other words, it's basically a "worst case", high ISO test shot. Here's a much enlarged detail from the image where you can see that, yes, there is some noise. IMO it's pretty well handled considering the ISO being used...



That's better than my original 7D could do at ISO 6400.

Wellfleet

I shoot action sports, indoors (basketball and hockey) and outdoors (soccer and football). My other lenses are Canon 16-35 f2.8, 24-105 f4 and 24-70 f2.8. Weight is not an issue.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

In your case then, you would want a 2.8 lens for the better focus abilities and use with extender.

OllieFCR

I have used both cameras and the Mark ii is around one stop better, maybe more, depending on the actual iso range you are using. Noise does not seem to increase linearly with iso so the Mark ii may give a bigger difference in noise at 6400 than at 800. Of course, the Mark ii has other significant advantages, for instance, the AF is much better.

ggab Loc: ?

I have been using a 7D for about 5 years. I bought it used. I shoot sports and nature action. I purchased a 7D Mark II last year for the advanced image tracking. While the 7D MKii is a bit better in low light, it is not enough to compensate going from an f2.8 to an f4 lens. For low light action, I purchased a 6D Mark II. While it is not as fast as either the 7D or 7D mk ii, it is much better in low light and is fast enough. The 6D Mark II's 45 all-cross-type AF points and Dual Pixel CMOS AF is far superior to the 7D's 19 cross-type AF points (f/2.8 at center).

Some complain that the 6D Mark II's focus points are grouped around the center of the frame, I do not find that to be an issue. If low light and active use is a concern, you may want to consider the 6D Mark II.

Regarding going from a f2.8 lens to an f4, when weight is not an issue, why??

Nosaj Loc: Sarasota, Florida

Sounds like if you keep what you have, your equipment will be quite fine. Going from a 7D to a 7D ii is more of a duplication than an upgrade.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

The 7DII is a fine camera in many respects but I was never impressed with it's high ISO performance, especially compared to my 6D, 5DIV and now my EOS R. Of course, that's not really a fair comparison. Perhaps if I had taken more of a liking to the camera I would have used it more and gotten better results. That's just me. Many people love it and get excellent results. Friends who have upgraded from the 7D to the 7DII have been very happy.
BTW, if you check the B&H used camera page you will see a 7DII listed for $1099. Rated at a 9+. Under comments it says "In The Box". That was mine. I can guarantee it is a 9+. About 8000 clicks. Took it to Canon in NJ for an 18 point inspection and cleaning. Took maybe 20-25 shots after that. Got tired of seeing it sitting on my shelf so I traded it when I ordered my EOS R.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

I was unhappy with my 7DII and one of my major issues was the ISO performance. I don't know how you use your images but reducing the size of your images can go a long way in reducing noise.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

The 70-200 f/4 IS is amazing, super sharp, but I am not sure that you would be happy with owning the slower lens, not as good for family pics and such.