tnste wrote:
I have a Canon 7D but have just purchased the 7D Mark II. I got it for a better than the black friday price and the dealer threw the Canon kit and a memory card. I have not unpacked the camera as I am not sure if I am going to keep it. I would like to know from those who have upgraded from the 7d to the 7d Mark II what you think of the 7D Mark II compared to the 7D. Did you find the 7D Mark II perform significantly better than the Mark II?
I used a pair of 7D for about five years and took upwards of 300,000 shots with them. I would have been fine continuing to use them, but I knew they were getting up in "mileage" and had seen some pretty hard use. Not that they'd ever failed me... they hadn't. But, early this year I updated to a pair of 7DII, when they were both discounted nicely and bundled with some other items that were of value to me (worked out to about 30% discount off the cameras' list price, taking into consideration the cost of the bundled items if I'd bought them separately). I've kept my old 7Ds as backups, but they haven't been getting out much lately.
I do appreciate the 7DII's AF system, though I frankly didn't have any problem with the original 7D's. I don't see the 7DII being all that much faster or better tracking, but the additional AF points (65 versus 19) come in handy at times and the new model does better with multi-point AF patterns. Plus it has more choice of AF patterns: seven versus five. Original 7D has: Single Point and All Points (as do all Canon DSLRs), plus Zone Focus, Expansion Points and Spot Focus. 7DII has: Single Point, All Points, two different Zone (large 25-point and small 15-point), two different Expansion (4-point and 8-point), and Spot Focus. Despite all that, I tend to use both the original 7D and now the 7DII with Single Point most of the time. That means more work for me, but gives me the lowest percentage of missed-focus shots (under 2%). With 7DII I am a bit more inclined to use multi-point focus patterns, particularly Small Zone or one of the Expansion Points.
For reference, 80D only has four focus patterns: Single Point, All Points and two Zone Focus (large 15-point and smaller 9-point zones). It also has slightly fewer (45 points versus 65), but it has more "f8 capable" points than 7DII (up to 27 of them, depending upon lens, versus just one f8 capable point at the center on 7DII). Both cameras have much improved Dual Pixel Auto Focus in Live View/Video, but the Touch Screen of the 80D gives a fast, easy way of selecting point of focus, while the 7DII doesn't have touch screen control. Also, 80D's rear LCD monitor is articulated, while 7DII's is not.
One added feature I find very helpful is Canon's Anti-Flicker for use in fluorescent and similar types of lighting, which tend to confound many cameras' metering systems (incl. original 7D and all other Canon models intro'd prior to 7DII in 2014) and make for a lot of poorly exposed shots under those types of lighting. Anti-Flicker times the camera's shutter release to the peak output of the lighting and makes for
much more consistent exposures under these types of lights. Works great! I no longer have to factor in that perhaps as many as 2/3 my shots will be badly exposed under this lighting, and take gobs of extra shots to be sure to get some good ones. Because the lighting "peaks" 120 times per second, you really don't notice any sort of delay in the shutter release in real world shooting situations. 80D has this feature, too, and they both have pretty similar shutter lag (I think it's 55ms in 7DII and 58ms in 80D).
I use OEM Canon battery grips on both my 7DII (as well as all other Canon DSLRs I've owned). Yes, the additional battery capacity is nice, but my main reason for using the grips is the vertical controls. 7DII's grip now has a secondary joystick for AF point selection, a feature Canon first put on 5D Mark III, if memory serves. This is very nice to have (80D doesn't have it, but the multi-directional controller it uses for AF point selection is reachable with one's thumb whether holding the camera in landscape or in portrait orientation.) Canon also added a collar-switch around the joystick on the camera (push button next to the joystick on the grip), that gives another means of toggling through the different AF patterns, more directly than using the AF button and Multi-Function button on the 7D.
7D's 18MP to 7DII's 20MP wasn't much difference. But I do think the newer model captures a bit more fine detail, possibly due to a less aggressive anti-alias filter on the newer model (I always felt Canon got a little carried away with the AA filter on the orig. 7D). 7DII is higher ISO capable than 7D, another thing that I find helpful. I would occasionally, reluctantly use 7D to ISO 6400. That high ISO required some additional post-processing work. Now with 7DII I've shot as high as ISO 8000 and 16000, though it also means more PPing. This is a test shot done with 7DII at ISO 16000, without any extra in-camera noise reduction, shot RAW while being careful to avoid underexposure, and converted in Lightroom 6 at default NR settings:
Yes, there is some noise at ISO 16000, but I think it's pretty well controlled, as can be seen in this enlarged detail from that image:
I've shot entire events at ISO 8000 and 16000, and sold 8x10 and 11x14 prints made from the images.
Complementing the high ISO capabilities, the 7DII also is able to focus down to -3EV (i.e., moonlight).... while the original 7D was only able to focus to -0.5 or -1EV. (80D can focus to -3EV, too.)
I don't have 80D, but I think it's roughly the same or not quite as good at high ISOs.... But it's got roughly a 20% higher resolution sensor (24MP versus 20MP in 7DII... both APS-C). The 80D's slightly newer sensor seems to have a bit more dynamic range (maybe 0.5EV's worth). However, to me both the greater number of pixels and slightly increased DR are at least partially offset by the higher resolution being more susceptible to diffraction. The 7DII is approx. f7.1 diffraction "limited", while the 80D is more like f5.6.
7DII's 10 frames per second versus the 7D's 8 fps (and 80D's 7 fps) wasn't all that big a difference for me. I do find I end up with more 3 or 4 frame bursts with 7DII, than I did with 7D in continuous drive mode. I leave the cameras in top speed continuous mode most of the time and just control the number of clicks with my shutter release.... it's probably a bit less easy to take a single shot that way, with 7DII, so I probably tend to take more shots with them. As a result, I suppose it's a good thing the 7DII has a somewhat higher rated shutter than the original 7D (200,000 clicks versus 150,000... not sure about the 80D, but most cameras in that series have been 100,000 click rated.)
You didn't indicate whether or not you are using a battery grip, but I've seen a couple minor "issues" with the 7DII's OEM battery grip...
I think the thumb buttons on it's battery grip are a little smaller, closer together, and maybe less prominent. Using Back Button Focus, which I always do, I have been a bit more prone to pressing the wrong button or two buttons at the same time accidentally. After some 30,000 or so clicks on each camera, I'm getting used to it. But it was something I noticed quite a bit at first.
And, where the original 7D's battery grip used a door on the rear and you simply dropped batteries into one or both of the slots, Canon has gone to using a "battery tray" or "magazine" inside the 7DII's grip, that holds the same size LP-E6/E6N batteries and instead slides into the grip from one end (more like the 1D-series batteries do). This was probably done to help keep the grip from being too bulky and works just fine. However, I've been trying unsuccessfully to buy a couple spare tray/magazines to be able to have them pre-loaded with batteries, for quicker and less clumsy changes in the field. Retailers, Canon support, Canon parts and repair dept. and even Canon Prof'l Services all have been utterly and frustratingly clueless about this... They don't appear to offer spares or understand what I want even when I've read them the exact (and unique) part number right off the trays themselves. They've even tried to sell me the completely wrong battery tray (for AA batteries on one occasion, and even an AA tray for 5D Mark II on another!). This really shouldn't be a big deal and seems to me to be a very logical thing to want spares! I hope they figure it out eventually, in the meantime I'll just keep doing the clumsy and slower battery swaps. I certainly ain't gonna buy a whole additional battery grip just to have a spare battery tray!
On a much more minor and probably rather silly note.... The battery grip for the original 7D happened to be the "BG-E7".... I kinda wish Canon had called the 7DII's grip a "BG-E7 Mark II" instead of "BG-E16". In fact, I wish they'd use this naming convention with all the battery grips, where the grip's designation matches the model it's intended for. Should be doable, since the grips are for the large part unique to particular camera models or a few models within a series.
Regarding 5D Mark III... That's a fine 22MP camera and full frame is great for landscapes and architecture. The Mark III's AF system is so much improved over the Mark II's. The newer model's AF is up to the demands of action shooting, where the earlier models' weren't. I still have and use a Mark II myself, and use it for portraits, landscape, architecture and some macro.... just rarely for any sort of action shooting. I'll probably update to the Mark IV, but even then for sports and wildlife I still want the "free teleconverter" effect of the APS-C cameras that allows me to work with smaller, lighter, less expensive tele lenses... Or gets me 1.6X more out of big, long, expensive telephotos. So, much as the Mark III and IV have improved their AF, I'm still not likely to use them much for action/sports/wildlife.
Can't really advise you... but I feel the 7DII update was good for me. Since I fairly frequently need to shoot in "iffy" lighting conditions, the 7DII's better low light capabilities and it's Anti-Flicker feature have