PC or Mac? On my Mac I use a program called 'Twins' by Rocky Sand Studio.

Here is a photo of the Pixel grip for the 5D MK IV. It is constructed mostly of plastic. The concern for many is the strength of the tripod mount. You can see the tripod mount from the inside of the grip in the photo. The mount is connected to a thin piece of metal that is screwed into the plastic bottom of the grip. I would not trust using this on a tripod. Clearly not Canon quality. The grip looks nice and fits nice but I would not use it a lot.

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The reviews on B&H, Amazon, and Adorama make reference to the battery tray feeling flimsy. The tray that Canon manufactured is really much stronger that it may seem. I did not see any reviews where the reviewers said that the trays had broke. I'm sure the tray will break easily with abuse but I cannot see it breaking under 'normal usage'. Yes, Canon could have made the tray differently, but I don't have a problem with the way they made the tray.

I chose the Pixel grip because I rarely use the grip on my 5D MK IV except when I use my AC adapter.

Thanks for the reply.

The battery tray is a minor component as far as the strength/build of the battery grip. There is no real stress placed upon the battery tray. I really do not see how it will break with 'normal usage'. Where have you read about this?

I have the Pixel grip for the 5D MK IV that I use with the AC adapter.

The Pixel grip quality grip is okay for occasional use but I would not recommend it if you plan to use it a lot. It is light and the combination of the grip and 5D MARK IV causes the camera to be a little off balance- perhaps I am spoiled by my 1Dx.

I have used generic grips on my other Canon bodies and the $40.00 Neewer and Vivitar grips were better constructed. On the Pixel grip; all the controls work well, the fit is fairly tight and I have not had any power communication issues. I cannot attest to the batteries running down in the grip when attached to a powered down camera. Again, for occaisional use, I would recommend it with the previous caveats. The Canon grip may seem overpriced and it may be but you will not be able to beat the quality especially for heavy usage.

Under the second AF Menu, what do you have the AI Servo Image Priorities set to? You can set the focus priority for both the First (release - focus) and Second (speed -2 -1 0 +1 +2 focus) images more towards Focus. This can slightly slow down the FPS but you may gain more in focus shots.

A brief history. I upgraded my 5D MK III with the 1Dx MK I. When the 5D MK IV came out, I replaced my 7D MK II with the 5D MK IV. If I need high FPS and such, I use the 1Dx. I do not mss the 7D MK II at all.

The dynamic range on the 5D MK IV is far better than the 5D MK III as is the AF system. The AF on the 1Dx MK I is still quicker than the 5D MK IV but the AF on the 5D MK IV is more versatile- all 61 points work at f/8 with 41 cross points. The 5D MK IV has wifi and GPS that both work well. I can live without the touchscreen. I feel the 5D MK IV is a good upgrade to the 5D MK III.

I have used both the 1Dx MK I and 5D MK IV at the same event just to compare them in the 'real world' and found the image quality and noise level to be very comparable. The 5D MK IV does very well considering the additional pixels. The dynamic range on the new 5D MK IV is a great improvement over both the 5D MK III and the 1Dx MK I.

One of my 24-105mm lens worked correctly on my 5D MK III but gave me the error on my 6D. I was in the middle of a photoshoot with the lens on my 5D MK III and it also gave me the error. It could be just a matter of time before it happens on the other cameras. I would have it checked out by Canon. Again, this was my experience.

It sounds like the ribbon cable in the lens is defective.

Digital zoom on some of the newer cameras works pretty good. I am not a fan of digital zoom for one of the the reasons stated previously, the resulting file is JPEG and not raw.

Here are three photos from my Canon SX40; widest focal length, full zoom, and full 2x digital zoom. There is no cropping and they are straight out of the camera. The digital zoom does a pretty good job.

Wide

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Full Optical Zoom

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Full 2x Digital Zoom

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From my experience, I get better color and contrast under most conditions using a lens hood. This along with the protection the lens hood offers is good enough reason for me to use them.

What do you consider a wide lens? I rarely use a lens wider than 21mm so I cannot attest to lens hoods on lens wider than 21mm.

I use the Canon LH-DC60 on my SX50 and SX60 and have not noticed any vignetting at the widest focal lengths.

If I happen to use the built-in flash or the Canon 270EX II flash, I remove the lens hood to avoid the shadow created by the hood. Otherwise the lens hood staying on the camera.

I believe that the 70D has one custom camera setting- 'C' on the dial. Check your manual and setup the custom camera configuration without BBF. When you need to hand off the camera, just turn the dial to 'C'.

It really depends on the type of bird photography you are doing.

The tripod is the most stable. If using the proper technique with a monopod it can be very stable.

If I am shooting an eagle in their nest, the tripod work wells for me. For birds in flight, I prefer handheld or a monopod.

Not to start a war or anything but, what do you mean by an "edit program?"

Adobe Lightroom is THE program for cataloging photos. You can do some (most) editing in Lightroom. If you are wanting to do extensive editing or use layers, Adobe PhotoShop might be what you want.

I tend to use both. Lightroom works for about 80 percent of my workload. The other 20 percent is handled in PhotoShop. While in Lightroom you can edit a photo in PhotoShop then return to Lightroom. The two programs are designed to work together virtually seamlessly.