Trying out my wife's 7D rig

[Tonji Ramos]

Recently Sylvia got a 7D and this morning she let me try out her new toy. Yay, I think this is only the second time I have ever used her gear. Its really nice and portable compared to my heavy kit. I did not want to go far so I just looked for birds in our village. This camera focuses fast and shoots really fast as well. I was wondering about IQ so I tried to get posing birds and thankfully there were some zebra doves feeding.

Maybe some of you are interested in this camera as well so I am posting this pic. Its just a Zebra dove. I shot it wide open for the thin DOF to test the focusing. I used Sylvia's 300mm 2.8 with the 1.4x tc. I even got her tripod but did not need it because there was enough light so I just shot handheld.

ZEBRA DOVE
Geopelia striata
Alabang, Muntinlupa, Philippines


1/160, f4.5, ISO 400 handheld

[Ely Teehankee]

Nice shot. I hope you have no plans of interchanging your gear with Sylvia. Heh heh heh. Its a very clear shot and you can see where the focus is before and after the bird. Well done Tonji. Mabuhay.

[Clemn A. Macasiano Jr.]

Nice creamy background and sharp ! Got the same set-up but sometimes use TC-2x

[Neon Rosell II]

Looks like you also got a winner 7D copy, Tonji! Can't wait for the wader BIFs from Olango. ;D

[Romy Ocon]

Very nice, Tonji.... great "pop-out" effect courtesy of the thin DOF!

[William Lim]

Very sharp. How is the 7D noise issue?

[Tonji Ramos]

I did not get to answer this thread, it was valentines and I went to watch the fireworks and drink too much, hehe.

Ely- thanks, I think I will stay with my system. But the 300 2.8 has a lot going for it aside from the sharpness. It seems ideal for the forest and air travel. Lighter weight, light tripod, and a great 2.8 opening.

Clemm- I did not get to try the 2x but I think it should be very good with this setup like you said. The 7D focuses very fast it seems like it can easily handle the 2x.

Neon- thanks dude. You were the one who tested this unit for Sylvia! Hehe. We got our tickets to Olango already. I might get envious of Sylvia as she starts clicking away with abandon. The 7D is like a machine gun.

Romy- thanks Mastah. We spent the previous morning checking the focusing by shooting the paper focusing chart. But I thought shooting birds might be the best test. A live focusing chart. Hehe.

William- The 7D plus side is super fast focusing. Even with fliers. It also shoots like a machine gun. Its so fast the mirror movement is just constant, sometimes you can't see the subject anymore as the mirror is moving superfast, sort of like waving your hand in front of your eyes really fast.

Regarding the noise I have had a few cameras recently, the Nikon d90, Canon 50D and the Canon 5D mk2. Using the three cameras as a comparison I would say noise in the 7D is most like the noise of the 50D. Its sensitive to your ISO settings. I used to shoot my 50D as close to 100-400 ISO as possible. I think the 50D is a very good camera and it provides great detail with the 15 megapixels but downside is the noise. The 7D has even more mega pixels so it has very similar noise issues I shot 100-500 ISO with good results. The 7D is kinda like a 50D that focuses at more than twice the speed. The noise of the 7D is very fine tiny bits. To my eye it looks very natural. I think it can easily be removed.

I like the 5D mk2 because its so clean and it captures great detail. I don't even have to think of the ISO number anymore, just the effect I want with my opening and speed. It even works well with a flashlight at night. But in terms of AF the 7D beats it, badly.

Sylvia and I were taking fliers, she had the 7D and I was using my 5D. She was locking in and shooting so many birds. Near or far. I was struggling compared to her. If and when you get the shot I think the 5D takes a nice sharp clean picture. But the 7D will miss much less birds for sure.

The picture above is almost full frame. I used DPP to convert the RAW file to a TIF. The DPP NR settings were Luminance NR 1 and Chrominance NR3. Then I used a program called GIMP to post process. I did some sharpening on the bird and did minimal NR on the non-bird areas. It did not really need anymore NR after DPP but I wanted to try it to see how easy it was to remove the noise.

[Ralf Nabong]

It looks like the 7D matches well with the 300 f/2.8 even with a TC!

[Ed Matuod]

Yup, 300 F2.8 is ideal for air travel I guess. Planning to buy one soon. Looks great too with a 1.4x TC. Great detail on your capture, Tonji!

[Mark Itol]

Beautiful shot, Tonji.

[ppaaoolloo]

Great shots Tonj. Your dove reminded me that I still need to sell the 40D. ;D

[mantarey]

Wow that is one thin DOF there Tonji, you really have to be very accurate with this setup but when you hit it right like this, the result is quite impressive.

[Evanjohnn Mendoza]

great review on the 7D! but totally not within my level of financial capacity I do hope someone can say something about the newly released 550D.

Great Geopelia striata!