Canon 7d out of my skill set?

[analog.universe]

Thank you. Very helpful. I want to upgrade to the canon 24-70mm f2.8L for my general shooting, as I think this one is comparable to my tamron only better.

Would this be a good next purchase for 7d

Well, it's a nice lens, people love it.. excellent build quality, plenty sharp enough. But it's not one of the rare gems where 100% crops are going to blow your mind... very very few applications need one of those anyway.

What do you really hope to get from it that you can't get from your Tamron?

 

[Ricky21]

Better overall picture quality. I was hoping it could provide better sharpness, as it's a better lens. I understand at 100% actual pixel zoo this may not happen but could provide great results.

Is there not enough benefit to justify the investment in canon lens? Would it provide similar results as tamron lens I own?

 

[Ricky21]

I was just reading some other information and wondered if my Tamron lens made need Micro adjusted on the 7D. It seems like other users of the 7D with this lens had to do so after poor performance. Has anyone here ever tried this?

 

[GeorgieGirl]

The thing with that, with a zoom is you have to pick a mm and then live with it for the use of the lens..unless you decide to made another adj at a different focal length. It's best for primes IMO.

You can make similar adjs in LR on a photo by photo basis by selecting that feature in Library....do you have LR?

 

[MLeeK]

I was just reading some other information and wondered if my Tamron lens made need Micro adjusted on the 7D. It seems like other users of the 7D with this lens had to do so after poor performance. Has anyone here ever tried this?

Do you feel it is actually MISSING focus? That's when you'd micro adjust. You can test the focus system very simply with about a million test charts available on the net, a ruler, tape measure etc. Google for a Back Focusing Lens Test and you'll find a bunch of how to's.

 

[MLeeK]

The thing with that, with a zoom is you have to pick a mm and then live with it for the use of the lens..unless you decide to made another adj at a different focal length. It's best for primes IMO.

You can make similar adjs in LR on a photo by photo basis by selecting that feature in Library....do you have LR?

Georgie... something you said isn't making sense to me. You can make similar adjustments in LR? To a back or front focusing lens that needs micro adjustment? You can't fix missed focus in LR so I am missing what you are talking about. Please set me straight?

Micro adjust is for when a lens is falling short or long on the focus consistently for every shot. A certain MM doesn't matter at all-it's basically set itself to where it is locking focus a bit short or long of where your focus point is actually at. Usually it's a lens that may have been bumped etc. It's pretty easy to knock something out of alignment in between your annual servicing and that's what micor adjust is for.

 

[GeorgieGirl]

The thing with that, with a zoom is you have to pick a mm and then live with it for the use of the lens..unless you decide to made another adj at a different focal length. It's best for primes IMO.

You can make similar adjs in LR on a photo by photo basis by selecting that feature in Library....do you have LR?

Georgie... something you said isn't making sense to me. You can make similar adjustments in LR? To a back or front focusing lens that needs micro adjustment? You can't fix missed focus in LR so I am missing what you are talking about. Please set me straight?

Micro adjust is for when a lens is falling short or long on the focus consistently for every shot. A certain MM doesn't matter at all-it's basically set itself to where it is locking focus a bit short or long of where your focus point is actually at. Usually it's a lens that may have been bumped etc. It's pretty easy to knock something out of alignment in between your annual servicing and that's what micor adjust is for.

IN LR there is a lens correction check the box feature that I always use.

I do not use micro adjust in-camera. I did test my 60 mm and found no need to. I do not micro adjust my zooms as I would not be able to truly micro adjust the entire focal lenght range of the zoom as I understand it. Do you think that is a misunderstanding on my part?

 

[MLeeK]

Lens corrections are for something totally different than micro adjust.
Yeah, completely different.
Micro adjust is when you have a lens that is not focusing where your focus spot says it is. It's "out of alignment" or "out of calibration" and focuses in the wrong spot no matter what mm you are at.
The lens corrections in LR/ACR are to correct things like a lens' natural vignetting, barrel distortion/pincushion distortion, etc. Things that always happen with that lens-every one of them. You'll find that Adobe has profiled many to most lenses and you can download a profile for them and use that to correct things that a lens is known to do. For example with the 17-55 you may correct for barrel distortion at the wide end to avoid bent light poles and buildings.

Totally different than adjusting where the focus point falls which is what micro adjustments do.

 

[GeorgieGirl]

I'll have to go back and really review what you are saying...I never had the impression it was for focal points... and I never thought it was truly effective on zooms. I'll go back and dig into this again...but I am not using it for any of my lenses. Thx for the insight.

In any event, the OP should not think that the issue is the 7D.

 

[Crollo]

Images are going to be pretty soft when you zoom in until you can see pixels, judge whether or not your images are sharp based on when they're at a reasonable size. I'm not disputing that you might have a genuine problem, but lots of people tend to judge sharpness based off 100% viewing, even I did at one point.

EDIT: Not necessarily viewing 100% either, zooming in a good amount is all the same.

 

[EIngerson]

I'd like to see some images so there's something to give advice on.

 

[Jones0610]

I'm really enjoying "lurking" in this forum and reading this thread in particular. Decided to register so I can participate.

I have a D7000 but ran into similar issues as the OP. Spot metering on something that seemed to be around 18% grey cleared up a lot of exposure problems and using spot focusing versus matrix got me MUCH more predictable results. I'm currently taking a digital camera class and of course all of the assignments are to be shot in full manual.

I'm still not to the point when I can take better pictures in manual than the D7000 takes in auto scene modes but I think I'm getting close. I'm currently shooting in jpeg mode and do very little post processing (using Gimp). I do plan to shoot RAW and to install Lightroom once I half way understand the basics.

I'm wondering is someone could have a look at the shots I took at Travels with the Original Easyrider® Pictures from my PCC digital photography class for a little C&C. My goal right now is to get consistently good exposure and focus. I think I may be close but my technique probably still needs a little tweaking. Perhaps more than just a "little"

I'm also wondering why the color is noticeably better when I shoot in scene mode versus in manual, even when I use VERY similar ISO, shutter speed and aperture settings. The meta data looks pretty close except for white balance red, blue coefficients (whatever that is).

I was also completely unaware that even a really good (~$200) lens (mine is a Nikon 35mm 1.8) does not shoot very clearly above f11 or so or under 2.8. I've had a Pentax 35mm that I carried with a zoom lens exclusively for 40 years. This is my first time shooting with a prime and I've had to adjust my style significantly. However, I was under the impression that any good (DX) lens would shoot acceptable quality at any aperture setting, so long as the rules of DoF were observed. Perhaps it's because the D7000 is a REALLY good camera, but I started noticing the same problems with focus that the OP saw, as soon as I varied much past f5.6 - f11.

I'm too much of a noob to even know what I am asking for at this point. Perhaps some insight as to what I need to work on in order to get me to the next level of shooting ability.

Much obliged in advance!

 

[MLeeK]

I'm really enjoying "lurking" in this forum and reading this thread in particular. Decided to register so I can participate.

I have a D7000 but ran into similar issues as the OP. Spot metering on something that seemed to be around 18% grey cleared up a lot of exposure problems and using spot focusing versus matrix got me MUCH more predictable results. I'm currently taking a digital camera class and of course all of the assignments are to be shot in full manual.

I'm still not to the point when I can take better pictures in manual than the D7000 takes in auto scene modes but I think I'm getting close. I'm currently shooting in jpeg mode and do very little post processing (using Gimp). I do plan to shoot RAW and to install Lightroom once I half way understand the basics.

I'm wondering is someone could have a look at the shots I took at Travels with the Original Easyrider® Pictures from my PCC digital photography class for a little C&C. My goal right now is to get consistently good exposure and focus. I think I may be close but my technique probably still needs a little tweaking. Perhaps more than just a "little"

I'm also wondering why the color is noticeably better when I shoot in scene mode versus in manual, even when I use VERY similar ISO, shutter speed and aperture settings. The meta data looks pretty close except for white balance red, blue coefficients (whatever that is).

I was also completely unaware that even a really good (~$200) lens (mine is a Nikon 35mm 1.8) does not shoot very clearly above f11 or so or under 2.8. I've had a Pentax 35mm that I carried with a zoom lens exclusively for 40 years. This is my first time shooting with a prime and I've had to adjust my style significantly. However, I was under the impression that any good (DX) lens would shoot acceptable quality at any aperture setting, so long as the rules of DoF were observed. Perhaps it's because the D7000 is a REALLY good camera, but I started noticing the same problems with focus that the OP saw, as soon as I varied much past f5.6 - f11.

I'm too much of a noob to even know what I am asking for at this point. Perhaps some insight as to what I need to work on in order to get me to the next level of shooting ability.

Much obliged in advance!

I am not sure what to think or say here... It's all odd. You should not be feeling that your quality isn't on par with your pentax 35mm and lens. Lenses haven't changed how they work and the lens you have is a superb, sharp lens.
No lens is at it's sharpest wide open, you are better off at about 2 stops above wide open. The opposite could be true also and needing to be a couple stops from the lens' tightest aperture. However you should not be seeing a focus issue between 5.6 and 11. We're talking like f/22 here MAYBE. Probably not still, but...
Which leads me to think other things are the reason... Bear with me because I am thinking as I type here.

What are you using for your focus setting? What focus point are you using? What is your shutter speed?
The ones you linked to are all long exposures. I assume they are shot on a tripod, did you use a remote release on them? Why are you shooting at such narrow apertures in these? You're working with a distance that is going to give you a DOF of infinity even at wide open... The ones with the extremely high shutter speed are sharp. So I am guessing most of your error is in the shutter and no remote there. You will always have a bit of shake when you have to touch the camera to fire off the shutter. What was the point of the super long exposures here?

 

[Crollo]

Why are you shooting at such narrow apertures in these? You're working with a distance that is going to give you a DOF of infinity even at wide open...

When I do LTE I stop down to give myself more time in the exposure, but I only do traffic LTE's.

 

[Ricky21]

I know this is total noob talk, but I have always had problems uploading my photos to the site even with tutorial. I host my pics at pbase.com, and I can see the image in the previewed post before posting but then they are never shown. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong.

He is what I do..

1. Go to pbase.com
2. Click on image
3. Right click on properties to get image URL
4. Paste that into image URL link
5. Hit ok


I see it, but others don't.