Canon 7D Upgrade

eddlum25 · Apr 18, 2011

I upgraded my Canon 500D to Canon 7D last week. Ventured out to learn about my new toy yesterday. Here are a few for your comment.

1.This one is under the harsh sun light with a shaded backgound. I spot meter the green leave and over exposed it by a stop. I am please with the result.

2.I want to test how my camera perform at backlighted subject with a bright background. i spot meter the leave and over exposed it by 2 stops. Here you have it.

3. Subject and the background are under the direct sunlight. I wanted to see how my camera perform in this situation. I spot meter the green leave over exposed it by a stop. I am pleased with the result.

4. This one is under the shade of a big tree. There were a lot of light on the grass at the background. I spot meter the grass and over-exposed it by a stop.

5. I spot meter at the white feather and over-exposed it by 2 stops.As you can see the white feather has little details in them. May be I should over-exposed it by 5/3 stops.

6. There were 11 of them swimming in the canal. I quickly set my camera to AV mode 1/250 and ISO 400.

Thank you for your visit.

Derrel · Apr 18, 2011

Nice shootin' Eddie. it seems that you know your way around a camera. I especially liked the photo of the delicate, backlighted maple (?) leaves under the forest canopy.

eddlum25 · Apr 18, 2011

Derrel said:
Nice shootin' Eddie. it seems that you know your way around a camera. I especially liked the photo of the delicate, backlighted maple (?) leaves under the forest canopy.

Thank you Darrel. I'm glad you liked it

TheBiles · Apr 18, 2011

Number 2 is very nice! That background really goes well with the leaves.

DerekSalem · Apr 18, 2011

I like the shots, but can I ask why you purposely over-exposed most of your shots? Looks like you brought them back down to the level you wanted them in post (or it automatically did). Just curious if you were "exposing to the right" like so many people love to do or you were doing it on purpose for some other reason (the leaves were too dark originally or something).

LarissaPhotography · Apr 18, 2011

Have you noticed a big difference in image quality from the old camera to the new camera? I'm especially interested in hearing what you think about the difference in broad daylight like your images are.

KevinPutman · Apr 18, 2011

Love love love the second one.

eddlum25 · Apr 19, 2011

DerekSalem said:
I like the shots, but can I ask why you purposely over-exposed most of your shots? Looks like you brought them back down to the level you wanted them in post (or it automatically did). Just curious if you were "exposing to the right" like so many people love to do or you were doing it on purpose for some other reason (the leaves were too dark originally or something).

I have not changed the exposure in post-processing. I only done a tad change in contrast, clarity, variance, sharpen and a tad lighten up in the shadow.

What I tried to do when I take the photos was to map the "dynamic range" of the camera to the "zone system". To place a tone in Zone VI I over expossed it by 1 stop. Zone VII is by 2 stops etc.
Some good read up here if you are interested http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/how-to/shooting/the-digital-zone-system.html.

LarissaPhotography said:
Have you noticed a big difference in image quality from the old camera to the new camera? I'm especially interested in hearing what you think about the difference in broad daylight like your images are.

There is a big difference in the dynamic range of the two camera.The first thing I notice was all images came out brighter and colours are more variant. In post processing there is less sharpening need to be done. However I have not use my new toy long enough to justify any other differences.

P/S : I appologise for my poor English. I am a chinese and am not very good in expressing myself in English.

eddlum25 · Apr 19, 2011

Another one for you to look at. all comments welcome.

Thank you.

shufti · Apr 19, 2011

No need to make appologies for your English, it's very good. Thanks also for providing technical explanations for your photos. It's interesting to read. Nice pictures!

GooniesNeverSayDie11 · Apr 19, 2011

Nice effort. The 7D is a great camera. I must say though, I am noticing softness in all of the shots. What lenses are you using? The softness works really well in #4, and I like the concept of the second one, but I bet you can get better shots with the 500D and some good glass/technique.

eddlum25 · Apr 19, 2011

GooniesNeverSayDie11 said:
Nice effort. The 7D is a great camera. I must say though, I am noticing softness in all of the shots. What lenses are you using? The softness works really well in #4, and I like the concept of the second one, but I bet you can get better shots with the 500D and some good glass/technique.

I sold my Canon 500D with my 18-55mm IS kit lens and am left with Canon 55-250mm IS and Canon 50mm f1.8 lens. All photos above were taken with Canon 55-250mm IS wide open (except #6 and #7 were taken at f 8 ). At mo, I can't afford to upgrade to a better lens. However, I do like the softness in #4 and will try to make good use of the softness of this lens in the future.

I will go out this weekend with my 50mm f1.8 lens. Hopefully will come back with some great shots. Technique wise, I am still very poor and am trying my best to improve.

Thank you.

GooniesNeverSayDie11 · Apr 20, 2011

Those two lenses are decent, so I would work on the focusing, whether its an AF issue, or a camera shake issue. You may also find yourself exceeding the minimum focus distance on that 55-250 so accurate AF becomes impossible even though if exceeded only slightly, things may look ok in the viewfinder. Also make sure you do not have any garbage filters on your lenses.

eddlum25 · Apr 20, 2011

GooniesNeverSayDie11 said:
Those two lenses are decent, so I would work on the focusing, whether its an AF issue, or a camera shake issue. You may also find yourself exceeding the minimum focus distance on that 55-250 so accurate AF becomes impossible even though if exceeded only slightly, things may look ok in the viewfinder. Also make sure you do not have any garbage filters on your lenses.

Thank you for your valuable advise. As you said, it could well be the minimum focus distance is exceeded. Well I will have to put that in my mind.