It's in my home!
 

Good new/Bad news

Good news- I bought 7D this morning
Bad news- only had 10 minutes to play with it
Good news-3 small children will be in bed within 30 minutes
Bad news- wife doesn't go to bed for another few hours

Reminds me of when I bought my "dream" modular press camera in the 1960's. I must have played with and "fondled" that Graflex XL the whole evening, as my wife headed for bed she asked me, "Well...Are you going to sleep with the Graflex or with me?".

She didn't have sharp edges.

Still doesn't.

try getting amorous on the lounge, if you're lucky she'll have a headache and go to bed early - if you're unlucky - well, I guess it's a no lose situation.

Fantastic!

My 7D has got a bad case of the shakes
 

I tried out the video mode with a 17-40L and a 85mm and although the quality looks great, the video is extremely shaky. Even though I am simply using handheld, it seems to be much worse than any other consumer camcorder that I have used in the past. Unless I am doing something wrong, it would seem that an IS lens or a tripod might be necessary.

Please tell me I'm doing something wrong.

The DSLR form factor is not given to being held steadily for long periods of time. That said, there are ways to hold a DSLR relatively steady. Are you using proper shooting posture?

Also keep in mind that an 85mm lens on a 7D gives you an effective 136mm angle of view, which is solidly in the 'telephoto' range (and more difficult to hand-hold steadily than, say, a 17-40mm).

Like the 5D, the reasons are pretty simple.

1. No stabilization.

2. The design lends itself to shake.

The first, you can do nothing about.

The second, has to do with the slr design. If you "redistrbute" movement that is applied the camera by your body movements, a big change will occur. I think it has to do with the axis and center of gravity or some other something else, being so centered on the chip that it magnifies all movement. You will see a vast improvement just putting the camera on a shoulder rig. I think that works to extend the lines to those we are used to with video cameras.

You're doing nothing wrong; it is a very simple case of ergonomics.

Video mode on a D-SLR calls for some means of camera support... ideally a tripod.

Even with a shoulder mount camera it's difficult to hold a long lens shot steady. When I do hand held, it's strictly wide angle, or on a Steadicam. But most everything is on a tripod.

That's something I hadn't considered with the 7D. It doesn't go as wide as the 5D2, which means it's potentially even worse for handheld use. If you get a 14mm rect, or 15mm fisheye, you can snowboard with the camera in your hand. But on the 7D, the 14mm is a 22.4mm equivalent. Based on my experience using a 24mm on the 5D, you can't really chuck that combination around.

However there is the EF-S 10-22mm, perhaps sufficiently wide enough for hand-held use in video mode... light weight and yields a 16-35mm field of view.

What are you doing lurking in this thread Paul? You're everywhere! Then again, so am I. Good advice by the way.

For handheld, up close, extreme sports, the 10-22mm would be on the top of my wish list for the 7D. As you move to longer focal lengths, get a shoulder rig, steadi-thing, moving stabilizers, and at the longest lengths stick with a tripod.