Simon, I prefer full-frame cameras, especially for underwater, so I would have thought that you'd have gone for the 5D - especially for the absence of crop using wide lenses.

The Canon 10-22mm will probably be used a lot on your dive on the 7D, but you might also want a fixed extreme wideangle lens in some situations (although you can bump up the ISO a bit to compensate when using the slower zoom lenses - depending if you are surface diving using natural light or deeper with TTL flash). The Tokina Pro DXII 12-24mm f/4 is also a good performer.

Regarding UW housings, quite a lot of the ones for the 5D should also fit the 7D.

I'll second the recommendation for the Tokina. That 12-24 has outstanding colour and contrast for its price point.

Canon 17-55 f2.8
 

Just got back from picking up my 7D and Canon EF-S 17-55 f2.8 lens. I'll do some test shooting tomorrow and try to post some samples for people to review.

--SM

Sounds great Stephen!
I'm planning on buying the same kit plus a few lens more.
Any feedback or samples would be very usefull.
Looking forward to see the results.
Enjoy your new purchase,
Javier

That's very intertesting - I had no idea that the form factor was so similar to a 5D to allow the same housings to work. I'll look into that for sure and the Tokina lens too. Thanks for the info.

Please post some footage Stephen. :) I'm looking to pick up the 17-55 2.8 IS again and would love to see how the footage turns out!

I've been looking at the Tonika 12-24 f4 and 11-16 f2.8, both look good. Are any of these Tonika's available with IS?

Is anyone have experiences with the Sigma 17-70 F:2.8-4.5 ? The range, speed and price seems to be interesting for a standard zoom on the 7D.

Lenses
 

I'll try to get some footage up later tonight, if possible. I've also rented the 85mm f1.2L lens for a shoot next week. I'll be testing that out a bit this weekend, but I think it'll be a killer interview lens.


And don't forget, folks, that renting is still (probably) the best way to get great lenses you couldn't otherwise afford. The above lens costs $2000+ new. I'm renting it for a full week, insured, for $100. It's a great way to offer clients a "wow" without mortgaging the house, and it's a great way to test lenses before buying.

--SM

anyone have experience w/ the tokina 16-50mm 2.8? another option over the tamron 17-50mm 2.8...

Tokina | 16-50mm f/2.8 AT-X 165 PRO DX Autofocus | ATX165PRODXC

My wife has been using this for her walkaround lens for a few years now. Quite sharp, very usefully range and you can get _really_ close @70mm in macro mode - basically you can place the lens hood down on a table, and you'd be able to focus on the table.

Hi
my close friend has sigma, and i have the canon. I compared the lenses thorroughly. first, if you need light, f2.8 is always better then f4, but sigma is far from sharp at f2.8. For video it is less important,then for photo. If you like sharp picture, whell - they say 70-200 F4 is the best of all canon zoom lenses( better then 2.8)

canon F4 are very light, compared to 2.8 lenses

If you buy sigma, go to store and first test sharpness. Try more then one piece, check for back or front focus, and trust me each one of them behave different - dont buy them over mail - only if you like lottery.

I purchased a SMC Takukmar 50mm f1.4 and a SMC Takumar 35mm f2.0 with M42 - EOS adapters for video. The lenses have minor yellowing so I'm bleaching them with UV now. These lenses are exceptional and have extremely smooth focus controls. Much better than the Canon 18-135, 18-55, or Tokina 11-16. They are fully manual, but that's the way we're shooting movies anyway on the 7D. You can get them in very good condition from a variety of sources for around $80 - $150.

I'd love to see an optical comparison to some of these older lenses to high end lenses like the Canon 50mm f1.2.

could someone please explain to me the difference between IS and non-IS?

thanks

I.S. is Image Stabilsation. Non IS means the lens lacks this very useful stabilsation feature - if you do any hand held video work IS helps remove those horrible micro jitters, especially with anything on the longer focal length (50mm plus area) that makes many DSLR web videos totally unwatchable (in my view).

IS was developed for stills photography of course (enables you to get sharp hand held shots in low light - with a very slow shutter speed/higher F stop than you'd be able to use otherwise) but is also a great help with video now that we're all doing that too.

Only down side is that some lenses have quite noisy IS (but if you're doing anything important you'd need double system sound anyway). My Canon 70-200mm F4 IS is very noisy with IS on but my Canon EF-S 17-55mm F2.8 IS is VERY quite with the IS on. Both are terrifically effective at stabilisation - just turning the IS off soon reveals just how much so!

got it thanks!

Andy I forgot to ask do I need to enable the IM when using the lens? If my lens is on a tripod do I need to disable like on a video camera?

Generally, yes, switch the IS off when on a tripod - BUT if it's a long shot/your tripod is not the best/it's windy/you're planning to handle the camera a bit (e.g. to pull focus etc). within the shot it's sometimes, nay often, much better to leave IS switched on.

Also, with some of the Canon lenses (like my lovely 70-200mm F4 IS) there are two options with the IS. One helps reduce up/down and side-to-side "wobbles/jitters", the other just up/down wobbles. Using the latter IS setting for any panning video shots can be very helpful.

I'm getting the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens and the Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 so it shouldn't be a problem for either. thanks again.

Question about zoom ring
 

I have a question about the EF-S 17–55mm zoom lens. when i turn the zoom ring it doesn't feel as smooth like the focus ring it's a bit stiff is this normal for a lens of this quality? Does it loosen up with time?

make sure that the switch on the lens is set to MF not AF.. this should release the motor drive part that makes it stiff!

Try this link. It should help.

I haven't used the AF yet it's been on MF all the time. I'm going to return it today to B&H and try a different one.

I've been struggling with the same issues as I choose lenses for my 7D. My goal is to find lenses I can keep for the next few bodies as these cameras evolve (also I'm sometimes required to rent a 5D). One of the things that made me reluctantly stay away from the 17-55, aside from the EF-S format, is that it's just not as silky smooth to focus and zoom with as the L zooms. I went with the 16-35L and have not been disappointed in that regard. I do miss the extra 20mm of focal length. IS would be interesting to try, though I've been operating small hand held cine cameras for so long without electronic assistance that I rarely have any issues regarding unwanted camera movement.