7D arrived!
 

Wow is this thing cool i am an outdoor tv producer/videographer and i just got my kit today! i couldnt wait for the body only so i got the kit with the 18-135 and it is amazing! i shot some 720 60 and put the card in the reader and dropped in the FS2 time line and bingo! This will become an tool that is used everyday in production i am just waiting on the beachtek to run the mics. for now the wireless works great! I will start filming hunts with it this week i cant wait.

Congrats, Kirk, please let us know how you like the EF-S 18-135mm lens.

Great! I've been waiting for someone to give their thoughts on that lens. Like you, I don't want to wait, plus I don't have another lens or two handy anyway. :)

Kirk,

Please post some video when you get a chance! I also produce outdoor videos, though I focus mostly on fly fishing.

I got my 7D body yesterday late afternoon (I'm at the tail end of the UPS driver's route) and haven't had a chance to do anything but point it at things in the house. Two lenses I'm going to find indispensable are the 24mm F2.8 EF and 50mm F1.8 EF primes. I may have to "insult" it occasionally by putting the 17-55mm "kit" lens from the T1i on it for the wide end, and I have a 55-250mm EF-S.

If I had no lenses on hand the 15-85mm EF-S would be my choice because of the 24-135mm equivalent range, and I would supplement that with the 50mm F1.8 EF for shallow DOF performance when needed.

Just some thoughts. I'm impressed with this camera just from playing with it in the house last night. Gonna put it on a SpiderBrace (with a rain cape-rain and thunderstorm coming) and get out fer awhile.

first thoughts
 

I got her set up and shot some test vid inside and out and i can say that i will be looking for some faster glass soon the 3.6 is ok but i want better! i know i will want more zoom as well looking at the 70-200 2.8 but will have to save for that.

the cam is easy to navigate and run and it sets up fast i like the LCD its bigger than i thought it would be!

as far as the 18-135 it seems good all the way out from my first tests the zoom is a little sticky compared to my XLH1a

The images are very impressive i compared footage to my XLH1a and it looks better! great color.

again all i am new to the DSLR video thing and i will have to learn as i go i do know that primes will not be in my bag for what i do.

i did put it on the shoulder brace and shoot and it is very handy on it so now i need to get it out in the field and get some filming done so i can post some! bad weather here for the next few days so we will see.

Order
 

From whom did you order it?

B&H.

Apparently when a shipment is scheduled in they begin taking orders, then cut it off when the shipment is "committed". I managed to get my order in just before they indicated "on backorder" again.

You have to check daily.

cam
 

I got it at the local norman camera shop i called to be on the waiting list and they called the next day and said they had one for me- right place right time i guess

Beachtek ...
 

Whilst researching stuff on the 7D I stumbled across this series of articles on sound solutions for the 5D/7D which is worth a look before before deciding on beachtek. From the video series presented, it would appear that the beachtek may be a little noisy. I am paraphrasing here as I have not had direct experience, but it's certainly worth a look (or listen) .

1. Canon 5D Mark II Audio Exposed - Boom Mic (juicedLink, Zoom H4n, Microtrack II, BeachTek) on Vimeo

One thing that concerns me about the Beachtek is that everybody says the pots have to be cranked all the way up to get a level and anything less than that is too low. So in effect there's no adjustment other than moving your mic in closer. I've pretty much decided to go double system sound with this camera.

e
 

i have been looking at all the test and i see that the beachtek is not the way to go the juicedlink is looking better!

do they make a seprateaudio capture device that syncs with the cam?? other than a shotgun. like the zoom or do you have to push record on them separately?

the 7D has auto gain so that won't work with the juicedlink, unless ML can do a firmware for the 7D then you can use it, so if you want to use the camera to record clean audio, use the Beachtek because it will defeat the auto gain with the constant 20khz tone.

As I understand it, the Beachtek defeats gain by adding a tone feed to input. This tone feed reduces the gain, and essentially freezes the gain. Before ML, I used my Juice Link to fee tone through one channel, using an MP3 player, and a tone file I had generated using a tone generating feature on the free program Audacity. I assume it will do the same here. You definitely want to go with the Juiced Link because it has a great little preamp to boost your mic signals before it gets to camera.

edit: here is link to that thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-eo...oblem-agc.html

I think that lens is a good deal, supposedly it only adds $200 to the price but if you buy it separately it will cost you $500.

I bought the body only, but had a kit lens from another Canon. I'll probably get a Tamron 70-200mm 2.8.

FYI guys:

I got my 7D a few days ago & popped in my Extreme III 8 GB flash card. The video came out jerky. I had already ordered a 8GB Extreme IV card & got it 2 days later. Lesson = for video, Extreme III is not fast enough.

Hope this helps!

CF Card
 

i put in my 16gb kingston 133x and it worked great shot some interviews today and played them back and all was well.

I am glad you are getting good results with your card. I looked on B & H photo reviews & it is either they love it or hate it. I noticed a number of people had issues with failure & it going in sleep mode etc. Lets hope you don't ever have these issues.

card
 

i have used this card for a year in my sony MRC1k and it has always worked great never had a problem

can't wait to get mine. Selling my Sony gear (sony a700|sony 70-200 G) as I speak.

Just got my 7D 18-135 kit in. Lens looks good; I have to agree on the zoom being a little sticky. I was very pleased with the kit coming with extra battery, UV filter, and hood. Definitely like the wide 18. I shot a little with an old Pentax 50mm/2.0 and DOF is incredible. I was able to totally blur out an object 8 inches behind the primary subject which was crystal clear @f2.0 then make both acceptably clear at f22. I have a Takumar 50mm f1.4 in the works, I'm building a UV irradiation fixture to recondition the rear glass that has yellowed. The Takumar lenses are absolutely fantastic (I also have the 135mm f3.5 also - which is phenomenal).

I purchased 2 Kingston 32GB 133X CF cards and ran one for the full 12 minutes on 1080 30P without a hitch. Gave the other a long, but shorter run without a hitch. I think I paid $79 each, so I can wait an extra 1.5 minutes for download on a full card for that price. I'll probably buy two more after I give the first two a workout. The full 12 minutes measured just over 4 GB, so we're around 0.35GB/min in 1080-30P. Haven't tried 24P or 60P yet. Mounted up the Tokina 11-16, and it's plenty wide and crisp and only enough zoom to help fine tune composition or "breathe zoom" during a shot. I found that the 5D Zeikos battery grip does not fit the 7D, so don't try. Nice quality device. I will buy one again for 7D if they offer it. Working on simple way to mount Hoodman that will work with a battery grip, otherwise I would have bought the IDS set-up.

My first shots around the house in darkness in full auto weren't very inspiring, lots of artifacting at ISO 6400! Yeah, I had to hit the record button at least once before going to bed! I haven't even begun the journey into "DSLR Land" to learn how to set this thing up properly. I can see it will be a learning curve in similar magnitude from stepping up from a handycam to my XHA1.

Hey Kirk, I'd be interested in getting your thoughts on how well this camera works in a hunting environment, especially with regards to focusing, length of zoom (as I understand, you're solely using the 135?). Do you anticipate that a 200mm will give you enough length for most situations (I have a 70-200/4) for my 20D, and do you think IS is imperative for longer focal lengths, especially hand held (unfortuantely, my 70-200 is non IS).

I'd love to see some sample footage if you have any!

Michael

Well, I couldn't wait! After searching around all week and not finding anybody that had the camera in stock, I made one last ditch effort and called Competitive Camera in Dallas again (they said yesterday they had a few in stock, but all were spoken for). Today they said they'd sell one to me, so I got them to hold it for me and made the 120 mile drive to pick it up!

I had to leave immediately when I got home to take my wife to a banquet, so I didn't get a chance to field test anything yet, but I'll try to get some footage (hopefully of deer!) in the morning before church.

BTW, I have the Extreme III 8G seems to be working fine for the few indoor clips I've taken so far, but I've only recorded very short clips.

Man, I'm excited to have this thing in my hands!

Michael

Jerky video
 

I have a Sandisk 8Gb Extreme UDMA 60Mbps (says so right on the label) and my video is still coming out jerky. I have AutoISO, I locked the exposure switch, Auto Lighting Optomizer is off, WB is set to outdoors, AF Quick mode, 1920x1080 30p in manual mode with shutter set on 1/60 and F14.

Any ideas would be much welcome as at the moment, I'm quite frustrated. The sticking is periodic and it acts like about every 15th frame repeats or stick. About 2/second.

Update: I will admit, this is my first time working in HD, been shooting all SD up until now. Part of the issue I believe was I had AF and IS turned on. Turned them off and footage looks ok. Funny that Quicktime still won't play it without jerks. I load it into AE, to a RAM render and it plays fine. I'm guessing the raw data rate off the drive is too much for my MBP so it is getting buffered.

hunting
 

mike

no hunting footage yet i have shot a bunch with it and you wouldnt want to shoot the 200 is or non hand held. wiggles too much i am looking at a sigma 70-200 2.8 that will be a great lens for low light hunting situations.. as for now i am in front of the camera for the season and i will not get much time with it to film hunts i need to get shows done and my camera man cant figure out the 7D!!!

Low light performance
 

My 7D finally arrived yesterday. I'm using it as a second camera, along with a Canon XL-H1A, for wildlife film-making. I tried the camera out at night last night, using the ISO expansion setting and a 100-400 f4.0-5.6 IS lens. My intention was to film barn owls. Unfortunately the target owl didn't co-operate but I was impressed with the camera and its low light performance. At ISO 12800 images are noisy, and at 6400 are noisy but quite useable; using the lens at a relatively slow f4.0, objects illuminated by a small torch or in the periphery of the headlamp beam were captured well.

I found the controls straightforward to use in a dark environment; the movie mode switch and record start/stop button are in sensible positions and easily found by feel. It was also straightforward to adjust the shutter speed and aperture in the dark.

If I have better luck tonight with the barn owls I will post an example on the sample clips gallery.

Neil

Somebody above mentioned the Extreme III card caused jerkiness...be careful in that there are two different Sandisk Extreme III cards. One is Extreme III, the other is Extreme III 30MBs. If the card does not have the 30 on the front, then it is not a UDMA card and should be avoided. I have two of the 30MBs cards and they're great.