New 7D Firmware vers_2 announced

[Mark Dobson]

Well at last! - Audio control for the 7D together with other significant firmware improvements.

Note from Admin: Official as of Jun. 27th. See link below.

New Firmware Enhances Functionality of Canon EOS 7D at DVInfo.net

[Andy Wilkinson]

Nice. Pity there was no mention of lifting the 12 min (approx.) file length for video. I'll take what I can get so let's hope this gets confirmed and becomes available soon.

[Lee Mullen]

Is magic lantern available for the 7D?

[Daniel Epstein]

Magic Lantern hasn't been available for the 7D in the past. Haven't seen the news which say it is despite some google searches for this post.

[Andy Young]

Does anyone have any idea when this might actually be released? I did some searching, but there's not much to go on.

[Chris Medico]

Canon is really good at keeping those things quiet till they decide to let everyone know.

Don't expect to hear much real into till just before it is released.

[Jon Fairhurst]

I think this points to a new strategy for Canon - and shows that a 7D2 is probably not right around the corner.

Note that the 5D3 has eliminated moire and is manual focus only. The T4i still has moire, but adds autofocus in Movie mode and has a touchscreen.

I'm thinking that Canon sees the 7D and 5D lines as professional video DSLRs, while the lower cost models are consumer video DSLRs. With that strategy in mind - and knowing that the 7D2 will take a while - we get the 7D firmware update to at least put the 7D on equal footing with the less expensive cams.

If the 7D2 (whenever it arrives) is moire-free and the less expensive models continue to alias, it would confirm the multi-tier strategy.

It always struck me wrong that the cheaper cameras could do manual audio while the 1D4 and 7D couldn't. Looks like that will be remedied soon.

If my theory holds true, we might start to see more pro features like zebras on the 7D and 5D lines while the less expensive cams will get more and more auto features and simplification. It makes sense to me anyway!

[Marty Hudzik]

Assuming we get manual audio controls on the 7D, how do we go about monitoring what it is recording without a headphone jack? Or am I missing something. I've had my 7d for 2 years and always use a Zoom H4n for audio but would consider the onboard recorder sometimes if I could monitor the audio.

[Lee Mullen]

70D around the corner?

[Andy Young]

Originally Posted by Marty Hudzik

Assuming we get manual audio controls on the 7D, how do we go about monitoring what it is recording without a headphone jack? Or am I missing something. I've had my 7d for 2 years and always use a Zoom H4n for audio but would consider the onboard recorder sometimes if I could monitor the audio.

I've had good luck with using a simple headphone splitter out of the H4N. One jack is used for headphones and the other is for running to the camera. You are still using the Zoom for your audio interface, but you wouldn't necessarily have to record anything on the Zoom. You would just be relying on the manually set audio in the camera.

[Marty Hudzik]

Originally Posted by Andy Young

I've had good luck with using a simple headphone splitter out of the H4N. One jack is used for headphones and the other is for running to the camera. You are still using the Zoom for your audio interface, but you wouldn't necessarily have to record anything on the Zoom. You would just be relying on the manually set audio in the camera.

The only issue I have had with things like this in the past is that sometimes a weird low level hum or buzz gets introduced in the line and it is not visible on the meters. If I cannot actually hear what it being recorded to the 7d, it would be hard to feel confident that the audio is usable, other than as a sync track.

[Ron Little]

Hopefully, they will add an on screen audio meter.

[Jerry Porter]

Taging for updates when it happens

[Marty Hudzik]

Originally Posted by Ron Little

Hopefully, they will add an on screen audio meter.

I guess I was assuming that meters would be added. It's nice to have the ability to change levels but with no headphone jack and no meters wouldn't it be practically useless?

[Bruce S. Yarock]

What about the option to shoot in 25p ( pal) is there a firmware update for that yet?
Bruce Yarock
Yarock Productions