There's something really going wrong here. 7D

[Paulstw]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

That's funny, I've seen Arthur Morris use this on his camera. I know what you mean though. I tend to have both eyes open to lock on then follow in view finder. My old way was to follow wide angle, then just crop the image. IQ suffered because of this method dearly.

[antoeknee]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

Yep both eyes open is best way though does take a bit of practice. Was the only way to stand chance of flight shot back in the days of film with no real burst sequence.

[Paulstw]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

It was a very success way with the 70-200 but now that I'm closer the angles are different. It'll take time but I'm patient.

[the black fox]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

first off although that sounds a good idea ,there's no way of ensuring a focus lock like that ,especially with the 1D3 you MUST achieve focus lock before firing the machine gun shutter .paul i have a manfrotto 393 tripod head and the elongated fixing plate it always attached to my lens it gives a nice grip for my big mutt hands ,another way would be to turn the mount upside down so your using the lens barrel to grip on .
but one thing you will notice straight away is the the 1d viewfinder is larger and brighter anyway ,and as soon as you get on the bird and touch the shutter or back button it locks on instantly no hunting around like the 7d ,prepare to be amazed .
getting used to b.i.f is easy to do to a few slices of bread and a open green is all thats needed ,there are always gulls on patrol somewhere

the other thing to realise is that you will now have slightly less focal length and although this sounds like a disadvantage in fact its not. to me it seems ideal ,and as i have hopefully shown above the better i/q overcomes that ,and then some .

[Paulstw]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

Sounds cool Jeff. Nice gimball type head you have. I did miss something like this the other day. I just have the 3 way tilt head on the SliK Pro DX 700 so it's somewhat restrictive. I ended up just loosening all the knobs and it worked out ok for a bit.

I'm a simple wee soul. If I get a kingfisher in flight without cropping this year then It's all been worth it. That's my goal. Other things too but Kingys are my thing lol

[the black fox]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

i rarely use it paul much prefer hand holding and mobility

[AndyMulhearn]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

Lol after banging their heads off trees for so long it was bound to happen Colin

Well the 7D is now sold, someone bought it on Ebay last night. One word on the AF issues though. Jeff (The Black Fox) said to change a couple of things in the settings, so I did, went back out and BOOM keeper rate increased. I still say the lens needed calibrated to the body though, but there was a massive difference. Bit too late now as it was on Ebay and now sold but hopefully it's replacement will be a new start :)

Could one of you share the tip? My keeper rate could always do with improving...

[Paulstw]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

All I did with advice from Jeff was to switch Af tracking sensitivity to fast. I don't know if it has something to do with your subject, but mine jumped about a bit so it made sense to me.

[the black fox]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

it came from a online write up for the 1dmkiii i tried it and it increased the keeper rate and sharpness of focus to ,so i suggested trying it to paul in case his 7d didn't sell ,everything i have ever read on the 7d suggests a slow AI servo speed tracking speed /sensitivity ,so this goes against all previous advice ,but again if every one follows that advice its only one persons idea from the early days of the 7d and not gospel .
anyway go to your functions menu and into autofocus adj. and i think its the second one down ,simply change it to fast instead of slow ,right the way over .

[Riggers]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

All I did with advice from Jeff was to switch Af tracking sensitivity to fast. I don't know if it has something to do with your subject, but mine jumped about a bit so it made sense to me.

Well mine still hasn't sold so I will try that. I was also thinking of trying spot AF for perched birds etc instead of single point AF.

Are there any other suggested setting changes?

With regards to MFA I know this sounds like a bit of a bodge but if I'm going to need 20 meters distance for a focal length of 420mm, which obviously means setting up a tripod outside, I wondered if it might work if I focused on the lettering of a street sign or maybe a number plate at about 25 degrees angle focussing on a centre letter and manually adjusting the MFA based on those results. Do you reckon that would work or should I be using a much smaller target? I was hoping to set up on something already out there rather than have to stick my own target on a wall somewhere in public.

[the black fox]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

the way i was told to do it and apparently the way they it at sigma is to go into the street and look for a car in a drive ,or car park so that your looking along the number plate obliquely .choose what you consider to be a normal working distance ,lock your camera down and focus on the centre number or letter ,take a couple of test shots and see if its focussing behind or in front of the target letter .do this until the target (Middle letter is in focus) .

this is a rather crude method but i was assured by one of the techies at sigma its how they do it .

always remember when you do micro-adjust the lens should be wide open ,on a tripod ,preferably with a shutter release .and don't forget when you have done it to save it to the camera

[AndyMulhearn]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

All I did with advice from Jeff was to switch Af tracking sensitivity to fast. I don't know if it has something to do with your subject, but mine jumped about a bit so it made sense to me.

it came from a online write up for the 1dmkiii i tried it and it increased the keeper rate and sharpness of focus to ,so i suggested trying it to paul in case his 7d didn't sell ,everything i have ever read on the 7d suggests a slow AI servo speed tracking speed /sensitivity ,so this goes against all previous advice ,but again if every one follows that advice its only one persons idea from the early days of the 7d and not gospel .
anyway go to your functions menu and into autofocus adj. and i think its the second one down ,simply change it to fast instead of slow ,right the way over .

Thanks, I'll give it a go. Up until now I've had it set halfway to slow but it can't hurt to try the alternative. I think the logic is that if you lose the target from the point of focus the camera is slow to change to what's behind, or what moves in front if that's the case. But with a fast moving target, perhaps the faster sensitivity setting is one to match what we're doing better.

[AndyMulhearn]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

always remember when you do micro-adjust the lens should be wide open ,on a tripod ,preferably with a shutter release .and don't forget when you have done it to save it to the camera

That lets me out. My 120-400 is so soft wide open that I'd hard pressed to read the sign never mind tell what part of it was in focus :-)

[Riggers]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

the way i was told to do it and apparently the way they it at sigma is to go into the street and look for a car in a drive ,or car park so that your looking along the number plate obliquely .choose what you consider to be a normal working distance ,lock your camera down and focus on the centre number or letter ,take a couple of test shots and see if its focussing behind or in front of the target letter .do this until the target (Middle letter is in focus) .

this is a rather crude method but i was assured by one of the techies at sigma its how they do it .

always remember when you do micro-adjust the lens should be wide open ,on a tripod ,preferably with a shutter release .and don't forget when you have done it to save it to the camera

Thanks I'll give that a try.

[Riggers]

Re: There's something really going wrong here. 7D

Thanks, I'll give it a go. Up until now I've had it set halfway to slow but it can't hurt to try the alternative. I think the logic is that if you lose the target from the point of focus the camera is slow to change to what's behind, or what moves in front if that's the case. But with a fast moving target, perhaps the faster sensitivity setting is one to match what we're doing better.

I've also been using the slow setting. When it comes to little birds perched what worries me is if you focus down on the wrong area e.g. their feathers instead of the eye then I'm not sure the 7D will then focus on the eye without defocusing and trying again. Do you think I'm right about that? And if so would spot AF help here?