7D Mark ii and 100-400 Mark ii review: Day 9 Eagles Again

Saturday 1/17/15 was my last Eagle trip with the combination of the New Canon 7D mkii and the new Canon 100-400mm IS Mark ii.

Light was crappy all day.  I also was lucky enough to have a paid client that day, so I didn’t focus much my photography as much as making sure he knew his gear and his subject.  A few minor tweaks and he was off and having the time of his life photographing my Bald Eagles on the Mississippi River at Lock and Dam 14.

Anyway on with the review.  This will be my last write up before tomorrow big total review on which gear I will be keeping and if any gear is being returned.

Canon 7D Mark ii and Canon 100-400 Mark ii 

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Canon 1DX and 500mm f4 IS:

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I think this last image comparison speaks loudly.  Final write up later tonight or tomorrow!

I would also like to take a moment to thank all my new blog followers and supporters!  I think this blog had roughly 50 subscribers, and as the time of this post it is at 112!

THANK YOU!

Enjoy what you read and the photos? Subscribe to be notified of future posts via email by either clicking the Follow button at the bottom or the Subscribe section on the right!  Feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent

 

7D Mark ii and 100-400 mark ii review: ISO test

Once again all images straight out of the camera raw.  No post processing other than the labels.  I wanted the images to be the closer to same size without cropping to be a true comparison.  I moved the 7D2 back to shoot Harley Bear full frame, and moved tripod closer for the 1DX.  Everything shot in this test was with the new Canon 70-200mm IS Mark ii at 100mm.

f 1/160, focal length 100mm, ISO as labeled in photos

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I know the 1DX is good shooting to ISO 5,000 and I have shot at 6400 and it was still usable.  This script I wrote to slide back and forth doesn’t work well or at all on some mobile devices and didn’t want to load this post down with extra images.  So here is the rest of the 7D2 higher ISO, no comparisons, but wanted you to have the reference points since Scott Kelby pushed his to 16,000 I did too!

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Found some more birds this morning.  Eagles tomorrow, not sure I will go out Sunday.  Anything else you want to see or me to test before my final write up next week?

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Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent

7D Mark ii and 100-400 mark ii review: Sharpness results

I am a photographer.  I have never claimed to be a photographic lab rat.  No fancy equipment, just man and cameras.  I wanted to provide real life field testing results. People have been calling the new Canon 7D mark ii the junior Canon 1DX.  I had sold both my 7D’s when I bought my Canon 1DX last year.  I have been missing a backup body.  I have been torn between the 7D mark ii and the full body Canon 5D mark iii.  I ended up buying this combo from Best Buy for the 15 day return policy.  I knew I have 2 weeks to crank the combo through as many test and lighting conditions as I could.

So this review is a comparison of both the Canon 7D Mark ii and the Canon 1DX with different combination of lenses.  Here is the setup.  Could find any stationary wildlife so had to recreate.  It was freaking cold that day.  I set my tripod with my Gimbal head in my garage (wind break) and set Harley Bear 40 yards away across the street.  I struggled a bit with how to best show the results.  Here it is never before seen RAW unprocessed images right out of both camera.  Up until now I have never posted an raw image without my signature processing script.  I knew I couldn’t use any noise reduction or sharpening or it would be a processing test not a focus / sharpness test.  You can use the slider to see either or both images.  I plan to use this same image slider to show the high ISO test.

Shutter speed 1/160, f5.6, ISO 100, focal length noted on each photo.  I wanted to shoot at the lowest f stop showing worse case scenarios.  Every setup should look great at f11 🙂

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See how much free reach you get with the 1.6 crop factor? Another way to think about it is the 7D2 has a built in 1.6 Teleconverter.

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By putting the 1.4 Teleconverter on the 1DX it helps to make up for the 7D2 crop factor. 7d2 working length is 800mm and the 1DX + 1.4 TC is 700mm

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This is the test I was most interested in. Is the 7D2 “Good Enough” to hike in the woods and use as a backup to my primary camera combo the Canon 1DX + Canon 500mm f4 IS.  I was interested in total weight and ease of carrying.  The 100-400 is shorter and lighter than the Canon 70-200 mark ii.

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The new Canon 100-400 mark ii on both bodies

I was asked after I did this test to also shoot the Canon 7D mark ii with the 100-400 mark ii with the teleconverter.  I found this setup to be very shaky as I tried to track and shoot Eagles free hand.  This combo needs to be shot from the tripod, and if time allows I will do that test this weekend.

Canon 7D MKii + 100-400 IS Mark ii + 1.4 Teleconverter = 896mm working length

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Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent

7D Mark ii and 100-400 mark ii review Day 3: Six Pack on Ice

As promised here are “Six Pack on Ice”.  These were taken on Sunday 1/11/15.  Not over exposed, feel a little hot to me.  Might have had something to do with them standing on a large photo reflector in harsh mid day sun!

All shots in this post are from the Canon 7D mkii + Canon 100-400 mkii

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I had to work today, so as soon as I finish a little web work, heading down to my studio to put the 7D2 through some high ISO comparison.

Enjoy what you read and the photos? Subscribe to be notified of future posts via email by either clicking the Follow button at the bottom or the Subscribe section on the right!  Feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent

7D Mark ii and 100-400 mark ii review Day 3: More Eagles

Today I headed back to Lock and Dam 14 on the Mississippi River.  Today was my local photo club’s Eagle Outing.  I knew I was there mostly to guide and pay it forward.  There was a total of 23 Photographers from our We Click Photo Club.  The club even rented a pair of 15-600’s for the people to share.  I believe a good time was had by most of them.

Snow was in the forecast, clouds and tougher lighting and warmer temps meant less eagle activity. However, I was pleasantly surprised that I took 681 photos and have 116 keepers.  That is a pretty good “keeper” rate.  Especially for only being the third day on the new combination in my hands.

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Study the eye in the eagle below, you can see her Nictitating eyelidKJ7D0868-FrameShop

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What do you think so far?

Enjoy what you read and the photos? Subscribe to be notified of future posts via email by either clicking the Follow button at the bottom or the Subscribe section on the right!  Feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent