<p>I'm afraid I'm also in the same boat as David and Steve. I had the 7D for two weeks and as much as there were many things I loved about the camera, I could not find a way to conquer the focus issues and returned the camera (thank God for Jessops here in the UK who happily refunded me without question). I had moved to the 7D from a Nikon D80 which, although returning tack sharp images in almost all shots, was frustrating me in low light situations by not acheiving focus lock and essentially locking up. <br>
I foolishly assumed I could buy my way out of the problem with a faster/newer/more accomplished camera with advanced AF and better glass, and it was the purchase of Canon's 17-55 2.8USM that brought me to the 7D in he first place. Alas, after over 1,500 shots, reading and re-reading the manual late into the night, focus tests alongside the D80, hours trawling the forums, I came to the conclusion either I had one of the bodies with 'focus' issues or that the camera claimed focus when in fact it had not acheived it. For me at least, less than 10% were keepers.<br>
I was/am very disappointed. I really wanted to love the camera - everything I had read in reviews for the camera was so positive and the glass has almost no detractors over hundreds of user and professional reviews. I'm sure most will assume that it must be user error, but I really consider I did all I could do to understand the camera to discover what I could do to rectify the situation, including taking over 500 shots employing all its different AF configurations. Sometimes it was spot on, at others just plain soft for the exact same shot. Manual focus was fine, BTW. There was also an annoying issue with the 'busy' message coming up for between 2-20 seconds every now and again and locking the camera. I use UDMA Extreme Sandisk (60 Mb/s) cards.<br>
What a frustrating fortnight. Having spent out >£2,200 on body and glass I was willing to expend whatever time I had to to qualify my purchase but this was just too hard and I wasn't about to start returning the camera to Canon for checking. I'm not a pro by any standard but I take a lot of pictures (the D80 has racked up over 60k in 2 years), so I'm not a complete novice. Lucky people who got good ones, I think it must be a great camera but for me I came away just feeling let down. I didn't really explore the video at all (for me it was nice add on but not my primary reason for getting the camera).</p>
7D AF issues - how real are they?
in Canon EOS Mount
Posted
<p>I'm afraid I'm also in the same boat as David and Steve. I had the 7D for two weeks and as much as there were many things I loved about the camera, I could not find a way to conquer the focus issues and returned the camera (thank God for Jessops here in the UK who happily refunded me without question). I had moved to the 7D from a Nikon D80 which, although returning tack sharp images in almost all shots, was frustrating me in low light situations by not acheiving focus lock and essentially locking up. <br>
I foolishly assumed I could buy my way out of the problem with a faster/newer/more accomplished camera with advanced AF and better glass, and it was the purchase of Canon's 17-55 2.8USM that brought me to the 7D in he first place. Alas, after over 1,500 shots, reading and re-reading the manual late into the night, focus tests alongside the D80, hours trawling the forums, I came to the conclusion either I had one of the bodies with 'focus' issues or that the camera claimed focus when in fact it had not acheived it. For me at least, less than 10% were keepers.<br>
I was/am very disappointed. I really wanted to love the camera - everything I had read in reviews for the camera was so positive and the glass has almost no detractors over hundreds of user and professional reviews. I'm sure most will assume that it must be user error, but I really consider I did all I could do to understand the camera to discover what I could do to rectify the situation, including taking over 500 shots employing all its different AF configurations. Sometimes it was spot on, at others just plain soft for the exact same shot. Manual focus was fine, BTW. There was also an annoying issue with the 'busy' message coming up for between 2-20 seconds every now and again and locking the camera. I use UDMA Extreme Sandisk (60 Mb/s) cards.<br>
What a frustrating fortnight. Having spent out >£2,200 on body and glass I was willing to expend whatever time I had to to qualify my purchase but this was just too hard and I wasn't about to start returning the camera to Canon for checking. I'm not a pro by any standard but I take a lot of pictures (the D80 has racked up over 60k in 2 years), so I'm not a complete novice. Lucky people who got good ones, I think it must be a great camera but for me I came away just feeling let down. I didn't really explore the video at all (for me it was nice add on but not my primary reason for getting the camera).</p>