Canon EOS 7D Mark II For Dummies
Overview
Get great digital shots with your Canon EOS 7D Mark II
This full-color guide to the features and functions of the Canon EOS 7D Mark II makes it easy for first-time users to get the most out of the camera and capture cool, professional-level photos. Packed with examples on how to create eye-popping digital photos, Canon EOS 7D Mark II For Dummies gives you a plain-English tour of the camera's controls, shows how to manipulate focus and color, gives step-by-step instructions on how to shoot better low-light and action shots, and so much more.
Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras offer full control over exposure settings while also providing pre-sets and auto mode options for beginners. If you're just picking up—or considering buying—a Canon EOS 7D Mark II camera, this fun and friendly guide takes the intimidation out of making sense of the bells and whistles so you can get right down to snapping stunning photos.
- Covers shooting in auto mode and using live view and playback modes
- Explains how to dial in exposure and use lighting controls
- Includes easy tips for printing, posting photos online, and other ways to share images
- Gives you ten photo editing tricks and pro functions
If you're an amateur photographer who wants better-than-entry-level gear, or a pro looking for a budget camera to add to your collection, Canon EOS 7D Mark II For Dummies has the information you need to get more bang for your buck out of this powerful camera.
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About The Author
Doug Sahlin operates a professional photography business specializing in event and portrait photography. He's shared his expertise on photo topics in Canon EOS 7D For Dummies and Canon EOS 6D For Dummies.
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canon eos 7d mark ii for dummies
CHEAT SHEET
Your Canon EOS 7D has a stunning 20.2-megapixel capture, Live View, high-definition video, and much more. But all this technology can be a bit daunting, especially if this is your first real digital SLR (single-lens reflex). Discover how to get the most out of your camera’s shooting and metering modes, as well as how to assemble a makeshift tripod.
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Your Canon EOS 7D has a stunning 20.2-megapixel capture, Live View, high-definition video, and much more. But all this technology can be a bit daunting, especially if this is your first real digital SLR (single-lens reflex). Discover how to get the most out of your camera’s shooting and metering modes, as well as how to assemble a makeshift tripod.
You can choose how the Canon EOS 7D Mark II meters a scene to determine the exposure. Your camera’s metering device examines the scene and determines which shutter speed and f-stop combination will yield a properly exposed image. Your EOS 7D Mark II has the following metering modes:
Evaluative: This is the default mode for your camera.
When you grab your camera bag and go out for a photo shoot, always have your Canon EOS 7D Mark II at its default settings, a formatted memory card, and a battery that is capable of capturing a few hundred images. The best time to make sure your camera is ready for the next photo shoot is after you finish the previous one.
You can do some pretty amazing things with your Canon EOS 7D Mark II. You have lots of control over the digital camera to create awesome pictures. The following explains what each setting on the Mode dial is used for:
Scene Intelligent Auto (A+): The camera chooses the shutter speed and aperture needed to properly expose the image.
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Your Canon EOS 7D Mark II can capture images in very low-light conditions. However, at times, you absolutely can’t do without a tripod. But what do you do when you’ve left home without one? Here are some ways you can steady your camera without a tripod:
Switch to Live View mode and place the camera near the edge of a table.
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It’s important to have a reason for taking a photograph with your Canon EOS 7D Mark II. If the subject matter intrigues you, you’ll create a good image. If you force yourself to take pictures of things that are not of interest to you, your heart won’t be in it. You can create technically perfect images of anything, but if your heart is not in it, they won’t be images that move the soul, tell a story, or convey a message.
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When you record video with your EOS 7D Mark II, you record audio as well. You can change the record level, disable audio, and enable a wind filter and a sound attenuator. And you thought those little holes in the front of the camera were just a dinky microphone. To beef up the audio in your movies:
Flip the Live View/Movie Shooting switch to the left.
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Your Canon EOS 7D Mark II can capture high-definition video with dimensions of up to 1920 x 1080 pixels and a frame rate up to 60 fps. You can modify the video dimensions and frame rate to suit your intended destination. To change video dimensions and frame rate:Flip the Live View/Movie Shooting switch to the left.
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Camera LCD monitors have come a long way, baby. The monitor on your EOS 7D Mark II offers a brilliant display with lots of pixels; the better to see images with. However, at times, the monitor isn’t bright enough, for example, when the setting sun is shining brightly waiting for “Sister Moon” (thank you, Sting).
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When you photograph a scene or image on your Canon EOS 7D, your camera sensor captures the colors and subtle nuances of shadow and light to create a faithful rendition of the scene. At times, however, you want a different type of picture. For example, when you’re photographing a landscape, you want vivid blues and greens in the image.
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When you photograph a scene that’s illuminated with several different light sources, your Canon EOS 7D Mark II may have a hard time figuring out how to set the white balance. And if the camera has a hard time, chances are you can’t use one of the presets to accurately set the white balance. You can, however, set a custom white balance by following these steps:
Photograph a white object and then press the Menu button.
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When you review an image, you decide whether it’s a keeper. If while reviewing an image on your Canon EOS 7D Mark II, you don’t like the image for any reason, you can delete it. However, deleting images needs to be done with extreme caution because the task can’t be undone. After you delete an image from your card, it’s gone forever.
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Your Canon EOS 7D Mark II has lots of great features for any picture. There are lots of rules for composing photographs, and many of them can be broken. However, one useful rule says that when you’re photographing a person, she shouldn’t be in the center of the frame.
A photograph with your subject to the right or left of center is more interesting than one where she’s smack-dab in the center of the frame.
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When you shoot in Live View mode, you have three focusing options on your Canon EOS 7D Mark II. Two options are used for taking photographs of landscapes and objects, and the other focusing mode is used to detect faces. To specify the autofocus (AF) mode:
Press the Menu button.
Use the Quick Control button to navigate to the Shoot tab and then use the multi-controller button to navigate to the Shoot5 menu.
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By default, the images on your Canon EOS 7D Mark II are numbered continuously until 9999 and then the file number is reset to 0001. Your images are also stored in a single folder on your memory card. You can, however, create folders in which to store your images and then change the file-numbering method.
Creating folders
By default, your camera creates the 100EOS7D folder on your memory card where images are stored.
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Your Canon EOS 7 D Mark II has a built-in metering device that automatically determines the proper shutter speed and aperture to create a perfectly exposed image for most lighting scenarios. However, at times, you need to modify the exposure to suit the current lighting conditions. Modify camera exposure for individual shots, or hedge your bets and create several exposures of each shot.
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In addition to displaying information with your images on the EOS 7D, you can display multiple images on the Canon’s monitor, zoom in to study the image in greater detail, or zoom out. This flexibility makes it easier for you to select a single image from thumbnails, to study the image up close to make sure the camera focused properly, and to ensure that you have a blur‐free image.
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When you photograph a person, place, or thing, you’re freezing a moment in time with your Canon EOS 7D, a moment that may never happen again. Therefore, you need to be very careful when you delete images from a card because when deleted, an image is lost forever. That’s why you should do the majority of your winnowing (photographer-speak for separating the duds from the keepers) in an image-editing program.
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When you switch to Bulb mode on your Canon EOS 7D Mark II, the shutter stays open as long as you press the shutter button. If you’ve ever seen night pictures in which you can actually see trails from stars that follow the curvature of the earth, you’ve seen a photograph that was taken with the Bulb mode. The photographer left the shutter open for a long period of time, and the earth rotated while the photograph was taken.
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The fact that your Canon EOS 7D Mark II has two memory card slots gives you a tremendous amount of flexibility. You can use the second card as overflow when you fill up the first card with images, or you can store different image formats on each card. The latter is a wonderful option for professional and semi-professional photographers.
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Your EOS 7D Mark II has many options that determine the dimensions, image format, quality, and file size. You can choose from two image formats: JPEG and RAW. You have three different sizes for each the RAW image format and five different sizes for the JPEG image format. If you capture images with the JPEG format, you can also specify image quality.
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You can trigger the shutter remotely on your Canon EOS 7D Mark II using the RC-1 or RC-5 remote control, which is sold separately. You use the remote controllers in conjunction with the timer. This option is handy when you’re creating still-life photos. Instead of walking between the camera and your subject, you can make subtle changes to the composition and then trigger the camera remotely.
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If you like to photograph landscapes with your Canon EOS 7D, Aperture Priority mode is right up your alley. When you take pictures with Aperture Priority mode, you choose the desired f-stop and the camera supplies the proper shutter speed to achieve a properly exposed image.
A large aperture (small f-stop value) lets a lot of light into the camera, and a small aperture (large f-stop value) lets a small amount of light into the camera.
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Your Canon EOS 7D Mark II features a built-in flash unit, but it’s no ordinary built-in flash unit. This one has the power to command other Canon flash units that are compatible with your camera, which enables you to shed lots of light on your subject. However, when you shoot pictures using one of the auto modes, you don’t have access to those bells and whistles.
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When your goal is to accentuate an object’s motion, choose Shutter Priority mode on your Canon EOS 7D Mark II. When you take pictures in Shutter Priority mode, you choose the shutter speed and the camera supplies the proper f-stop value to properly expose the scene. Your camera has a shutter speed range from 30 seconds to 1/8000 of a second.
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If you capture images in JPEG mode on your Canon EOS 7DMark II, you can invoke a menu command that gives you better-looking images when you’re shooting in dark conditions. Instead of getting a shot with too much contrast, you end up with a brighter shot. This option may add digital noise to the image. Digital noise comes in two flavors:
Color: Shows up as specks of color.
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Even though your EOS 7D Mark II is a very capable camera, it can get it wrong when you’re shooting under difficult lighting conditions. That’s why your camera lets you display a histogram alongside the image on your camera’s LCD monitor.
A histogram is a wonderful thing: It’s a graph — well actually it looks more like a mountain — that shows the distribution of pixels from shadows to highlights.
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A good idea is to know what all the dials and buttons on your Canon EOS 7D Mark II do. However, at times in the heat of battle you need to make one or more changes quickly, such as when you want to change image size, enable the 10-second self-timer when shooting in Full Auto mode, or change multiple options quickly when shooting with one of the creative shooting modes.
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Your Canon EOS 7D has a built-in self-timer that you use whenever you want to delay the opening of the shutter. This option is useful when you want to take a self-portrait or you want to be in a picture with other people. The self-timer is also handy when you’re taking pictures on a tripod, especially when the shot requires a long exposure.
The genius of digital photography is the fact that you can take a picture with your digital camera and see it almost immediately on your camera’s LCD monitor. This, quite frankly, is also the curse of digital photography. The fact that photographers can get instant gratification and capture hundreds of images on a reusable memory card has a tendency to make them lazy and forget about the basics.
The Canon EOS 7D Mark II is an advanced camera — it is packed with features. Here are the top ten professional features you can use to capture compelling images:
The EOS 7D Mark II has a continuous drive capture rate of up to 10 frames per second. This enables you to capture sequences of athletes in action or your dog chasing a Frisbee.
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The new Canon EOS 7D Mark II has a plethora of custom functions. If you’re a veteran user of the camera’s predecessor, you may have scoured the custom functions looking for Long Exposure Noise Reduction, High ISO Noise Speed Reduction, and Image Highlight Tone Priority. Not to worry. They’ve just found a different home in the EOS 7D Mark II.
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