Lights in sporting events produce images that seem to be a bit lacking in DR, as I have seen. It doesn't matter if I shoot basketball and hockey with a 5D, 5D2, 7D or 1D4, they all have the same feel. Hockey is this way especially with the ice and lights above all creating a cold haze. It also has to do with post processing and lack of proper WB. ISO 12800, since it is an extended ISO, will also show how DR decreases. I have a great sequence shot with the 1D4 from 6400 to 25600, and you can watch the DR drop with each stop of ISO.
surf monkey wrote:
...Does anyone know of a way to restrict the ISO in the auto ISO setting?
I haven't found a Custom Function or anything like that.
I know that if I put a Speedlite on the camera Auto ISO will lock in ISO 400 for direct flash or give an Auto ISO range of 400 to 1600 when the Speedlite is set for bounce flash.
I'm still experimenting with Auto ISO; I don't know yet if I'll leave it enabled or not.
TeamSpeed wrote:
Lights in sporting events produce images that seem to be a bit lacking in DR, as I have seen. It doesn't matter if I shoot basketball and hockey with a 5D, 5D2, 7D or 1D4, they all have the same feel. Hockey is this way especially with the ice and lights above all creating a cold haze. It also has to do with post processing and lack of proper WB. ISO 12800, since it is an extended ISO, will also show how DR decreases. I have a great sequence shot with the 1D4 from 6400 to 25600, and you can watch the DR drop with each stop of ISO....Show more →
Yes, with high ISO shooting it's all about the lighting and indoor sports lighting is notoriously bad, making the images look flat and lifeless. But I do think that the lower the ISO the better the image, so I'm pretty sure that the high ISO superstars such as the Canon 1D4 and the Nikon D3S are better in this regard than others. I also think that, even though it's not as good as the best DSLRs, the 7D can produce good shots at high ISO.
BrianO wrote:
I haven't found a Custom Function or anything like that.
I know that if I put a Speedlite on the camera Auto ISO will lock in ISO 400 for direct flash or give an Auto ISO range of 400 to 1600 when the Speedlite is set for bounce flash.
I'm still experimenting with Auto ISO; I don't know yet if I'll leave it enabled or not.
It would be nice if there was a way to "bias" the ISO vs shutter speed/aperture to your personal preference. A setting that works like the exposure compensation, where you could go +1 toward lower ISO and slower shutter speed or -1 toward higher ISO and faster shutter speed.
I have added my 1D4 actions to the same set, and I have sold this to others. If you are curious, please visit my smugmug page that gives some of the details.
artsupreme wrote:
Different people have different standards and each will have to try the camera to see if it's acceptable to them or not. It all depends on how much PP one feels is acceptable to clean up the noise. Some people like clean images straight out of the camera and those are the ones who will not like the 7D. Others prefer to accept the noisy output and do more PP/NR than you would with other bodies, this is the camp who will be posting their 7D images.
See, that's exactly the uninformed, biased drivel that makes sensible discussion of the 7D impossible.
The 7D does not have "noisy" output: it's noise characteristics are different to (say) the 5D Mk II, but it is not noisy at the image level. In fact, as I've pointed out before, my 7D can give a D700 a run for its money at the image level, and it captures way more detail in the process.
Detail is not noise.
And 7D files take no more PP or NR than other cameras, unless you honestly consider that - maybe - clicking an NR slider along another notch is "more processing".
Where the 7D does have a weakness - if you want to call it that - over other cameras is that its noise shows the effects of sharpening more readily: but that still doesn't mean it's noisy, just that some intelligence is needed in the approach to sharpening.
I selectively sharpen after conversion - it's quick, and easy to do. And if that's too much effort, then the problem isn't a noisy camera, it's a bone-idle photographer.
khwaja wrote:
The maximum for auto iso can be set from the menu on my 550D, it better be there on a 7D
The 550D is newer than the 7D and must implement some features that the 7D does not. In this regard the 550D is superior.
Looking back at some of my wife's photos from yesterday, it looks like the 7D tries to match focal length to shutter speed in auto ISO and Av. Which makes sense, so I guess the camera is smarter than me.
I guess I'm in the minimal processing camp. I shoot a lot of sports, I have to sort through hundreds of images per game to whittle down to the 50-60 keepers I usually post (I do this for my kids' teams, not for profit).
I shoot my 7D almost all jpg, with NR set at Standard and Neutral picture style. Once I sort out the keepers, I run them all through Neat Image as a batch. I set it to Auto Profile each image, but otherwise leave NI at its default settings. Then in CS5 it's curves, shadow/highlight tool, bump the saturation, and then Smart Sharpen with settings of 250 and a radius of 0.8. (Incidentally, I thought the comment that sharpening attenuates the 7D noise more than other cameras interesting. I find this less of a problem with my 7D than the 40D I used previously).
I've tried to get more sophisticated with my processing. I've tried shutting off in-camera NR and just using NI. I've tried processing jpg's through ACR to use CS5's NR, and I've tried shooting RAW and convert with ACR and CS5 NR. But I can't seem to get better images than I'm getting shooting jpg with in-camera NR.
So here are a few examples from this season. All shot with my 7D and 70-200MkII:
One thing my own experience tells me is that my use of a 7D is only one element that determines how good or bad my own high ISO shots are, many other factors come into play too. Post processing ability is certainly important, especially on images that are pushing the cameras capabilities. This is true for any camera of course, not just the 7D.
I'm the one eating fries. 
