skibum5 Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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arbitrage wrote:
So since we've gotten back onto the AF point illumination issue I will again try to explain to everyone why Canon has this system and some suggestions for people to try for the time being until Canon can make some changes.
The system was introduced in the 7D back in 2009. The difference in this system compared to the system in the previous cameras is that in the older cameras the LED squares are permanently on the screen and therefore can light up individually and very brightly and can be seen in daylight and of course in darkness. The new system was designed to be able to show more things on the screen but to do this the entire screen is like an LCD that can draw characters (black boxes, grid lines, leveling thingy) onto the screen. However, in order to light this they had to do a side illumination from a red LED which is why the red light is diffuse and you notice a red glow across the whole screen.
If people had been this vocal about the system over the last 3 years then Canon may have reconsidered going this route for all their cameras. However, I have not read anything about people complaining with the 7D so I guess because more people were using the 7D outdoors for action and less for weddings and indoors stuff, people didn't have a problem with the new type of system.
With all that said I don't think anyone can realistically expect Canon to recall these cameras and refit some old type display and therefore have to reconfigure the entire firmware to remove the gridlines and the level gauge etc. What we could realistically expect is some tweeks to the firmware so that the points light at different times than they currently do now. I would propose to Canon (and I encourage all those who are having issues to write to Canon) that having the active point light up and stay lit during metering and focusing would be beneficial. That seems like it would solve most people's problems. Things that won't ever be fixed (and therefore considering a different camera has to be entertained if one of these are a major problem for you) are the red glow from the lens and the inability to see red in bright conditions (too much light entering the VF doesn't allow the red to be seen).
As for now, the best workaround are to make sure you have remapped the AF selection to the joystick. This is to easily move around the AF point and it will flash red each time it moves, also a single direct push resets the point to the center point or can be programmed to reset to any predetermined point instead. The other is to use the AF Selection button (the one next to the * button) to illuminate all the points. These two things plus the fact that it will flash once it focuses should get you through most shoots.
A lot of rammbling but hope it helps and I do hope Canon can at least give us the red light during metering or prefocusing in firmware. But anything else is a pipe dream....Show more →
I did mumble about the 7D VF a couple times but was called a pathetic Nikon troll and, in that case, gave up on it.
Anyway between leaving out manual exposure for video, not outlining the histogram for like half a decade, originally locking 'Auto'ISO at 400 in M mode, the mode where it perhaps made most sense to use, fiddling with the VF in this way, it does fit in with my feeling that Canon isn't a camera company anymore inthe sense that it is not run by camera users or lovers but by suits who have never used one in the life and have no real passion for actually using the products they make and that they have engineers who may be good engineers but also have perhaps never shot a camera in their life. They did finally answer to our calls to outline the histogram and after tons of pressure added manual video control, but the fact that cams could be released in such a state for so long I always though mind boggling.
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