I am pretty sure it is a 'feature' of the 7D model.
Atsi I haven't found it limiting in any real way while shooting, but I am glad you started a discussion on it...I can't remember where but I know when researching the camera when it was announced I did see something about the new metering system which had the potential to reduce frame rate given certain circumstances.
In terms of performances in real world conditions I feel the 7D delivers way more than my 1d2 every did. I know when shooting AI Servo I never really achieved 8.5 fps on my 1d2 given the shooting conditions I'm usually shooting in. To me the 7D performs as well or better...however, I do want to find out more about the technological reason behind the 7d's slowing of frame rate.
I hope someone with more knowledge can chime in...Robbie
PS - all 7D owners...go out and shoot! lol...couldn't resist
Mine does it. With the lens cap on, it slows down to about half speed. (guessing), take the cap off and it fires away normally. Must be some reason for it. shrug....
atsi wrote:
If it is the metering system, why is it active or doing anything that would slow the camera down in full manual mode? It's crazy.
I will extend your hazard guess and say it is due to teh metering system. Even in full manual the metering system still runs to show you your current exposure against what the camera thinks is best - I mean, in the viewfinder you can see the little arrow moving around depending on the amount of light available. This is probably why it is slowing down so theorteically it should be possible to get around the limitation if you could somehow turn off the metering system altogether in manual mode...
Sounds like they are doing noise reduction even when it's switched off. Or at low EV they are taking longer to flush the light wells on the sensor or something to maximise the amount of light for the on chip reduction to work (I understand that is how a CMOS works).
I can confirm that locking exposure in AV mode in good light to get a fast shutter works in stopping the metering from slowing down the camera when moved to low light. So it seems to be confirmed that it IS the metering that causes this and it IS possible for the metering to be shut down when necessary. So why has Canon left it running in manual mode when shooting high speed? It is not necessary and causes performance problems.
I have called Canon Canada and left feedback on this issue. Hopefully more people do the same and call Canon to complain about this artificial limitation and we might see it fixed in a firmware update.
It seems very silly to make a camera capable of shooting very high ISO for low light conditions and then make it not perform as well in these circumstances.
I thought that i was a little nuts the first time shooting with my 7D last friday night. something about it did not feel right when i shot for the first time in the H continuous burst mode. I expected it to be fast, really fast. it was at a night football game on the sidelines. i had not turned on my flash yet either. the weekend before, i used a 50D that was so lightening fast for me coming from a 5D. for reasons i won't go into, i decided that i did not like the 50D's AF and got the 7D. The 50D was so fast, and i was not used to it firing off so quickly that i took more pics that night than i ever thought i would. alot of them were shots in sequence that i don't need of just regular plays. the point is that the camera was so much faster than anything i've ever shot with and had no experience in using one with such a fast frame rate. I was going to try to be more careful with the 7D because it was supposed to be faster. there was clearly a difference.
You know, the camera still meters when set to manual exposure mode. Otherwise it doesn't know where to put the exposure "needle" on the over/under scale. Could be that when the light is low it has to work harder to figure out proper exposure.
But if you are firing off frames at 8 fps the meter doesn't display. What is the point? The metering should be disabled in manual mode when flash is not used when the shutter button is depressed. It has no use.
