So my 7DM2 has seen better days. The main dial on top has broken and other bits are loose or stiff or falling off: but nothing major I thought. I could just about manage to get by using the dial on the grip and the Q screen for a few months but as July is generally a birding lull I sent it off to Canon expecting them to do some minor repairs for between $100 and $200.
I still have my 7D Mark 1 so these photos and the last post were taken with that 11-year-old antique. For perched birds at 700mm, it’s still OK .
It was lousy for BIFs with the T/C attached but otherwise didn’t seem so bad. This Osprey on the way home was in better light and without the T/C.
When we got back Canon had been in touch. They want about $700 to fix the camera. The shutter count is so high apparently they want to replace the mirror and shutter as well as the other bits and pieces I had sent it in for. $700 to fix for a 6-year-old camera no longer in production? No way. Especially one as idiosyncratic as the 7DM2. We asked them how much it would be to just fix the top dial but they haven’t got back to me yet.
I’m not really in the position to buy a new camera for a while. The New Canon R bodies look very interesting but are way out of my price range at the moment. I guess the unrepaired 7DM2 will come back and I’ll use it until it dies but then what?
I think I’m going to be in same boat as you with the 7dII. The rubber on the main dial has come loose from the axle, so speed adjustments are pretty hit and miss. The mode dial is floating somewhere off the north coast of Cornwall. 2 slivers of metal also fell out when changing the lens a few years back, but that doesn’t seem to have had any adverse effects.
I have read it is possible to change out the entire top cover using replacements from ebay, I’ll probably do that when the rubber on the dial completely snaps.
Hi Brian. The other adjustment wheel works OK and the awkwardly-placed main dial on the grip works fine but is a bit inconvenient as I used to change ISO by using the adjustment wheel and main dial together at the same time: I’ve found I’m using Auto ISO a lot more now. The camera is still at Canon and they haven’t got back to me after I asked them about the cost of just fixing the top right-hand cover.
I wouldn’t dare try and fix it myself though: I’d completely break it…………….
I guess Canon might have a point about the high shutter count, and wanting to fix your camera to last a few more years – perhaps until its time we all switched to mirrorless. Interesting that for 700$ seems like in the UK plenty of s/h 7D MkII bodies available for that kind of money (and with low shutter counts) but some element of risk buying privately, of course.
Well it still works, just about. Dunno about getting another of the same model though: for about the same cost of repairing the 7DM2 I could get a secondhand 1Dm4 or for a bit more a secondhand 1DX.