leonard.scotto

Any thoughts on the new Canon R7, the APSC camera for wildlife photography? Has anyone one bought one yet and if so what is your opinion?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The EOS R7 release date is June 23rd, 2022. Other than online reviews with prerelease copies, no one has one in-hand, and probably won't for weeks from now.

r1ch Loc: Colorado

Only reviewers have had hands on the production unit of the R7 in Florida, they got to shoot wildlife, birds, sports.
DpReview https://youtu.be/RKFcEfrOiI8
Jared Polin https://youtu.be/G7Vw3bcMlxw
David and Evelin https://youtu.be/teRhkFKW0Bs

The rest of the world
Alex in the UK https://youtu.be/RlpesxYay4s
Jan in the Outback https://youtu.be/BDh_I9ibBh4
Pangolin Wildlife photography https://youtu.be/NcZQYsRWNlI

Dwebb Loc: Ms

R7’s are actually available in some camera stores. Ordered mine yesterday afternoon. Will be shipped this morning, and arrive Saturday .

r1ch Loc: Colorado

You will have to tell us what you think but the reviews are good with only complaints for specific use cases. I guess the biggest complaint is the buffer size, high FPS fill it up in a second or 2 depending on image settings.

Dwebb Loc: Ms

I’ll be glad to review it for you.

ncribble Loc: Albuquerque, NM

Just now, while reading the UHH and email came from B&H that my R7 has been shipped, for arrival on Monday.

stevefrankel

Same thing. My Canon R7 with 18-150mm lens is due to be delivered to my home in Los Angeles by FedEx on Monday.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

By all indications, it will be a very nice camera for wildlife and sports photography in particular.

The electronic viewfinder will be helpful in low light conditions, while the camera will be able to focus and shoot in much lower light than the typical DSLR.

Speaking of autofocus, supposedly the R7's (and R10's!) is largely inherited from the $5999 R3... which is pretty amazing to find in a $1499 camera (or a $979 R10). The only obvious thing missing is that the R7 (and R10) doesn't have the "Eye Control" found in the R3. That probably won't matter to a lot of people. (I never could get Eye Control to work well for me in my EOS-3s and Elan 7E. After a few months trying it, I turned it off and never used it again. BUT, some people really like it and find it useful. So, I'm glad to see Canon experimenting with it again in the R3. It probably works better with the much more powerful processors in today's cameras.)

Supposedly the R3, R7 and R10 add a few AF features not found in the R6 and R5, though those slightly earlier models do have similarly advanced AF capabilities.

I hear the R7 has a "pre-shot" feature, where you can have it capture an image or two before you press the shutter release, which may be quite handy for fast action if you miss the start slightly.

The mechanical shutter can fire at 15 frames/sec. That's 1 fps faster than even the 1DX Mark III could do.

The electronic shutter can do even better, up to 30 frames/sec. However, we still need to see how well the camera avoids rolling shutter issues, since it doesn't use a BSI stacked sensor for extra fast readout (the way the R3 does).

The R7 has IBIS (like the R3, R5, R6). The R10 doesn't.

The R7 uses a 32.5MP sensor, which is the highest resolution APS-C sensor from anyone. This is said to be a new sensor, but the 90D and M6 Mark II both were also fitted with a 32.5MP sensor. Personally I think this is a bit of a double edged sword. The ultra high density sensor limits usable high ISO, I'm sure. (The R10 uses a bit more modest 24MP sensor.) There also is supposedly a bit more risk of camera "shake blur". Many 90D/M6II users report using slightly faster shutter speeds as a precaution. Shouldn't be a problem for people shooting sports and wildlife action, since they will usually be using a faster shutter speed anyway to freeze subject movement.

FYI, if Canon made a full frame sensor with the same density as the APS-C in the R7, the full frame sensor would be around 83 or 84MP. Of course, no one makes that high resolution sensor.... yet. Rumors are that Canon may put a pretty high resolution sensor in the R1, which is expected late this year or early next year. Right now the highest resolution FF is 61MP (Sony A7R IVA, primarily. There also is a 61MP Sigma camera, which probably uses the Sony sensor.)

I believe you use a full frame, 45MP Canon R5. You could set that to APS-C crop mode... or simply crop in post-processing (same results, either way). However, you will end up with under 20MP resolution. That's not bad at all, but it's not as good as either the 24MP R10 or the 32.5MP R7.

The advantage of using an APS-C camera for sports and wildlife is because those photo specialties tend to use a lot of powerful telephotos. With APS-C you can get away with smaller, lighter, less expensive lenses. For example, Canon offers a full frame capable RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM lens that weighs 1.5 lb. and is currently on sale for $600 (reg. $650). On an R7 that lens will "act like a 160-640mm" would on full frame. Of course you can get something similar for full frame cameras if you prefer. Sigma and Tamron both make 150-600mm lenses (none for Canon RF mount yet, but surely they will eventually). However, those sell for between $899 and $1999, are considerably bigger and weigh between 4 lb to 6 lb. Which would you rather hike up a mountain with or hand hold shooting a sporting event for hours on end?

But, of course, the opposite is true, too. Full frame is typically better for wide angle work. In fact, right now the widest affordable lens for Canon RF-mount is the $300 RF 16mm f/2.8 STM. On an R7 that will "act like" a rather modest 26mm lens would on full frame. There also is a Canon RF 14-35mm f/4L IS USM that on APS-C can "act like" it's as wide as 22.5mm on FF. But it costs $1649 on sale (reg. $1699). Eventually we will see more affordable ultra wide lenses. Canon's own RF lens "road map" shows a 10-24mm, for example. There are already some ultrawide manual focus/manual aperture 3rd party lenses available (TTArtisans 11mm, Venus Laowa 12mm).

stevefrankel

Thank you for a great review of the R7's features - it's the best I've ever seen. What about the 18-150mm zoom? What can you tell us about that; apart from the fact that it's rather slow?

josquin1 Loc: Massachusetts

You can get the adapter for EF to RF lens mount for $100.00 and then use the EF-S 10-18mm and get the equivalent of 16mm on the R7 or R10. It's an excellent lens and only costs about 279.00 on sale. It worked fabulously on my 80D.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

You know as much as me about that new lens. Just based on the size and focal length range, it sounds like a good "walk around" zoom. The variable f/3.5-6.3 aperture is only 1/3 stop slower than the EF 18-135mm's f/5.6 (at 135mm). The many of the "old school" DSLRs were "f.5.6 limited", meaning they were unable to autofocus a lens that was any less bright than that. But it's no problem for a mirrorless camera like the R7. The reason is that the DSLR would split up the light coming into it, sending some 70% to the viewfinder while some 30% passed through the semi-transparent mirror and was reflected by another mirror to the AF sensors in the base of the camera. Mirrorless cameras, on the other hand, have their AF sensors directly embedded in the image sensor... so there is no light lost by reflection or sharing with viewfinder. 100% of what comes through the lens reaches the AF sensors of a mirrorless. (This also eliminates the need to fine tune or "calibrate" lens to camera, as was sometimes needed with DSLRs.)

It sounds like the first R7's and lenses are shipping out to customers, so we should start hearing users' initial impressions in a week or less.



Good point!

There also is the excellent EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM... It's a little better built, faster and USM focus drive, but a bit bigger, a bit heavier and more expensive. And it uses a ridiculously large lens hood, which I didn't want to use, but after some test shots, made a point of using it. While the 10-22mm is very flare resistant (and one of the best ultrawides anyone has made to date), it can still flare under certain conditions and the hood helps. It also protects the lens from bumps, to some extent.

In fact, there are upwards of 130 million Canon EF and EF-S lenses out there in the world that can be adapted for use on the R-series cameras. Not to mention a lot of 3rd party lenses in EF mount (which may or may not adapt successfully).

In addition to the basic, $100 plain adapter, Canon also offers an adapter with a built-in control ring, another with a drop-in polarizing filter and a third with a crop-in variable ND filter. Those might be handy with certain lenses, such as the TS-E 17mm or EF 11-24mm, both of which have convex front elements that preclude using standard screw-in filters with them.

There are also now some 3rd party adapters coming available for a little lower price (or with added features). One or two companies are developing an adapter along with a whole line of drop-in filters. (Canon thought of it, now everyone is copying it!)

Tom70 Loc: NY

just heard tht Bergan Camera NJ has the in stock

J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

We are expecting R7 kits this week. With lens price is $1899

r1ch Loc: Colorado

I got this little lens for $150 craigslist. Use it on my R5 for when shooting motorcycles up close where rocks could damage this throw away lens. It is sharp and a great performer. I would recommend it for an R7. Works great on my R5 and it cuts the file size down to a manageable 17mb.