Kcohen44

Hi All: Was concerned that Best Buy was advertising Canon R7's for delivery the weekend of July 16th and 17th as a come on for advance orders. Not so! On July 12th placed an order online for pickup on the 17th, received a text that it was available and obtained it on the 16th! This camera is very intimidating even for me as a 77D user. Have spent several hours on introductory videos. What is the purpose of 2 memory slots? Is there any instructional site to recommend set up for wildlife (primarily bird) photography? Think I will be learning this camera for many years.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Cameras with two slots record, possibly, RAW to one card and JPEG to the other. Or, they can record both to both. Or, they can write to 1 card until that card is full, and then 'fall-over' to the second card and continue happily. The second slot can be a back-up copy or a dynamic fall-over, depending on your unique usage needs.

Try utube for various usage / description videos. Although different cameras, if you can't find good / current EOS R7 videos, look at the R5 and R6 videos, as portions of the wild-life AF set-up will be common between all these advanced mirrorless models, especially the eye-tracking autofocus.

Most people need some time to get used to and to customize the EVF and the touch-screen settings to their own logical set-up needs.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Try any of these links. https://www.google.com/search?q=r7+settings+for+bird+photography&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS937US937&oq=R7+settings+for+bird&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j33i160l3j33i22i29i30.10891j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I got my R7 July 3rd and I just set it up the way my 7DII is set. Which settings I got from PhotographyLife and then adjusted things from there:
https://photographylife.com/recommended-canon-7d-mark-ii-settings

Kcohen44

Thank you, will try those suggestions.

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

junglejim1949 Loc: Sacramento,CA

These are very good links Robert, thanks for the share!

TommiRulz Loc: Corpus Christi, TX

Thanks for the tip about Best Buy !!! I have been waiting since May from Adorama - but YEP Best Buy had it!! I'm picking it up Friday. Don't let yourself get frustrated with the new camera. It takes time to learn all the new stuff. Look for You Tube videos, etc... (But there probably won't be many yet since the camera has been slow to get out.) I like a guy named Michael the Maven, he puts out fantastic tutorials! But again - he may not have the R7 video yet... but keep an eye out for that one

TommiRulz Loc: Corpus Christi, TX

Oh Yes - Michael the Maven has the R7 training course, here is the link
https://www.michaelthemaven.com/?postID=5253&canon-r7-crash-course-tutorial-training-video

buckscop Loc: Bucks County PA

Ordering the R7. My question is I have a Canon EFS 18-135 Nano USM lens now on a T7i. Beside the obivious 18-150 'upgrade', would the kit lens for the R7 be worth ordering for the additional money? I know I would need an adapter for the EFS on the R7, which would lessen the price difference. I also have a Tamron 18-400, which I would be ordering the adapter for anyway.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

There are several YouTubers using the R7 for birds and other small wildlife... there are others, but two that come to mind are "Jan Wegener" and "Alaska Wild". Search and ye shall find.

2nd memory card slot can be set up to provide a backup to the main slot (same thing recorded on both)... or you can set so that once the 1st slot is full the camera switches automatically to the 2nd (sequential use)... or you can set it so that one saves RAW files and the other JPEGs... or choose to use one for videos and the other for still photos. It's all up to you and you aren't required to use a 2nd card at all, unless you think you need it.

Some quick recommendations...

If shooting RAW and using the fastest frame rate (30 frames/sec., only possible with the electronic shutter), you might want to use "C-RAW" or "compressed RAW. Otherwise the buffer fills up awfully quickly (about 1 second!) and you'll be waiting for the buffer to clear. That's one of the main complaints I've been hearing and seeing from R7 users. It's a super fast camera, but really could use a larger buffer and/or faster type of memory. It is less of a problem using slower frame rates (15 frames/sec. or even slower, which is possible with both mechanical and electronic shutter).

Speaking of memory cards, only use high quality, FAST memory cards... the fastest you can find. Slower SD memory cards will REALLY slow down the camera, causing long delays when the buffer fills.

Experiment with the many autofocus settings to see what works best for different types of subjects. Up close and in reasonably good light, the camera can lock onto subjects' eyes! More distant it may respond to movement instead.

When using the electronic shutter (which can operate silently, or be set to emit some noise to let you know when you're taking photos), be aware of "rolling shutter" effects. This can cause vertical objects to "lean" or distort subject shapes. It seems to primarily happen when you are panning the camera, such as when trying to photograph a bird in flight. If there is nothing but clear sky behind them, you may not notice. But if there are vertical trees they will appear to be leaning to one side. It also can cause a bird's beak and head to look elongated or distort moving wings. This happens because the data is read off the image sensor one line at a time.

Especially out shooting wildlife, rolling shutter effects often don't "ruin" the image. It's still perfectly usable. It's more problematic for sports, where various vertical uprights can appear to lean, balls can look oblong, bats and such can appear curved, etc. This can happen any time the electronic shutter is used (regardless of the frame rate).

If you switch to mechanical shutter (which DOES make noise), rolling shutter effects are eliminated.... but the fastest continuous shooting speed is 15 frames/sec. With the mechanical shutter there also will be some flickering "black out" of the viewfinder as the shutter opens and closes rapidly. It can take a while to become accustomed to this.

There aren't any R7 guide books available yet, but there no doubt will be sometime in the future. You might check occasionally on Amazon for them. These are "how to" books by various authors such as David Busch, Charlotte Lowrie, Michael Guncheon and others. These books can be helpful because they sort of pick up where the user manual leaves off, giving you more real world examples and more thorough explanation of various functions. Whenever I get a new camera I always buy at least one guide book and have found all the above named authors' books very good. In fact the only series I wasn't impressed with was the "For Dummies"... it was just too basic for me, although I know other people have liked them and their books about computers, networking, etc. have been useful to me in the past. There are many other guide book authors I'm unfamiliar with, so please check the buyer feedback about them that's provided on Amazon. In addition to the books, the same authors also often offer quick reference "field guides" that may be more practical while out shooting.

In general, you can just set the camera to A+ "point n shoot" mode and get out there. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Learn to use the camera a little at a time. It's a pretty complex model that any of us would have to spend some time with before we'd be really comfortable using it.



People using adapted Canon EF lenses on other R-series cameras have pretty universally reported they work great... at least as good as they did on their DSLRs and often even better. There's no reason not to expect that to be the case with the R7 too. It's another story with third party lenses like your Tamron. Some work fine. Others do not. Often with current models like that 18-400mm the manufacturers step up and provide a firmware update for the lens to resolve any issues. But older 3rd party lenses may not be "fixable". Frankly I'm a bit surprised that the "big three" 3rd party lens manufacturers... Tokina, Tamron and Sigma... still haven't produced any lenses in RF mount. Sigma has begun offering several of their EF mount lenses in kit with their own EF to RF adapter, but that's not the same. There are any number of manufacturers offering fully manual lenses in RF mount, but that's not difficult. So far Viltrox and Yongnuo are the only manufacturers who have figured out how to produce a couple autofocus lenses in RF mount.

BTW, there now are a number of different manufacturers offering EF to RF adapters, some costing as little as $56. The cheapest OEM Canon EF to RF is $100. Note: There are some even cheaper, but they appear to not have the electronic connectivity, so adapted lenses would be manual focus and manual aperture only.

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

https://www.eos-magazine.com/ebooks/es/camera-guides.html

R3, R7 and R10 guides coming soon according to website.

Kcohen44

Michael the Maven does have videos out which I have been watching.

kcooke Loc: Alabama

My local Best Buy store says I can get it in 4 days

buckscop Loc: Bucks County PA

mine says the same, pickup friday

junglejim1949 Loc: Sacramento,CA

How can Best Buy get them and stores like B&H and Adorama can't? I checked Best Buy here and they said they are SOLD OUT.