Amazing shots by you both. So much detail in those images, love it!😀😍 looks like it was a great choice to go for the R7 that’s for sure! The noise levels are still much better than e.g the 80D that I never liked using above 1600😁. Also applying the Topaz denoise makes all that a non issue which your beautiful images clearly demonstrated. Again a great video!😀👍👍👍👏👏
looking forward to seeing your video. From what I have seen of the R5, it's about 0.5 stop behind the R6, so there's no way, imho, the R7 will even remotely compete. I sub to a fair few birding photographers (Duade Patton, Jan Wegener, etc) so have seen their R6 shots at high ISO often enough for it to be a good judge of that camera's high ISO performance.
You know I've been shooting with my R5 and I changed my depth of field button to be able to go from crop mode to full frame mode lightning fast. So when the birds are a little far away I'll go ahead and hit crop mode and I noticed that and Lightroom the image quality really holds up. Especially for social media. Unless I'm making large prints and I'm just having fun crop mode really has been great on the Canon R5.. I just wish it wasn't such a huge loss of megapixels but like I said if I can feel the frame a little better I'll do it. My biggest issue is where all the birds are at is on Federal Land up the street and we're not allowed to trespass so we have to shoot from the side of the road. You got cars blowing past a 70 mph, you can't use a tripod, and the birds are so far out in the water there's no physical way to get any closer to them. I just ordered the 800 mm. I was using the EF 100 to 400 with a 2X teleconverter but image quality does suffer. The rf800 is a pretty sharp lens especially for the price point. As far as my Sigma 150 to 600 I just gave up on that because of the weight and the fact that it just does not focus for shit with any mirrorless camera
@@Savage1776_ Duade Paton has shown that the Sigma can and does AF on Canon mirrorless cameras - albeit with a lower keeper rate than what we want due to focus hunting.
Great video. I am hoping to buy an R7 with a RF 100-400. Would be nice if someone could do a review on this combination. Maybe a 1.4 or *2 converter will also be required for bird photography. Appreciate any comments.
Thank you! Will definitely have to be careful with noise using that lens. I believe it is F8 at 400 mm, so it would be F 16 using the 2X Tele converter and F 11 using the 1.4 Teleconverter. Still though, in good light it will definitely work and I’ve heard good things about that lens.
Thanks for your honest review about the camera’ s noise level. I have a R6 and 7d mark ii, I was considering the R7, I will continue to wait on more reviews of this product. Question .. How would you rate the buffer compared to the 7d mark ii’s buffer?
Thank you! I was a Nikon guy back in the 7D ii days so I never used it. I Will tell you that the Nikon D500 buffer is better. It has smaller files and a lower FPS rate going to a faster memory card so it's not a far comparison. I hit the buffer a few times when I tried out the 30 FPS electronic shutter but I'll be using 15 FPS Mechanical shutter more than anything else. You can still hit the buffer that way too but you really have to hold the shutter longer than normal for most situations to do that. The noise isn't really that bad unless you compare it to an R6 which is amazing.
Thanks for putting together a birding in the field video with the R7 so quickly. You both made very enjoyable images!! The first RAW image looked fine to me. I'll admit I was very curious to see how the sensor was going to perform but I figured it wouldn't be any worse than my M50 or EM10 3. Even if it were similar, bird tracking, IBIS and more megapixels to play with is very tempting. I've also stopped worrying about noise for the most part.
I just stumbled upon this channel after searching for the new R7. Wowwww!!!! These images are totally mindblowinggg. Undoubtedly the best nature photos I've seen in a while. And give Heather a compliment for me. She is a human doll, a very beautiful young lady.
Just at Harrison Bay Park Saturday and was getting shots of the baby Barn Swallows. Had no clue what they where till I saw your video, Thanks. Beautiful shots.
Seriously great images. I love seeing the end results because I’m hearing a lot of people complaining about the noise, as if APS-C sensors were expected to make some giant leap in noise performance. Topaz routinely blows me away with what it’s capable of doing to images. Thanks for the great video.
Great content! Thanks for sharing! Would you prefer r6 with 800 f11 or the r7 with 100-500 (500mm actually) regarding noise and image quality (when shooting in low light)?
Thank you! Great question. Both are bad options for low light. The F/11 lens will have your ISO through the roof on the high ISO capable R6 and the R7 with the f/7.1 100-500 in low light will not be much better. However, the 800 is not as sharp as the 100-500 and the R7 is higher pixel density so I'd choose the R7 and the 100-500 for birds in low light. Another thing to think about is the 100-500 has a MUCH better minimum focus distance so that's another point in favor of the 100-500 and R7 over the 800 and the R6. For me, I can almost never have enough focal length when I'm working on these tiny birds so I'd go with the 800 on the R7 or the 100-500 plus the 1.4x extender on the R7 if the was much light available.
It works pretty good with the R7. I recommend making a lot of photos and picking the best one. Several will not be sharp, especially if you are using a low shutter speed to try and keep your ISO low at f/11.
My R7 is on order and I can't wait to get my hands on it, after seeing this video. How is rolling shutter, and the buffer when shooting bursts? On the R5, I found rolling shutter annoying even with birds on slowly bobbing branches. From shot to shot in a burst, I could see the warping. So I stopped using ES and stuck with mechanical.
@@JohnDrummondPhoto Rolling shutter is a genuine concern on the R7 (it's a problem on the R6 and R5 too). If your subject is fast-moving, use the 15fps mechanical shutter. Buffer fills fast at 30fps, not too bad at 15fps.
Great shots Phil and Heather. The R7 certainly looks like a lot of fun. Awesome combo with the 100-500mm. Those Heather dragonfly shots wow! Thanks for sharing your first test results. Had a feeling about the noise and crop sensor. But as you said Topaz can sort that 🙏
Thank you, Adrian! It’s just because I have been spoiled with the R6, otherwise I would probably not even notice it because it is normal but the R6 with its full frame low resolution sensor is amazing as far as noise is concerned. We are both satisfied with our new cameras!
Really enjoyed the video Phil and Heather. Something about that dragonfly shot, just super! Also, thanks for the initial review and honest comments. Will stay tuned for more videos as you get more accustomed to the R7.
Great video, Phil! I am thinking to switch from Nikon D850/Sigma 150-600mm to Canon R6 or R7 with lens of RF 100-500m or RF 800mm. For bird photography, what are your recommended combination?
Most of it was done on the gravel road that leads to the Summit knobs equestrian Trail which is part of enterprise South nature Park in Hamilton County Tennessee. Other parts were done at “volkswagon Wetlands“ which is just an area on the side of Ferdinand Piech road near the Volkswagen plant. And the last bit was done at Harrison Bay State Park which is also in Hamilton county Tennessee. Thank you and thanks for watching!
Great photos guys...Heather I figured the R7 AF was going to be a lot better than the Z50. But my one question is the color science between the R7 and the Z50, which one do you like better? Also the Nikon 200-500mm is a bit faster than the Canon 100-500mm lens, which is sharper in your opinion? Looking forward to your next video.
I honestly don't notice a difference in the color science. Phil introduced me to a color profile in Lightroom called "Camera Faithful." I used that on my R7 images and am very happy with the color on them. You are right that the 200-500 is a bit faster than the 100-500, and that was one concern I had for a long time. However, it hasn't been an issue for me. With the IBIS in the R7 and IS in the 100-500, I'm comfortable using slower shutter speeds that I'd never be able to use on the 200-500 to accommodate for the difference in speed. The 100-500 is *incredibly* sharp. There's a reason it's an L lens. I would put it against any super telephoto zoom out there. Definitely sharper.
Thank you very much for the wonderful video. I am waiting in a very long waiting list for the R7 here in Germany. Please, may I also ask, what combo exactly has Heather shoot her beautiful images? Thanks again
I just wanted to say it’s awesome that you can share these experiences with your daughter and I hope to be able to share my enjoyment of taking photos with my son as he continues to get older. He’s just over 2.5 years old and already likes to “take photos”. If it’s not my R6 and it’s a point and shoot camera, GoPro or cell phone then he puts his eye up to the lens thinking it’s the viewfinder 😂 I keep trying to tell him but as long as he’s having fun then that’s all that matters.
I think the R6 and R7 are very similar in terms of autofocus. there is one extra setting on the R7 where you can turn on focus tracking when you are in other modes besides the full screen mode and while I don’t like that for bird photography, I think it is going to be great for sports. Thank you and thanks for watching!
Some very sharp images and it seems the eye AF is working very well. As for noise I did suspect it would suffer with high noise as the 90D did, and as the R7 is using a improved version of that sensor then it is to be expected. Live the video, keep up the good work
Thank you, Jake. While I haven't done a scientific comparison. It certainly seems like the R7 has better battery life than my R6. We worked from 7:30am-11:30am, I made around 3500 photos and shot some video and I was still on my first battery when we went home.
I'm thinking that upping the shutter speed, using the 800mm, outweighs the bit of added noise. I think you'll see an improvement in sharpness. The alternative is using a tripod, as much as we all try and avoid them.
I think your advice is good, especially in situations where you only get one shot. Heather and I were in a situation where we were getting 30 to 60 or more shots at 15 or 30 frames per second and with that in mind, we can sort through the ones with motion blur and find a couple with both low ISO and acceptable sharpness.
Did you crop these photos (bird is bigger in frame) a bit more than you used to with your prior cameras? Maybe it is so because the R7 pixel amount allows you to … or I’m imagining things :)
Yes we were definitely able to cross in closer on the birds with this camera that I was with my R6. In fact in previous videos Heather and I often had to use Topaz Gigapixel two upsize are images so that they were big enough to fill the screen on a 4K video. Neither one of us used that program at all to make this video. Thanks for watching!
What was your experience with battery life? How many shots did you take and what charge remained, or did you need to swap batteries? I shoot a lot of sports and am concerned there's no option for a battery grip on the R7.
Thank you. Embarrassingly, I snapped over 3500 images that morning. We worked from about 7:30am until 11:30. I also made some video clips. Heather fired off around 4000 in that same time. Both of us were still working on our first battery when we called it quits. I'm thinking the LP-E6NH lasts notably longer on the R7 than it does on my R6.
@@PhilThach Thanks for the response. Good info, too. That's a lot better than I expected, too. Canon only rated the R7 to do 660 shots on a fresh battery. No need for embarrassment, 3500 or 4000 shots is pretty easily done when shooting 15 or 30 frames per second! I figure a minimum of 1500 at a sporting event and probably more typically sgoot 3000 or more. My personal record after a very long day and a lot of fast actuon was 9000 shots. Another time I came home from a 4-day event with 17,000 images. That always made for torturously long post-pricessing sessions! 😳 Anyway, good to know the R7 may be reasonably efficient, since there's no option for a grip with a 2nd battery.
PHIL-- Love those Prairie Warblers! WOW! How about those R7's and will you shoot sports this fall? A very good video about everything! Extremely well done and is there a chance you will do a video on the setup menu, Thank You , PHIL, Randy B.(MT) So I will know what to when I get My R7!
Thank you, Randy! I think I'll certainly shoot some sports with the R7 later this year and Heather will too. This is only my second Canon camera so I would not describe myself as an expert on the Canon menu system. I know my way around Nikon menus a little better but I do think the Canon system is perhaps a little bit easier to understand.
Thanks for amazing video. Could you please help to check if R7 can shoot at 15 fps (High-speed mode) or 3 fps (low-speed) with electronic shutter? Because my R5 can't do that, R5 electronic shutter will shoot at 20fps no matter what mode I'm in. Thanks.
Thanks for posting an honest review. I am a Canon 80D shooter, & have my ISO capped at 3200 on that, I have the R7 on pre-order (not yet available here in the UK) & am realistically expecting it to be a modern upgrade as opposed to ground breakingly different. Sure the 8.5 extra MP will help, & the animal AF will be great once I master it. I’m liking the near silent shutter too, as my 80D even in ‘supposedly silent continuous’ is far from it! Out of interest, is Lightroom supporting the new RAW format images that this camera body produces yet? Liking the look of the RF 100-500 F4.5-7.1 lens too. Thanks for sharing 🙏
Thank you and thanks for watching! The mechanical shutter in this camera is actually pretty loud! You can set the volume of the electronic shutter. Adobe updated Lightroom and Camera RAW about 10 days before my camera shipped to support the R7 and R10. I was very pleasantly surprised when they did that. I thought I would have to wait a few weeks.
I own the R6 and use the 600mm II lens and it works really well as it should, except with the TC for flight action shots. Now that I own the 100-500, the R7 does seem like a good match for the zoom, but I HATE noise lol. I got so used to full frame and my r6 does double as a very nice landscape camera so I will probably wait and save for the R3. I think the crop factor is massively overrated, as it’s technically the same as full frame in terms of what you get in the end, though it does make you feel like you are closer. Thanks for the review and I’m sure the R7 can be a great camera if the noise can be controlled. Do you think the AF speed is as good as the R6?
Thanks for watching, Gary! I think the auto focus is every bit as good as the R6. So I have suggested that it is vastly superior but I don’t think so, I think they are about the same which is to say very good. I’m gonna have to disagree with you about crop cameras versus full frame. It is definitely more than a perceived reach advantage. Even the high resolution R5 is only 17 or so megapixels in APSC mode. So this camera at 32 megapixels definitely has more reach than even that high resolution camera. There are always trade-offs and as Heather and I have demonstrated in this video you can definitely work around the noise.
Hi Heather and Phil, really amazing how you 2 could get so many amazing bokefied (tm) birds on your first day out with this camera ! I expected this R7 to have amazing features, but as you indicate to be a bit limited on the usable ISO range compared to FF. Recently I'm using the R6 with my ef100-400Lii, and pretty often adding a 2x extender in between. Given that (regardless the lens) the R7 gives as much pixels on the bird as the R6 plus 2x extender, and the extender obviously decreases the IQ, I'm really looking forward to someone comparing the IQ and ISO noise between R7 and R6+2x. Which one gives the cleanest pixels on the bird ?? I'm not planning to sell my R6 in order to get the R7 instead, but rather wondering whether to get the R7 as extra body, or rather save money for when Canon would release my dream (already patented) RF300-800L/8 lens ..
Thank you, Werner! It is interesting because with the R6 you often need a Teleconverter which makes you use higher ISO‘s that the R6 can handle because it is so amazing in that area. Then on the other hand with the R7 you do not need a Teleconverter which is good because it cannot handle the high ISO‘s as well. But I think all in all the winner for small birds is the R7 because it has so much resolution. We’ve done some unscientific comparisons between the 32.5 megapixel 1.6 crop factor R7 and the 20.9 megapixel 1.5 crop factor Z 50 and found the images to be very similar in terms of noise with perhaps a slight edge to the R7. So again I think for small birds the R7 is the way to go. For portraits on the other hand, I’ll take the R6. I think I would choose the R7 for macro and for landscape photography as well.
@@PhilThach I guess in good light the R7 might be better, but over here Belgium the light is not nearly as bright as in Tennessee .. so it might depend on time of day and time of year which one is better. I guess I'll be watching plenty more R7 youtubes before deciding to get one myself ;-)
Have you had to manually rack focus to get close like we have to do with R6 when its way out of focus. My 1st impression is the R7 does much better on that front, but havent gotten close to putting it through its paces yet
I have had to do that but what I normally do is point the camera someplace else and focus there and then back at the bird if the camera is lost in the background. I think this will be something that we will have to deal with until they perfect quad pixel auto focus, this is the only downside to duel pixel auto focus. Thanks for watching!
I also got my hands on an R7 and I got much worse results. But looking at your settings, I see what I was doing wrong. Those are ridiculously slow shutter speeds, at least compared to what I was shooting. Incredibly sharp results. I'm used to shooting moving birds at 1/2000-1/4000 sec. Insane that you got these results at slower than 1/500 in most shots! I also have trouble filling the frame like your shots, very well done! I was also shooting with much less light, that's probably when the APS-C sensor would struggle and produce lots of noise.
Excellent Video Phil and Heather! I liked your explanation of what to expect when using a full frame and a crop sensor camera. Your new Canon EOS R7 camera looks like it does an amazing job on bird photography! The reach on that camera and 800 lens is amazing too! Who would have thought you'd be able to take photos of birds on Mars? Cool beans! lol
Great video; thank you for sharing. R7 is all sold out for months here in Los Angeles. Picked up the last one at local store on Friday morning... got lucky. The focus and shooting mechanics is same as my R3.. shocking!!! for $1,499.00. It's a mini R3. Images are coming out sharp and beautiful....
Great info and pics from both of you. Confirms what I was thinking about ISO for the R7, but also answers a question I had about the 100-500 +1.4 vs the 800mm F11 (100-500 + 1.4 is sharper-as it should be for the price) Actually, the R7 seems like a step up from my EOS R in many respects, though maybe not in IQ and ISO performance. Any thoughts on that? Thanks to you both..
I think the ISO performance is not really bad unless you have been shooting with a Canon EOS R6 for a year. For example Heather compared a 4000 ISO photo from her 32.5mp R7 To a 3600 ISO photo from her 20.9mp Z50. The R7 file looked cleaner. It’s just that the R6 is so next level amazing that basically any APSC camera is going to look noisy by comparison. Of course the R6 has its own shortcomings and that is terrible reach for wildlife photography so each of the two cameras has their place.
Wow you both got some amazing shots! I love capturing birds and I'm in the market for the R7. I have the R5 and love it but I'm looking for the extra "reach" of the Canon APS-C R7. I have the 100-400 RF and the ED Sigma 150-600 can't wait to get the R7 and see how it does. Thanks so much for the great video.
How did you guys do those fabulous shots so fast? I got my R7 about the same day and am still trying to dope out the settings, lol, even as an R6 owner. That's what separates the men from the boys, I guess. What control do you use for ISO? I set mine to the control ring and had good luck with that.
We left ISO on its default setting where you press and hold the ISO button while making adjustments with the rear dial. Thank you for noticing our efforts. Our cameras came in Saturday evening, we set them up that night and spent Sunday morning shooting. Then we edited our pictures and put the video together all afternoon and evening before releasing the video that evening. It was a full day of work for both of us. :)
@@PhilThach Amazing efforts. I tried setting ISO as you did and find it works. Thanks. I set my lens control rings to control ISO which works while you are pressing a rear focus button to engage metering. I'm not sure yet which method will take less effort. Practice practice practice, eh?
@@PhilThach Picked mine up today at Cardinal camera here in Pennsylvania it was a 2.4 hour trip each way. I also grabbed the 100-400 and an extra battery, I took me about 45 minutes to get it all set up with the new to me menu system, I had to download the canon software as DXO has yet to update to canon raw files for it as of yet.. I am impressed to say the least with the autofocus VS the Nikon Z50. Yes the Z50 is a few years old to be fair, but things in mirrorless are moving very FAST!!! This is a great time to be alive..
Thanks for the video. One of the first real world videos of the R7 I found here. The noise is a "more or less" problem. With the huge amount of pixels it is easier for software algorithms to find and solve error pixels which resulted because of noise. It is to be expected that the R7 will have more noise because of the pixel density of the chip but compared with my former entry level digital mirror camera the R7 is way better. Using the same setting on camera (ISO, shutter time, ...) and the same lens on my R7 and my EOS 2000D I have to use half the amount of correction for noise reduction on R7 pictures for the same result. Considering the price and the other specs of the R7 I think the camera is a very good upgrade to get a semi professional camera. For me as a hobby fotographer without a specialization the R7 is quite nice to work with and since my camera came on saturday I got the chance to take it for a first trial, too. But I guess especially landscape fotographers will get into a bit of trouble with the noise on longtime exposure pictures or pictures at night. Thanks again for your video and regards from Germany
Thank you and thanks for watching. Heather just emailed me a 3600 ISO photo she made with here 20.9 Megapixel Nikon Z50 and a 4000 ISO image she made with her 32.5 Megapixel R7. The R7 file looked cleaner even though it is higher pixel density and higher ISO. My problem is I'm used to the files coming out of my Canon R6 with are very very clean by comparison. We are very satisfied with our R7 cameras.
I've pre-ordered the R7 to accompany my R5. I expect to use it mostly together with my RF 100-500mm. So I've subscribed in the hope of learning a lot about this combination. I'm especially fascinated by anything Heather says about this combination!
Very nice images but on the initial shoot it doesn’t seem as though either of you are blown away by your results. Will be interesting to see what your thoughts are after a couple more months of use.
Thank you, Greg! We weren’t blown away because we basically knew what to expect in terms of amazing reach and auto focus but we were a little bit surprised by the noise levels. We should not have been because this was to be expected.
Thank you Phil & Heather. I have the R5 with the 100 500. It is a cracking combination but too heavy and too expensive (I cannot afford any more lenses). I ordered an R7, meaning to part ex my R5 and keep the 100 500. But then I got to thinking that that would be almost as heavy. So I cancelled the R7 and ordered an OM Systems OM-1. My part ex deal for the canon R5 and lens would enable me to buy the OM-1 plus four lenses plus a 2x converter. But, as I have to wait another 2 months for the OM-1, I may well change my mind again. So I will continue to watch your exploits with interest. Thanks again.
Thanks for watching, Alan! I completely understand, you have to buy the camera and lens combination that works best for you. So far we are very satisfied with the R7.
The noise could have been worse just think it could have an x-trans sensor in it instead lol. I think considering the pixel density of the sensor that these images turned out excellent not to mention they were taken by some very skilled bird photographers.
David it seems like the ISO performance may be worse than the X-Trans sensor. At least my X-T4s. I routinely shoot at 6400 and only use the default noise settings in Capture One. If I use Denoise AI I wouldn’t be afraid to us 12500. Of course I may not be as sensitive to a little noise as some people. I started back in the film days where film grain was common. On my black and white conversions I’ll add a little grain to my images. I’m guessing the R7 does have better Auto focus than the X-T4 based on what I seen.
That is always an interesting debate, teleconverters versus just cropping. For me the jury is still out. I had the 1.4, 1.7 and 2x for Nikon F. Only the 1.4 was really good. That’s why I’ve only bought the 1.4 for canon RF. Heather does a great job! Thanks for watching!
Very interesting video. On the ISO/noise point, it depends where you are coming from.R6 or say 7d Mkii would give a very different view on life. My guess is those with 7D would rarely venture into 6400 ISO and in comparison the noise is much improved over the 7D (but we would expect that given the age). For me, whilst all aspects are important, the key is AF and shake before noise (as you noted).
I'm not so sure of this. I'm pretty confident my 60D, which is older than the 7D, has better noise performance than the R7 (true, it is 18mp vs 32mp). I would have personally wanted less of a mp pissing contest from Canon and 22-24mp rather than 32mp. The omission of a vertical grip makes it a no go for me too. Canon really, imho, screwed this up.
@@PhilThach it would have been well balanced. Sadly, for me personally, that noise performance is woeful. The camera should do a better job "in camera" imho, so we don't have to rely on as much PP NR...
@@davepastern We actually found that it has less noise at 4000 ISO than the 20.9mp Nikon Z50 does at 3600. I'm sure Canon will sell plenty of these cameras even if you don't buy one but I think if you tried one, you might really like it. Heather and I are thrilled with ours.
Thanks for posting the video! I've really been enjoying the R7 (coming from the 80D), while the noise is worse, the camera overall performs so much better. Fun fact, you can turn the sound completely off on the electric shutter
I wouldn't worry about noise levels at high ISOs. For perched birds in low light, the combination of body IBIS and lens IS would allow for sharp images at ridiculously slow shutter speeds, handheld, even zoomed all the way in, that would allow for a much cleaner image. Just fire a burst of shots, you'll get a couple of sharp, clean frames in there.
4000 and below on an apsc is really good I think. I would never break 1600 with my 80D. I just got the R7 and also have R6 but Im not expecting to compare IQ. Focus seems a little better with R7
Thank you! I found the R6 and R7 auto focus to be about the same. There is one setting that you can change on the R7 that allows it to always track even in other focus modes then the full screen tracking mode and while that’s something I don’t like to use for burting, I think it’s going to be great for sports.
Nice job, as always! I didn’t get mine until Sunday. FedEx always manages to keep me guessing. I only did a couple of hours of bird photography today but I was pretty happy with the results. I try to do lots of birds in flight photography and the R7 definitely grabs the bird a bit faster than the R6. It also seemed to do better with birds on the ground compared to my R6. I really have no issues with the noise. I stayed out until it was dark and with the relatively slow 100-500mm lens it did well enough. To me it is just a dramatically better bird camera than the R6. I likely will be selling my R6. I love that camera but 98 percent of the time I am shooting birds or macro and the R7 is just better for that use case IMHO. I can fix noise. It’s more difficult to fix a lack of pixels on the subject.
That is very interesting that you feel like the R7 focuses better than the R6. To me they seem pretty much the same. However I totally agree that the R7 and its pixel density is going to be much better for birds and macro then the R6. Thanks for watching!
@@PhilThach I felt like there was a significant difference in focus performance. To me it just seems faster to grab birds in flight. The R6 is really bad at Hummingbirds in flight. I have tried lots of different settings on the R6. The R7 was just better out of the box. I was lucky to get a number of small birds in flight that I think I would be really lucky to get with the R6. I don’t think I missed many with the R7.
@@PhilThach That was the first day I had it so it was on the default setting for the AF case. All I had done really was the button and dial customizing before I took it out. I think the AF case was on auto. Could have been on one as well. I use case 2 on my R6 with a couple of minor mods. I am on the road and didn’t bring the R6 so I don’t remember the details. I have been trying different settings on the R7 but I haven’t made it noticeably better. I did try the R7 today with my Sigma 150-600 that I have been meaning to sell. It seemed a bit worse on the R7 compared to the R6. It was also late in the day so it’s possible that it was not getting enough light to focus effectively. I am enjoying everything about the camera other than the rolling shutter.
I live in North carolina. I've been doing photography for a few years now and more recently in the last 18 months have gotten into bird photography. There's a reservoir that's on Federal Land of the street from my house that supplies the drinking water in our area. We are on well water. Because it is federal land their signs posted everywhere that if you trespassed beyond the Road you will be federally prosecuted as a criminal. There's been debate over the years to open it up as long as people don't have boats in the water so that we can enjoy the wildlife over there. Because it is the only body of water for how about 60 miles until you get to Lake Norman. With that said because it's so close I like the photograph there after work because I don't have much time before the sun sets. I've been using my Canon R5 and my Canon 90d with the EF 100 to 400 and the RF 100 to 400. As well as the sigma 150 to 600. The sigma gives me too many problems with the R5 with Focus breathing. I bought the docking station and made some adjustments so it's not as bad as it used to be but it can still get bad. The other issue is I'm on the side of the road so I can't use a tripod because cars are blowing past at 55 to 70 mph. So I usually park my motorcycle so I'll be out of the way because there's only about 4 ft of distance between the side of the road and the concrete wall for the small bridge that I stand on. With that said the majority of my pictures even though I have the Canon Pro 100 printer or not printed but rather posted on social media. I found that my Canon R5 in crop mode actually makes a really nice image even blown up in Lightroom at the 17 megapixels. And when I post on facebook, instagram, and now more recently Vero. That the image quality still holds up even at the 17 megapixels crop factor with the r5. I was going to purchase the Canon R7 but I can't find a body cheaper than $1,800 anywhere and I'm not going to pay that much for a crop body just to take a picture of a bird. I've already spent thousands of dollars on telephoto lenses. I really like the features of the Canon R7 and would love to have one but at this point in time until they are used and closer to $1,000 I think I'm going to hold off and just use crop mode on my r5. I actually have my shutter speed setup as shutter speed, I have my second dial setup for aperture and then I have the scroll wheel set up for exposure compensation as I use auto ISO when shooting birds. I found having control over exposure compensation in a fast way is more important then changing my ISO. Especially when you got a small bird with a bright background like the great blue heron or some of the other herons that I take images of that are just a bright bright white color. Thank you so much for all your videos as I really really love your Channel and want to thank you for taking the time to upload and create this content. I will definitely like share and subscribe. But I guess the point to everything I was saying was crop mode on the R5 is in as bad as a lot of people make it out to be unless you're doing large prints
I looked at the two images of Heathers, one with the Z50 at 3600 ISO and another with the R7 at 4000 ISO. The R7 file looked cleaner. I'm just spoiled by the R6 which is the best High ISO low noise camera I've ever used. Terrible reach though. Thanks for watching, Mike!
I just like seeing photography being done together.
Thank you!
Amazing shots by you both. So much detail in those images, love it!😀😍 looks like it was a great choice to go for the R7 that’s for sure! The noise levels are still much better than e.g the 80D that I never liked using above 1600😁. Also applying the Topaz denoise makes all that a non issue which your beautiful images clearly demonstrated. Again a great video!😀👍👍👍👏👏
Thank you, Peter! I haven’t tried it for macro yet but I am really looking forward to doing that soon! Have a great week.
Thank you so much for making this video! I truly enjoyed watching it and learning from it! 🤗
Thank you! Take a look at my wildlife and pets playlist for MANY more videos like this one.
You always keep it real….well done both
Thank you!
Congrats on the first really great video about the R7 that has a lot of value for bird photographers
Thank you and thanks for watching!
Good video guys. ill have a r5 vs r7 low light iso comparison tomorrow. You may be a bit surprised ;)
looking forward to seeing your video. From what I have seen of the R5, it's about 0.5 stop behind the R6, so there's no way, imho, the R7 will even remotely compete. I sub to a fair few birding photographers (Duade Patton, Jan Wegener, etc) so have seen their R6 shots at high ISO often enough for it to be a good judge of that camera's high ISO performance.
I am definitely going to watch that video, thank you!
I've been anticipating it all day.
You know I've been shooting with my R5 and I changed my depth of field button to be able to go from crop mode to full frame mode lightning fast. So when the birds are a little far away I'll go ahead and hit crop mode and I noticed that and Lightroom the image quality really holds up. Especially for social media. Unless I'm making large prints and I'm just having fun crop mode really has been great on the Canon R5.. I just wish it wasn't such a huge loss of megapixels but like I said if I can feel the frame a little better I'll do it. My biggest issue is where all the birds are at is on Federal Land up the street and we're not allowed to trespass so we have to shoot from the side of the road. You got cars blowing past a 70 mph, you can't use a tripod, and the birds are so far out in the water there's no physical way to get any closer to them. I just ordered the 800 mm. I was using the EF 100 to 400 with a 2X teleconverter but image quality does suffer. The rf800 is a pretty sharp lens especially for the price point. As far as my Sigma 150 to 600 I just gave up on that because of the weight and the fact that it just does not focus for shit with any mirrorless camera
@@Savage1776_ Duade Paton has shown that the Sigma can and does AF on Canon mirrorless cameras - albeit with a lower keeper rate than what we want due to focus hunting.
Great review of the Canon R7! All the shots look great. Look forward to all the great content coming from these cameras!
Thank you, Stephen! We can't wait to shoot with our new R7s again.
lovely video. superb shots. thanks so much Phil and Heather.
Thank you!
Would the rf 100-400 work good for this camera?
yes
Nice job guys. Love Heathers editing style. Glad to here the R7 is working out.
Thank you, Bob!
Nice!!! I’m glad the cat have you back your chair for this upload. 🥳
Thank you, me too! 😂
Nice bird shots!
Thank you!
Great video. I am hoping to buy an R7 with a RF 100-400. Would be nice if someone could do a review on this combination. Maybe a 1.4 or *2 converter will also be required for bird photography. Appreciate any comments.
Thank you! Will definitely have to be careful with noise using that lens. I believe it is F8 at 400 mm, so it would be F 16 using the 2X Tele converter and F 11 using the 1.4 Teleconverter. Still though, in good light it will definitely work and I’ve heard good things about that lens.
Definitely like the way heathers edited her photos.
She has a gift! Thanks for watching!
Thanks for your honest review about the camera’ s noise level. I have a R6 and 7d mark ii, I was considering the R7, I will continue to wait on more reviews of this product. Question .. How would you rate the buffer compared to the 7d mark ii’s buffer?
Thank you! I was a Nikon guy back in the 7D ii days so I never used it. I Will tell you that the Nikon D500 buffer is better. It has smaller files and a lower FPS rate going to a faster memory card so it's not a far comparison. I hit the buffer a few times when I tried out the 30 FPS electronic shutter but I'll be using 15 FPS Mechanical shutter more than anything else. You can still hit the buffer that way too but you really have to hold the shutter longer than normal for most situations to do that. The noise isn't really that bad unless you compare it to an R6 which is amazing.
Thanks for the feedback Phil..
Beautiful shots, and I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who finds doves kind of boring. :) 👍👍
Thanks for putting together a birding in the field video with the R7 so quickly. You both made very enjoyable images!!
The first RAW image looked fine to me. I'll admit I was very curious to see how the sensor was going to perform but I figured it wouldn't be any worse than my M50 or EM10 3. Even if it were similar, bird tracking, IBIS and more megapixels to play with is very tempting. I've also stopped worrying about noise for the most part.
Thank you, Mark!
Great review on the r7. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
I just stumbled upon this channel after searching for the new R7.
Wowwww!!!! These images are totally mindblowinggg.
Undoubtedly the best nature photos I've seen in a while.
And give Heather a compliment for me. She is a human doll, a very beautiful young lady.
Thank you, Mario!
Delighted to see you posting this video thanks 👍regards from Ireland :)
Thank you and thanks for watching!
Just at Harrison Bay Park Saturday and was getting shots of the baby Barn Swallows. Had no clue what they where till I saw your video, Thanks. Beautiful shots.
You’re very welcome, Kevin! We love Harrison Bay State Park and visit there often for food and photography.
Lovely video, lots of fun!
Thank you!
Heather wins 👍👍👍👏👏
As usual! 👍🏻
Best R7 video yet! Keep it up man
Thank you, Ethan!
Seriously great images. I love seeing the end results because I’m hearing a lot of people complaining about the noise, as if APS-C sensors were expected to make some giant leap in noise performance. Topaz routinely blows me away with what it’s capable of doing to images. Thanks for the great video.
Thank you!
Hi phil , thanks a lot , i enjoyed this video and useful tips about yhe gear and bird photography, best wishes for you
Thank you very much!
Loved the photos! Great results!
Thank you!
Thanks for your work. So many nice birds during one walk. I am a bit jealous of your pictures!
Thank you, Peter! We did have a good morning especially for so late in the season.
Great content! Thanks for sharing!
Would you prefer r6 with 800 f11 or the r7 with 100-500 (500mm actually) regarding noise and image quality (when shooting in low light)?
Thank you! Great question. Both are bad options for low light. The F/11 lens will have your ISO through the roof on the high ISO capable R6 and the R7 with the f/7.1 100-500 in low light will not be much better. However, the 800 is not as sharp as the 100-500 and the R7 is higher pixel density so I'd choose the R7 and the 100-500 for birds in low light. Another thing to think about is the 100-500 has a MUCH better minimum focus distance so that's another point in favor of the 100-500 and R7 over the 800 and the R6. For me, I can almost never have enough focal length when I'm working on these tiny birds so I'd go with the 800 on the R7 or the 100-500 plus the 1.4x extender on the R7 if the was much light available.
Good to see the rf800 in use on the r7, it seems pretty sharp for the cost.
It works pretty good with the R7. I recommend making a lot of photos and picking the best one. Several will not be sharp, especially if you are using a low shutter speed to try and keep your ISO low at f/11.
Thanks for the great tips
Thank you!
I love your bird videos.
Thank you, Robert! The bird videos are the ones that come the most naturally to us.
My R7 is on order and I can't wait to get my hands on it, after seeing this video.
How is rolling shutter, and the buffer when shooting bursts? On the R5, I found rolling shutter annoying even with birds on slowly bobbing branches. From shot to shot in a burst, I could see the warping. So I stopped using ES and stuck with mechanical.
You are going to love it, John!
@@PhilThach thanks. While you were replying, I amended my comment to add a question about rolling shutter and buffer. Thoughts?
@@JohnDrummondPhoto Rolling shutter is a genuine concern on the R7 (it's a problem on the R6 and R5 too). If your subject is fast-moving, use the 15fps mechanical shutter. Buffer fills fast at 30fps, not too bad at 15fps.
I m getting my r7 and rf100-500 mm. Your specific tips for me, will be helpful.....
Congrats!
Thanks Phil and Heather!
Thank you!
what beautiful birds.
They really are!
Great shots Phil and Heather. The R7 certainly looks like a lot of fun. Awesome combo with the 100-500mm. Those Heather dragonfly shots wow! Thanks for sharing your first test results. Had a feeling about the noise and crop sensor. But as you said Topaz can sort that 🙏
Thank you, Adrian! It’s just because I have been spoiled with the R6, otherwise I would probably not even notice it because it is normal but the R6 with its full frame low resolution sensor is amazing as far as noise is concerned. We are both satisfied with our new cameras!
Really enjoyed the video Phil and Heather. Something about that dragonfly shot, just super! Also, thanks for the initial review and honest comments. Will stay tuned for more videos as you get more accustomed to the R7.
Thank you, Bill! That second dragonfly she got was my favorite of the two.
Great video, Phil! I am thinking to switch from Nikon D850/Sigma 150-600mm to Canon R6 or R7 with lens of RF 100-500m or RF 800mm. For bird photography, what are your recommended combination?
Thank you! If all you do is wildlife I'd suggest the R7.
Great video and amazing images, I have an R7 on the way, just wondering what noise is like at low ISO's?
Thank you, Richard! Noise isn’t bad at low ISOs.
Hey great video and good shots. What park was it? I couldn't get it in the video
Most of it was done on the gravel road that leads to the Summit knobs equestrian Trail which is part of enterprise South nature Park in Hamilton County Tennessee. Other parts were done at “volkswagon Wetlands“ which is just an area on the side of Ferdinand Piech road near the Volkswagen plant. And the last bit was done at Harrison Bay State Park which is also in Hamilton county Tennessee. Thank you and thanks for watching!
Woow.✨️❤️🙂
Thank you!
@@PhilThach 👋❤️ Hi, This is my channel .🙂 ruclips.net/channel/UCHsTVv3JVC0-ET05YtsyP0Q
Great photos guys...Heather I figured the R7 AF was going to be a lot better than the Z50. But my one question is the color science between the R7 and the Z50, which one do you like better? Also the Nikon 200-500mm is a bit faster than the Canon 100-500mm lens, which is sharper in your opinion? Looking forward to your next video.
I honestly don't notice a difference in the color science. Phil introduced me to a color profile in Lightroom called "Camera Faithful." I used that on my R7 images and am very happy with the color on them. You are right that the 200-500 is a bit faster than the 100-500, and that was one concern I had for a long time. However, it hasn't been an issue for me. With the IBIS in the R7 and IS in the 100-500, I'm comfortable using slower shutter speeds that I'd never be able to use on the 200-500 to accommodate for the difference in speed. The 100-500 is *incredibly* sharp. There's a reason it's an L lens. I would put it against any super telephoto zoom out there. Definitely sharper.
Thank you very much for the wonderful video. I am waiting in a very long waiting list for the R7 here in Germany. Please, may I also ask, what combo exactly has Heather shoot her beautiful images? Thanks again
Thank you! Heather uses the Canon R7 camera, the RF 100-500 lens and she edits in Lightroom and Topaz Denoise Ai.
@@PhilThach Thank you very much
Great video, Great bird photos, now I can’t wait to get my R7🙏🇦🇺🦅
Thank you! I think you are really going to like it!
When are you going to try out the Pre-burst Phil/Heather?
That's a very good question. Honestly, I haven't even tried to learn to use that feature yet but I'll look into it soon.
@@PhilThach I had it on my Panny G9. A game changer for catching birds taking off, etc.
I just wanted to say it’s awesome that you can share these experiences with your daughter and I hope to be able to share my enjoyment of taking photos with my son as he continues to get older. He’s just over 2.5 years old and already likes to “take photos”. If it’s not my R6 and it’s a point and shoot camera, GoPro or cell phone then he puts his eye up to the lens thinking it’s the viewfinder 😂 I keep trying to tell him but as long as he’s having fun then that’s all that matters.
Heather is actually my girlfriend but it's still fantastic to share the photography experience with her or any loved one.
@@PhilThach my apologies
Great video and work there as usual Phil…how does the R7 compare to the R6 in terms of AF tracking? Can the R6 compete in AF?
I think the R6 and R7 are very similar in terms of autofocus. there is one extra setting on the R7 where you can turn on focus tracking when you are in other modes besides the full screen mode and while I don’t like that for bird photography, I think it is going to be great for sports. Thank you and thanks for watching!
Some very sharp images and it seems the eye AF is working very well. As for noise I did suspect it would suffer with high noise as the 90D did, and as the R7 is using a improved version of that sensor then it is to be expected.
Live the video, keep up the good work
Thank you and thanks for watching!
I'm so glad I found this. My Eos R struggles at the race track. I can't ever getvthexreach I want. This lens and body seems like a great combination.
Thank you! I hope it works for you!
Thanks for your effort guys terrific video and really nice photos.
Thank you, Wayne and thanks for watching!
How is the battery life on the R7? Comparable to the R5 or the R6? Or is it better? Also great pictures by you both really enjoyed watching thank you
Thank you, Jake. While I haven't done a scientific comparison. It certainly seems like the R7 has better battery life than my R6. We worked from 7:30am-11:30am, I made around 3500 photos and shot some video and I was still on my first battery when we went home.
Oh wow alright thank you for the reply
Heather has the most beautiful eyes, keep up the good work. And continue to grow your channel.
She really does, thank you!
Wow even with denoise applied those ISO4000 shots were amazing. Defintely looks like a worthwhile purchase!
We are very happy with our new cameras! Thanks for watching!
I use canon r6 for my RUclips videos. It is fantastic camera. I love it))))💙🌛I think that r10 or r7 is a fantastic cameras too for special tasks
Canon has a really great lineup of cameras! Thanks for watching!
I'm thinking that upping the shutter speed, using the 800mm, outweighs the bit of added noise. I think you'll see an improvement in sharpness. The alternative is using a tripod, as much as we all try and avoid them.
I think your advice is good, especially in situations where you only get one shot. Heather and I were in a situation where we were getting 30 to 60 or more shots at 15 or 30 frames per second and with that in mind, we can sort through the ones with motion blur and find a couple with both low ISO and acceptable sharpness.
Did you crop these photos (bird is bigger in frame) a bit more than you used to with your prior cameras? Maybe it is so because the R7 pixel amount allows you to … or I’m imagining things :)
Yes we were definitely able to cross in closer on the birds with this camera that I was with my R6. In fact in previous videos Heather and I often had to use Topaz Gigapixel two upsize are images so that they were big enough to fill the screen on a 4K video. Neither one of us used that program at all to make this video. Thanks for watching!
These are absolutely amazing images! Well done to both of you!
Thank you, Tim! We really appreciate it.
What was your experience with battery life? How many shots did you take and what charge remained, or did you need to swap batteries?
I shoot a lot of sports and am concerned there's no option for a battery grip on the R7.
Thank you. Embarrassingly, I snapped over 3500 images that morning. We worked from about 7:30am until 11:30. I also made some video clips. Heather fired off around 4000 in that same time. Both of us were still working on our first battery when we called it quits. I'm thinking the LP-E6NH lasts notably longer on the R7 than it does on my R6.
@@PhilThach Thanks for the response. Good info, too. That's a lot better than I expected, too. Canon only rated the R7 to do 660 shots on a fresh battery.
No need for embarrassment, 3500 or 4000 shots is pretty easily done when shooting 15 or 30 frames per second! I figure a minimum of 1500 at a sporting event and probably more typically sgoot 3000 or more. My personal record after a very long day and a lot of fast actuon was 9000 shots. Another time I came home from a 4-day event with 17,000 images. That always made for torturously long post-pricessing sessions! 😳
Anyway, good to know the R7 may be reasonably efficient, since there's no option for a grip with a 2nd battery.
Great shots! The teleconverter on the R7 would be 1120 not 700?
The actual focal length with the 1.4 Teleconverter on the 100-500 is 700 mm but it would be 1120 mm full frame equivalent on the R7.
PHIL-- Love those Prairie Warblers! WOW! How about those R7's and will you shoot sports this fall? A very good video about everything! Extremely well done and is there a chance you will do a video on the setup menu, Thank You , PHIL, Randy B.(MT) So I will know what to when I get My R7!
Thank you, Randy! I think I'll certainly shoot some sports with the R7 later this year and Heather will too. This is only my second Canon camera so I would not describe myself as an expert on the Canon menu system. I know my way around Nikon menus a little better but I do think the Canon system is perhaps a little bit easier to understand.
Thanks for amazing video. Could you please help to check if R7 can shoot at 15 fps (High-speed mode) or 3 fps (low-speed) with electronic shutter? Because my R5 can't do that, R5 electronic shutter will shoot at 20fps no matter what mode I'm in. Thanks.
Thank you! The R7 does shoot slower in electronic shutter based on what drive speed you set it at.
@@PhilThach Thanks for helping confirm that.
Thanks for posting an honest review. I am a Canon 80D shooter, & have my ISO capped at 3200 on that, I have the R7 on pre-order (not yet available here in the UK) & am realistically expecting it to be a modern upgrade as opposed to ground breakingly different. Sure the 8.5 extra MP will help, & the animal AF will be great once I master it. I’m liking the near silent shutter too, as my 80D even in ‘supposedly silent continuous’ is far from it!
Out of interest, is Lightroom supporting the new RAW format images that this camera body produces yet?
Liking the look of the RF 100-500 F4.5-7.1 lens too.
Thanks for sharing 🙏
Thank you and thanks for watching! The mechanical shutter in this camera is actually pretty loud! You can set the volume of the electronic shutter. Adobe updated Lightroom and Camera RAW about 10 days before my camera shipped to support the R7 and R10. I was very pleasantly surprised when they did that. I thought I would have to wait a few weeks.
@@PhilThach Thanks for the info re Lightroom that’s great, I am surprised to hear that a mirrorless camera has a noisy shutter!
@@nickclaytonphotography I was surprised too. I may do a shutter noise comparison at some point.
Thanks for the videos on the r7.
Thank you and thanks for watching!
I own the R6 and use the 600mm II lens and it works really well as it should, except with the TC for flight action shots. Now that I own the 100-500, the R7 does seem like a good match for the zoom, but I HATE noise lol. I got so used to full frame and my r6 does double as a very nice landscape camera so I will probably wait and save for the R3. I think the crop factor is massively overrated, as it’s technically the same as full frame in terms of what you get in the end, though it does make you feel like you are closer. Thanks for the review and I’m sure the R7 can be a great camera if the noise can be controlled. Do you think the AF speed is as good as the R6?
Thanks for watching, Gary! I think the auto focus is every bit as good as the R6. So I have suggested that it is vastly superior but I don’t think so, I think they are about the same which is to say very good. I’m gonna have to disagree with you about crop cameras versus full frame. It is definitely more than a perceived reach advantage. Even the high resolution R5 is only 17 or so megapixels in APSC mode. So this camera at 32 megapixels definitely has more reach than even that high resolution camera. There are always trade-offs and as Heather and I have demonstrated in this video you can definitely work around the noise.
@@PhilThach yes, I’m sure noise can be managed pretty well!
Hi Heather and Phil, really amazing how you 2 could get so many amazing bokefied (tm) birds on your first day out with this camera !
I expected this R7 to have amazing features, but as you indicate to be a bit limited on the usable ISO range compared to FF.
Recently I'm using the R6 with my ef100-400Lii, and pretty often adding a 2x extender in between. Given that (regardless the lens) the R7 gives as much pixels on the bird as the R6 plus 2x extender, and the extender obviously decreases the IQ, I'm really looking forward to someone comparing the IQ and ISO noise between R7 and R6+2x. Which one gives the cleanest pixels on the bird ??
I'm not planning to sell my R6 in order to get the R7 instead, but rather wondering whether to get the R7 as extra body, or rather save money for when Canon would release my dream (already patented) RF300-800L/8 lens ..
Thank you, Werner! It is interesting because with the R6 you often need a Teleconverter which makes you use higher ISO‘s that the R6 can handle because it is so amazing in that area. Then on the other hand with the R7 you do not need a Teleconverter which is good because it cannot handle the high ISO‘s as well. But I think all in all the winner for small birds is the R7 because it has so much resolution. We’ve done some unscientific comparisons between the 32.5 megapixel 1.6 crop factor R7 and the 20.9 megapixel 1.5 crop factor Z 50 and found the images to be very similar in terms of noise with perhaps a slight edge to the R7. So again I think for small birds the R7 is the way to go. For portraits on the other hand, I’ll take the R6. I think I would choose the R7 for macro and for landscape photography as well.
@@PhilThach I guess in good light the R7 might be better, but over here Belgium the light is not nearly as bright as in Tennessee .. so it might depend on time of day and time of year which one is better.
I guess I'll be watching plenty more R7 youtubes before deciding to get one myself ;-)
Beutiful birds
Thank you, we are lucky to have found an area near our home where we can see and photograph them. Thanks for watching!
Have you had to manually rack focus to get close like we have to do with R6 when its way out of focus. My 1st impression is the R7 does much better on that front, but havent gotten close to putting it through its paces yet
I have had to do that but what I normally do is point the camera someplace else and focus there and then back at the bird if the camera is lost in the background. I think this will be something that we will have to deal with until they perfect quad pixel auto focus, this is the only downside to duel pixel auto focus. Thanks for watching!
I also got my hands on an R7 and I got much worse results. But looking at your settings, I see what I was doing wrong. Those are ridiculously slow shutter speeds, at least compared to what I was shooting. Incredibly sharp results. I'm used to shooting moving birds at 1/2000-1/4000 sec. Insane that you got these results at slower than 1/500 in most shots! I also have trouble filling the frame like your shots, very well done! I was also shooting with much less light, that's probably when the APS-C sensor would struggle and produce lots of noise.
Congrats on your R7! Thanks for watching!
Sitting here and waiting for this one👍
Thank you! 🤓
Excellent Video Phil and Heather! I liked your explanation of what to expect when using a full frame and a crop sensor camera. Your new Canon EOS R7 camera looks like it does an amazing job on bird photography! The reach on that camera and 800 lens is amazing too! Who would have thought you'd be able to take photos of birds on Mars? Cool beans! lol
Thank you, Patricia! That is funny about the Mars thing LOL
Great video; thank you for sharing. R7 is all sold out for months here in Los Angeles. Picked up the last one at local store on Friday morning... got lucky. The focus and shooting mechanics is same as my R3.. shocking!!! for $1,499.00. It's a mini R3. Images are coming out sharp and beautiful....
Thank you! I'm glad you were able to get one on the first batch. It's a really great little machine!
Great info and pics from both of you. Confirms what I was thinking about ISO for the R7, but also answers a question I had about the 100-500 +1.4 vs the 800mm F11 (100-500 + 1.4 is sharper-as it should be for the price) Actually, the R7 seems like a step up from my EOS R in many respects, though maybe not in IQ and ISO performance. Any thoughts on that? Thanks to you both..
I think the ISO performance is not really bad unless you have been shooting with a Canon EOS R6 for a year. For example Heather compared a 4000 ISO photo from her 32.5mp R7 To a 3600 ISO photo from her 20.9mp Z50. The R7 file looked cleaner. It’s just that the R6 is so next level amazing that basically any APSC camera is going to look noisy by comparison. Of course the R6 has its own shortcomings and that is terrible reach for wildlife photography so each of the two cameras has their place.
Wow you both got some amazing shots! I love capturing birds and I'm in the market for the R7. I have the R5 and love it but I'm looking for the extra "reach" of the Canon APS-C R7. I have the 100-400 RF and the ED Sigma 150-600 can't wait to get the R7 and see how it does. Thanks so much for the great video.
Thank you and thanks for watching! I think you will enjoy the R7 when you get yours!
How did you guys do those fabulous shots so fast? I got my R7 about the same day and am still trying to dope out the settings, lol, even as an R6 owner. That's what separates the men from the boys, I guess. What control do you use for ISO? I set mine to the control ring and had good luck with that.
We left ISO on its default setting where you press and hold the ISO button while making adjustments with the rear dial. Thank you for noticing our efforts. Our cameras came in Saturday evening, we set them up that night and spent Sunday morning shooting. Then we edited our pictures and put the video together all afternoon and evening before releasing the video that evening. It was a full day of work for both of us. :)
@@PhilThach Amazing efforts. I tried setting ISO as you did and find it works. Thanks. I set my lens control rings to control ISO which works while you are pressing a rear focus button to engage metering. I'm not sure yet which method will take less effort. Practice practice practice, eh?
@@johnjuby6184 Yep! Practice is the key, for me anyway. Thank you, John!
Please do a full menu set up video. I just ordered a r7 coming from Nikon lots of different menu settings lol
It is a little bit different than Nikon for sure but I find the menu system to be very intuitive and easy to figure out.
@@PhilThach Picked mine up today at Cardinal camera here in Pennsylvania it was a 2.4 hour trip each way. I also grabbed the 100-400 and an extra battery, I took me about 45 minutes to get it all set up with the new to me menu system, I had to download the canon software as DXO has yet to update to canon raw files for it as of yet..
I am impressed to say the least with the autofocus VS the Nikon Z50. Yes the Z50 is a few years old to be fair, but things in mirrorless are moving very FAST!!! This is a great time to be alive..
@@DAVE_WHITE that is awesome! I’m glad you were able to get everything set up and that you are enjoying it.
Thanks for the video. One of the first real world videos of the R7 I found here.
The noise is a "more or less" problem. With the huge amount of pixels it is easier for software algorithms to find and solve error pixels which resulted because of noise. It is to be expected that the R7 will have more noise because of the pixel density of the chip but compared with my former entry level digital mirror camera the R7 is way better. Using the same setting on camera (ISO, shutter time, ...) and the same lens on my R7 and my EOS 2000D I have to use half the amount of correction for noise reduction on R7 pictures for the same result. Considering the price and the other specs of the R7 I think the camera is a very good upgrade to get a semi professional camera.
For me as a hobby fotographer without a specialization the R7 is quite nice to work with and since my camera came on saturday I got the chance to take it for a first trial, too. But I guess especially landscape fotographers will get into a bit of trouble with the noise on longtime exposure pictures or pictures at night.
Thanks again for your video and regards from Germany
Thank you and thanks for watching. Heather just emailed me a 3600 ISO photo she made with here 20.9 Megapixel Nikon Z50 and a 4000 ISO image she made with her 32.5 Megapixel R7. The R7 file looked cleaner even though it is higher pixel density and higher ISO. My problem is I'm used to the files coming out of my Canon R6 with are very very clean by comparison. We are very satisfied with our R7 cameras.
SUPERB
Thank you!
Great shots! Hopefully I'll get my R7 body this weekend. Looking forward to comparing with my R5 if the light is good.
Thank you! I hope your R7 comes in soon!
Loved your content from India 🇮🇳. Very informative 👏
Thank you and thanks for watching!
I've pre-ordered the R7 to accompany my R5.
I expect to use it mostly together with my RF 100-500mm.
So I've subscribed in the hope of learning a lot about this combination.
I'm especially fascinated by anything Heather says about this combination!
Thank you, Barry! Stayed tuned.
I’m curious, with those low shutter speeds were you shooting mostly handheld or with a tripod?
Everything in this video is handheld, even the video clips.
are noise levels very high? to which level I may bump the iso to for noiseless picture? Please guide..
As I mentioned in the video, I'd try to stay at 4000 ISO or lower if possible.
Great stuff thanks.
Thank you!
Very nice images but on the initial shoot it doesn’t seem as though either of you are blown away by your results. Will be interesting to see what your thoughts are after a couple more months of use.
Thank you, Greg! We weren’t blown away because we basically knew what to expect in terms of amazing reach and auto focus but we were a little bit surprised by the noise levels. We should not have been because this was to be expected.
Thank you Phil & Heather. I have the R5 with the 100 500. It is a cracking combination but too heavy and too expensive (I cannot afford any more lenses).
I ordered an R7, meaning to part ex my R5 and keep the 100 500. But then I got to thinking that that would be almost as heavy.
So I cancelled the R7 and ordered an OM Systems OM-1. My part ex deal for the canon R5 and lens would enable me to buy the OM-1 plus four lenses plus a 2x converter.
But, as I have to wait another 2 months for the OM-1, I may well change my mind again.
So I will continue to watch your exploits with interest.
Thanks again.
Thanks for watching, Alan! I completely understand, you have to buy the camera and lens combination that works best for you. So far we are very satisfied with the R7.
@@PhilThach well you two obviously get a lot of joy from your cameras. Which is the main thing.
Thanks for the lead on Topaz.
Thank you!
The noise could have been worse just think it could have an x-trans sensor in it instead lol. I think considering the pixel density of the sensor that these images turned out excellent not to mention they were taken by some very skilled bird photographers.
LOL that is definitely true, David! Thank you very much, David!
David it seems like the ISO performance may be worse than the X-Trans sensor. At least my X-T4s. I routinely shoot at 6400 and only use the default noise settings in Capture One. If I use Denoise AI I wouldn’t be afraid to us 12500. Of course I may not be as sensitive to a little noise as some people. I started back in the film days where film grain was common. On my black and white conversions I’ll add a little grain to my images. I’m guessing the R7 does have better Auto focus than the X-T4 based on what I seen.
I don't recommend teleconverters, just crop in post. Nice shots, I really like her shots.
That is always an interesting debate, teleconverters versus just cropping. For me the jury is still out. I had the 1.4, 1.7 and 2x for Nikon F. Only the 1.4 was really good. That’s why I’ve only bought the 1.4 for canon RF. Heather does a great job! Thanks for watching!
Very interesting video. On the ISO/noise point, it depends where you are coming from.R6 or say 7d Mkii would give a very different view on life. My guess is those with 7D would rarely venture into 6400 ISO and in comparison the noise is much improved over the 7D (but we would expect that given the age). For me, whilst all aspects are important, the key is AF and shake before noise (as you noted).
I'm not so sure of this. I'm pretty confident my 60D, which is older than the 7D, has better noise performance than the R7 (true, it is 18mp vs 32mp).
I would have personally wanted less of a mp pissing contest from Canon and 22-24mp rather than 32mp. The omission of a vertical grip makes it a no go for me too.
Canon really, imho, screwed this up.
Thank you, Wilbur!
I would have been perfectly happy if the R7 had 24 megapixels, I must admit though, 32 is nice!
@@PhilThach it would have been well balanced. Sadly, for me personally, that noise performance is woeful. The camera should do a better job "in camera" imho, so we don't have to rely on as much PP NR...
@@davepastern We actually found that it has less noise at 4000 ISO than the 20.9mp Nikon Z50 does at 3600. I'm sure Canon will sell plenty of these cameras even if you don't buy one but I think if you tried one, you might really like it. Heather and I are thrilled with ours.
Heather is tallented photographer. 1st image i prefered before noise reduction. Unless looking for it its not bad noise
She’s awesome!
Love the one from Mars 😄
I'm surprised you got back so quick, I thought it was a 21 month return trip.
Thank you, LOL
With the R7 and the 800 mm you can make that shot from earth lol 😂
Thanks for posting the video! I've really been enjoying the R7 (coming from the 80D), while the noise is worse, the camera overall performs so much better. Fun fact, you can turn the sound completely off on the electric shutter
Thank you! I appreciate the tip! I kind of like to have it on so I know I'm shooting.
I wouldn't worry about noise levels at high ISOs. For perched birds in low light, the combination of body IBIS and lens IS would allow for sharp images at ridiculously slow shutter speeds, handheld, even zoomed all the way in, that would allow for a much cleaner image. Just fire a burst of shots, you'll get a couple of sharp, clean frames in there.
That is exactly the strategy that we often employ including on virtually every shot in this video. Thanks for watching!
4000 and below on an apsc is really good I think. I would never break 1600 with my 80D. I just got the R7 and also have R6 but Im not expecting to compare IQ. Focus seems a little better with R7
Thank you! I found the R6 and R7 auto focus to be about the same. There is one setting that you can change on the R7 that allows it to always track even in other focus modes then the full screen tracking mode and while that’s something I don’t like to use for burting, I think it’s going to be great for sports.
Kudos! Y'all make a great team and have great content. Very good sir and madam. Thank you.
Thank you and thanks for watching!
Whooo! Super cool 😎
Thank you!
Nice job, as always! I didn’t get mine until Sunday. FedEx always manages to keep me guessing. I only did a couple of hours of bird photography today but I was pretty happy with the results. I try to do lots of birds in flight photography and the R7 definitely grabs the bird a bit faster than the R6. It also seemed to do better with birds on the ground compared to my R6. I really have no issues with the noise. I stayed out until it was dark and with the relatively slow 100-500mm lens it did well enough. To me it is just a dramatically better bird camera than the R6. I likely will be selling my R6. I love that camera but 98 percent of the time I am shooting birds or macro and the R7 is just better for that use case IMHO. I can fix noise. It’s more difficult to fix a lack of pixels on the subject.
That is very interesting that you feel like the R7 focuses better than the R6. To me they seem pretty much the same. However I totally agree that the R7 and its pixel density is going to be much better for birds and macro then the R6. Thanks for watching!
@@PhilThach I felt like there was a significant difference in focus performance. To me it just seems faster to grab birds in flight. The R6 is really bad at Hummingbirds in flight. I have tried lots of different settings on the R6. The R7 was just better out of the box. I was lucky to get a number of small birds in flight that I think I would be really lucky to get with the R6. I don’t think I missed many with the R7.
@@rreichar1 That is very interesting. I would be interested in your case settings.
@@rreichar1 that's because the r7 has the same autofocus as the r3, a 6,500 dollar camera
@@PhilThach That was the first day I had it so it was on the default setting for the AF case. All I had done really was the button and dial customizing before I took it out. I think the AF case was on auto. Could have been on one as well. I use case 2 on my R6 with a couple of minor mods. I am on the road and didn’t bring the R6 so I don’t remember the details. I have been trying different settings on the R7 but I haven’t made it noticeably better. I did try the R7 today with my Sigma 150-600 that I have been meaning to sell. It seemed a bit worse on the R7 compared to the R6. It was also late in the day so it’s possible that it was not getting enough light to focus effectively. I am enjoying everything about the camera other than the rolling shutter.
I live in North carolina. I've been doing photography for a few years now and more recently in the last 18 months have gotten into bird photography. There's a reservoir that's on Federal Land of the street from my house that supplies the drinking water in our area. We are on well water. Because it is federal land their signs posted everywhere that if you trespassed beyond the Road you will be federally prosecuted as a criminal. There's been debate over the years to open it up as long as people don't have boats in the water so that we can enjoy the wildlife over there. Because it is the only body of water for how about 60 miles until you get to Lake Norman. With that said because it's so close I like the photograph there after work because I don't have much time before the sun sets. I've been using my Canon R5 and my Canon 90d with the EF 100 to 400 and the RF 100 to 400. As well as the sigma 150 to 600. The sigma gives me too many problems with the R5 with Focus breathing. I bought the docking station and made some adjustments so it's not as bad as it used to be but it can still get bad. The other issue is I'm on the side of the road so I can't use a tripod because cars are blowing past at 55 to 70 mph. So I usually park my motorcycle so I'll be out of the way because there's only about 4 ft of distance between the side of the road and the concrete wall for the small bridge that I stand on. With that said the majority of my pictures even though I have the Canon Pro 100 printer or not printed but rather posted on social media. I found that my Canon R5 in crop mode actually makes a really nice image even blown up in Lightroom at the 17 megapixels. And when I post on facebook, instagram, and now more recently Vero. That the image quality still holds up even at the 17 megapixels crop factor with the r5. I was going to purchase the Canon R7 but I can't find a body cheaper than $1,800 anywhere and I'm not going to pay that much for a crop body just to take a picture of a bird. I've already spent thousands of dollars on telephoto lenses. I really like the features of the Canon R7 and would love to have one but at this point in time until they are used and closer to $1,000 I think I'm going to hold off and just use crop mode on my r5. I actually have my shutter speed setup as shutter speed, I have my second dial setup for aperture and then I have the scroll wheel set up for exposure compensation as I use auto ISO when shooting birds. I found having control over exposure compensation in a fast way is more important then changing my ISO. Especially when you got a small bird with a bright background like the great blue heron or some of the other herons that I take images of that are just a bright bright white color. Thank you so much for all your videos as I really really love your Channel and want to thank you for taking the time to upload and create this content. I will definitely like share and subscribe. But I guess the point to everything I was saying was crop mode on the R5 is in as bad as a lot of people make it out to be unless you're doing large prints
I'm sure crop mode on the R5 is just fine. Thanks for watching!
is the high iso better on the R7 or the NikonZ50?
After comparing some of my old Z50 files to these files at 100% zoom, I’d say pretty confidently that the R7 outperforms the Z50 in terms of noise.
@@heatherthach thank you for the information. I am considering an R7 as a second body to my R5 to use for wildlife photography
I looked at the two images of Heathers, one with the Z50 at 3600 ISO and another with the R7 at 4000 ISO. The R7 file looked cleaner. I'm just spoiled by the R6 which is the best High ISO low noise camera I've ever used. Terrible reach though. Thanks for watching, Mike!