Canon R7
We have the brand new Canon R7, and you get a lot of bang for your buck with this $1500 camera. We're going to be reviewing it and testing it as an all-around general camera.
Versatility and Sponsorship:
Dang, I want to see how it compares against the Canon EOS RP. While this camera is a couple of years old, it's a full-frame camera, so its sensor is more than twice as big as that camera. And with the Canon 24-240, they're about the same price. I think this might be better at some things, but let's find out. But first, I want to take a minute to thank our sponsor, Milford Photo.
About Milford Photo:
Milford Photo is located in Connecticut, just like us. We're so excited to be doing this with them because they actually provided us with this R7. We showed up at their store and bought it, and they had us first on the list. So thank you, Milford Photo. If you're in the Connecticut area, definitely go into Milford Photo.
Benefits of Milford Photo:
They're right in the heart of Connecticut, and they have an amazing store there where you can actually touch and feel all the things you might buy, discover things you didn't know existed, and, best of all, you can get in-person help to answer all of your questions and make this so much easier.
Online Shopping:
If you're shopping online, go to milfordphoto.com. And if you're thinking about buying something, you can actually call them up to get clarification on what things work together and what is the best part to buy. I recommend talking to Rich; he helped us find the R7. He's extremely knowledgeable and passionate.
Camera Overview:
So you don't just have to guess anymore. You can call Milford Photo; you can know you're supporting a small business that's been around for 27 years, and you can get the camera that's right for you. So thanks, Milford Photo.
Testing the Canon R7:
Let's take a walk around this park and see what we think of the new R7.
Sensor and Versatility:
The R7 has a 32-megapixel sensor, and if you spend an extra $500, you can get this 18-150 kit lens, which is really nice, actually because it has a lot of range. If you're shooting your kid's sports or something, you might appreciate that extra reach.
Auto Level Feature:
But it also acts pretty well as a macro lens, so I'm able to get these bee photos even though they're really up close. What that also means for an all-around kit is that this is extremely versatile.
4K Video Capabilities:
You can also do video with this camera; it has 4K 60 video with no crop. The R6 has that, but it's like $2600, so that's a good value, and you can add something to your repertoire: family video and photo.
Dual Card Slots:
The R7 offers two card slots; that means if one gets corrupted, you always have your backup photos on the other card. That's a feature I love; I have had cards be corrupted before; I have lost my photos, and it's heartbreaking.
Comparing with Canon EOS RP:
In the real world, we just couldn't see a big difference between the R7 and RP. Little things like where the camera focuses or whether or not the breeze was blowing the flowers made a bigger difference than the lens and the sensor size.
Low Light Performance:
But what about in low light environments? These photos were taken at ISO 25600; they're both really noisy, of course, but the RP is significantly cleaner, as you'd expect from a full-frame sensor.
Portrait Photography:
Let's compare this against the R7 to see how they do for portraits, pictures of people.
Portrait Lens Test:
We're going to start with the respective kit lenses and then we're going to switch to some proper portrait lenses to see how it handles really shallow depth of field.
Conclusion and Sponsorship Reminder:
In conclusion, we give the R7 two thumbs up; it's a great camera. I think it's the ultimate camera if you're doing some sports and wildlife. If you're shopping in the $1500 range, I like it better than the Fujifilm XT4, I like it better than the Sony A600, or even the Canon 90D DSLR. It brings everything together; it's just an all-around great performer.
A Note on Wildlife Photography:
But if you're not interested in doing action like wildlife or sports, then you probably want to go with the RP because it's full frame; it will be better in low light situations and it's the same price with the 24-240 lens.
Important Reminder:
If you do buy the Canon R7, remember to switch to the mechanical shutter for wildlife if your subjects are moving. The good news is that it's quiet at 15 frames per second, and it's still really fast. One thing that's nice is that this also has five-axis in-body image stabilization, which means I can put my shutter speed a little bit lower and not get as much noise in the photo.
Impression with the Canon R7:
I'm really impressed with the reaction time of this camera, especially for a $1500 camera. I'm used to shooting with the Sony Alpha 1 or the Canon R5, and I can tell that it's a little bit slower in the autofocus; the frame rate is not as high, but it is still super fast and highly capable of shooting wildlife.
Testing Wildlife Photography:
We brought the cameras into the studio to do a proper portrait shoot and see how they each performed, and we did find a few differences.
Sync Speed and Portrait Results:
The RP's sync speed, the fastest shutter speed it can use with studio strobes like this, is 1/160th of a second. That's not that great. The R7 is 1/250th of a second, which is significantly faster and that's going to be better for freezing the motion of wiggly little kids in the portrait studio.
Final Thoughts:
So here we have a single light setup bouncing off these v-flats to add a little bit of fill with our gravity backdrop back there. Let's take a look at the results.
