Canon EOS R7: wildlife photography minus the bankruptcy

It’s no coincidence that the Canon EOS R7 bears that name. This model is a mirrorless counterpart of the ageing EOS 7D SLR camera. Just like the 7D, the R7 has no full-frame sensor, but the smaller APS-C format instead. Both cameras are designed for sports, action and wildlife photography. In other words, they offer fast continuous shooting and a fast autofocus.

If you compare the R7 to full-frame sports cameras, such as the R3, the R7 is one thing above all: not as criminally expensive. That’s why I tested it with an affordable telephoto lens. I wanted to find out if sports and wildlife photography is also available to photographers on a shoestring. And, if so, how big the trade-offs are.

Continuous shooting speed: I wanna hear that rattle

Fast scenes require many frames per second to capture the right moment. The difference between the electronic and mechanical shutter is important for the continuous shooting speed.

The electronic shutter is silent and usually much faster than the mechanical one. That’s because nothing is moved physically. However, depending on the camera, rolling shutter and banding may occur.

The R7 manages 30 frames per second with an electronic shutter – which is almost always more than enough. Having said that, very fast movements cause a rolling shutter effect, which is visible in the image of the fan.

Banding also occurs. The combination of artificial light and fast shutter speeds can cause stripes of varying brightness to appear. This is caused by the flickering of an artificial light source.

But none of this really matters because the mechanical shutter doesn’t have these problems – and it’s also very fast in the R7’s case. Delivering 15 frames per second, the camera is one of the best on the market. Even the Canon EOS 1D X III SLR, for which the manufacturer still wanted over 7,000 francs in 2020, barely shoots faster with its 16 frames per second.

However, in video mode or when the camera needs to be silent, you’ll have to use the electronic shutter. This is the first drawback you’ll have to make compared to a professional sports camera like the R3, the Nikon Z9 or the Sony A9 II. These cameras read the sensor so quickly that rolling shutter isn’t an issue.

Professional sports cameras can also keep up the continuous shooting speed for longer. The R3, for example, manages several hundred images without interruption. According to the specs, the buffer memory of the R7 is sufficient for 41 to 187 RAW images, depending on the card and settings. In my case, it was about 60 RAW images. Strangely, the endurance depends on the ISO value you use. At 100 ISO, the camera manages more pictures than at 6400 ISO.

I could easily live with this limitation, the buffer empties quickly and is ready for the next series if you have a fast memory card.

Excellent autofocus

The autofocus recognises people, animals and vehicles. I didn’t test vehicles on the R7, but it works well on people and animals. If the animals are behind branches, cage bars or other obstacles, they remain reliably in focus with the right configuration. What doesn’t work, however, is focusing on a bird hiding behind branches right from the start. But I can’t really complain about that. After all, I’ve never come across a camera that has managed this.

During my test, I struggled to find disadvantages compared to a super-expensive sports camera. All this autofocus for so little money is a first.

But I do have one small criticism. There’s a highly confusing error: subject tracking is set to «enable» when it’s already enabled and to «disable» when it’s disabled. Canon’s mixed up the labels «enable» and «disable».

Lens: okay for the price

Ultimately, it’s the lens that focuses – the camera just tells it to do so. Therefore, the lens must be fast enough. As for the Canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 I can say: it does the job. Not only does it focus quickly but also quietly, as Canon uses the modern Nano USM motor type.

In addition, the lens is very light for a super telephoto. That’s an important advantage if you’re hand-held shooting over longer periods. However, it only manages to be that light because of its low light intensity: f/8 at the long end. As a result, you frequently have to shoot with high ISO values. Many of my shots are at the automatic upper limit of 6400 ISO. And that’s where the camera is already making quite a lot of noise.

To make matters worse, you should always leave some space around your subject when it’s moving very fast. And sometimes, animals are simply too far away, like this wagtail. Obviously, the cropping makes the image quality suffer even more.

If the lighting conditions are good, you’ll be able to take good pictures. Unfortunately, no bird came close enough to my camera in bright light during the test period. But these are some successful sample photos taken with this lens for a test review.

A faster alternative would be the Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM, which also allows you to zoom in a little closer on shy birds. However, this lens isn’t just a little more expensive, but comes with a price tag several times higher. And let’s face it – in bad lighting conditions, it would also be tricky with the more expensive model.

On advantage of the 100-400mm is that even at 400mm, you can focus up to roughly one metre. This means you can take relatively large photos of small subjects such as insects. The maximum magnification is 0.58 compared to 0.46 for the 100-500mm.

Video – great image quality but only at 25p

The camera manages 4K without crop, but offers a UHD crop mode as an option. In that mode, only the centre part of the sensor is used, which narrows the image section by a factor of 1.8. This can be useful when shooting wildlife with a telephoto lens, as it allows you to get a little closer to your subject. Even 50 or 60 frames per second are possible without cropping.

There is one drawback, though. You can only get so-called «UHD fine» at 24, 25 or 30 frames. UHD fine downscales the 4K video in real time from a higher resolution (oversampling), resulting in a sharper image. At 50 or 60 frames per second, the sensor isn’t fully read (line skipping). And this difference is very visible.

In the article below, the calculation types crop, oversampling and line skipping are explained in more detail.

Switching from photo to video mode is done via the on-off switch. Both modes have their own settings menu, so you can set everything separately. Videos can also be started in photo mode and you can set different settings than in video mode. For example, it could be useful to select 4K50p for videos from an action photography session and 4K25p with higher quality in video mode – for slower videos that can be scheduled ahead.

To test if the camera overheats, I ran 4K with oversampling at about 25 degrees. After a good hour, the memory card was full. The camera only warmed up slightly in the process. It displayed a temperature scale on the screen that stopped at about two thirds of the maximum value. So it's very unlikely that you’ll have to abandon a session due to the R7 camera overheating.

Operation: reinventing the wheel

The camera’s equipped with a mini-joystick. It’s essential for a quick alignment of the focus field. There’s a dial around the joystick. The absence of the large dial that’s on the R3, R5 and R6 has freed up space for four more buttons.

The dial is a bit far away for my thumb, which is on the small side. Although I can operate it, the layout isn’t perfect. I’m also missing the second dial on the top.

On the R7, Canon has gone for the good old mode dial instead of a mode button. You can lock it if you want, but I never accidentally jumped to another mode during the test period.

Like all more recent Canon cameras, the R7 can be configured very individually in terms of operation. I get the impression this is also necessary. But it does take time until you get the settings the way you want them. In this context, I’d appreciate it if the settings could be saved to the SD card.

Let me give you an example of this from action photography. If you’re working with a fast continuous shooting function, you often end up with dozens of images that are almost identical. It’s usually a good idea to start sorting them directly on the camera. Although you can do this with the R7, the solution isn’t great, as it involves adjusting the camera settings.

This is because the images in a series aren’t grouped together, unlike with Sony. Having said that, the camera seems to know which images belong to a series, because you can delete the whole series – or scene, as the camera calls it – at once. Protected images will be saved. Unfortunately, there’s no button to protect the pictures ex works. You have to go a very long-winded way via the menu. That’s why I configured a button for it. I selected Af-On, with resulted in Af-On doing nothing in record mode. This makes sense because Canon doesn’t separate the playback functions from the recording functions during configuration.

Viewfinder, battery life and lens selection

When I saw the specs of the R7, I was concerned about the viewfinder. It has a resolution of 1024×768 pixels, which isn’t very much. However, this didn’t bother me when I tried it out. Besides, low resolutions also have an advantage: the device can make do with less power. The R7’s battery lasts a very long time. The CIPA values are 550 with viewfinder and 700 with LCD. Two batteries saw me through a ten-day holiday. However, I hardly recorded any videos.

So far, there are only two lenses built specifically for APS-C sensors in the R system. They’re called RF-S, in line with the EF-S for the APS-C lenses on SLR cameras. One of the two RF-S has an all-around focal length of 18-150 millimetres, which is very handy, especially when you’re on holiday. The image quality of this super-zoom is okay, although it could be sharper in the telephoto range.

The same combination of focal length and speed already exists for the Canon EOS-M system, which is also mirrorless and APS-C. Presumably, it’s the same lens with a different bayonet.

The other RF-S lens with a focal length of 15-45 millimetres is also already available for EOS M. I assume that Canon will gradually release more lenses from the EOS M range for the EOS R system as well. This doesn’t require much effort, so there should probably be broad selection of RF-S lenses available in the medium term. However, it’s uncertain whether Canon will design new lenses especially for RF-S – for example a super telephoto, which would be even more compact and lighter than the 100-400mm tested here, which is designed for full frame.

Verdict: yep, it works

The Canon EOS R7 is a solid sports and action camera for amateur photographers. If you enjoy taking pictures of birds from time to time without having to shell out 5,000 bucks or more, the R7 is a great option. Its autofocus is the best I’ve ever seen in this price range.

Of course, there are some trade-offs compared to a professional sports camera. For example, the sensor shows a definite rolling shutter effect with the electronic shutter. Fortunately, the mechanical shutter is also super fast, so this can usually be avoided. The buffer memory doesn’t meet professional standards either. But with a fast memory card and moderate use, it’s rarely full.

I’m pleasantly surprised by the lightweight and inexpensive 100-400mm lens. In good light, it serves its purpose as a wildlife and sports lens. In low light, it quickly reaches its limits.

This camera and super telephoto combo proves that you no longer have to spend a small fortune to set yourself up with decent sports and action photo equipment.