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I picked up the Canon R7 a week ago and shot with it for a week in a variety of conditions before starting this thread. I had a trip to Las Vegas coming up and a retailer showed one in stock near me, so I literally got it on the way to the airport. I had one hour to put it in a camera bag with the kit lens and I took the Sigma EF 50mm F1.4 and straight through RF to EF adapter because I knew I wanted to test it in lowlight conditions and the kit lens at F3.5 wasn't going to be fast enough. On paper the R7 checks every box I was looking for as s b-cam to the C70 and as a second body for the R5 so I went for it. So, below are my thoughts on the Canon R7 after shooting with it for a week. My intended use is as a B video camera for the C70, possibly a gimbal camera, and some light solo/travel photography/video work and maybe as a second camera for the R5 for weddings (not a fan of weddings at all but who knows what the future holds). This review will ramble a bit, I now own the R5, R7, and C70 and have owned the Canon R6 (for 1 week), Panasonic S5, and GH5 so at times I will probably compare some likes and dislikes with those cameras. I will probably compare it mostly to the Panasonic S5 since to me they are the most direct competitors that I have used. THE GOOD Ergonomics - This camera's ergonomics are perfect to me. This is without a doubt one of the most comfortable cameras to hold that I've ever owned. I like big heavy cameras (I already added the battery grip to my R5) and thought I wouldn't like the ergonomics of the R7, but the grip is perfect. I actually did not like the ergonomics of the S5 at all, very uncomfortable to hold with its shallow grip and even the R6 wasn't that great in my opinion. Canon made the grip on the R7 much deeper and somehow that did the trick for me. I did not even have time to rig up a camera strap before my trip so I had no camera strap when shooting photos or video and it still was really comfortable. Joystick Thumbwheel - Another home run for Canon. I was a bit neutral on the thumbwheel; I don't like change as much as anyone else, and was unsure about the thumbwheel around the joystick, but after using it I wish all of my cameras had it there. It is very logical and the height of the joystick protrudes just enough that you don't accidentally scroll then wheel. Speaking of the joystick, it is so much better than the one on the C70, it is actually precise and useable unlike the terrible one on the C70. Dedicated Video Switch - It is great that they brought back the dedicated video switch, its still annoying to me on the R5 to have to customize a button for this and use that button instead of a toggle switch. Viewfinder / Backscreen - These are pretty acceptable, I read online some people were complaining about the viewfinder specs; personally, I am still not a fan of EVF's in general and still miss my OVF in my 5DIV but to me the R7's EVF is no worse or better than say the S5 or R6. The backscreen is definitely better than the S5, the back screen on the S5 especially when focusing was a constant source of annoyance for me. Batteries / Battery Life - Nothing short of incredible. I shot a mixture of clips and photos each day for about a week and the battery only dropped 20%. Way better than the R5 in this regards and maybe slightly better than the S5. This is the first camera I would be comfortable shooting photography with without a battery grip. As far as batteries go, I am literally overflowing with them...they are the same batteries as the DSLR 5D series as well as the R5 and R6, so its nice to be able to swap batteries between the R5 and R7, interchangeability is very important to me. And yes, I know the older DSLRs took a slightly different battery, but it still works in the R7 (minus in body charging). Video Quality - The video quality is pretty much what I expected, nothing earth shattering, but also totally acceptable results. 4K60FPS, 4K30FPS, 4K Fine, and regular line skipped 4K are all there. I like compressed IPB so that's the only thing I used during the trip. Loaded up with dual 1TB SD cards and I could probably shoot on a month long trip without running out of space. Dual Slot Recording - Canon finally gets it, they released this feature on day 1. A huge Canon pet peeve of mine has been they typically don't offer dual slot video recording. With the R7 it is there and works as expected. Speaking of recording its great that it uses SD cards, I can share them between the C70, R5, and now the R7 so there's that interchangeability thing again. Photography Quality - Nothing out of this world, but perfectly fine for social media or even print work. I didn't get to really test the photography features, since I did not take a wireless trigger or any sort of lighting, I did not really push the quality boundaries of the sensor since I was stuck with ambient light. Ambient light does make you work a little extra in post, and the images did not fall apart when pushing the shadows and dropping the highlights. For the images I shot in cRAW. Kit Lens - I haven't used a kit lens in years, and forgot how useful that range is. The kit lens is a RF-S 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 with no lens IS. Yes I hate variable aperture, but that turned out to be super useful range when travelling. No lens swapping needed to get wider or longer, for what it was it performed pretty well. IBIS - It was nice shooting with a camera with IBIS again (after shooting with the C70). IBIS is rock solid when stationary and only doing simple camera movements. I also turned on horizon leveling (a first for Canon cameras) but couldn't tell how well it works since I am already a stickler for level horizons so I couldn't tell how much it was helping me keep it level. Walking with the IBIS is still impossible to me, if you want to walk with this camera and have good results you still need a gimbal. CLOG3 - I used CLOG 3 extensively, it performed as expected, nothing exceptional, but no surprises isn't a bad thing. Build Quality - I would say the build quality is about on par for Canon's recent releases (R5, R6) and of course above the quality of the C70 (sad isn't it?). All of the buttons, the back screen, and the feel of the camera is better than the C70. I would place the build quality right below the S5 and two steps below the GH5. Not bad....just predictable at this price point for Canon. Menu System - If you have ever shot with any Canon you will be right at home with the menu system. You do know though that you are using a modern Canon offering when you hit the first menu and it has 10 pages. I actually like the S5's menu system better in some ways, but once again, the R7 is just very predictable. Auto Focus - Just like every other Canon.....it just works. I didn't really stress it or try to break it, I just shot with it and it focused on what I needed it to and it maintained AF. I still am not really a fan of the person or eye AF when there is more than one person in the frame, I probably just need to learn how to work with it better, but for me, the most predictable AF settings are still to just use expand AF and put the cross hairs on what I want in focus. Eye AF works well though for talking heads or when the subject fills the frame. The AF is definitely much better than the C70 and seems about even with the R5 and R6. Low Light - I think it is not bad, definitely not as good as the S5 with its dual native ISO, but perfectly acceptable up to about 3200ISO. With a speedbooster and fast lens it is probably on par with the S5 in low light. Lens Mount - I mentioned it somewhere else, this is the ONLY Canon camera that supports EF, EF-S, RF, and RF-S at the moment; meaning it has a massive lens selection on day one. Knowing I can use every Canon and Sigma lens that I own on this camera is a great feeling. So, to wrap up THE GOOD, my overall assessment is that it is just a very predictable middle of the road camera which does photography and video equally well. Of course putting it like that makes me realize just how good this camera really is, I have said many times that I think Canon accidentally created the perfect hybrid with this camera and based on my experience so far, I still think that is the best way to describe it; a reliable solid 4K camera that is also very good at photography, that's all I have ever wanted out of a hybrid. BTW, I was in Las Vega with average daily temps of 95F-106F and never even thought about overheating. These were short clips mixed with photography and fiddling with menu settings; the exact same setup I had with the R5 when it gave me an overheat warning. THE BAD Highlight Rolloff - without a doubt the absolute worse problem with this camera. The highlight rolloff is horrendously bad. I don't even think about highlight rolloff with modern cameras, I typically leave that to the pixel peepers to complain about, but with the R7 it is without a doubt its biggest flaw. Its highlight roll off performance is about equal to my Canon T6 Rebel and far worse than even my drone with its 1" sensor. At first I thought it was just the kit lens causing it to be so bad, but I shot with the Sigma 50mm F1.4 and it did not get better. Highlight rolloff is important to me because I mostly shoot people in bad lighting where hot spots abound. Kit Lens - Yes it has a great range, but optically it just isn't very good. At the long end it gets cloudy, somewhere in the middle its not very sharp, and at the short end its somewhat acceptable. I think the Canon EF 24-105 F4.0 L lens or the Sigma EF-S 18-35 F1.8 would be a much better lens for this camera but neither offer the type of range that the kit lens offers. The camera sensor definitely far outperforms the kit lens as is to be expected. IBIS Wobble - at the 18mm end of the kit lens the IBIS wobble is pretty bad, definitely worse than anything I got with the S5. If you try to walk at all, it introduces wobble that cannot be removed in post. Towards the 30mm+ end of the range it gets better. Also, the lens did not have IS so a lens with IS may perform better. Video Tools - Typical Canon, no WFM, no false color, and my #1 pet peeve....the electronic level and histogram disappear when you hit record. The S5 and GH5 both keep them on the screen while recording. The R5, R6, and now the R7 don't. The C70 doesn't even have an electronic level. Accessories - No battery grip and possibly there never will be one. I am on the fence if one is needed with a hybrid camera, I typically use one for photography and none for video and I also typically put a cage on my video cameras and none on my photography cameras, so this one is a bit of an oddity to me. But I do like the battery grip because I mostly work with people and shoot vertical, with a battery grip the shutter button and wheels are at my fingertips when shooting vertical. Power PD - This camera like the R5 needs a Power PD USB-C power supply. This is annoying for me because my current setup does not meet the requirements for power PD. Ironically, the C70 doesn't even have this requirement and works just fine with my V-Mount battery. The R5 and R7 have this requirement, whereas the C70 and S5 work just fine with my current setup. Settings Sharing - The R7 does not seem to share settings between the photography and video menus. With the S5 it let me pick which settings to share between them such as ISO and WB. This may be an option in the menu settings somewhere but I haven't found it yet. OTHER I think this camera combined with the Viltrox speedbooster and EF lenses could be a great combination if you already have EF lenses. Or you could go with the straight through adapter and use your EF-S lenses. I have both Twice out of over 100 clips during my trip the camera for some reason ignored the CLOG3 profile and recorded in something else. I never even went back into that menu during the trip so I don't think it was user error. I also thought maybe I pressed record while in photography mode but it doesn't start recording when you do that; so I am not sure why it did that. I noticed the same thing with the R5, it will randomly record a clip without using CLOG3 occasionally. CONCLUSION I think I am done with purchasing any camera bodies for the next 5yrs or so. I once again have a fully interchangeable system, batteries, memory cards, and lenses are mostly interchangeable. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Here are my reviews for: The S5 - Panasonic S5 User Experience The C70 - Canon C70 User Experience BONUS I shot a video with the R7 while I was in Vegas. My goal was to test photography, video, daylight, dusk, and lowlight. I do think I did this camera a disservice using the kit lens for a video test, but it was the most useable lens I had with me; the 50mm turned into an 85mm on this camera and was too zoomed in for most of what I wanted to film. I also did not bring a mic, so I was stuck using the integrated mic. For the video below I went out of my way to film different skin tones, lighting situations, etc. I also graded it to Rec.709 since I always hate seeing camera test videos where they have a heavy creative grade making it impossible to see what SOOC looks like. I don't believe in doing the pixel peeping test chart thing so I just get out and shoot the type of content that I shoot to see how a camera performs.

Here is another R5C extra secret bonus hack: Turn the camera off when you're not shooting. I'm kidding, Canon should obviously address this. Poor battery life is what is keeping most away from this camera. Sounds like its Achilles heel..

Exactly they could implement an optional timer setting that when you are in menus or not recording for that time the camera stops live feeding video.... or switches to a much lower res mode as R5 does.

Throwing it in at the deep end today… Not had a chance to test it properly but no option as I need something for full ceremony & speeches today! I’m sure it will be fine… 🫣

Ah… I understood it that there was a crop with 4K 50/60p and one of the things I wish to avoid in any future camera system is a difference in crop shooting hybrid. It has grown to bother me with the S1H and S1R… I don’t mind a cropped sensor camera; M4/3 or APSC, but I want consistent focal lengths when shooting hybrid which is another reason I went with the OM-1.

A useful battery hack for the R5C. Basically if you hit the Media button and keep it in that mode while you aren't shooting, you can almost triple the battery's life: