Canon R7 User Experience

[herein2020]

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.

 

[Andrew Reid]

Cheers for posting, very detailed.

Did you notice anything like a crop mode, for 2x or Super 16mm lenses in 4K?

[Andrew Reid]

Highlight roll off is a common problem at the moment.

Try this with it, I'll give you a free copy

https://www.eoshd.com/dynamic-range-enhancer-H264-H265/

[herein2020]

3 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Cheers for posting, very detailed.

Did you notice anything like a crop mode, for 2x or Super 16mm lenses in 4K?

It has a crop mode in the menu but it is very odd, you can only shoot at 60FPS in crop mode, it greys out 24 and 30FPS, so I didn't use it at all. 

I think the crop mode would be useful with say a FF lens on a speedbooster to give you extra reach so it would turn a 24-105 EF mount lens into a 38-166mm lens or at least that's what I thought when I looked at it in the menu, but not sure why its only 60FPS. It probably would work as well though for Super 16 lenses hadn't thought about that since I don't have any.

[FHDcrew]

35 minutes ago, herein2020 said:

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.

That’s very unfortunate!  I hear you about the highlight rolloff, and in fact can relate. About half of my work consists of talking head footage where I can bring in big diffusion and spend time getting the lighting just as I like. But a large chunk of my work is also event recaps, where I have to often make do with whatever lighting is available.  Thus I need a camera system which handles both scenereos well.  It’s why I love NLOG on my Nikon Z6, the highlight rolloff is just excellent!  As a result, if I have to film outdoors midday with the sun right in someone’s face and I don’t have the luxury of asking the person to kindly move to the shade or wait till golden hour and repeat their exact face of excitement…the smooth highlight rolloff NLOG and the Z6’s sensor provides really does save the day, and I find it substantially improved image quality when I’m not in ideal circumstances. Hearing that the highlight rolloff is that poor is not only quite surprising, given the fact that it has full fat CLOG3, but also a borderline dealbreaker for me!  Have any example clips?

[FHDcrew]

24 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Highlight roll off is a common problem at the moment.

Try this with it, I'll give you a free copy

https://www.eoshd.com/dynamic-range-enhancer-H264-H265/

Awesome, very nice of you to give it to herein2020.  Appreciate the contributions you both have made to this forum. 

[Kisaha]

Great review. As I have used mine only as a family camera so far, I can not add much. I will have to work on a real project with it to comment. Especially curious with the editibility™ of the video files.

Just a couple of things. Agree with mostly everything you say so far except for ergonomics. Best camera ever made is Samsung NX1. Anyone that has hold that camera for more than 4 seconds, knows..same for the menu (Operating) system, maybe not as deep as the Canon one, but easy/plain and simple (unlike their smartphones's OS!).

Why don't they put just another wheel at the back, like the one at the top?! So easy..

Mixed emotions for the joystick/wheel so far, it probably needs some knowing..

The off/photo/video dial is just terrible, the worst placed button/dial/wheel on the camera. I have accidentally turn it, in many and various occasions. Not good.

I am still not sure why I need a special Video mode..I just want to press REC, and shoot..or press a simple button (a la NX) to have a video preview If I want to.. Turning dials is not my thing and Canon seems to like those in every camera they make (I dislike it on their video cameras too, waste of time, and a dial..).

First pros I noticed were the battery life and the AF. Both are insane!

I really like the small AF/M switch right and down at the front. Even better than the switch on the lenses.

Cheap media, is a good way to keep the costs down in general. A V60 card can do wonders with this little camera.

Some other "issues"..

The software video tools as mentioned by @herein2020 and the lack of magnifying to check focus while recording.

The viewfinder and screen seem sub par for the year 2022 (definitely I will stick a monitor for pro work).

Quite honestly, it should be less than 1499€ (1650€ in Greece). Something around 1.350 maybe..

..especially when sensor's tech isn't exactly cutting edge (non stucked, non BSI). Rolling shutter seems high, and easily I would exchange 2-4megapixels, for a stop or 2 better ISO performance for video (and less rolling shutter).

the lack of meaningful RF-S lenses.

I got the 16mm RF one (25-26mm equiv.) because 24mm is usually my favorite wide length, and I have used the 18-135mm EF-S Nano, which it is absolutely unbelievable quick in auto focusing, but a system to be successful has to have its own native lenses, and despite having 3 adapters (Meike vND, Viltrox speed booster, Canon plain one), that is very different than having native small and light ones.

It's incredible what Sony is putting out there at the moment (2-3 more  rumored APS-C lenses) lens wise, and they are probably going to hit hard the R7 and Fuji/GH6 with a new APS-C camera.

All in all, except AF and battery life, this specific camera doesn't excel in much..but it seems to be the right camera, for a lot of people and situations, and - almost - an ok price..so, Canon at its best! 

If I could have a proper workhorse lens like the NX (again!) 16-50mm 2-2.8f, stabilized and all, a really wide zoom and a couple of APS-C pancake primes, that would be a great deal for me.

For now is a specialized camera, but I do not doubt that a young fella somewhere will produce exciting art or document really important stuff with this, even earn serious money. Definitely is not the joke that the a6XXX series is; it ticks most boxes and is a clever way for Canon to introduce customers to the RF line of camera and lenses. Is almost a steep price for an "introduction", or a "demo" item, but there will be plenty to pay for it.

[herein2020]

3 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Highlight roll off is a common problem at the moment.

Try this with it, I'll give you a free copy

https://www.eoshd.com/dynamic-range-enhancer-H264-H265/

I will definitely give that a try. Right now I am using Davinci Resolve's Color Management because it seemed better than the CLOG3 to Rec709 LUTS that I tried. My only complaint with it is it seems to oversaturate the colors at times so I had to dial that back in post, but it seems like a pretty good starting point.

3 hours ago, FHDcrew said:

That’s very unfortunate!  I hear you about the highlight rolloff, and in fact can relate. About half of my work consists of talking head footage where I can bring in big diffusion and spend time getting the lighting just as I like. But a large chunk of my work is also event recaps, where I have to often make do with whatever lighting is available.  Thus I need a camera system which handles both scenereos well.  It’s why I love NLOG on my Nikon Z6, the highlight rolloff is just excellent!  As a result, if I have to film outdoors midday with the sun right in someone’s face and I don’t have the luxury of asking the person to kindly move to the shade or wait till golden hour and repeat their exact face of excitement…the smooth highlight rolloff NLOG and the Z6’s sensor provides really does save the day, and I find it substantially improved image quality when I’m not in ideal circumstances. Hearing that the highlight rolloff is that poor is not only quite surprising, given the fact that it has full fat CLOG3, but also a borderline dealbreaker for me!  Have any example clips?

Yes, that's the problem with this camera, it is fine in good lighting but can't handle harsh lighting. The Panasonic S5 had perfect highlight rolloff, the R5 seems ok so far but I haven't shot with it in harsh lighting yet, and of course the C70 is fine.  It sounds like you are the rare Nikon video shooter, Nikon cameras have great video specs, but I am just too invested in Canon glass.

If you watch the reference video that I posted I deliberately left one of the terrible highlight rolloff clips in the video, anyone looking for it will spot it immediately. The bad performance is also there in pictures; so it's not even a CLOG3 thing, shooting raw images still shows the poor highlight rolloff performance. I think it is about on par with the GH5 when shooting in 8bit and no log profile.  For photography I don't think it is a big deal, with my ND filters and fill lighting setups I can always control the lighting, but video is a different story.

 

@Kisaha I have never held the Samsung NX1 so all I can compare it to is the ones I've shot with but its interesting that you've shot with both and prefer the NX1. I do agree another wheel at the back would have been nice, but I get they were probably trying to reduce costs. It is a little annoying to have to press the ISO button instead of having a wheel for it, but I don't change ISO as often as I change shutter speed and aperture so its not that big of a loss to me.

I actually really like the Off/Photo/Video switch. I didn't accidentally hit it even once and I am used to using a switch due to the R5 and the C70 and the 5DIV. For me it is a relief to have a dedicated button vs the R5.

I also like having a dedicated video mode, typically the shutter speed is different between photography and video and also CLOG3's native ISO is ISO800 vs photography where you want to try to stay at 100, so if you could record in photo mode and it inherited the photo mode's settings it could be problematic; in fact I think the R5 does let you record in photo mode and it is really annoying IMO. The R5 lets you put all of your video settings in a custom mode though so if you record in photography mode it will use the settings in the C3 mode, but I still don't like it.

I did notice the rolling shutter seems high, but I mostly shoot event work vs sports so it doesn't matter to me.  I would think for a camera meant to shoot action like the R7 and with the smaller sensor they would have controlled rolling shutter a bit better.

50 minutes ago, Kisaha said:

All in all, except AF and battery life, this specific camera doesn't excel in much..but it seems to be the right camera, for a lot of people and situations, and - almost - an ok price..so, Canon at its best! 

If I could have a proper workhorse lens like the NX (again!) 16-50mm 2-2.8f, stabilized and all, a really wide zoom and a couple of APS-C pancake primes, that would be a great deal for me.

For now is a specialized camera, but I do not doubt that a young fella somewhere will produce exciting art or document really important stuff with this, even earn serious money. Definitely is not the joke that the a6XXX series is; it ticks most boxes and is a clever way for Canon to introduce customers to the RF line of camera and lenses. Is almost a steep price for an "introduction", or a "demo" item, but there will be plenty to pay for it.

It sounds like we have reached the exact same conclusion, this camera doesn't really excel at much, but it is a solid middle of the road performer. The camera really reminds me of my Canon 24-105mm F4......its my most boring lens; not very wide, not very long, not very fast, and not the sharpest lens, but if I could only pick one lens for a trip it would be that one because it can almost rise to almost any occasion. If I had to take another road trip tomorrow and could only bring one camera to shoot photos and video it would be this camera, not the R5 (overheating, record limit, no XLR audio), and not the C70 (bulky, no IBIS, can't take commercially useable pictures). 

I do disagree that its a specialized camera, something like the Canon RP is a specialized camera. This one I think will sell to a ton of people (7D shooters, possible Sony a6xxx buyers, possible Panasonic S5 buyers, possible Nikon Z6 buyers, etc.). Pretty much anyone wanting a solidly performing true hybrid camera should consider this camera.

I do think the limited RF-S lenses and the cost of the RF lenses puts it in a strange place at the moment. But all cameras start out that way. For anyone with a lot of EF glass or even EF-S glass already though, this is a serious contender.

[FHDcrew]

3 minutes ago, herein2020 said:

It sounds like you are the rare Nikon video shooter, Nikon cameras have great video specs, but I am just too invested in Canon glass.

Haha yes I suppose I am. I’m most likely going to do the Prores RAW upgrade for the Z6, I know it’s line-skipped but I doubt moire will be an issue in the real world, I can convert to CinemaDNG for resolve use, turn off sharpening and noise reduction, yummy organic RAW images with IBIS and autofocus, for less money than an a7iv

[FHDcrew]

Just now, FHDcrew said:

Haha yes I suppose I am. I’m most likely going to do the Prores RAW upgrade for the Z6, I know it’s line-skipped but I doubt moire will be an issue in the real world, I can convert to CinemaDNG for resolve use, turn off sharpening and noise reduction, yummy organic RAW images with IBIS and autofocus, for less money than an a7iv

I definately see unique, often hidden advantages to shooting with Nikon cameras; the flat profile is mind-blowing with the amount of shadow detail it captures, considering it’s not a log profile. Still not NLOG or Prores RAW level but surprising. And NLOG (and I imagine Prores raw) make the camera shine. If the Z6 is this good I can only imagine how beast mode the Z9 is!

[FHDcrew]

7 minutes ago, herein2020 said:

I think it is about on par with the GH5 when shooting in 8bit and no log profile.

Quite pathetic I must admit. Solid highlight rolloff is such a big part of a cinematic image, huge key to emulating film. 

[herein2020]

Just now, FHDcrew said:

Haha yes I suppose I am. I’m most likely going to do the Prores RAW upgrade for the Z6, I know it’s line-skipped but I doubt moire will be an issue in the real world, I can convert to CinemaDNG for resolve use, turn off sharpening and noise reduction, yummy organic RAW images with IBIS and autofocus, for less money than an a7iv

You will definitely get better results with that than anything coming out of the R7. The C70 shooting RAW might give it a run for its money but the C70 has its own long list of downsides.

There are rumors that an R7C might come out next year, (probably with Canon RAW LT and 7K) but if it turns into a frankencamera like the R5C and keeps the R7's DR and highlight rolloff it will be DOA in my opinion.

[FHDcrew]

Just now, herein2020 said:

You will definitely get better results with that than anything coming out of the R7. The C70 shooting RAW might give it a run for its money but the C70 has its own long list of downsides.

There are rumors that an R7C might come out next year, (probably with Canon RAW LT and 7K) but if it turns into a frankencamera like the R5C and keeps the R7's DR and highlight rolloff it will be DOA in my opinion.

Canon is to the cinema world what computers are to the elderly. Both just don’t make sense…

 

I mean, having such horrendous highlight rolloff is unacceptable in 2022. When it’s equivalent to the lowest quality 4k from the freaking 5 year old GH5, that’s just sad. I don’t hear anyone talking about it, they probably want to keep getting their free review units haha. 
 

And then we have the whole fiasco with the R5, they just magically fixed overheating conveniently after the release of the R5C.  This weirdness goes so far back, like Canon disabling DPAF in 4k, requiring a hardware upgrade just to add CLOG to the 5d iv, giving the EOS R free CLOG but not any form whatsoever on the top of the line 1dx mark ii, and flat out removing 24p from several cameras  

 

[herein2020]

1 minute ago, FHDcrew said:

Quite pathetic I must admit. Solid highlight rolloff is such a big part of a cinematic image, huge key to emulating film. 

I really don't think Canon is aiming for this camera to be a top performer in any category, I think they are being much more stealthy with the cripple hammer and they have to know the sensor has a lot of room for improvement. But Sony and to a lesser extent Panasonic and Nikon are eating their lunch in this lower to middle mirrorless tier so they had to release something to compete.

For me its just a b-cam, so the C70 and maybe even the R5 at times will be the main workhorses, but when I need to capture some quick b-roll or a quick interview, the R7 is perfect for that. Then there's always those times at events when an important client grabs you by the arm and runs you over to get pictures of their VIP guests then on the way back you decide to shoot some quick b-roll. For all of those scenarios the R7 and R5 would be perfect.

For properly planned productions like promo videos, music videos, the A roll for weddings, etc, the C70 is definitely the better choice. I do think though the R7 due to its light weight will make an awesome gimbal camera. I bought the DJI Ronin RS2 to hold the C70's weight, but the combined weight of the C70 plus cage still makes it an awkward hard to balance rig. 

The R7 with its lighter weight and better AF would really excel on a gimbal. Another good use for the R7 is for real estate videos and maybe even real estate photography. It would be nice to take one camera to shoot an entire real estate photo/video project instead of 2. So the R7 for all its faults really does have a lot of decent general purpose uses.

[herein2020]

6 minutes ago, FHDcrew said:

Canon is to the cinema world what computers are to the elderly. Both just don’t make sense…

 

I mean, having such horrendous highlight rolloff is unacceptable in 2022. When it’s equivalent to the lowest quality 4k from the freaking 5 year old GH5, that’s just sad. I don’t hear anyone talking about it, they probably want to keep getting their free review units haha. 
 

And then we have the whole fiasco with the R5, they just magically fixed overheating conveniently after the release of the R5C.  This weirdness goes so far back, like Canon disabling DPAF in 4k, requiring a hardware upgrade just to add CLOG to the 5d iv, giving the EOS R free CLOG but not any form whatsoever on the top of the line 1dx mark ii, and flat out removing 24p from several cameras  

 

I agree 100%, no one talks about the highlight rolloff in a single R7 video that I watched. No one talked about Canon not offering dual slot video recording either for years, or no XLR adapter options for the R5,  or why the R5 STILL has a 30min recording limit, or why the electronic level and histogram disappear when you press record, or why even the C70 has no electronic level whatsoever in 2022. 

Very frustration IMO. But then Canon goes and offers the best lens lineup out there, and internal compressed RAW that can write to freaking V30 SD cards of all things, and best in class IBIS and AF....and all is forgiven (if you are already invested in Canon glass).

[FHDcrew]

16 minutes ago, herein2020 said:

But then Canon goes and offers the best lens lineup out there, and internal compressed RAW that can write to freaking V30 SD cards of all things, and best in class IBIS and AF....and all is forgiven (if you are already invested in Canon glass).

Agreed, certainly a unique featureset. Really the only option other than the Sigma FP/FP L and the ultra-expensive Z9, when it comes to a hybrid camera with internal RAW video. Unless you count the sweet sweet 5d III w/Magic Lantern 🙂

[MrSMW]

7 hours ago, herein2020 said:

I think I am done with purchasing any camera bodies for the next 5yrs or so

That’s what I am working on right now…

Canon ticked some boxes, but not enough and an R7 was part of that plan, but it’s not to be for me.

Great detailed write up and big 👍 for taking the time.

[herein2020]

5 hours ago, MrSMW said:

That’s what I am working on right now…

Canon ticked some boxes, but not enough and an R7 was part of that plan, but it’s not to be for me.

Great detailed write up and big 👍 for taking the time.

 

In some ways the R7 would be great for weddings (AF, lowlight performance, battery life, light weight, good photography specs, lens availability, XLR audio options, etc), but it would be hard to recommend it as an A camera for weddings with the highlight rolloff issues, not to mention dynamic range seems to be just average as well; DR is definitely not comparable to the S5. Weddings are held outdoors in direct sunlight all the time and there's a lot of situations where the scene has a really wide DR. 

With the volume of weddings that you shoot, and your hungry competition, you will definitely get better quality photography and video results with your current setup since you found a way to get Panasonic's AF to work for you. I think for lower budget weddings the R7 would do just fine, but not for a couple that is paying for a destination wedding in France.

Maybe my opinion of the R7 will improve as I use better lenses on it and shoot in more controlled scenarios, but I think its unlikely at this point.

[Andrew Reid]

It could just be the R7 is cripple hammered.

But I have a hard clip on almost every camera I own because the OS or NLE doesn't interpret full range H.265 / H.264 properly.

If you'd like to try the fix DM me 😃

[ntblowz]

Excellent write up,  but I think the 18-150 does have IS but u can only switch in the camera as there is no switch on lens (same for ef-m one which I had).

 

 I hope Canon can fix the wobble like it did with R5/R6 cause that really improves wide angle on handheld.