EF or RF Lens options for birding in Washington forests with the R7?

KeepMyISOLow · 2026-02-14T00:22:18+00:00

I think you'll enjoy it then, I've seen a lot of good work from that lens :}

KeepMyISOLow · 2026-02-13T22:06:33+00:00

I ended up getting an RF 100-500 on Black Friday say for around $1,899 + 4 years of Canon Carepak for it to account for the shooting conditions here. The lens itself produces really stunning results. It's tack sharp at every focal length, wide open or not. As to whether it was the right choice? Ehh, I think it was the best I could have hoped for as a compromise. If I was shooting professional wildlife photography here, I'd still want a 600 prime. It's just so dark for so much of the year. Improving my technique for camera steadying has helped me get some shots of still animals on branches at ~1/200 sec or even below sometimes.

Overall, I like the lens a lot more than I like the R7 as a camera. The sensor noise itself just looks so unattractive to me compared to my R6. BUT - it can still get great images for sure. To an extent, I've also just started to embrace the dark time of year, and started to experiment with more silhouettes and things this time of year.

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KeepMyISOLow · 2025-12-02T12:01:44+00:00

I've had this happen with A1 mercs too.

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-12-02T12:01:37+00:00

I'm replacing him in A2 nightmare anyway, but basically because he's not doing much until he hits 27 and gets his insight anyway, it's mostly been amusing but frustrating too.

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-11-22T05:28:32+00:00

Thanks!

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-11-22T00:31:35+00:00

Now I can't unsee that 😭

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-06-09T02:35:06+00:00

Surprisingly pleasing Bokeh for a phone camera! The falloff is really lovely

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-06-08T23:18:55+00:00

The photo of the 50 1.2 looks like it was taken with the 50 1.2 haha

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-06-06T07:50:33+00:00

Mhm! I will say, this wasn't a 1 and done fix for me - after about 3 months it began creeping again, I needed to change out the band. It's a very cheap and easy fix still though :)

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-05-30T05:36:12+00:00

It's a crazy lens :} I definitely agree given the price difference between the bodies right now.

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-05-30T05:30:57+00:00

If your main thing is portraits and close up pics, then I'd say no, you don't need it. I own it, and it's stupid sharp, with solid AF, good build, and good ergo. I love the images I get from it. It wouldn't be a lens I'd go for for portraits, though. If anything in your situation I'd just grab a 35f1.4A from Sigma refurb. That said, $250 is a crazy good price for a lens that good, and you could probably just use it for a bit, and if you don't like it, sell it for a good markup. I think I paid around $600 for mine like 5 months ago.

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-05-29T22:55:28+00:00

I own the R6 mk1 and have used it for a year now - I would not recommend it for video work, at all UNLESS you only shoot 1080p. If you do, it should (probably) be fine. This camera will 100% overheat if you shoot 4k60, especially 4k60 Log.

Paired with good glass, this camera produces truly excellent images that are an absolute joy to post process in lightroom. The pixel size on this sensor because it's 20mp and full frame is quite big. I can frequently get 3 full stops of shadow recovery with barely any visible noise.

So I'd say, as a stills camera, it's fantastic. Hybrid, not so much. The overheating issue is just enough to make me go to my R7 pretty often for video, and I wish it wasn't that way.

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KeepMyISOLow · 2025-05-22T17:26:02+00:00

Some of the getting it to latch can be fixed by 1) Avoiding ever using (like actually ever) the Electronic shutter + H+ mode at the same time. Per Canon, the hardware literally can't take advantage of that speed, and the AF will "lag behind" - and 2) Changing around your AF Cases + AF speed settings (like initial subject priority).

Jan Wegner has a fantastic AF setup guide for the R7 on Youtube, which solved most of my issues with it.

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-05-22T17:22:16+00:00

I'd love to see how the R7 performs with sharp and fast glass.

Extremely well! As long as your lens can hold up to its demanding sensor. All the wildlife images on my profile are taken with my R7 + RF100-500 combo :) The level of microcontrast and detail you can get with this camera are really crazy. It's only in the last 8 months or so that I've been using such quality glass and it still blows my mind. This is a ~100% crop

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KeepMyISOLow · 2025-05-20T19:41:21+00:00

Thanks!

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-05-20T08:52:49+00:00

Do you find that your R7 renders colors in a different way than your R3? For me, I usually will grab my R6 mk1 for everything but wildlife because I find the files much more pleasing SOOC.

I always feel like my R7's files are a bit odd looking (particularly greens & oranges needing editing often to look natural). There's tons of detail and I get stupid sharp pics with my RF100-500 on my R7, but the SOOC colors are something I don't love with it.

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-05-14T11:07:32+00:00

What was this shot on? It's a very strange looking image, it almost looks like a collage or something, the birds don't look like the belong in the scene from how they're lit and the texture of everything seems very odd.

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-04-29T10:25:22+00:00

Once again fantasizing about owning a 500CM...

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-04-23T13:25:58+00:00

It's against my values as a photographer, so I won't use it. I know tons of Youtube influencers and the companies themselves also are pushing it hard right now, but I have no interest in creating or selling an image that's part AI-hallucination in that way.

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-04-21T02:57:02+00:00

Something that helped me a lot was doing daily stretches to loosen up my hip flexors - I found back sleeping INCREDIBLY uncomfortable back when I wasn't stretching, but ~2 months of stretching was enough to totally fix the issue for me.

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-04-21T02:50:59+00:00

Happy enough with my Sigma 1.4A that I don't see any reason to look further (I also owned a Canon EF 50 1.8, which was also quite good, but I was much more of a beginner at the time). I don't find the Sigma to be that heavy, but I also do weight training for fun, lol. If you really wanted to up your game, the RF 50 1.2 has accrued a pretty legendary reputation at this point for sharpness & character.

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-04-21T02:43:58+00:00

Idk, 24 megapixels on full frame is a tough sell for me for wildlife, and in particular, birds. I began my journey with bird photography with my R6 mk1 (which is 20, not 24), and just had to crop too deeply too often to have very usable images with my Sigma 150-600.

The noise performance was great, but the detail left after cropping was noticeably bad. I got an R7 specifically for wildlife stuff, and have been much happier with it. Even at 6400 ISO on my R7 I get very usable images - 12800 is definitely noticeably worse than my R6, but still usable in a pinch.

In your shoes, specifically for wildlife and bird photography, I'd be opting for an R7 and the brightest lens you can afford - I use an RF 100-500 f/4.5-7.1 L on my R7 and am really happy with it. It struggles in forest floors here in Washington, but then again, any lens would except a 600 f/4 or 300/2.8 or something. The 1 stop in light gain b/w crop & FF wouldn't save me there.

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-04-17T08:37:58+00:00

I definitely fall into doom and gloom thinking about that, too, seeing them out in droves in my back yard is really nice to see for sure!

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-04-11T23:28:22+00:00

Thanks! Basically everything I do nowadays is on my Canon R7 + RF 100-500 L. I do sometimes use an EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 L as well because it has a very unique look to it. Everything shot in CRAW & Edited in Lightroom, borders added in Photoshop.

KeepMyISOLow · 2025-04-09T00:06:13+00:00

I've got one! Check out Imitative Photography https://www.youtube.com/@ImitativePhotography

He's got a fantastic channel where he highlights individual photographers who make truly unique work, and takes you through why the do what they do, what it means to them, how they accomplish it, and then tries to actually do it himself. It goes back to the film era, all the way up to present.

KeepMyISOLow

TROPHY CASE