Not had chance to try it on birds yet but I am sure eye AF will be fine in the right situations. The one thing I am fully expecting is more consistent AF than the 7D2. I have had the 7D2 since it first came out in 2014 and must have taken around 100,000 shots with it including lots that have been publish in various magazines (inc shot of the day in the daily Telegraph) so not knocking it but things move on.
I was the same with my 7Dii, bought on thefirst day of issue. It went everywhere, coupled to my Sigma 150-600 Sport after I bought that in 2015. Got a lot of great results. Flight shots, particularly in the high winds of the autumn migration at Tarifa on my annual trip were very hit and miss though, as the bird bounced on the wind and the same gusts caught my lens hood. Keeping that centre cluster of focus points on the birds was a feat of endurance.
Some great captures there with the eye nailed on all of them.I was the same with my 7Dii, bought on thefirst day of issue. It went everywhere, coupled to my Sigma 150-600 Sport after I bought that in 2015. Got a lot of great results. Flight shots, particularly in the high winds of the autumn migration at Tarifa on my annual trip were very hit and miss though, as the bird bounced on the wind and the same gusts caught my lens hood. Keeping that centre cluster of focus points on the birds was a feat of endurance.
Since my R5 arrived (4 months after ordering, 3 weeks after its release) my 7Dii has lain forlorn in the cupboard. The R5 worked well with the Sigma, but after 4 months I splashed out and took the plunge with the RF 100-500, taking the hit on the full frame and reduced focal length, but a massive improvement in cropability. Another bonus is that the R5 and 100-500 weigh exactly half of the 7Dii Sigma Sport combo. the first time I went out with them it felt like I'd left the camera at home. Saying that I didn't mind the weight of the sigma when I was using it. Muscles develop.
I'm just back last month from Spain for the spring honey buzzard migration, my R5's first trip abroad since that damned Covid and the R5 was a revelation. Instead of 90% missed focus on flying birds in gale force winds, the percentage was reversed and I came back with thousands of in-focus shots, many of which I binned just to reduce the numbers. That eye detection was a dream. (pics below).
I'm now suffering the frustration to see if I'm in the next batch for R7 deliveries. I ordered from WEX at 10am on the first day, but that still wasn't early enough for a delivery this week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. When the R7 arrives it will be my bird camera, with the R5 for landscapes, events, people and stuff that I used to do with a 5D iv (recently sold to make way for the R7). That extra reach with the eye detect will be a killer when I go back in the autumn for the outward migration.
What convinced me that the R5 would do for birds was the facility (which I almost never use) to dial in a 1.6 crop. Even cropped 1.6 the image was something like 17.6MP, very close to the original 7D's 18MP, so I reasoned that it was good enough. That's also what turned me OFF the R6. 20MP just wouldn't crop enough for my liking.
Yes I knew the R5 would give 17.6 MP when in crop mode but as I often crop my 7D2 image fairly heavily I would be losing a mega load of pixels from the R5. The R7 is equivalent to a 82.2 MP full frame in terms of 'reach'.
Me too, but my reasoning was that if I could crop 18MP with the 7D, the millions of pixels I'd be 'losing' to get the same result at the same range with the R5 was playing a draw. The R7 will sort out that conundrum.
Small. I have big paws so for me it may take a little getting used to.
I wish I'd been as quick off the mark. I ordered a little before 10 on the same day, only a couple of hours after you. My understanding was that shipments came in roughly fortnightly, so I've given it a couple of weeks. I've just got off the phone with Wex and I'll be waiting a little longer yet. Shipments are only in very, very small numbers and they are expecting their next one in 'mid-July', so fingers crossed for then. Canon have been caught on the hop with the huge demand and they just haven't made the bodies. It's R5 all over again.
As long as the eye is visible you are just about guaranteed to have a sharp in focus shot with the R7 (unless of course the bird suddenly goes to move out of frame and your shutter speed is not set-up for a quick moving subject) . I have had my 7D2 since it came out in 2014 and love it to bits but the AF can always be a bit hit and miss - that is why I have always shot in high burst mode so it heightens the chances of at least one in focus. The keeper rate of the R7 compared to the 7D2 is off the scale for sure.
For a change from the garden here's the Turkestan Shrike with the R7 cropped to about 3meg. (I posted one elsewhere on here but I think it will bear another view
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Once you have settled on your button config, please post your findings on here. Still impatiently waiting for my R7 to arrive ...For a change from the garden here's the Turkestan Shrike with the R7 cropped to about 3meg. (I posted one elsewhere on here but I think it will bear another view
I'm also fiddling about with buttons to get the options I want and I'm going out to see if the latest iteration works in a bit. Thanks to those posting videos, I've found them very useful.
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John
