Compromising to get sharpest images possible from the Canon R7

That lens is on my next purchase list. Looks fantastic!

Wonderful explanation! Love the video. If I typically shoot just one shot at a time without a burst, What should I do?

I use my R7 at a 3fps burst speed, since I'm not shooting sports or hummingbirds. Using an old EF 200mm f/2.8 L II USM, I get tack sharp images that let me crop deeply hand-held at 1/100 of a second relying on the camera's IBIS when photographing singers. I try to avoid ISOs much above 500 to reduce noise.

I love my R7. I'm at a medium level, but it's good enough to grow in for beginners and it's also a great backup for more experienced users. The downside is that the lenses can be expensive. There are some rumors that Sigma might release a 17-50 or 18-55 f2.8. Between the R10 and R7 I choose R7 to get a better hybrid for video shooting as well.After all, a camera is a tool for shooting pictures. It's the person handling it that can make or break the photos.

I really wish they took the electronic readout speed and autofocus snappiness of the R6 Mark II and applied it to the R7 while upping the price a bit; if they did I would’ve no doubt chosen the R7 over the R6 Mark II, but I guess there’s a reason it’s a whole thousand dollars cheaper.

Thanks for sharing 👍🏼

Done considerable testing with the various shutter modes. While Mechanical shutter has noticeable shutter shock (and Canon mentions this in the manual) I do not see any noticeable difference between Elec. Ist curtain and Electronic shutter. Not sure why you are experiencing this. What is noticeable is the decreased Dynamic range and color depth in Electronic shutter. I would have no problem recommending Elec. 1st curtain as the desired shutter mode for the R7. Also would recommend using H rather than H+, as it has been pretty well documented that the slow readout speed of the R7's sensor makes AF at H+ a bit of a challenge.

Does the firmware update improve the electronic sensor reading speed?

Great video apart from the constant buzzing alarm in the background, full of useful information

Great video. One of the types of photos I take, is youth football at night. I use the kit lens of 18-150. I am fairly happy with my results after Lightroom, but wonder, because of moving the camera alot while taking shots, night time, and the settings involved with that (high ISO), will Elec shutter still be better than mech for this type of shooting?

Hi Matthew. In the comments below you mentioned that you going to make "more testing when the weather is fine". Could not find any new videos on that topic. Did you have a chance to do that? 🙂

How is the 32.5mp sensor of the R7 a full frame equivalent of 80mp, how does one calculation this? Great video btw., thanks for that 🙏🏻

Thank you for confirming the lack of sharpness that I have been experiencing in the 2 weeks I have owned this camera. I'm not sure this the right camera for me as I shoot alot of waterfalls @ s l o w shutter speeds. The silky water looks good, but the rocks are soft.

Your channel is underrated.

In short, you'll have to spend north of $2500 on a lens for your $1400 camera to get crisp shots in normal lighting conditions that bird photographers deal with on a constant basis.

Very clearly and succinctly put. The hardest part here in the UK is only getting about two days in the winter when you can get 1/1000th sec shutter and less than 3200 ISO if you only have f6.3-f7.1 glass!

So I'm getting into real estate media. Would you recommend using the r7 for real estate with a tripod? It would always be on a tripod. I'd probably get the newer 10-18 mm lense

This is a really good, easy to understand explanation of shutter options. But it brings up a nagging (at least to me) issue with photography these days. Are we engaged in an arms race, seeking sharper and sharper captures and chasing pixel counts, at the expense of things like composition? Granted, I love the cropping ability a high megapixel sensor provides, but when I pull out one of my coffee table books and look at, say, images Frans Lanting produced pre-digital, it’s the artistry that makes the image, not the sharpness. So my question is: are we prioritizing technical perfection over composition? I see a lot of beautiful photos on these sorts of videos but rarely do the images generate much emotion.

I really would like to see side by side comparison

Superb explanation and thoughts - so true! Liked and subscribed!

Thanks for covering this neglected issue. I was horrified when I first noticed the difference between mechanical vs electronic shutters in terms of blur from shutter shock, but I find the electronic first curtain shutter also has less shutter shock as long as I am not shooting at 30 fps. And to be honest, I don't like sorting all those images 😊

how is 200-800 with R7

Really great way to compare mech/EFC/E is to shoot the Moon. I was blown away at how sharp electronic is with the lunar surface. I always had problems with my 90d with its mech shutter with the shock.

Why didn t you mention the electronic 1st curtain?

It´s insane how sharp the pictures are, when switching to electronic shutter. I found your video just recently and tried it out. (I didnt use electronic shutter before, because of the rolling shutter issue). Took some pictures of the moon with the 100-400 f8 and the difference was mindblowing. Especially with high contrast subjects, like the moon, it´s very obvious how much sharper it gets. BTW there is another issue with focusing while in H+ mode. 30fps may sometimes be too much for the R7 to focus properly.

Ok its my i dont know how maniest video and i dont find a video or article ,and canon is tightlipped as well , who can give me the settings for sharp jpeg , not taking the shot know all that , but all my jpegs out of camera are lousy and its time consuming to edit every raw .
What i expect for the price is the same sharpness from jpeg than my raws are , please if anyone can tell me a link im getting desperate that a nearly 3000 € combo gives me worse jpeg than my iphone with a third of mp .

As a semipro motorsports photographer, I live in the world of high focal lengths, low shutter speeds and panning shots on high speed continuous+. Getting the R7 (I had the option to upgrade to full frame) was a deliberate decision. Tested all three modes. Electronic shutter was the worst. When you shoot a series of panning shots of a racecar wheezing by at 140+ mph using 200+ mm and 1/100 exposure. If it's your lucky day, 4 out of 10 will be reasonably sharp. When the sharp ones are ruined by the rolling shutter effect...well, you get the point.

will the difference be as noticable on a wider lens? I normally shoot on the sigma 18-35 F1.8 and a 50mm F1.8 for stuff I do

Exactly my experience with the R7. I am glad to see it confirmed by someone who knows what he is talking about. The rolling shutter is so severe (try it on a hummingbird ;-) and you can see left and right wings 180 degrees out of sync), that, for birds in flight, I use a different camera altogether. For stationary and slow moving subjects the R7 is fantastic though.

What if you don't shoot wildlife can you still use electronic shutter and auto iso

I agree 100%. I recently switched to electronic shutter and concur with your results. The shutter shock with this camera is the worst I’ve seen in over 50 years of using Canon cameras. I now use it with the EF 70-200f2.8 and yesterday got the sharpest best results I’ve gotten out of the camera by using electronic shutter. I won’t go back to mechanical at all. Canon has done nothing to eliminate shutter shock with this camera. Even though I’m using an EF adapted lens the IBIS works well with this adding to the overall sharpness. I have an EF 100-400 mk1 and the IBIS with it is not much use at all, I’m fact it seems to not work and only the lens stabilization is working. But the newer 70-200 f2.8 gives outstanding results.

Great video and glad I found you, I had decided to buy the R7 as I do wildlife and I wanted the crop factor and eye tracking but this has now put me off so is the R7 still a good improvement from my 7d mk2?

I have a question about the electronic shutter. Can this also be used in video mode?

Agreed the mech shutter is basically unsuseable the first da yI used the R7 I was horrified by the lack of clarity, its WORSE than my old Canon RP XD

Despite its flaws, the R7 is still an amazing value for the money. Especially for someone like me coming from the 6D MkII which is capable, but not nearly as flexible as the R7. In the spirit of compromise (which I agree is necessary) I keep the shutter defaulted to electronic 1st curtain, but I assigned the silent shutter mode to a position on the 4 way pad. That way if I'm shooting stills or anything that won't be affected by rolling shutter I can switch into silent mode and back in an instant. Custom configurability like that is just another thing that makes this camera a winner at my budget level.

If I am going to take photos with the electronic shutter, do I always need a tripod or is it better to use a higher shutter speed? wich speed do you recomended?

My experience with the R7 is that when I take a photo with the electronic shutter, a picture is taken directly on the sensor. This prevents motion blur due to the mechanism of the shutter. This gives you a pinsharp picture. Now a question about the Canon 90D. If I take a shot in "live view" with the Canon 90D, is that comparable to the shot with the electronic shutter of the R7?
Doesn't the 90D also see the image via the sensor? does this also produce a pinsharp picture? Is this different than with the R7?

can you answer me on this?

Can't wait for the R7II which will have a stacked sensor.

Nope. I shoot in E-1st with the R7 , no roll and reasonable shutter shock, almost unnoticeable. But thanks! :)

I noticed ,when using the sigma 150-600mm with IS on that sometimes the shape of birds will differe even if the subject does not move ,it's caused by IS' action .

Thank you. I knew from Duade Paton and others that there was something a little bit "off" about the R7. You've isolated the true issue and found a workable solution. I won't be buying it, however, as I doubt the R7 will retain its resale value given those issues. Still, very grateful to know what the problem is.

Hi Matthew,
Greetings from Africa
I've just come across your channel and this video today
Interesting, I hardly ever use ES, I shoot MS 90% of the time. I might have to try it out though.
The thing is I shoot wildlife in Africa (birds, lions, elephants, leopards, wild dogs, hyenas, rhinos). Some of them stationary, some of them moving. And often before sunrise and after sunset, so I have to bump up my ISO substantially shooting on my EF400mm f5.6L USM lens, or my RF600mm f11 lens.
Also, do you know if there is a quick way/shortcut to instantly switch between ES & MS on the fly? I haven't come across one or found a button that you can customize for this
Thanks

Still be honost… how did they **** this up? I still can not believe it, if this camera had good mechanical shutter or less rolling shutter this would be the APS-C camera to rule them all… i think the most easy way was if canon did not screw up the mechanical shutter, and did normal dampening. It is not the first camera shutter they build…. Those 32mpix is a lot for a small sensor, but that shutter shick, they could avoid that

Thats amazing video. I just got r7 and i have sigma 150-600 mm and i do aviation photography
I used to use 6d mark ii with 150-600
Any tips for r7 and sigma 150-600?

The idea that the mechanical shutter moves the sensor and affects image sharpness on the Canon R7 seems to be a misunderstanding. Here’s how the mechanical shutter works in general:

In cameras like the Canon R7, the mechanical shutter is a physical curtain that covers and uncovers the sensor. When you take a photo with the mechanical shutter, it opens to expose the sensor to light and then closes again to end the exposure. The key is that while the shutter is open, the sensor is completely stationary, and no movement happens during that time. The image is captured when the shutter is fully open, so any movement of the sensor would occur either before or after the image is taken.

As for the electronic shutter, it has no moving parts. The sensor is read electronically row by row without the need for a physical shutter. It can, however, be more susceptible to rolling shutter distortion (especially in fast-moving subjects), but it doesn't involve any mechanical movements.

In summary, the mechanical shutter shouldn't cause any significant sensor movement that would affect sharpness. If there are reports of images not being tack-sharp with the mechanical shutter, it could be due to other factors like slight camera shake, shutter shock, or other external influences, but not sensor movement.

Thank you for this info 🙏 ❤👍

Excellent dissertation!

Happy with Nikon D 500 but I don't use Video.

💯