R6 or R7 (1 Viewer)

[tony.saw]

A quandary! I have been considering the R6 for a while, but now the R7 is coming out soon (although there does appear to be delays), I am now in a quandary as to which one to get. I predominately take bird photos (rarely video) and often in the rain forests of Asia, but am unsure how well the eye focus would work in heavily forested areas. At present I use a 7D II
Any ideas?
Tony

 

[Pauhana]

Like you it’s a wait and see. until it gets into hands of users tough to make a decision .

 

[temmie]

A quandary! I have been considering the R6 for a while, but now the R7 is coming out soon (although there does appear to be delays), I am now in a quandary as to which one to get. I predominately take bird photos (rarely video) and often in the rain forests of Asia, but am unsure how well the eye focus would work in heavily forested areas. At present I use a 7D II
Any ideas?
Tony

I have an R6, coming from a 7DII.
I already used it to great effect in the rain forests of Asia (NE India to be precise). I can't fault the camera, it's a serious step up, especially in low light. The combination of stabilizer (lens and sensor) is a giant leap compared to most combos with a mirror body. The sensor is super light sensitive and gives still great results at high ISO's. Last but not least, the eye tracking works, but you need to be close enough to the bird, so the amount of millimeters of lens determines if it's usable or not (I have a 100-500 RF).

Most of the above will be the same for the R7 as well, but there are some unknowns: The R7 has a crop sensor with higher pixel density. I wonder if it behaves OK in low light. It could well be better in terms of eye tracking than the R6 (because of the crop sensor, combined with pixel density), though.

All in all, I am very happy with the R6. I would probably be very happy as well with an R7, but I feel the R6 will still be the better camera for low light performance, and when I would upgrade the lens (to e.g. a 500F4), or when I would add a converter, I feel the R6 combined with more optical reach will probably perform better (in low light forest) than the R7 that inherently has more reach through a crop sensor, but probably more noise as well.

 

[tony.saw]

Thanks for the replies. I went to a Canon day at our local photography shop where they had a demo R7. It certainly looks good and will probably be my choice (when they finally arrive!)

 

[stevo]

I have the R6 & have kept it for macro work,but have moved over to Sony for birds.I find the low megapixel count on the R6 to low.It does not leave much

to crop with.

 

[Barred Wobbler]

I have the R6 & have kept it for macro work,but have moved over to Sony for birds.I find the low megapixel count on the R6 to low.It does not leave much

to crop with.

That's why, when I was looking to go mirrorless and the choice was R5 or R6 to replace my long in the tooth and high shutter count 7D II, I bit the bullet and got the R5. The step from 1.6 crop at 20MP to full frame with 20 was just too much to take.

 

[Frank Anderson]

Not sure how helpful the last two comments have been to answering the question. The R6 is a great camera and one of the best for low light conditions where I shoot up to 256,00 ISO. The R7's noise performance won't be as good being a crop sensor and 32 mp sensor, so maybe not so suitable for the rainforrest, though probably better than what you already have and it will have the crop to give it 'additional reach'.

You don't mention what lenses you would be using. If you have a fast lens - f2.8 or 4, then the R7 might be fine along with some noise removing software. The R7 also might not be available for some time yet due to shortages, if you're willing to wait.

The eye focusing might have it's problems in a dense wood environment with twigs, branches etc., in the way, depending on exact circumstances, so most would use the central focusing point. The R7 has a slightly better focusing system though probably wouldn't be noticable.

 

[tony.saw]

Thanks for the answers. A friend took his R6 to Costa Rica recently and was happy with it in the forest, although I think he moved back to using back button focus. Hopefully this would be the same with the R7. I have a 100-400 lens and would probably keep it at present. I've found that using the Topaz plug-in is very useful in clearing up noise from the 7D

 

[stevo]

I stand by my comment the R6 simply does not have enough megapixels,to allow you to crop.

 

[MJN]

It's a question of degrees really. I used a 20mp 1DX2 for five years and cropped the huge majority of my shots. Of course the R6 images can be cropped, you just have less room for manoeuvre than with a higher mp sensor.

 

[Frank Anderson]

Can't imagine how people managed to cope before 40+ megapixel cameras so they 'could crop'. I guess they had to rely on good old fashion field craft techniques.

And yes you can crop. The crop myth obsession has been going since the early days of digital cameras and with every increase in megapixels, suddenly you can't crop with the previous lower megapixels generation, despite when that was the hightest, you could, . As MJN says, it's a question of degrees.

 

[Essex Tern]

When cropping an R5 to an R7 equivalent field of view image, the R7 puts a whole lot more pixels on the bird I think - the R7 pretty much is equal with my G9 for pixels on the bird, so the R7 makes for a tempting choice should my G9 pack in or Panasonic not improve upon it soon. The R7 looks to be the camera birders have been waiting for IMHO.

 

[AlphaFan]

I was asking myself the same question, so I rented an R6 (mated it to an RF 100-500mm lens) for a weekend and took it to several different environments that normally bird in - open hardwoods, dense conifers, marshlands, etc. Overall, it is a solid performer.

Likes that stood out to me:

• Wonderful ergonomics and handling - coupled with that lens it is very light and an easy all-day carry
• Easy, intuitive buttons, dials and menu
• Almost every button and dial is customizable - easy to set up back-button focus
• IS was simply outstanding
• Camera is fast in every way, startup, shutter speed, autofocus, etc

Personal dislikes (or things that i find better in other cameras)

• Eye Autofocus = although it generally worked very well for larger birds in the open or birds in flight, it struggled to find birds in busy environments, small birds (even in the open), or anything in shadows or backlit
• Spot Focus = although I had a separate button set up for when the eye autofocus struggled, the smallest pre-defined spot focus box is still far too coarse (Sony is much more precise). This caused a good number of my warbler and small bird shots to be slightly out of focus
• Cropping = would tend to agree with some here. With the 100-500mm lens shots on warblers often need cropping, with 20mp I wasn’t always fully satisfied with the results

I realize that these were just initial impressions and more refined experience with this camera and settings may yield better results. But I’ve pre-ordered the R7 as I‘m anticipating the autofocus will be a tick better, the crop-sensor will enhance the reach of the 100-500mm lens, it will put more pixels on the desired subjects, and I’m really hoping it has a more precise spot focus.

 

[mike nesbitt]

I was asking myself the same question, so I rented an R6 (mated it to an RF 100-500mm lens) for a weekend and took it to several different environments that normally bird in - open hardwoods, dense conifers, marshlands, etc. Overall, it is a solid performer.

Likes that stood out to me:

• Wonderful ergonomics and handling - coupled with that lens it is very light and an easy all-day carry
• Easy, intuitive buttons, dials and menu
• Almost every button and dial is customizable - easy to set up back-button focus
• IS was simply outstanding
• Camera is fast in every way, startup, shutter speed, autofocus, etc

Personal dislikes (or things that i find better in other cameras)

• Eye Autofocus = although it generally worked very well for larger birds in the open or birds in flight, it struggled to find birds in busy environments, small birds (even in the open), or anything in shadows or backlit
• Spot Focus = although I had a separate button set up for when the eye autofocus struggled, the smallest pre-defined spot focus box is still far too coarse (Sony is much more precise). This caused a good number of my warbler and small bird shots to be slightly out of focus
• Cropping = would tend to agree with some here. With the 100-500mm lens shots on warblers often need cropping, with 20mp I wasn’t always fully satisfied with the results

I realize that these were just initial impressions and more refined experience with this camera and settings may yield better results. But I’ve pre-ordered the R7 as I‘m anticipating the autofocus will be a tick better, the crop-sensor will enhance the reach of the 100-500mm lens, it will put more pixels on the desired subjects, and I’m really hoping it has a more precise spot focus.

I don't hold out much hope that the R7 will af any better in the situations that you dislike. My understanding is that the Canon mirrorless don't have the equivalent of cross type focus points which would do the job much better in the busy scenarios. I'd be interested to know how the new Olympus af works in this situation.

 

[Me_XMan]

For birders and especially with warblers, R7 is more essential than R6.