Canon EOS R7 vs. R5 and R3

I had a chance this morning to test the Canon EOS R7 against the R5 and R3. All cameras were set to roughly the same menu settings. Each was used in shutter priority (TV), shutter 1250, ISO Auto, and F/11. Each had the same 100-500mm RF lens with a 1.4x converter.

My subject stayed the same as well. Lucky for me, a fledgling eastern bluebird stayed on the same branch during my test.

All images were taken while I was seated in the same chair at the same angle. The sky was partly cloudy with lighting remaining generally the same during the test.

Notice that the bird photographed with the R7 is larger in the frame. The Canon EOS R7 has a cropped sensor so the subject will appear bigger with a telephoto lens. Hence, the reason a lot of bird photographers like photographing with a crop sensor camera.

Here’s the images larger:

Eastern bluebird fledgling with the Canon R7. The bird is larger in the frame due to the cropped sensor.
Eastern bluebird photographed with the Canon R5. Same bird from same vantage-point but notice that I zoomed back a tiny bit by mistake.
Eastern bluebird photographed with the Canon R3.

I was impressed with the auto focus on the Canon R7. The camera was set to Flexible Zone 1, Subject, and Eye Detect. The Canon R7 never failed to acquire focus on the small bird. (Watch for my post on camera set-up.)

I’ll compare ISO in a future post but here’s a look at the Canon R7 image enlarged to 100%.

The same photo from above enlarged to 100% photographed using ISO 6400.

Posts coming up will show my set-up for the R7, file size, ISO, and night photography. Stay tuned!

First impression with the Canon R7 shows that this is going to be a great camera for bird photography.

Author: kathyadamsclark

Professional photographer leading workshops and tours.

4 thoughts on “Canon EOS R7 vs. R5 and R3”

  1. Bought one for my son, plan to use it as a second camera body on upcoming Alaska cruise. So far seems like a capable camera. My biggest complaint is the noisy mechanical shutter. The good thing is you can use the electronic shutter with a slight noise so you cn sense when you are shooting. Have not had a chance to see if rolling shutter makes the electronic shutter unusable for BIF.

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    1. It does make a different noise when the shutter clicks. I’ve gotten used to the sound from the R5, 6, and 3. This one is a bit different and louder. I’ll play more with it tomorrow. Thanks for the comment.

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  2. An interesting post, thank you. I’m currently trying to decide which top-end R-series camera to get. I’d have liked to see a comparative crop on all three cameras – with the bird filling the frame – to compare detail and noise.

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    1. Thanks for the post, Tamsin. Above you’ll see a comparison of the R7 to the R5 and R3 on the same bird. The bird appears much closer with the R7 because of the cropped sensor. The view with the R5 and R3 would be the same as you’d get with the R6 Mark II. My latest tests with the R6ii show me that the autofocus is amazing. Noise if great, too. I’ll post more on that shortly. Thanks for the post.

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