I received my pre-ordered Canon R7 today (somewhat to my surprise as I had received no indication it had been sent from the retailer). I was able to take it to the Botanic Gardens for a short period this afternoon. Unfortunately it was fairly gloomy afternoon and the bird life was not really interested in cooperating, but it was interesting to use the camera and test out a few things. I have no R mount lenses so I was using this with my EF 100-400 II mounted via the basic EF-EOS R adapter.
Build quality seems at least on a par with my 90D, but it is not a hefty camera by any means (I suspect that a 7DII user might initially think it flimsy). Side by side it is slightly smaller in every dimension than the 90D but with a good grip, and I found it quite comfortable to use. It comes with one of the more recent LP-E6NH batteries, but is fully compatible with older Canon DSLR batteries (I think the main difference is that the older batteries cannot be charged in-camera), and in fact I used it with one of my 90D batteries while the new one was charging. Battery levels go down quite fast!
The lens worked absolutely seamlessly with the adaptor, with very quick autofocus. The camera combines in-body stabilisation with the in-lens stabilisation.
As a 90D user there was a bit to get used to in terms of ergonomics. There is no top screen, so all changes need to be made with your eye to the viewfinder or using the rear screen. The buttons are in quite different positions so my muscle memory no longer works. The rear control dial has been replaced by a dial wheel and joystick right at the top of the camera next to the viewfinder, so you move your thumb across from the rear autofocus button to the dial, rather than down. There is a single ISO button on the top, right next to the video button (so you need to get used to the position to avoid activating video!) and the on and off switch has a third position, to the left of 'On' which is for video. Twice early on I found myself recording video accidentally. Just about every button can be customised in some way. There is a switch on the front of the camera for selecting MF or AF.
Initial impressions are that the viewfinder is fine, although I was not able to test it in sunlight. It's not particularly high resolution (and somewhat lower resultion than the R5), but it does have a 120Hz 'smooth' setting which gives a decent viewing experience. The diopter needs to be set fairly carefully to get a sharp viewfinder image. I'm not particularly a fan of EVFs, but overall I found myself pretty comfortable with the viewfinder in the short time I used it in the field, and the ability to see an approximation of the exposure settings is helpful.
The autofocus is a revelation. The 90D has a decent non-tracking performance (fast and accurate single point) but its viewfinder tracking is crude and useless for bird photography. There is better tracking using the rear screen, although this works best for people (and is impossible to use with a 400mm lens). In contrast the R7 has a very similar system to the R3, albeit with fewer autofocus points on the sensor. Set it on servo autofocus, activate animal and eye-tracking, and it just works. Simply point at a bird and it instantly recognises it and if the eye is visible, puts a box around it in the viewfinder and focuses on it when you press the focus button. In the short time I used it, it did not fail to instantly focus on the bird I pointed it at, including wrens, kookaburra, honeyeaters, and rosellas. The only time it hesitated slightly was if a dark eye was in the shadow, and the eye was in a dark area of the face (eg kookaburra). I primarly used it in this 'auto' mode, but there are a whole range of changes you can make in the normal Canon fashion - different arrangements of focus points, different levels of 'stickiness' etc. You can use it exactly like a DSLR if you want to, using single point autofocus or spot autofocus.
You can also assign autofocus functions to different buttons similarly to the R5 and R3. This autofocus system alone makes the camera worth upgrading from the 90D.
My preferred raw converter (DxO) can't handle the R7 files yet, so I shot in raw plus JPEG, and processed in DPP4. As such I can't really do a good comparison with the 90D. The sensor is apparently based on the sensor developed for the 90D, but with some changes to electronics and microlenses. It is neither back illuminated nor stacked, but despite that has very fast read times, giving the camera very fast burst shutter rates. Initial impressions were that the files are at least as good as the 90D, if not better. I shot in the Neutral profile, and files in DPP had good pleasing colour and detail. The light was poor so I mostly shot in ISO1600 rising to ISO 3200 later. DPP's noise reduction is not up to the standard of products like DxO, but despite this I found that DPP's handling of the files was better than the 90D files. DPP handles the noise in 90D files quite poorly, producing an ugly blocky structure to noise in high ISO files. In contrast it seemed to control noise better in the R7 files, and what noise there was had more of a speckled characteristic. This may just be due to how Canon has set up DPP to handle the R7 files rather than any inherent improved noise characteristics in the files themselves. I'll get a better idea of noise performance once I can compare files in DxO.
I'll add more to these observations once I have had more time with the camera. Feel free to post any questions and I will try to answer.
Simon
