Canon R7 • Birds in Flight • RF 100-500 • Photography
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- Опубліковано 10 лип 2022
- Heather and I photograph birds in flight using the Canon R7 and the RF 100-500 telephoto zoom lens. We went to the Chickamauga Dam where we were able to photograph Osprey, Great Blue Heron, Double-crested Cormorant, and Black Vultures in flight. We're learning that the Canon EOS R7 is a very good camera for photographing birds in flight.
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Awesome work Heather & Phil. The R7 has awesome AF and plenty of detail that’s for sure. Was good to see you both out enjoying bird photography together once again. The Osprey shots were magnificent!
Thank you, Peter!
More awesome work Phil and Heather, seems like the R7 is doing just what you want it to do, these images prove that !! Keep on doing what you love, will catch your next upload. I enjoy what you guys are doing .
Thank you, Sam!
Excellent details with your R7 & RF 100-500mm combo.
Loved it all
Thank you!
Cool BIF photos. I love when you can see every single feather sharp in the wing. This is looking promising, if I ever get my ordered R7.
Thank you! I hope you get your R7 soon!
Outstanding results, waiting for my r7 to arrive today!
wow, that RF 100 500 brings in some fine detail, great shots!
Thank you! It is an outstanding lens, especially for it's size. I wish it was a little cheaper.
Great work Phil and Heather! Especially liked the light reflecting off the Osprey’s wings in Heather’s shots early in the video.
Thank you, Bill! I was happy to have gone to get those chairs, but I sure picked the wrong time to do it lol 😂
@@PhilThach 😂
You both made some great photos thanks so much for sharing this video. I'm impatiently waiting for my R7 to ship and will pair it with the RF 100-400 for some wildlife fun. Cheers.
Thank you! The R7 and RF 100-400 will make a powerful and light wildlife photography combination.
Kudos to both of you for the excellent images in this video. Nicely done.
Thank you, Greg!
Looks like so much fun!
It was!
Very nice guys! You're getting some great shots and coming out with really entertaining videos. Hope to see you out in the field one day. Those ospreys can be very difficult to catch a close shot of for sure.
Thank you, Forrest! I’m glad you have received your R7.
Lovely photos. I really appreciate the detailed camera settings, which are instructive, too.
Thank you! I try to include settings on virtually every photo on this channel. I'm glad it helps! I also want to know the settings when I see someone's photo.
Great shots Phil and Heather. The jet powered Comorant take off of Heather’s was a ripper 😂 You certainly had some different species there to photograph. Well done on getting the Ospreys in flight. Thanks for sharing the video 👍🙏
Thank you, Adrian! We are lucky to have such a great bird photography area within a few minutes drive of our house.
Awesome! I have my R7 ordered. These make me feel like I’ve made the right decision adding it to my R6. Thanks for testing for us.
Thank you! I think they R6 and R7 are an excellent combination.
@@PhilThach Hi... If you would have to choose only one body, would you rather buy the R7 or the R6 (with 1.4 tc to get more or less the same reach) ????
Great set of pics
Thank you!
Wow, amazing images....
Thank you, J!
Great shots Phil and Heather! Great job getting birds in flight. I spent several hours yesterday at a local dam and got an Bald Eagle sitting a tree and several Great Blue Heron. Similarly I was waiting for an Osprey to dive in the water. Maybe next time!
Thank you, Stephen! Which dam are you talking about? I might have to do some photography there sometime.
@@PhilThach Melton Hill Dam. Let me know if you go and I can send you the best locations.
Beautiful shots!
Thank you!
Awesome photos!! Looking at the rolling shutter artifact I couldn't help but wonder if non photographers would notice something like that. I notice noise, CA and rolling shutter far more since I started getting more into photography and watching videos that talk about it.
Thank you! That is a very good point.
Interesting and nice pictures!
Thank you and thanks for watching!
Awesome shot's
Thank you!
Really impressive R7's and photos.
( I also learned that birds can *hit someplace other than on my car )
Thank you, Leon! Also lol 😂
R7 in flight tracking & sharpness look quite good Phil.
Still frustratingly waiting for a potential delivery date of mine here in the UK. Hopefully not too long now, & also hoping that Canon do decide to release a battery grip for the R7 too.
Some great images & footage there from both of you 👍👏👏👏
Thank you! I hope you get yours soon. 🤞
Good job guys. I stopped by there yesterday on my way back to Atlanta. I got a couple of decent shots. The Osprey were flying but they weren't fishing when I was there. I never saw a dive from any of them. FYI the river width to the cofferdam is only 900 feet.
Thank you! I’m a terrible judge of distance. Still 1/6 of a mile (900 feet) is a long way! Maybe I’ll run into you out there someday!
Amazing
Thank you!
Great clip video
Thank you!
Great pictures! I was taking pictures of vultures a few months ago circling overhead out here in Arizona and when I was looking at them when I got home I noticed one with a black face. Didn't even know we had black vultures out here, just thought we had regular turkey vultures 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
Thank you, Martin! We definitely have both kinds around here. It seems like it’s easier to get close enough to the black variety to make a photograph than the turkey.
Cormorant! Thanks for the name, I wondered what it was I caught the other day. That 100-500 RF looks sharper than my Tamron G2 but at four times the price what I paid for a used one, I guess it should be!
You are very welcome! Thanks for watching.
Wow canon had really upped its game it may be time to for me to jump ship. Seems like Nikon will always be a step behind in the forseeable future. Great images 👌
Thanks for watching!
Great photos you guys. Really enjoyed the ones of the Osprey. I also subscribe to Mark Smith and he has amazing photos and video's of Osprey in flight.
Thank you! Mark Smith is the best Osprey photographer in the world.
👍👍👍
Very impressive performance by both of you, and your cameras. The effect of rolling shutter is evident in the wingtips of many of your flying birds, as well as the dam in the background. It looks like mechanical shutter is the way to go with the R7. The images have great detail. I take it, you didn't have to crop much in post? Thanks.
Thank you, John! I really did not notice any rolling shutter in the birds or the birds wing tips but I’m sure there is at least a little bit there. We definitely both crop our images but not as much as we used to with the R6 or the Z50!
Hey guys!! Great video. I'm in Ohio and I am a huge osprey fan. Loved all your images. I was wondering if all the images from this video Birds in flight that you showed were before or after editing. Thanks keep up the great work.
Thank you, David! We love Osprey too. All the photos in this video have been edited.
Wonderful informative video Phil!
I’m almost ready to buy an R7.
Would you be so kind as to show us some of your settings for bird photography , birds in flight for instance and how you input those settings into the camera .
Many thanks 🙏
Thank you! It seems like I'm always trying new settings so I'd hate to make a definitive video with what I'm using until I actually settle on something. I recommend going in to the focus settings and experimenting. The camera actually does well right out of the box but I'm guessing it can be improved by adjusting settings.
Hooray Phil and Heather 🤣🌈 ! This is the Bestest video I’ve ever seen on actual BIF on the Canon R7. Great tips on shooting in mechanical or 15 fps in electronic. Mechanical sure seems to help image quality. What was wrong with 30 fps ? Just rolling shutter or other issues ? Thanks and Bravo Folks ! 😀
Thank you, Robert! The reason we didn’t use 30 frames per second is because it’s quite a chore to go through all those pictures. We both made about 2000 pictures shooting at 15 frames per second which was more than we wanted to sort through. Add 30 frames per second we might have had 4000 more each. Lol another thing that 15 frames per second helps with is it takes more time to get the buffer so you might be able to shoot a little longer and in reality catch more than shooting shorter but twice as fast.
Of course. Faster isn’t always better ! 😃
Wonderful images. The Heron at 6:00 is so fine! I'm enjoying my R7 a lot but I'm struggling a bit with BIF shots. Please let me know which AF settings work best for you. Thanks. :)
Under” case “ we did not use any of the numbers, we put it on auto. Thank you! I was really happy with that great blue heron photo too. in fact I shared it on Instagram.
Congrats guys, mind blowing action shots. Did you get the ospreys framed that tightly straight up or cropped? If you filled the frame in flight, that's serious skill. But the sharpness of this AF tracking and lens combo is next level too! Might be gunning for that as my next cam further down the line. For now I'm only familiarising myself with a 7D2 bought off... an R7 upgrader on eBay :D
Thank you! We definitely crop for composition in nearly every image. People who tell you that they never crop are probably not telling you the truth. Enjoy your 7D2!
Thanks for sharing the images. Looks like a fun day. Curious what you think of the image quality of this lens and body combination once you crop in 100% or more. Thanks for your thoughts
Thank you! I am satisfied with the image quality from the camera and lens.
The two of you got great photos. So far, I have enjoyed my R7. The autofocus is amazing, the noise is less than I expected, but the rolling shutter can be an issue as seen in some of your images.
Thank you, Jeff!
Fantastic pictures, especially the ones with the Ospreys beginning at 3min. Did you crop the pictures?
Thank you! Yes, we usually crop for composition.
Great video and awesome photos, would be interested to know how you have set the R7 up and any techniques you use for nailing the BIF shots.
I had my “case” set to auto when we made this video however today Heather and I were shooting birds in flight that were a little closer and we switched to Case 4 with the bottom slider all the way to the right instead of its default position to try to get a little more speed out of it. That adjustment seemed to help. Something else I noticed today with a nearly depleted battery I was struggling and then when the battery died and I put in a fresh one the camera seemed to focus faster and more accurately so I think it’s possible that the camera may go into some sort of a low power mode when the battery is low and this slows performance. I don’t know if this is a fact or just imaginary but I will tell you this, I will be changing to a fresh battery when I get down to the last bar on the current one in the future.
@@PhilThach thanks for that, does make sense with the AF when the battery get's low, I have noticed similar on my R6 as well.
Phil, thanks for the work. Are you using mechanical or electronic shutter? Thanks
Thank you! We started in mechanical and switched to electronic about halfway through. I thought I mentioned it in the video but I might not have. Sometimes I like the electronic shutter better for birds in flight because it seems like it’s easier to track the birds. With the mechanical shutter 15 times a second there is something blocking my view which can throw me off. I’m not seeing much rolling shutter distortion when looking at the birds, but the backgrounds can show the effects of rolling shutter with the electronic shutter as you pan following a bird in flight.
Excellent photography from you and from Heather!!! Really loved it😍😍
My question is 32MP really enough for bird photography? Kindly help
Thank you! I’d say the answer to your question is absolutely! Remember, pixel density is what you are looking for in bird photography. The R7 is 1.6 crop APSC. If it had the same pixel density and was full frame it would be around 83 megapixels. So it has a higher pixel density than the Canon R5, Sony A1, Nikon Z9 etc. Yes, 32.5 apsc is enough.
@@PhilThach Thanks a lot😍
Wow, excellent photos! I am holding an r10 now. I just wonder if the lens is suitable for lunar photography.
Thank you! Yes, the RF 800 f/11 is certainly a good lens for lunar photography!
Dear Heather, dear Phil,
respect, very good and sharp photos.👍 👏It seems that spending extra money for Z9/A1/R3 is not necessary. What do you think, are you able to achieve the same results with your Nikon (Z 50 / Zfc) equipment? Thanks and have a great day!👋
Thank you! I’d say we could have bagged some of these shots with our Zfc or Z50 but not all of them. Those Z cameras are just not as consistent as the R7.
Nice pictures and video! I'd be curious to hear how you like the R7/100-500 compared to the D500/200-500. Which situations would you prefer to use one over the other?
Thank you! In all situations I’d prefer the R7 and the 100-500 over the D500 and 200-500.
@@PhilThach Glad to hear that! I also own a D500/200-500 and am (impatiently) waiting for B&H to ship my R7 preorder. Sounds like it'll be worth the wait 👍
Well done! Questions, you mentioned 15 frames a second on the medium setting. What is the FPS on the low setting, assuming there is a low setting?
Thank you! Honestly I’m not even sure that you get 15 on the medium setting. That is what I have heard and it seemed about like 15. There is a slower setting but I don’t know how many frames per second it is.
@@PhilThach Electronic: High Speed+ is 30/s, High Speed is 15/s, and Low Speed is 3/s. Mechanical: High Speed+ is 15/s, High Speed is 6.5/s, and Low Speed is 3/s.
For the birds in flight are you using eye detect and tracking, in full screen AF mode, or something else? I’m loving my R7 but I’m still trying to figure out what works best for flying birds. Thanks!
Full screen eye detect.
Hi Phil, interesting to see you didn't mention running out of buffer at all in your video. That seems to be something many others on UA-cam are quite obsessed with. Can I assume that at 15fps it was not a problem for you. I'd be interested to know what kind of memory cards you are using, not so much the brand more the specs of the cards.
We also shoot compressed raw, the files are half the size of full raw. We still find the end of the buffer quicker than we’d like but it’s not as much of a problem as others make it out to be. Sandisk 300mb/s.
Great job! Does the R7 crop the image?
Thank you!
Don't know when my order will come in. I plan to use mechanical shutter. 15 fps is adequate. I used to use 7D2 which was only 10 fps. AF is awesome. With the latest technology, it makes BIF easier. With DSLR, I had to position the focal point on the subject and follow (pan) it. Now, once focus is acquired, the camera tracks the subject, all I need to do is follow the subject.
I think 15 is plenty too. We used electronic during the second half of this shoot because it was easier to track birds in flight and keep them in the frame in electronic mode. Thank you!
I am L-ens-vious of that 100-500mm lens! Still waiting for my R7.
It’s a nice lens! I hope you get your R7 soon. Thanks for watching!
@@PhilThach BTW Fantastic bird photos!
May I know what is your preferred setting for shooting BIF? Which AF zone? AF Case? THanks
Hello, Kenneth! I use servo autofocus. I use the full screen eye detect mode. So far I have not settled on a case setting. I have used auto and I have used Four with the bottom adjustment slider all the way to the right. But, so far I have not settled on a “best setting“. I think that will take more time and experimenting.
Hi Phil, which shutter mode do you usually use with R7?
Hi. I use electronic shutter for birds. Mechanical shutter for sports.
I invite you two to come shoot with me at Loudon Dam. There currently is over 30 Osprey! Lots of diving for fish.
That’s awesome!
What is the mount that you are using for that lense to fit the R7 ??
The RF 100-500 fits with no adapter.
This amazes me. I am on my 2nd R7 using my 100-500 and cannot get a sharp photo. today. No idea whats wrong?
That is very strange.
@@PhilThach I just took a photo of a cat in my back yard and looks sharp. But out on an island the geese and herons were all soft looking? Definitely strange? Islands and distortions seem to come hand in hand for me? That has happened at some waterfowl refuges in the past with dslrs? sigh
Anyone else experiencing Error 70 while shooting? Only happens when on Electronic shutter. Have tried several different SD cards and no dice. Happens after about 5-10 shots. Works perfect in Mechanical shutter. Still really loving this thing!
I have not experienced error 70. My camera did freeze a couple of times that required a hard boot battery removal. My R6 has done that too. Thanks for watching!