Any news about the RF-S 15-70/4.0 which was rumoured to be released as the kit lens for the R7 ii? Haven't heard anything about this lens since it became known that the R7 ii was delayed to 2027...

LuckyOne said:

You are right. The bare Sony 100-400 f4.5 GM lens is priced at around USD 4,300.

A Canon 100-400 f4.5 L lens with a built in 1.4X converter would probably cost $5,000 for a bare lens because of Canon’s self defined superiority plus an additional $1,000 for the internal teleconverter.

My hoped for price point of $4,750 is more likely to be around $6,000.

It will be interesting to see what Canon brings to the market in the next 6 months and how it competes with Sony.

I love my Canon gear but there is a point of no return for wildlife photographers that is approaching rapidly.

The day after I potentially dump my Canon equipment, I am absolutely certain that Canon will offer an amazing 200-600 f4.5 to f5.6-f6.3 L lens.

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I don't see that a 100-400+1.4x is different enough from the existing 100-500 to make sense. "Self defined superiority" hmm. Or charging what the market will bear?

Interesting list and good to know. Thx. Especially that the 100mm F2.8 L Macro IS USM will be serviced until 2032. I´m currently looking for a used copy (or that Sigma 105mm macro...don´t know yet) to take with me to the North Sea.

I didn´t know Canon released several TS lenses. I thought there were only two TS lenses. But hell, a TS 135mm? That kind sounds crazy to me. What use cases are there for this lens? In my (obviously narrow) mind, I always thought TS lenses are specially for architecture or waterfalls and such things. But nobody would pick a 135mm lens for that. Also, has anybody in this forum ever used or own a TS-E50mm F2.8L Macro? I´d really love to find out about these lenses, just because I´m curious.

Czardoom said:

Which is why OM Systems OM-1 mark II is my birding camera of choice. What Canon, Nikon and Sony do are of no interest.

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I go out birding most days and see a large number of Canons and a sprinkling of Nikons and Sonys, but not a single OM in the past few years. I occasionally saw an Olympus pre-Covid. Canon and Sony have about 70% of worldwide mirrorless sales and OM are now down to only 2-3% from higher when they were Olympus. They are more popular in Japan but have dropped behind Nikon at around the 12% mark or less.

In terms of practicality for birding, the star OM telephoto is the 150-400mm f/4.5 with the 1.25x TC, costing over £6000 here. Given the crop factor of 2, that is equivalent to an 300-800mm f/9, about the same weight as the Canon 200-800m f/9, costing £2000. Further, the OM sensor is only 20.4 Mpx, compared with 45 Mpx on an R5ii, so the R5ii has an effective extra reach of 50%, like having a built in 1.5x TC. The cheaper 32 Mpx R6iii has 32.5 Mpx, which is equivalent to having a 1.26xTC on it compared with the OM. The lighter RF 100-500mm f/7.1 has an equivalent reach of 750mm on the R5ii, compared with the OM. The cheaper M. Zuiko Digital ED 150-600mm f/5.0-6.3 IS costs £2500, weighs more than the 200-800, and is just a rebadged Sigma with a marked-up price.

As good as Olympus used to be, and it was far ahead in the past, OM haven't put in the development and so Canon has leapt ahead in terms of AF, subject identification and tracking. However, your opinion clearly differs, and there are devotees of M4/3.

Put an upgraded APS-C sensor in an R6 mark iii body and slap an r7 mark ii badge on it please.

LuckyOne said:

You are right. The bare Sony 100-400 f4.5 GM lens is priced at around USD 4,300.

A Canon 100-400 f4.5 L lens with a built in 1.4X converter would probably cost $5,000 for a bare lens because of Canon’s self defined superiority plus an additional $1,000 for the internal teleconverter.

My hoped for price point of $4,750 is more likely to be around $6,000.

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I do like your optimism
The Canon EF 200-400 f/4L IS USM with built-in extender launched in 2013 with msrp price of $11,799
You can use that lens now with adapter. Current occasion prices are around $4,000

riker said:

Sure. With a free thai massage coupon to make it more realistic.

Click to expand...

You are right. The bare Sony 100-400 f4.5 GM lens is priced at around USD 4,300.

A Canon 100-400 f4.5 L lens with a built in 1.4X converter would probably cost $5,000 for a bare lens because of Canon’s self defined superiority plus an additional $1,000 for the internal teleconverter.

My hoped for price point of $4,750 is more likely to be around $6,000.

It will be interesting to see what Canon brings to the market in the next 6 months and how it competes with Sony.

I love my Canon gear but there is a point of no return for wildlife photographers that is approaching rapidly.

The day after I potentially dump my Canon equipment, I am absolutely certain that Canon will offer an amazing 200-600 f4.5 to f5.6-f6.3 L lens.

scyrene said:

I'm always a little bemused because I've never sought Canon's input on anything after purchasing. It wouldn't even occur to me that they could or would solve a problem.

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I have had some excellent post-sales service from Canon. I've been helped several times by sales reps and technicians that wet beyond what I thought was reasonable to help resolve an issue.

Tom R5R7 said:

It appears that crop sensor bodies are the redheaded stepchild of multiple brands. Birders of limited means are not amused.

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Which is why OM Systems OM-1 mark II is my birding camera of choice. What Canon, Nikon and Sony do are of no interest.

I sold my R5 just as it was announced that the R7II was not coming out until 2027! The R7II would be a perfect match to a 70-200 F2.8Z as well as being a great second camera to the R5II. Now I am stuck with 1 camera until 2/27.

charly1d said:

As a retired rugby player (I retired in the 1990s), I see more testosterone in any American football game than in any rugby league in the world.
As for your specific question, I haven't made the leap to playing without a mirror yet.

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Well they need no endurance so can be super pumped up for the very short bursts of game time between ad breaks whereas try keeping that up for 80 minutes of continuous action

Any dates on Canon cinema lenses like CN-E EF 50mm?

AlanF said:

The R7 plus RF 100-400mm is a winning combination, and for perched birds is pretty close to the R5ii + RF 100-500mm. It's also great for dragonflies and butterflies etc. I've posted dozens of shots on CR of birds and insects taken side by side by my wife with the R7 + RF 100-400mm and by me with the R5ii/R5 + R 100-500mm, and it's pretty difficult to distinguish between them. Here are some shots from yesterday. https://www.canonrumors.com/forum/threads/dragonflies-and-damselflies.35543/page-148#post-1046336

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It also has the benefit of being half the weight, it thought about it while chasing swallows with the 100-500

the US link for the firmware is something like:

Zadak said:

You have the RF 35 f1.4L, what do you mean?

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they're always gonna whine

MkSprintz said:

Despite its shortcomings it is an incredible camera, and very capable of capturing quite a lot of avian wildlife including hummingbirds. The only BiF it might struggle with is take-offs, of which pre-capture on cameras can sometimes make that scene more obtainable than in the pre-mirrorless days.

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I don't use Pre-shooting much at all waiting for birds or insects to take off. For me, it's far more useful for birds in flight in general as it enables you to track and capture an action that you would otherwise need to save images continuously and have more to process. It's also very useful when you are trying to capture very fast erratically flying birds or insects that flash across your viewfinder and you react only after they have disappeared off screen.

Del Paso said:

Or did you perhaps mean People Inhibiting Tasty Ardbeg?
If so, I'm an active member of the sect!

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I have never thought of you as a PITA.

dynamike said:

The R7 does have Pre-shooting, although 0.5s is not always enough (1s like the Z9 & Z8 are offering gives a bit more room for reaction, if you are slow, but the Nikons don't record RAW-files, only JPEGs...). Unfortunately it is hidden in the menu under RAW burst mode and is not deployable as a single button action via Custom Functions which makes it not very useful especially in situations (such as wildlife has plenty of) where you would want to activate this setting quickly.

Here's the link to the manual for those who are not familiar with the feature:

Canon : Product Manual : EOS R7 : RAW Burst Mode

The R7 has other major drawbacks such as its "unique" button layout (no other Canon EOS has the same scheme; the EOS 7D, 7DII and 5D models had all the same universal button layout which was extremely comfortable when using different bodies - except for the EOS 1D series which was and is always something special), it has a very loud mechanical shutter (almost unusable for shy wildlife) and a slow electronic shutter, no option for a separate battery grip (like the EOS 7D & 7DII had and all the EOS 5D models had and was extremely handy with long telephoto lenses) and - as you mentioned - the lack of a powerful & intelligent AF-system (which could have been at least partially addressed via Firmware updates, but that never happened and this shows the low priority the R7 has at Canon).

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I have used it, and it's a disaster. As @neuroanatomist and you have said it's a pain to get into and use. But, more importantly, it works only with ES, of course, and the R7's rolling shutter is a catastrophe with fast action. Here are some shots from it I posted some years ago to illustrate how rolling shutter renders it useless for capturing fast action with ES using the pre-shooting mode of the R7. You need to use the mechanical shutter or EFCS for fast action and it's OK then.

dynamike said:

The R7 does have Pre-shooting, although 0.5s is not always enough (1s like the Z9 & Z8 are offering gives a bit more room for reaction, if you are slow, but the Nikons don't record RAW-files, only JPEGs...). Unfortunately it is hidden in the menu under RAW burst mode and is not deployable as a single button action via Custom Functions which makes it not very useful especially in situations (such as wildlife has plenty of) where you would want to activate this setting quickly.

Here's the link to the manual for those who are not familiar with the feature:

Canon : Product Manual : EOS R7 : RAW Burst Mode

The R7 has other major drawbacks such as its "unique" button layout (no other Canon EOS has the same scheme; the EOS 7D, 7DII and 5D models had all the same universal button layout which was extremely comfortable when using different bodies - except for the EOS 1D series which was and is always something special), it has a very loud mechanical shutter (almost unusable for shy wildlife) and a slow electronic shutter, no option for a separate battery grip (like the EOS 7D & 7DII had and all the EOS 5D models had and was extremely handy with long telephoto lenses) and - as you mentioned - the lack of a powerful & intelligent AF-system (which could have been at least partially addressed via Firmware updates, but that never happened and this shows the low priority the R7 has at Canon).

Click to expand...

Despite its shortcomings it is an incredible camera, and very capable of capturing quite a lot of avian wildlife including hummingbirds. The only BiF it might struggle with is take-offs, of which pre-capture on cameras can sometimes make that scene more obtainable than in the pre-mirrorless days.

That said bodies such as the R6ii run circles around the R7, and there is a noticeable step up in image quality sometimes. Though better image quality might not always be discernible to the naked eye. Probably why the R7 has largely sat in my bag while I use the R6ii.

Hopefully whatever is released in 2027 or 2028, or whenever at this point addresses those minor shortcomings of the existing R7.

dynamike said:

Unfortunately it is hidden in the menu under RAW burst mode and is not deployable as a single button action via Custom Functions which makes it not very useful especially in situations (such as wildlife has plenty of) where you would want to activate this setting quickly.

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Not very easy to deploy, and the RAW burst must be unpacked with Canon's DPP. Vastly inferior to the pre-continuous shooting option on more recent cameras.

AlanF said:

The major drawbacks for the R7 are AF and not having Pre-shooting. It's great for stills, but for action, BIF, DIF etc it's not in the same league as the R5ii etc. If they improved the AF and added Pre-shooting, I'd throw on a lighter telephoto like the RF 100-500mm or the RF 100-400mm and use it rather than the R5ii + RF 200-800mm. I have a feeling Canon might not like that.

Click to expand...

The R7 does have Pre-shooting, although 0.5s is not always enough (1s like the Z9 & Z8 are offering gives a bit more room for reaction, if you are slow, but the Nikons don't record RAW-files, only JPEGs...). Unfortunately it is hidden in the menu under RAW burst mode and is not deployable as a single button action via Custom Functions which makes it not very useful especially in situations (such as wildlife has plenty of) where you would want to activate this setting quickly.

Here's the link to the manual for those who are not familiar with the feature:

The R7 has other major drawbacks such as its "unique" button layout (no other Canon EOS has the same scheme; the EOS 7D, 7DII and 5D models had all the same universal button layout which was extremely comfortable when using different bodies - except for the EOS 1D series which was and is always something special), it has a very loud mechanical shutter (almost unusable for shy wildlife) and a slow electronic shutter, no option for a separate battery grip (like the EOS 7D & 7DII had and all the EOS 5D models had and was extremely handy with long telephoto lenses) and - as you mentioned - the lack of a powerful & intelligent AF-system (which could have been at least partially addressed via Firmware updates, but that never happened and this shows the low priority the R7 has at Canon).