As an owner of an overworked 5d Mk III, I recently bought an R to replace it. Whilst it is an excellent camera in many ways, I was quite aware of its deficiencies in terms of wildlife photography which I do a bit of. I have found the R is excellent for macro photography and as well as other non-action based photography. I love the articulating screen for more interesting shots in particular. As others have reported the camera is poor at tracking objects and I also found accurate and repeatable focusing of small birds and animals at a distance less than optimal - both slow and front/back focussing quite often. It seems that the new firmware due towards the end of September is going to be addressing exactly these auto-focus issues so my findings don't seem out of line and I look forward to these improvements.
However one area I find more frustrating than any other for wildlife photography with the R is the viewfinder. With the EVF it seems that if your focus is off by just a little bit when you point your camera at your target it is often impossible to make out your target against the background. With my 5D and its OVF, as long as the focussing wasn't miles off I could generally pick out the bird or animal even though it was blurry. Now perhaps with the new firmware and hopefully snappier focussing then perhaps that will help but I don't think it will really address this fundamental deficiency. Have any other R users found this too and have you found any techniques that can help?
The rumoured pro-mirrorless for next year I'm sure will be a step or two ahead again on auto-focus and tracking compared to the R but unless it has one of those combined OVF/EVF viewfinders that were shown in patents a while back then it may still not meet my wildlife needs.
I am therefore seriously thinking of picking up a 90D for my wildlife photography with my R for the remainder. Are there any R owners with 80D/7D mkII cameras filling the wildlife role and if so, how is that working for you? Any more related thoughts?
However one area I find more frustrating than any other for wildlife photography with the R is the viewfinder. With the EVF it seems that if your focus is off by just a little bit when you point your camera at your target it is often impossible to make out your target against the background. With my 5D and its OVF, as long as the focussing wasn't miles off I could generally pick out the bird or animal even though it was blurry. Now perhaps with the new firmware and hopefully snappier focussing then perhaps that will help but I don't think it will really address this fundamental deficiency. Have any other R users found this too and have you found any techniques that can help?
The rumoured pro-mirrorless for next year I'm sure will be a step or two ahead again on auto-focus and tracking compared to the R but unless it has one of those combined OVF/EVF viewfinders that were shown in patents a while back then it may still not meet my wildlife needs.
I am therefore seriously thinking of picking up a 90D for my wildlife photography with my R for the remainder. Are there any R owners with 80D/7D mkII cameras filling the wildlife role and if so, how is that working for you? Any more related thoughts?