The R7 Mark II with 39MP: It Sounds Spot on – and here’s why it makes sense

[Steve Balcombe]

And I can tell you, you will love the 18-50 DC DN. At least I do.

I totally agree, it's perfect for my tabletop studio stuff. A really sweet little lens.

 

[Steve Balcombe]

39 MP worries me, but not for the reasons expressed by some in this thread. It's because of what it says about Canon's target market for this camera, which is not the market segment that bought the 7D and 7D2. I don't have a problem with 39 MP, but I also don't really need it. I do need a bigger body, with solid, weatherproof construction and chunky controls for operating with cold hands and/or gloves, without taking my eye from the viewfinder. Above all I do need a much faster sensor for the reasons discussed many times. Canon has a second chance to offer us a true 7D2 successor, but if they've chosen not to, too many of us will look elsewhere and there won't be a third chance.

 

[David - Sydney]

39 MP worries me, but not for the reasons expressed by some in this thread. It's because of what it says about Canon's target market for this camera, which is not the market segment that bought the 7D and 7D2. I don't have a problem with 39 MP, but I also don't really need it. I do need a bigger body, with solid, weatherproof construction and chunky controls for operating with cold hands and/or gloves, without taking my eye from the viewfinder. Above all I do need a much faster sensor for the reasons discussed many times. Canon has a second chance to offer us a true 7D2 successor, but if they've chosen not to, too many of us will look elsewhere and there won't be a third chance.

How do you think that the market segmentation is different between 7D/7Dii and rumoured R7ii?

 

[Steve Balcombe]

39 MP worries me, but not for the reasons expressed by some in this thread. It's because of what it says about Canon's target market for this camera, which is not the market segment that bought the 7D and 7D2.

How do you think that the market segmentation is different between 7D/7Dii and rumoured R7ii?

The 7D/7Dii appealed above all to outdoors/wildlife photographers, and by the standards of the day they had pretty much everything. The R7 doesn't - as a mirrorless replacement for the 90D it was quite good, and incredibly affordable, but as a 7Dii successor it wasn't even close.

The single biggest fault with the R7 for fast-moving wildlife is the slow sensor, and a higher MP count makes a stacked BSI sensor less likely. Not impossible, but less likely. The problem manifests itself mainly in ES mode, but you have to use ES for high fps bursts and quiet operation - essential for some wildlife. (Have you ever compared the sound of the R7's mechanical shutter to the 7D's?) The smaller, less robust body was a big step back for people working outdoors, in the cold and sometimes with wet/muddy hands, or gloves.

I'm not forgetting that your question was about the "rumoured R7ii", not the current R7. If Canon does manage to fix all these things in the Mark II, I will be absolutely delighted, but moving up from '90D' spec to '7D' spec, with its attendant shift to a new price bracket, would be a big move and while I remain hopeful, I'm honestly not optimistic. History tells us that it seems much more likely that the R7ii will bear a close resemblance to the R7. And if so, it will once again fail to appeal to the '7D market'.

Just as a point of reference, the OM-1 has all of these things, with a slightly smaller 20MP Micro Four-Thirds sensor. The launch price of the OM-1 Mark II was USD2,200, compared with USD1,500 for the R7, so while the camera that many of us want is proven to be achievable, it would come at a high price.

 

[Michael Clark]

Okay, so the rumors are sounding as if it appears that the Canon EOS R7 Mark II is indeed set to arrive in the first half of 2026 with a new 39MP APS-C sensor of BSI variety, either stacked or unstacked. As someone who enjoys delicious megapickles, I'll be happy with 39 versus 32.5, even […]

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The linear resolution increase from 32.5 MP to 39 MP is 9.5%, not 11% as you state. 11% is the difference between 32.5 MP and 40 MP.

 

[Michael Clark]

No one has talked about the R7's wonderful Quick Control Dial! Am I the only user who prefers Canon's implementation of this dial?? It's position is perfect, allowing for quick movements of my thumb between it and the AF-on button. On other cameras the dial is too low and awkwardly placed for my hand. I hope they keep it but make a few improvements: make it larger(!) and more "grippy". Aesthetically, it is butt ugly but works for me.
Aside from what has been discussed already, I want the 7DII to be tougher, something along the lines of the 7DII or even the 1D series.

There was a previous post here where there was quite the discussion about the placement of the Quick Control Dial on the R7.

As with all things ergonomic, it depends upon one's hand size and shape. My thumb does not comfortably reach the QCD on the R7. I've always swapped the function of the Exposure Lock and AF Start buttons on the backs of all of my 5-series and 7-Series DSLRs because my thumb reaches the middle button more comfortably than the left button.

The other issue is that the R7 is the only body with this control arrangement. For those of us who primarily use FF bodies and use APS-C for specific scenarios, uniformity between models is a plus. Different control layout from one to the other is a negative.

 

[Michael Clark]

I, too, doubt we will see a stacked sensor in the R7 II. Based on what we seem to know from the DSLR days, the market for a high end APS-C camera is very low. The Canon 7 series had a very long time between generations, and I believe Nikon never had a refresh of their D500. Now that we are well into the mirrorless era, the market for a high end APS-C camera is certainly even lower, as many old 7D users have switched to the Full Frame R5 series. And the big elephant in the room is, will R7 users who want to upgrade be willing to spend what will likely be twice as much for an R7 II as they did for their R7? Has any Canon camera come close to doubling the price between generations?

Of course, the fact that the rumors always seem to think that the next camera will have a stacked sensor, means people will be disappointed, will piss and moan, will blame Canon even though the blame is not theirs.

Due to the way yield works out for smaller vs. larger sensors, an APS-C stacked sensor camera may not need to be as expensive as you assume based on the cost difference between FF bodies with and without stacked sensors. Weeding out the defective parts of an uncut silicone wafer eliminates a higher percentage of FF chips than APS-C chips, thus the yield ratio in numbers of APS-C chips vs. numbers of FF chips from a single silicone wafer is higher than the 2.56:1 area ratio would seem to imply.

On the other hand, pricing is rarely, if ever, driven by production cost alone. It's always about what the market will bear and where the balance of profit per unit sold (higher price per unit) vs total units sold (lower price per unit) maximizes total profit for the entire number of units sold.

 

[Michael Clark]

More megapixels might sell cameras in the short term to the unsuspecting, but it's image quality and features that keep consumers turning to the "pro" level APS-C cameras.

There's a reason that Nikon (20mp) and Sony (26mp) don't got for super high resolution in this market and at 32mp, Canon can already claim "victory" there.

Fuji does have a 40MP APS-C camera that's been on the market for at least two years. It's mentioned prominently in the original post above.

 

[Michael Clark]

I totally agree, it's perfect for my tabletop studio stuff. A really sweet little lens.

What percentage of 7-Series body owners use an APS-C camera for 18-50mm (28-80mm FF angle of view) tabletop studio work, though?

It seems to me that the vast majority of 7-series body users would use their FF cameras for that use case. Those who tend to use an APS-C body as their primary/only camera usually do not own a 7-series, particularly after there was no replacement for the 2014 7D Mark II as the 2016 80D and 2019 90D were introduced. When the EOS RP was rolled out at less than the price of the 90D, many of those users transitioned to FF mirrorless bodies. Now there are also the APS-C R10, R50, and R100 bodies that are more affordable - and in many ways more capable for use cases other than sports and birding - than the R7. Such an 18-50mm wide aperture lens would seem a much better fit for those type bodies which do tend to e their owners' primary/only body.

 

[Michael Clark]

I really don't understand readout times. The R7 can be truly bad for bird and insect wings but I have never had any problems whatsoever with the R5, which is only twice as fast. The R5 does have rolling shutter effects on panning against backgrounds with vertical lines that come out sloping, but not with wings flapping.

Are you cropping the R5 shots? If so, the transition time for the part of the sensor you're actually using is shorter than the total time for the entire height of the R5 sensor. 2 x 1.6 = 3.2. So effectively the R5 is 3.2X faster per mm of sensor height.