Canon R7 noise

Brentor

Brentor

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Steve
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I’m still struggling with noise from my R7 for bird photography. I set my max auto ISO to 6400 but I do not like the results. I’ve now set the limit to 1600 which should hopefully be acceptable. Although the AF on the R7 is amazing I prefer the output from my 7Dii. I’m probably doing something wrong, but what?

I also have a R6 and I prefer the output from this camera but obviously it has less reach.

Any help would be appreciated.

I am reaching the point where I think I should give up a small bird photography as it it too demanding/expensive and just enjoy viewing them with a scope/binos.
 
Brentor said:
I’m still struggling with noise from my R7 for bird photography. I set my max auto ISO to 6400 but I do not like the results. I’ve now set the limit to 1600 which should hopefully be acceptable. Although the AF on the R7 is amazing I prefer the output from my 7Dii. I’m probably doing something wrong, but what?

I also have a R6 and I prefer the output from this camera but obviously it has less reach.

Any help would be appreciated.

I am reaching the point where I think I should give up a small bird photography as it it too demanding/expensive and just enjoy viewing them with a scope/binos.
Click to expand...

You need to provide an unedited image that shows the problem.
 
7DII to R7 was a jump from 20 to 32MP. That is a HUGE increase. Unfortunately low light performance will suffer. This is a camera that will heavily rely on AI denoising at these sensitivities. R6 will naturally look a lot cleaner with its much larger photo sites, however if you scaled R7 image to same magnification the results should be comparable. That's just a fact of life in 2025.

Best strategies include:
  • use the longest possible fast lens and avoid cropping
  • lowest reasonable ISO and using the full width of the histogram
  • Use sharpening masking function to make sure only subject matter is affected
  • Absolutely no texture increase and minimal to ideally no clarity.
  • AI denoise.
that's the price you pay for not getting R1 and a big fat lens or getting closer.
 
To add to the above; it’s not a fact of 2025, it’s simply a fact.

And to be blunt, the problem isn’t the camera; it’s your expectations.

With a >50% increase in pixels comes more noise.

But ‘noise’ is ultimately subjective. Because it’s not about how much noise there is, it’s about how much noise you tolerate.

I used to shoot weddings with 7d’s, at the time, every wildlife photographer was describing the 7d as unusable because it was so noisy. I never had a customer mention anything
 
Phil V said:
To add to the above; it’s not a fact of 2025, it’s simply a fact.

And to be blunt, the problem isn’t the camera; it’s your expectations.

With a >50% increase in pixels comes more noise.

But ‘noise’ is ultimately subjective. Because it’s not about how much noise there is, it’s about how much noise you tolerate.

I used to shoot weddings with 7d’s, at the time, every wildlife photographer was describing the 7d as unusable because it was so noisy. I never had a customer mention anything
Click to expand...

I accept that my expectations were too high. I thought that noise would be better on a modern camera and that the extra MP would give more detail.

To be fair most of the times I have used this camera the conditions have not been great. Hopefully I’ll have more chance this year.

When I have used the camera for subjects other than birds and using low ISOs (100/200), the results have been fine, but I prefer using the R6 in these situations.

I don’t like noise, detested the 7D, but modern noise reduction software is a great help but cannot recover lack of detail.

LongLensPhotography said:
that's the price you pay for not getting R1 and a big fat lens
Click to expand...

I’m coming to the same conclusion!
 
Yes, I do find my own copy can be noisy, so much so that when I first got it, I bought Topaz denoise as I had just nailed a Kingfisher image, my first of that season but it was an exceptionally noisy image. I forget what ISO it was at but probably around 1600. Even now, I'm getting quite grainy images but for some reason, Idon't find it as offensive as I did with a 7D copy I had years ago. Maybe that's because I know I am exposing better than I used to. The 7D could be bandy too though, on top of the noise.

Anyway, yup, the R7 can be noisy, it's going to be, that's quite a lot of MP on an APSC sensor. With correct use of the histogram though, and there's no excuse nowadays with mirrorless bodies having it displayed in the viewfinder, the noise can be managed and cleaned up easily in post if need be. Nail the focus and exposure and you're 90% there, the rest is a bit of a polish in post. (y)
 
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Brentor said:
I don’t like noise, detested the 7D, but modern noise reduction software is a great help but cannot recover lack of detail.
Click to expand...
The 7d just needed ETTR and make sure you got that right.

The 7d to 6d shift was seismic though, but I still don't consider noiseless photographs anything other than a luxury. 1600 ISO on film was nigh on useless, so my very first DSLR was already an improvement (but you'd have hated it)
 
ISO5000 with lightroom denoise on an 800 f11

My R3 is cleaner but the extra reach i get with the R7 i really like along with the pixel density for cropping in good light.

Also have my limit set at 6400 ISO

Purchased the R7 as missed having my 7D MKII and so far find its a nice upgrade on the MKII one you get the hang of it.

Topaz denoise is certainly a worthy investment as actually cleans up many images extremely well.

4I9A0285-XL.jpg
 
Gadget-Guy said:
ISO5000 with lightroom denoise on an 800 f11

My R3 is cleaner but the extra reach i get with the R7 i really like along with the pixel density for cropping in good light.

Also have my limit set at 6400 ISO

Purchased the R7 as missed having my 7D MKII and so far find its a nice upgrade on the MKII one you get the hang of it.

Topaz denoise is certainly a worthy investment as actually cleans up many images extremely well.

4I9A0285-XL.jpg
Click to expand...

Looks like you had brighter light than I had last week. What was your camera to subject distance?
 
I tried some non-bird shots at the weekend using ISOs 640- 1000 and the noise was fine. Maximising the width of the histogram helps, but this is not always possible with small birds. Hopefully my new limit of 1600 will help and if necessary I’ll reduce this, but my lenses may struggle.
 
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