After determining that the a7r5 had lousy AF for birding as well as too much pixel noise even in moderate light, I acknowledged to myself that megapixels were not the answer for more reach and that small apertures probably affect autofocus in anything but good light.

So what was my next move? Even more pixel density with an even slower lens, of course! And with some immediate testing in the doom and gloom of the ant farm, where three-digit ISO is little more than a daydream.

And what was the result? Well, the Red-Legged Crake below was shot in dusk-like conditions at ISO 6400 and I had to cut my preferred shutter speed almost in half to get ISO that low. Photomator’s minimally-effective denoising was applied at about 80%, but the unedited raw file looked better than some 3-digit ISO shots from the a7r5.

So there goes all my logic and experience right out the window. Well, AF was not great at all in today’s moderately low to very low light. And the R7 also has trouble focusing on backlit critters. But not once did it balk or freeze with the plastic-fantastic RF 100-400mm f/8 lens. And the entire setup weighs in at right around 1250 grams.

Seriously, with critter chasing expected to be just a part of my pursuits over the next few months, most of which will hopefully benefit from much better light than what I get in the ant farm, I didn’t mind another round with this setup. But another major foray into Canon? No, I don’t think so.

Looks like I’m about to be straddling brands again. Let’s see how long it’ll last . . .

R7/RF 100-400mm . . .