Welcome to Michael’s blog. Michael Andrew, (aka Michael The Maven) is a freelance producer, photography instructor, tech innovator, and when needed, disaster aid specialist. Disclaimer: Michael is a participant in Bhphoto & Amazon affiliate programs that provides an advertising commission if you purchase through links on this website.
This will be an evolving blog post based on the experience we had with the Canon 90D. Why do I make such a list in the first place?
It has to do with pixel density. 32.5 MP in an APSC sized sensor translates into about an 80MP Full frame density. At a pixel pitch of 3.2 microns, a 32.5 MP sensor is one of the most tightly spaced sensors for an interchangeable lens camera at the time of this writing, tho we expect this to change with the release of the Fuji XH2 later this year.
Because of this very tight pixel density, what we have learned is that older lenses and “super zooms”, also those lenses designed for much smaller MP cameras run into resolving problems resulting in “soft images”. I also want to be clear, that the lenses will “work” meaning you can put them on the mount and they will focus and they will take pictures, this issue is specifically in regards to how sharp the images are. So if you see a “No” that means the lens cannot resolve to the full capability of the sensor.
What this means is, if you were happy with your 70D and 80D and you have older lenses for those that were perfect and you try to adapt over to the R7, you cannot expect the same sharpness result. It will depend on the lens you are using and its resolving power. There is also some subjectivity to this, what is sharp to you may not be sharp to me, so if it is a lens I am making a judgement on, you also have to know this is in my professional opinion, and we can disagree.
Because we are adopting the 90D list to this list (the density is pretty much the same), we have scores (Recommended or not) for most of them, but will be adding and updating as we go.
A couple side notes because of so many questions I am getting about this:
1. Many of these lenses have been confirmed in our 90D FB group, the R7 Group should be the target for uploading and inspecting new images: Michael’s Canon R7 FB Group
2. If a lens isn’t on this list, I strongly recommend searching our R7 Facebook group for the name of the list to see examples.
3. The general rule of thumb is that if it is both an older lens and a zoom lens, it might have issues. Older lenses mean the design of the lens is greater than 10 years. Most newer zooms and primes seem to do better generally but there are some exceptions. I talk about it in this video:
Confirmed = Multiple Users have demonstrated sufficient resolving power with images on our FB group
Unconfirmed = Verbal Only from different sources
50/50- Some good, some bad examples from the FB group, might come down to the copy you have or how stopped down your aperture is.
Italics = Likely /Likely Not (Depending on list) based on MTF Charts
NR – Not Recommended due to resolving issues.
No Mark = We don’t know yet
RF Lenses (We expect All RF lenses to be good to go, with the exception of possibly the 800 F11, which we will test and confirm): RF-S 18-45mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM This looks good to go from what I have seen RF-S 18-150mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM This looks good to go from what I have seen
RF 400 2.8 With 1.4x – Looks Good!
Canon’s Recommended Zoom Lenses For High Megapixel FF Cameras (Basically Recommended)
Tamron 24-70F2.8 G2 – Ive seen some that look really good and others less so. Might come down to your aperture (anything over f5.2 will add diffraction / how good of a copy you have.)
Lenses That Do Not Seem to have Enough Resolving Power
Problem Zoom Lenses
– Tamron 16-300 3.5-6.3 Confirmed Low Resolving ***DISCONTINUED*****
– Tamron 18-270 (No)***DISCONTINUED*****
– Tamron 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD Lens for Canon EF(*We have seen both good and bad images with it, seems like a good copy will work but not at extreme ends, better when stopped down)
– Tamron 100-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di VC USD Lens for Canon EF(50/50)
– Canon 24-70 2.8 I – (Not Great) ***DISCONTINUED*****
– Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS I USM, V1 is far worse, V2 is better but may come down to copy.
– Canon 100-400 f4.5-5.6 v1 (very soft at the 400mm Focal Length)(Confirmed Low Resolving) – this is one of the worst **DISCONTINUED*****
About the same as we have seen in other Jurassic Park Movies. 6/10. Fun to see all the big actors from previous films together.
It was ok in Theaters. If you havent seen Top Gun, go see that first!
About the same as we have seen in other Jurassic Park Movies. 6/10. Fun to see all the big actors from previous films together.