Why I'm sorry R7 doesn't have inbuilt flash

[JKT]

This was quite handy to take along on holiday trips and worked just fine for night-time moth photography.

The diffusor is plastic plate by Orthex (somewhat reduced with Dremel ) and the main component of the LED system is LM317L. In addition to that it just needs the LED:s and the resistors, which choose the output voltage for the LED. These depend on your LED:s. The power switch is in the battery pack.

 

[BurnUnit]

That's a fairly specialized rig you've put together there. Looks like some real thought went into the design and construction. How about posting some sample shots of your results?

 

[JKT]

Here's two. The system works naturally better for smaller subjects, but it still helps a lot with decent sized moths as well. The first, larger one, is naturally shiny, so take that into account.

The system leaves a clear shadow below the moth, but the shadow has rather soft edges. Reflections are not totally eliminated either, but in order to get them you need to be very unlucky with angles unless the subject is shiny.

I also have another one, which is carved out to fit EF-S 60mm macro. So the bayonet fitting is a mixed blessing.

 

[Anton Largiader]

It's far less convenient than a pop-up, but the closest you can come is the 90EX Speedlite. It's small. Takes AAA batteries, slow to recharge, weak, has some oddities, but small.
The 270EX is a little bigger but considerably more powerful, takes AAs. Still kind of slow, but still small.
Both would work with the R7.

90EX (2012) - 9 meters GN
7D pop-up - 12 meters
270EX II (2011) - 27 meters

 

[Wilt]

It's far less convenient than a pop-up, but the closest you can come is the 90EX Speedlite. It's small. Takes AAA batteries, slow to recharge, weak, has some oddities, but small.
The 270EX is a little bigger but considerably more powerful, takes AAs. Still kind of slow, but still small.
Both would work with the R7.

The Multi-Function Shoe Adapter AD-E1 would be needed to use any conventional hotfoot accessory (compatible with Canon EOS dSLR) on the R7.

 

[Anton Largiader]

The Multi-Function Shoe Adapter AD-E1 would be needed to use any conventional hotfoot accessory (compatible with Canon EOS dSLR) on the R7.

No, it's not. The R7 has the 5-pin contact arrangement in the hotshoe as well as the MFS contacts. I've been using my 430EXII on both of my RF bodies with no issues.

EDIT: -> Here <- is something I wrote on RFShooters about the AD-E1. The person was asking a different question but this should describe the overall concept of the AD-E1 for any purposes.

 

[sapearl]

View attachment 20125
This was quite handy to take along on holiday trips and worked just fine for night-time moth photography.

The diffusor is plastic plate by Orthex (somewhat reduced with Dremel ) and the main component of the LED system is LM317L. In addition to that it just needs the LED:s and the resistors, which choose the output voltage for the LED. These depend on your LED:s. The power switch is in the battery pack.

I'm impressed with your creative ingenuity - thanks for posting a shot of the rig and some sample moths.

 

[JKT]

A couple of other notes about it:

It may look that the battery back is too close to the body. It isn't - quite. There isn't any extra space either though. If there were, the diffusor wouldn't fit behind EF-S 60mm without any extensions. The fixing for the power back is a 3D printed arm that connects to the tripod fixing thread with a thumb screw.

The LED's are in parallel and both have their own voltage control. Single voltage control and series connection would theoretically work, but the LEDs might have had different output. On recollection that difference would likely have been too small to matter in what they are used for.

 

[Lester Wareham]

No, it's not. The R7 has the 5-pin contact arrangement in the hotshoe as well as the MFS contacts. I've been using my 430EXII on both of my RF bodies with no issues.

EDIT: -> Here <- is something I wrote on RFShooters about the AD-E1. The person was asking a different question but this should describe the overall concept of the AD-E1 for any purposes.

Thanks Anton, not looked at using flash with either of my R bodies yet so this is helpful.

From the Canon accessory guide:

Canon : Compatible Accessories : Flash Units

Product Name	EOS R5	EOS R6	EOS Kiss M2 / EOS M50 Mark II	EOS R3	EOS R7	EOS R10
Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX II	○	○	○	○	○	○
Speedlite 430EX III-RT/430EX III	○	○	○	○	○	○
Speedlite 600EX II-RT	○	○	○	○*1	○*1	○*1
Macro Twin Lite MT-26EX-RT	○	○	○	○	○	○
Speedlite EL-100	○	○	○	○	○	○
Speedlite EL-1	○	○	○	○*1	○*1	○*1
Speedlite EL-5 ()	-	-	-	○*2*3	○*2*4	○*2*4

This includes the ring flash and the new twin flash but not the old twin flash, but that is almost certainly ok if the ring flash is, but I notice the ring flash listed is version II.

Not sure if the interface for the V1 macro flashes is different. Similarly I have the EX430 II.

The macro twin flash and 430 both have 5-pin hot shoes so I "assume" they will work. But not yet got around to trying.

 

[JKT]

MT-24 works fine with R7.