As a side note, how is your home renovation coming along? Are you able to share any pictures of the progress? I think last time you said that you all had to replace the foundation or add a foundation.
That was just a stray cloud, but it stretched all the way across the sky.
The renovation is progressing. We have a floor and a door that leads out to the back porch. It's not just a big six-foot hole in the wall any more. I'm glad. Things were starting to get a little chilly these days. đ
The only thing left is a kitchen sink. That's supposed to come next week. I'll be glad when we don't have to wash dishes in the bathtub any more.
Today, I took some pictures of the Canon RP camera with the new Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM lens, compared to some others. This is the lens I purchased refurbished for $399 (USD) from Canon. I also purchased a lens hood from Ebay. The lens hood fit perfectly. I thought you might like to see how it compared next to a DSLR camera & lens and a M-series mirrorless camera & EF-M lens.
When looking at the sizes of these, you will have to make note of the longer sized hood on the RF 100-400mm lens. But I'm impressed how small the lens is overall. On a crop body like the R7 the maximum equivalent length would be 640mm.
Photo No. 1 - Canon RP camera with the Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM lens compared to the Canon T7i (800D) camera with the Canon EF-S 18-135mm IS USM lens
Model - Canon EOS M50m2
ExposureTime - 1/50 seconds
FNumber - 6.30
ISOSpeedRatings - 640
ExposureBiasValue - -0.33
FocalLength - 41 mm
Lens Model - EF-M15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM
Photo No. 2 - Canon RP camera with the Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM lens compared to the Canon M50 Mark II camera with the EF-M F4.5-6.3 55-200mm IS STM lens.
Model - Canon EOS M50m2
ExposureTime - 1/50 seconds
FNumber - 7.10
ISOSpeedRatings - 640
ExposureBiasValue - -0.33
FocalLength - 37 mm
Lens Model - EF-M15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM
It's fun to experiment. The other day I was taking pictures of Wood Ducks in low light. I was only using 1/60th of a second at or near 400mm focal length. Normally I would be able to take those handheld, but I noticed that I wasn't being careful all of the time. I find it's important to concentrate and to just push the shutter button down with the finger without moving anything else (as much as possible). Sometimes you can brace the camera & lens for very low shutter speeds. Did you try that? Or maybe you can try it again at even a lower shutter speed. đ
Another option could be to use manual mode with Auto ISO. Set the largest aperture that will give the DOF you want and the slowest shutter speed to eliminate camera shake, motion blur, whatever and then let ISO float with ISO auto.
When shooting raw the ISO the camera sets is irrelevant to me as long as important highlights are not clipped because I set the final image lightness in post.
Another option I use, especially when pointing and shooting, is aperture priority with Auto ISO and a minimum shutter speed set. I set the minimum shutter speed that meets my blur requirements - freeze motion, whatever.
I don't know if it's just my camera, or what, but when I tried that, I thought that my pictures were coming out flat, plasticy, and looking washed out. I usually start with my base ISO and only increase it if I have to. I think the pictures look fuller and richer. I can alter the brightness in post, but I don't want to have to edit every picture I take.
Ok, but it sounds like there is something unusual going on with your camera.
The reason I say that is because considering the settings you used in your posted image, had you set a shutter speed of say 1/60s, auto iso would have set iso to iso 400.
The resultant image should look pretty much the same as your posted image, not flat and washed out.