R5? R6? Anyone?

[Kayaker72]

Brant - super review, thanks for all those details! The R-bodies are clear winners in so many ways. I'd certainly lean to getting one when the 1DXIII becomes the 1DX-R. When I imagine all the mirrorless benefits merged with the 1DX, it boggles the mind. But really, I'm still super happy with what I have, and it's sort of like owning a Ferrari and wondering if I should get a Lamborghini (just a tiny bit less costly )

Thanks. I think you are providing ample proof that Ferrari still has some game in them.

I agree, very nice review.

Are you considering adding the battery grip?

Thanks.

As for the battery grip, I am. It is a bit lower on the priority list. Right now I am trying to sort out the memory card situation. What do you think about yours? I have never owned one for my previous cameras, but I am thinking about one for the R5. As long as the batteries stay at >1000 images per charge, that will be great for my typical shooting style, but I can see an advantage for a photography dedicated event where keeping the fps up longer and getting over 2,000 images before swapping out batteries would be useful.

Had really nice weather today here on my north finland trip and had also my 800mm with me and ran into lone common redpoll. This image is really tight cropped and slight edits without any sharpening etc.. just some colors clarity etc.

Have to say that once the weather is clear this lens with r6 is really boosting my bird photo graphy.

Great that it is opening up a new type of photography for you.

[Joel Eade]

As for the battery grip, I am. It is a bit lower on the priority list. Right now I am trying to sort out the memory card situation. What do you think about yours? I have never owned one for my previous cameras, but I am thinking about one for the R5. As long as the batteries stay at >1000 images per charge, that will be great for my typical shooting style, but I can see an advantage for a photography dedicated event where keeping the fps up longer and getting over 2,000 images before swapping out batteries would be useful.

I did get a battery grip for the 5DIV and the battery life is a non issue ..... I have shot 8 hours days with thousands of images on two batteries and I think they drive the big lenses quicker too.

Not sure about getting one for the R5 ..... I really like the compactness and light weight of the system as a whole (especially with the 100-500) and I am hesitant to add weight and size.

I did purchase one 64 gig CF express card and a reader.

[Kayaker72]

I did get a battery grip for the 5DIV and the battery life is a non issue ..... I have shot 8 hours days with thousands of images on two batteries and I think they drive the big lenses quicker too.

Not sure about getting one for the R5 ..... I really like the compactness and light weight of the system as a whole (especially with the 100-500) and I am hesitant to add weight and size.

I did purchase one 64 gig CF express card and a reader.

I hadn't considered that it might drive a lens faster. Interesting. Ultimately, volts are volts, but I wonder if there are momentary drops in voltage with one battery that is fixed by having two? Or maybe as the battery drains it's performance lessons, despite still being within an "acceptable" spec. With two batteries, that drain takes longer to appear? I am seeing something like this with my M6II. I haven't covered this in a post yet, but there were a couple sequence of images where it just did not get focused even though the scene had good contrast. I did not notice until I was at home looking through photos, but in retrospect, the 2-3 events occurred when the battery was low.

BTW, I should probably clarify, my 5DIV would be ~400-1,200 images, per battery (mix of batteries from 2013-2017). So the higher end is inline with what I've seen on the R5. My main issue with batteries and the 5DIV is actually drain while the camera is off or powered down. A fully charged battery will be dead in a week or so. If I mistakenly just pick up the camera and go, the battery might be dead. My fix is that I have multiple fully charged batteries and charger sitting on a shelf for easy access. Whenever I grab the 5DIV, if I haven't used it in a day or two, I swap out the batteries. But, I have yet to see any appreciable drain on the R5.

But I agree, I am also enjoying the compactness of the R5. This gets a bit more complicated as I shoot enough off a tripod that the "L" bracket is important and, of course, there are different "L" brackets for gripped vs non-gripped configurations.

Also, and I do not know if you use a "L" bracket or leave it on, but I was just looking at the RRS images/videos. While it looks like RRS has worked to accommodate the swivel screen, but that is a bit too tight of fit for the screen and L bracket for my comfort. Plus...more size/weight.

[Joel Eade]

But I agree, I am also enjoying the compactness of the R5. This gets a bit more complicated as I shoot enough off a tripod that the "L" bracket is important and, of course, there are different "L" brackets for gripped vs non-gripped configurations.

Also, and I do not know if you use a "L" bracket or leave it on, but I was just looking at the RRS images/videos. While it looks like RRS has worked to accommodate the swivel screen, but that is a bit too tight of fit for the screen and L bracket for my comfort. Plus...more size/weight.

I have never used an L bracket ..... have not done much landscape imaging via tripod. The super tele lenses of course have the rotating tripod collar.

[Kayaker72]

For what it is worth, I noticed the "heating" problem with the R5 for the first time just now. My wife informed me we needed some more pictures of our cat. From my perspective, a great chance to try out "animal eye AF" on something other than a bird. I am not sure what others do with pets, but ours do not sit still, so I am constantly trying to get them into a good position and end up taking a lot of photos. After about 500 photos in 18 minutes, I noticed the grip starting to get warm. Not hot, and had I not been aware of the issue, I might not have thought much about it. But knowing about the issue, I got out my temperature gun and sure enough, all over the body was 82-87F, even parts where my hand had not been touching.

Granted, I very rarely shoot like that. It really gets down to 2 pictures per second for 18 minutes. But there you go...

BTW...with animal eye AF, I think I may have taken some of my best pictures of our cat. I haven't looked at them on the computer, but looking at a few on the back of camera...being able to focus on composition and knowing that most of the time the eye will be in focus is very nice.

[Joel Eade]

I have not had it happen (yet) but that was pretty intense shooting which no doubt had the processing chip working hard.

Did the camera give you a temp warning message?

PS: I agree with you ... the eye focus tracking is a very useful (and fun) feature

[Karsaa]

I haven't had any issues on heating with stills (or video) with R6. I have even taken some 200ish bursts of images just to try out what the body can do and not any sign of heat rising.

[Kayaker72]

I am actually a bit surprised that I ran into it as I've rattled off some long bursts with birds. But, probably not something that was 2 pics per second for 18 minutes. I do wonder if converting all those images to CRAW maybe takes a bit of additional computational power?

As for the camera, no warning, no issues and I did not notice anything until the very end. The camera continued to perform perfectly even a few minutes after I did my measurements as my wife was giving our dog a bath as I was testing this and I rattled off a bunch more pics of that. I just felt my grip get a little bit warm. The 87F was behind the LCD panel, which is what I've heard others say is where it gets warmest.

I do not shoot like this very often. Even birds on a perch will be a burst and then waiting. Maybe some long time lapses? But, it can happen taking pictures, not just video. I do wonder if it was the CRAW conversion, whatever goes into that. As 2 images per second of RAW is ~100 MB/sec even for 18 minutues and it seems like video modes have no issue with that bit rate. Instead it seems like they have an issue once getting into the >~800 Mb/sec range.

[Kayaker72]

BTW...just another data point, this battery charge has 1,799 images taken with 15% battery remaining....

[Karsaa]

Last night desided to test out the focus peaking usage on astro imaging with R6+RF800+tracking.

Was suprised how easy it actually was, once i understood how it works, with all aidings etc. This image is so much cropped that the quality of my tracker kicks in and might be some issues still with focusing, but overall it really helped finding the focus.

Orion by Kari, on Flickr