My experience after few days with Canon RP (also AF assist problem)

Last days, I used Canon RP for taking some shots in nightclubs and here is my thoughts.

1. I really LOVE the eye af, accuracy is top, on 5D3 that was impossible. ;p

2. I don't like battery life, but I known that will be like that.

3. I hate dynamic range of Canon RP. When I recover shadows it is terrible, worse than on old 5D3... Have you got any suggestions or I have to buy R or R6?

4. I was confused when my AF assist from radio trigger wasn't work, now I know that IR AF assist doesn't work for milc. I read that some Godox triggers - like X Pro works fine with Sony milc, what about Canon mirrorless? When I use led ring it wasn't problem, but when I use flash it's hard to focus without good af assist.

I find recovering highlights is a lot easier than recovering shadows. If you shoot raw, there’s more room to the right than you think. Let the ISO float, don’t try to hold it down, then recover highlights.

Edit to add: A mistake I made early on was thinking ISO caused noise. I would hold it down with the intent of recovering shadows in post. Invariably this led to underexposed images and a lot of noise revealed when lifting shadows. While not noise free, the sensor handled higher ISO much better than the files handle shadow recovery. This was taken at an indoor zoo exhibit at ISO 16,000 just letting the camera do its job. The file was processed in DPP4 and white balance set by clicking on the penguin.

Not noise free, but had I tried to hold to ISO 1,600 or 1,000 and recover, it would have been an absolute mess.  No Topaz, no DXO, just the proprietary software.

It’s not perfect but it’s better than recovering shadows in post.

Steve Balcombe wrote:

visconti007 wrote:

Last days, I used Canon RP for taking some shots in nightclubs and here is my thoughts.

1. I really LOVE the eye af, accuracy is top, on 5D3 that was impossible. ;p

Yep

2. I don't like battery life, but I known that will be like that.

Yep

3. I hate dynamic range of Canon RP. When I recover shadows it is terrible, worse than on old 5D3... Have you got any suggestions or I have to buy R or R6?

It's the base model, and *much* cheaper than the 5D3 you mentioned. According to https://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/PDR.htm the dynamic range is actually very similar, spookily so in fact. I wouldn't personally buy an R, but the R6 is considerably better especially at low ISO speeds, but at 400 to 800 as well. That's the way I would go, if funds allow and you're happy with other aspects of the RP.

I am constantly surprised by how much I can recover from both highlights and shadows on my R5, and the R6 is pretty close.

4. I was confused when my AF assist from radio trigger wasn't work, now I know that IR AF assist doesn't work for milc. I read that some Godox triggers - like X Pro works fine with Sony milc, what about Canon mirrorless? When I use led ring it wasn't problem, but when I use flash it's hard to focus without good af assist.

Sorry, don't know.

I have R and R5.  R has better sensor the same as 5D Mk IV sensor with same shadows and highlights.   However, the R5 is one full stop better from the shadows and ISO is great up to 12,800 when using Deep Prime in DXO Photolab 4.    Equally awesome in DR is R6 at a bargain price if you not a crazy wildlife/action shooting cropper like I am.

If you let ISO adjust as the camera sees fit, noise is considerably reduced.  The only time I underexpose a shot is in bright sun, with deep shadows somewhere in the photo.  Usually, indoors, no flash, I let the camera select ISO and I choose shutter and aperture.  This works well, even at high ISO.  Two examples: one in bright sun, ISO 100, with -1 1/3 stops of underexposure, one at ISO 6400, no exposure compensation.

At the park

At the bar