Today, Canon published the latest firmware updates for its EOS R and EOS RP camera systems. Firmware version 1.4.0 and firmware version 1.3.0 improve the autofocus capabilities fo the EOS R and EOS RP, respectively.
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Below is the changelog for the firmware version 1.4.0 update for the Canon EOS R:
Firmware Version 1.4.0 incorporates the following enhancement: 1. Enhances eye detection Auto Focus (AF) for improved face and eye recognition at greater distances. 2. Improved Auto Focus (AF) performance helps the camera to focus on and track smaller subjects. 3. Reduces lag time between the actual Auto Focus (AF) and the AF frame display for images in the viewfinder or on the LCD. 4. Fixes a phenomenon in which the AF frame size cannot be changed in the Servo AF setting. 5. Fixes PTP communication vulnerability.
The changelog for the firmware version 1.3.0 update for the Canon EOS RP reads the same with the exception of bullet point number four which instead reads:
Fixes a phenomenon in which main dial icon may not appear when magnify/reduce button is pressed during the image playback.
The two updates are currently available to download from Canon USA (EOS R, EOS RP).
Updated my EOS R too and also having a Sony A7 III, I did a small non-scientific side by side comparison test.
Canon did a great job here, it picks up eye from a much greater distance, and it seemed to recognise eye from longer distances than A7 III (fw3.0). In lower light conditions, though, Sony still seems to have a little edge in AF-C mode, and it nails almost all shots where Canon still missed quite a few. Also, Canon is noticeably faster with native RF lens. Which is a shame because their only "compact" lens is 35mm and that's it for now, all other lenses are enormous.
Nevertheless, it's a very welcome update from Canon, and I'm happy they have finally released it.
Canon now needs some lighter lenses, maybe Tamron or Samyang will make something eventually, would be nice to have something similar to Sony 28 f2 or Tamron 28-75 f/2.8.
This was a huge update for the EOS R & RP. The improvement over what it was before is leaps and bounds ahead of what Canon launched with. I had three crazy little kids dancing and running around in low light and I managed to get clear shots, that I had not been able to do so before.
I tested with the Canon 50mm 1.4, which is a slow to focus lens, @ f/1.8 and i was able to hit about 60% in focus.
I also tested at 20 to 30 feet and was able to hit eye focus very well...keep in mind at launch, any distance greater than 5 feet, it jumped to head. I will say that it does take a few minutes to focus on the eye.
I will also note that I'm really impressed with Canon, as they are not known for such significant firmware improvements like this.
Overall i'm impressed and satisfied with this update.
Great thanks, look forward to it whenever it may land.
Dpreview is one of the very few places or perhaps the only one with the breadth that does AF tests that are reproducible and somewhat constant across the cameras. I pretty much only come to this site for your reviews and AF tests. It's the first section I jump to in your reviews.
OK many commens said the AF is not good as the the a9 , a7iii and the newer sony bodies but how to compare it to the older bodies like a6500 ? is it better ?
This shows how precarious any one company's lead in AF may be; it's just a software update away from another competitor closing the gap.
Now this doesn't put the R up there with a Sony a9, obviously...but it does start to challenge their other models. And this shows how Canon is going to catch up to Sony in AF; it's only a matter of time. That's not to knock Sony but in reality you hit diminishing returns; Sony has reached the point where their AF can only get so much better. That's a compliment to Sony, and it mirrors where the DSLR leaders of Canon and Nikon have been for a while with those cameras. Barring a big breakthrough, other companies catch up.
Nice improvement, but not even close to the a9 performance. EVF preview while shooting with eye tracking is a stuttering "slide show". Sony a9 has smooth realtime evf video while you shoot even 20fps.
Great points. Camera owners bashing other brand often forget that healthy competition forces their own favorite brands to improve and lower prices (or at least reduces pre-order wait time).
Thoughts - "Sony has reached the point where their AF can only get so much better"
I'm not so sure about that. AI is still in its infancy. The next step will probably be advanced subject recognition. The Olympus EM1X can recognise trains, planes, cars and faces, but currently the user has to choose the "subject mode". Soon we'll have cameras that can analyse a scene and decide *what* the subject is, and set the AF (and shutter/aperture/ISO combo) accordingly.
Also, currently, lenses are a limiting factor, because with a fast-moving subject sometimes a tele or long zoom is unable to keep up with the forward/backward movement of a fast-moving subject. I think AF still has a long way to go before we reach the stage where it can "only get so much better". It can get a *lot* better.
@entoman: Sure you can get AI to recognize all sorts of objects...of course it would also have to anticipate what you wanted to focus on as you note. I'm not so sure I want the camera to decide that for me, but others may. As to tracking of moving objects, I do expect that to get better, but again, we already have such a stout system. Also, it's not like every photographer in every photo wants to track fast moving objects.
@Grapejam: notice that I agreed with what you wrote and noted that the R with new firmware was not equal to the AF of the A9. Please read what I wrote before you criticize it.
Thoughts - Yes, I agree that the *necessity* for more advanced AF is limited to certain situations, e.g. when photographing people or animals (including birds). It's of little value to landscape, architecture or product photographers; and many sports and wildlife photographers prefer to prefocus manually and hit the button a split second before the subject arrives at the prefocus location.
Had to laugh at your reply to Grapejam - a couple of days ago I had a heated "debate" with someone else who totally ignored (several times) the fact that I agreed with him, and just continued to argue, twist what I said, and change the argument as he went along. No criticism of Grapejam intended here, as I haven't been following your conversation with him, but some people do fail to read posts properly, or just argue for the sake of arguing.
@Grapejam: I don't think anyone expects that Canon will reach Sony level. Obviously Sony will always be a few steps ahead until/if they become fat and happy. Which I don't think they ever will be, as they HAVE to offer more tech against Canon.
The point is that the R Eye AF was a joke before this update. Now it actually works and that's worth celebrating I think..
It’s hard to complain about the R now. It’s a great handling camera with top shelf autofocus. The only minus now is the somewhat mundane sensor in the R. Not that the current sensor is bad, it’s not, but we really need to see near perfection for the next FF mirrorless.
The 30MP Canon sensor is far from mundane. DR is maybe half a stop behind other brands, high ISO noise levels are very low, the files are very malleable and not too big to slow down processing or cause storage issues. It would be nice to see a couple of stops of extra DR at high ISO and even better noise control from *all* brands of sensor.
Far more important to me would be 2 card slots, an AF joystick, faster burst speed with C-AF (servo AF), better battery life, and a higher resolution EVF.
Most of these features will almost certainly all appear in the next model in the series, which is rumoured to have 80MP. I don't need such high resolution, but it will probably be possible to select a more usable downsampled 35MP output in "M-RAW", which in theory should have less noise than a full 80MP file.
2 card slots is a complete waste of space, money, and time spent typing it out on the internet... please get a clue about electronics and stop forcing this nonsense on people!
3mmcnasty - Like I said, you'll learn the hard way, and end up having to swallow your ill-chosen words.
I've actually had 2, yes 2, brand new Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB cards fail on me this year. In both instances the card filled to about a quarter full, and then every image after that was corrupted. And before you make another smart-Alec remark, yes the cards were formatted in the camera before use, and no there is absolutely nothing wrong with the cameras.
So you can rant and talk nonsense as long as you want, but it won't change the fact that sooner or later a card will fail on you, and that smug grin on your face will disappear instantly.
If your images are just meaningless snaps that have no value to you or anyone else, that's fine, your pictures will be lost forever and no one will care.
What Camera? It's 2019, electronics are reliable. If there was so much trouble with memory cards things like iPhones would be dying left and right. Turns out they're perfectly fine 99.99% of the time. But because we're talking about millions of people, and people love to whine when things break, so yeah we hear about that .01% a lot, way more than we should.
3mcnasty - I'm not a vindictive person, but after your nonsensical comments here, I really do wish I could see the look on your face when your card fails. So, please go ahead and take the risk. Give us all a laugh. My guess though, is that when it happens, and it surely will, you won't have the courage to admit it, due to the embarrassment it would cause you.
@3mcnasty - if you honestly believe that one card slot is suffice, then you do not value any photographs you take where real money is on the line. So if you're happy with taking casual shots on whatever camera you use, then more power to you. Us other photographer that invest a lot of money in a shoot, or have clients that pay us thousands of dollars for a shoot absolutely cannot lose shots that have been taken with a camera. Backup cameras are not a cure-all. Sure, modern electronics are fairly reliable, but things like memory cards are meant to be removed, re-inserted countless times, thrown around, torqued, etc. Memory and SSD drives in a smart phone do not go through that.
I've had several cards fail in the last couple years. They can and do fail.
If it hasn't happened to you, then consider yourself lucky. If a card fails during one of my shoots that I've invested hundreds of dollars into, then it's inexcusable.
Dual slots of us. Weekend shooters need not apply.
I'm amazed that people keep nagging about DR, while the big improvement should be about colours and noise. I'd like to see Foveon depth without the drawbacks of Faveon as a next step in sensors.
Maybe it's not obvious by now but I take care of my memory cards. I put them back in the little plastic container when I'm done with them, and I store them all in pouch. So my cards aren't "thrown around, torqued, etc.". It sounds like the problem is with how you treat your memory cards, kind of sad for someone who purports to have "real money on the line".
You put your cards back into your pretty little plastic container? How cute. I place all my cards in a special card-carrying that is built to take abuse. When done with one shoot, those cards get removed and new cards get inserted.
It's easy for wannabes like you to dismiss legitimate problems and blame us for "using it wrong", but in reality all it shows is that the only value you place on your shots is if they are good enough for Instagram. Continue living in your bubble.
People don’t respect the danger inherent in something like an SD card. They’re used to fool proof designs. Unfortunately as the saying goes, you can make something fool proof but they’ll just make a better fool... It’s no coincidence that the people who complain the most report cards dying on them all the time... while others seem to go decades between failures if they occur at all. I feel like there an idiot factor at play in direct relation to how often SD cards die on someone.
"Dual slots of us. Weekend shooters need not apply."
there are all sorts of expensive hi-end cameras with 2 card slots for "discerning pros and their precious images". no need to clamor for 2 card slots in each and every entry level, amateur or prosumer camera.
personally i have captured close to 500k images over many years, with different cameras, different cards - CF and SD from "reputable brands" - and never had a single card failure. it must be a really rare incident, otherwise i'd have had a failure, given my general "lack of good luck".
Did you run the h2testw software over your failed cards? I've had the unfortunate experience that I was sold smaller capacity cards rebadged to report a larger capacity than available. In other words, a fake. Every photographer needs to know about h2testw to help catch sellers of fake sd cards and report them to the sales platform (Amazon, eBay, etc).
updated yesterday. Summary : Its no Sony. Whichever blog and youtubers that says this is equivalent to Sony lacks credibility.
1. The initial detection of the face is slower than sony, i would say around 0.5-1 second. Once that works, the speed to track the user Eye/face is fast.
2. I have instances where it keeps detecting the face as indicated by the square, but when u half press to focus-shoot, it shoots something far behind. This shows that the implementation is inferior to A6400 or A7iii, A9's version.
"but when u half press to focus-shoot, it shoots something far behind."
something all of my Canon cameras AF manages to do all the time, especially when it is most detrimental and annoying (situational, non-staged images of people / animals). somehow it manages to get background in focus, even when main subject fills a good portion of frame, is closedt to the camera and there are no obstacles in line if sight.
At least it's included in a firmware update instead of a new camera model. However marketing wise, releasing a new model every year seems to catch quite some forum guys.
Smartphone AF systems don’t need to be very evolved since everything is always in focus anyway. But camera makers indeed need to put more computational photography in their bodies, that is true.
I'm also curious to see what Nikon is up to now. They still need to release the CFexpress compatibility update and one can assume they may also have more AF updates that will be included. It may sound like I'm making up excuses for Nikon when I say this next thing, but honestly I don't need better AF (people can review my galleries and understand why very easily - the subject matter), but of course I'll take any good updates/improvements they feel like giving me for free. Why not? :-)
Supposedly Nikon exchanged their AF intellectual property with Sony in return for some sensor tech. Canon and Nikon have extensive experience with AF tech and algorithms. The rapidity of their firmware upgrades to incorporate eye focus shows they are catching up fairly quickly and without the need for new hardware.
@mr.izo - man it's just one yt clip, AF tracking on A7III is just awesome and as a Canon shooter who have assess to A7(R)III and bunch of a native and adapted glass, I have no problem to admit that so far it was superb compering to everything else. Main problem i see with majority YT personalities is lack of knowledge about hw they have/testing and somehow problematic skills. We are living in a great times for photodogs. Is something is wrong with your shots, it's probably you...
i know that, but it was just interesting to see results like that. while it looks like a7III tracking is better (more responsive etc), actual taken images are not.
“Failed to detect the eye” don’t know what’s wrong with your settings or camera or skills, but I don’t need eye-AF when face detect hits the nearest eye. I’ve done a lot of side by side the last few days and it’s still better to use face detect to have the eye in focus compared to eye-AF. The only times I switch to eye-AF is at really close headshot distances, but even then 90% is dead on with face detect. And no wonder, the smaller the AF point the lower the accuracy.
Not really, if manufacturers waited until the software was perfect before releasing something we'd still be waiting for the first version of MS Windows.
You may be correct to a point if the revised FW was released a day or two after product launch but after this length of time I don't think so.
Yes that's what I thought one year ago, but it makes sense, they were (very) late for many reasons and they have to make a move in order to put a foot on mirrorless full frame market, at the end the R is much better than it appears on paper, with EF lenses AF is really fast, much better than with Metabones or Sigma MC-11 on Sonys, I use a lot manual focus lenses and with R is a joy, with Sony is much slower and difficult, Canon with the 3 triangles makes everything easy, I just want a 36-40ish mpx sensor, the joystick and rotating dial in the back, better buttons layout on top, LCD top screen is nice to have, IBIS (with manual focus lenses is a nice feature to have, and in general, if the subject is not moving and you are not using a tripod, you can use a lower ISO setting so improving the IQ), two card slots could be nice but not essential to me and a bunch of not super expensive RF L lenses. I keep the fingers crossed, I expect everything from Canon but I will not go back to Sony.
Yes I agree, I always found the RP in much need of a very strong firmware upgrade, laggy EVF (for example), not a good shooting experience, unfortunately the sensor cannot be upgraded via firmware... :(
@Luis Gabriel Photography sorry, I don't visit the zoo as well as make shots there. Please don't think in manner your shots from "expensive" or whatever wedding are more important than mine.
I'm a Canon user myself, but I'm not going to join the choir saying that dpreview are treating Canon products unfair, if that is your point. Dpreview did no boldly claims about the performance or improvements about the upgrade, just passed on information as they understood the info they had been given. Nowhere are they hinting that they have made any conclusion on the firmware, and I'm sure they are going to post their own experiences with it now that the final version is available. I see nothing wrong here. Maybe a slight initial misinterpretation of info given. But it is very clear that they just posted their initial understanding by what they were told.
At the event they obviously prioritized testing the new cameras, which is not a bad prioritization in my opinion. After all it was just beta-firmware.
miric - I'm what you refer to as a "2nd card slot moaner", and it strikes me that by making that comment, you probably place little or no value on your own photographs.
Card failure is a rare occurrence, but if you had ever lost even one set of irreplaceable images due to a corrupted card, you'd understand why any truly serious photographer would not be willing to take the risk of putting all his eggs in one fragile basket.
@entoman, let's count. Since 2005 I owned: — Canon EOS 350D — Canon EOS 5D x2 — Canon EOS 5D Mark II — Fujifilm X-E1 — Fujifilm X-E2 — Leica M9 — Canon EOS 6D Mark II How many cameras among these have dual card slot? Zero. How many times I had problems with that? Once. With Leica M9, but Leica M9 itself is the most unreliable and capricious digital camera.
All the time I used Transcend CF cards, then Sandisk ones. Now It is EOS R. Why it should be a problem now?
miric - It's not a matter of how often it happens. It all depends on how important your photos are to you (or your client), whether or not they are repeatable, and whether you'd rather take unnecessary risks for the sake of saving a few dollars, or prefer to spend a little extra on a camera with 2 slots, to get security. For me it's a very easy choice, and I'd never consider using a camera with only one slot, for any important shoot.
I can only relate my own experiences - in the last 5 years I've twice had cards full of unrepeatable images, corrupted. Fortunately I had them all duplicated on the second card, otherwise these images (very valuable to me) would have been lost forever.
Most card slot arguments are a joke. People act like two card are better than one, well so 3 cards are better than 2. Now I want 3 card slots for the one in a billion chance that two of my cards fail... I honestly never had a card fail but I have only ever used San Disk top shelf cards.
If you are really worried another option is to back up your cards as you shoot with a portable drive. Having two slots is not the only way to back up your data....
Backing up AFTER you shoot does not guarantee that you took the photo. If you caught the perfect moment and the card died there, you are screwed. Again you idea of this been a joke is based on your OWN needs and risk acceptance. Tell this is a Joke if your card fails to a bride when you missed a crucial moment of her event. YOUR needs are not the needs of others.
My point is 2 card slots is not a guarantee you won’t miss the shot. Many things can go wrong, like flashes going up in smoke, that having 2 card slots can’t fix. I personally never had a card fail... ever. Not since I got my first digital camera over 20 years ago.
If you are using junky cards that fail you have another problem entirely.
Sure, there is no guarantee you are going to get the shot no matter what...that does NOT make it less important to have 2 cards than 1. You are trying way too hard to argue something that CANNOT be argued. Again...YOU want to take the risk of only one card during a one time event..be my guest. I am done as there is no point to argue something that is simple logic.
Luis Gabriel Photgography - I think we've both made it pretty clear that anyone who values their work doesn't take risks by using a single card. It's pointless debating the subject with those who have either been extremely lucky not to have had corrupted cards; or with those who don't value their images, or those of their clients, very highly.
There is nothing wrong with using a single card. The chances of failure are basically zero. That is why Canon doesn't have dual slots, because it is a pointless waste. Sure it gives SOME people SOME measure of psychological security, but it is essentially a meaningless act that in the grand scheme of things is one of the LEAST LIKELY TO GO WRONG.
3mcnasty - Unfortunately, you and others who think in the same way, will one day learn the hard way. You'll shoot something that is very important to you, and the card will fail.
"it won't happen to me", said the guy with no house insurance. Next day his house burnt down. Think about it.
The EOS R, because it is not a professional model camera doesn’t need two card slots. And it is not pretending to be a professional camera. I have one, it’s a great camera!
2JoeA7R2 - Sorry but I disagree. I know plenty of amateurs who aren't prepared to risk having a card corrupt and loose all their holiday shots, important family moments, magical landscapes etc, so they insist on using 2-slot cameras.
Not being funny, but if all someone wants is to photograph their stamp collection then a single card is absolutely fine - it's easy enough to photograph them all again if a card corrupts.
But most people photograph ephemeral subjects - situations that *can't* be rephotographed if something goes wrong.
It's very easy to kid yourself that "it'll never happen to me because it hasn't happened yet and I've been taking photographs for X years", but when it *does* happen, you'll never buy a single card camera again.
I took hundreds of thousands of pictures last year, all with a single card camera. And the year before that too. I've also shot dozens of weddings. All with a single card camera.
I don't have a problem with doing that because I don't believe in the fairy tales you subscribe to.
£mcnasty - Actually, I don't believe a word you're saying, I think you're a "happy snapper" who hasn't got a clue about anything,
BUT purely for the sake of argument, if you *were* really a wedding photographer (funny how you never mentioned it before) what would you say to the bride and groom *IF* you ruined their wedding due to a card failure?
Why don't use smartphone as a second backup card? And, as a bonus, send photos to your server as soon as you have some time. A camera could be stolen with your both cards in it.
Yes, it does, because that would be cluttermania to keep it. We’ve asked Canon to change the look of the level to be more like the one in the optical VF at the top. I’ve assigned left touch of the Touch Bar to toggle it on/off. One slight workaround is to use a grid in the EVF.
The level on Canon’s own G7X, to say nothing of other manufacturer’s cameras, doesn’t disappear with face-detect AF enabled, and there is no clutter, so it can be done just fine. If it has to be disabled because of “cluttermania,” then that’s just poor, unimaginative UI design. Who is this “we” you are talking about?
Viggo - Personally I find a grid to be a far more useful tool for squaring up a picture. The electronic level is really IMO just a gimmick aimed at those who place more importance on flashing lights, bells and whistles, than on practical features.
Prior to this update, eye focus would struggle both in my R and RP on people with eyewear, he it traditional eyeglasses or sunglasses. This time around, it's just fast to acquire and grab focus, no hint of hesitation which was evident before. And this matters to me when shooting corporate events in nerd nests 😊
@Hautedawg not sure how you can conclude this. In the past 48 hours Canon has improved quite a bit, and Sony is unchanged. My statement is factual only with no bias, and an opinion of being impressed. And I'm a happy a7r iv user...
@MiggyLiciuos: -True Words! - More competition - > The customers wins!! :-) And watch out for Panasonic FF, I hope they will stir up the market / keep the pressure of innovation going.
Personally, I think NONE of the cameramakers are making a good job right now. - To little! - To late! - To expensive! (where are the global shutters??? )
Due to the "poor" current offering on the market I bought a tiny M43 set with pancake primes for replacing my mobile phone photos. ( the m43 is small enough to always have with you)
For "hobby photography" I am on the lookout for a Hasselblad 500 cm - Heck, even most people you snap for street photography love those cameras! :-)
When there is a global shutter camera, with great dynamic, at a decent price, i will buy. So guess I will be using Hasselblad and M43 for the next 5-10 years! :-)
(It actually feels really good, to NOT contribute to the evergrowing electronic-landfills, with a new camera every 2 years.)
The problem is Sony released three focusing updates while Canon finally released one. So no, Canon is not closing in on Sony. They are falling farther behind! But the R is much improved. I’m enjoying the improvements.
When the R was announced, Canon explicitly promised ongoing improvement via firmware updates far beyond what they traditionally delivered for their DSRLs. So far we're seeing major improvements to existing features, but no added features. We'll see how far that policy continues.
If new feature involves hardware change then we know it is impossible, on the other hand software and firmware changes are readily implementable and to Canon credit they have done so.
They have actually added two very notable features. They added face detection and eye detection in servo and continuous shooting with silent shutter. They could be more, but I know these didn't ship originally with the camera and I enjoy having them now.
It is inexplicable, though, that they did not take this opportunity to put the EOS R to the same standard as a lower-tier model (the RP) by including focus bracketing capability in this new FW.
Kevin - You can't focus bracket with flash because the bracket series is shot too rapidly to allow the flash to recycle. Buffer size may also limit the ability to focus bracket with RAW.
But shooting RAW shouldn't be a religion. It's a valuable tool to be used for specific purposes, but there are plenty of situations where it makes more sense to shoot JPEG.
I shoot RAW for maybe 95% of the time, but there are occasions when it makes sense to switch temporarily to JPEG - e.g when shooting fast bursts of birds in flight, or sports. Or when there is a desire/need to focus-bracket.
rrc1967 - It's also worth noting the the quality of JPEG processing is light years better than a few years ago. Manufacturers have put huge effort into getting the best possible JPEGs from their cameras.
onlyfreeman - It's always been Canon's strategy to never put all their best features into a single camera. They often e.g. put their latest sensors and processors in their budget models and let them filter up to the pro models. Conversely they put their best AF systems into the most expensive models, and let them filter down to the bottom of the range.
I often get the impression that each camera is designed individually by a particular team, who don't communicate with other teams. Then at a later date some bright spark spots the odd feature from model A and suggests it goes into the next iteration of model B.
There's also a *very* strong element of market segmentation whereby model A mustn't at any cost compete too closely with model B, for fear of reducing sales. It's the precise opposite of Nikon/Sony strategy, whereby every conceivable feature is crammed into every model. But it works for Canon, judging by their sales figures.
I think Nikon and Sony have done a fair bit of product segmentation too. For example, the D5xxx series having an articulated screen, while the D3xxx and D7xxx don't, or Sony only putting IBIS in the top tier a6xxx model. There are other examples as well.
Strolic - Could be more truth in that than you think, but it's a risky strategy, as many seek the "latest and greatest" and switch brands because they haven't the patience to wait :-)
I hope it will fix my buffer problem: with a 300 mb/s genuine Sony sd card when i use fast shooting mode, the eos R freezes for a couple of seconds, with the little red light always on. It's quite annoying. Anyone with the same problem?
@krakay Did you try another card first? I heard quite a few problems lately with Sony SD cards, even if used in the A7 series. Just rent a card from a friend for some minutes, if possible, could be gone with other vendors...
I get 3-5-6 shots before the freeze. And I've got same results with other (slower) sandisk/sony sd cards. It is a fantastic camera, anyway, but imho it is a bit unreliable when you have to work with fast or rapidly changing situations (at least for me, coming from a 5d mark II). Maybe I have to dig the menu options in the preview area - a more scientific approach of try and see, try and see.
Many thanks to all of you. I am not at home now, so I cannot check it. I have the R and I never (consciously) enabled digital lens optimisation. I will so upgrade the firmware, then reset to factory settings and check the buffer cleaning time.
At home now, I have updated to the last firmware plus reset to the factory settings. Now it is working as it should! No more freezing with high sped frame rates. Probably I made some mismatch with settings when I first aproached the menus. I don't know if the DLO was on or off, before. Anyway, thanx to everybody for the help.
Fake SD cards are everywhere. It sounds like you may have stumbled across one. They've infiltrated all the major chains,including best buy and others. Not just Amazon or other online retailers.
@croscokkat I thought the same in the first place, but it seems it was really only a misconfiguration. Or let's say an less known sideeffect... beause the Lens Optimizer makes sense, sometimes.
I've been using a 300 mb/s Lexar card, and the buffer shooting raw seems endless. Was so pleased I bought another one. Even with a cheap 80 mb/s SanDisk card I was getting more than 5 shots. I think something's definitely off with that card, regardless of other camera settings.
@croscokkat The fake sd card isuue was the first I checked out. They are all genuine (not the stated speeds, but still fast). Probably it was a side effect, as you say.
On par with the real time tracking AF that helps Sony beat the very best sports dslrs in af? Yeah, no... Not a thing, never will be with dpaf as they are not cross type.
That won't suit dpreviews indifference to all things Canon.
BTW kristof93, Sony doesn't have x-type AF at all, only Olympus offers x-type AF with on-sensor PDAF and Canon's next gen DPAF or QPAF (yes quad pixel) is inherently x-type.
Seikusa: Yeah sure lets compare with 2 cameras in two total different price ranges. Maybe we also compare it with a Phase One IQ4 and a Hubble space telescope while we're at it.
Quote: Pretty much comparable to Sony’s, [...] Far better than Nikon’s Much better than Fujifilm’s X and GF series Significantly better than Panasonic’s S1 and S1R series of cameras
The availability of firmware updates as good as this, really underlines the importance of choosing a camera with the right *hardware* in the first place, because even if the original firmware is below par, it can be improved later.
The hardware, on the other hand, can only be improved by buying a new camera body.
Which is why I'm not going to upgrade from my DSLRs until Canon produces a camera body with:
IBIS - so I can stabilise the 180mm macro etc twin card slots - insurance against corrupted cards AF joystick - much better IMO than touchscreen AF 8fps in C-AF - for birds in flight, wildlife tracking, and sport
Why do people keep stating the obvious in these forums? I guess they think it makes them look smart. In general cars have 4 wheels but some have better traction and cornering than others. We are not discussing who invented what but implementation of technologies.
@seloo the point is that when someone asks for IBIS from Canon, its already assumed they are asking for an IBIS/lens combination system because virtually every other IBIS system does that. Your response that "Canon think IBIS alone is not efficient. They are working on IBIS-lens IS combination" is redundant. Of course they are, that's the IBIS people are expecting.
Sorry seloo gotta agree with the others. Canon is the only mainstream company not doing ibis+ois for mirrorless right now. Sony, Nikon, Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic, all have ibis+ois available, and for a long time now.
As a Canon user I'm perfectly happy with the stabilisation of their lenses, which is up to 5 stops on the most recent glass. But there are two points to consider before anyone claims that OIS alone is sufficient:
1) There are a huge number of unstabilised Canon lenses available, both current new models, and older used models. The *only* way to stabilise these lenses is with IBIS.
2) Sony and others have demonstrated that it is possible to use IBIS and OIS in combination, to provide more stabilisation than either system can achieve alone.
Canon have unfortunately always adopted a "we know what's good for you" attitude. Consequently they have failed to keep up with their competitors. Fortunately it seems that a degree of common sense has caused them to revise their position, and I'd guess that all of their future MILCs will have IBIS.
Yeah, i upgraded the firmware yesterday before a shoot and didn't get to test it out until I was at the gig, and I was shocked at the much smoother touch and drag. I didn't even know they were going to improve that. I was just hoping for better AF performance (which I did also notice).
This firmware upgrade makes the RP in particular a very good value camera even for enthusiasts, if full frame, uncropped 4K video is not an absolute necessity. The difference is huge
That demo video is already linked here in the article above. Further, that article has no commentary on their experience with it, its just a re-statement of the same press release DPR is using.
I've seen a few before and after videos boasting that its amazing this maybe good news! It does mean the Pro version when it comes out might tempt me good move Canon but hardware wise the R camera is still a fail though. I'm glad Canon may be creeping back to form but the cripple culture needs control still. The forum comments need to be stern till we see at least one cam from canon without a cripple. Is that too much to ask for?
No camera is perfect. Between slow touch screens and laggy interfaces, the Nikon Z cameras and the Sony a7III are "crippled" in their own way. I've owned the EOS R for about a week and am impressed by its performance and ergonomics. What's crippled to you may be just fine for others. Its all subjective.
@Scorehound_ca Missing items on canon R include in body stabilization, full frame 4k, and a second dial. You may say that you don't need those, and that is fine, but lots of people make use of these features.
seloo - if a lens has good optical stabilisation, as most *recent* lenses do, I'd agree that IBIS serves no real purpose, as at best it provides (in combination with optical IS) an extra stop of stabilisation.
What you are missing, or choosing to ignore, is that there are a huge number of extremely good lenses in existence, both new and used, that do *not* have inbuilt stabilisation. The *only* way to stabilise these is IBIS. An example is the truly stunning Canon 180mm F3.5 macro, one of my favourite lenses. Try hand holding that lens and you'll soon see the value of IBIS :-)
@sunnycal, it does have two dials, front and back, and with the control ring makes three. So not sure what you are talking about.
Next.
Those of your who shoot often in light light situations raise your hands.
I find myself shooting about 25% of the time in low light. Sony cameras make you shoot with forced stopped down focusing. With no IR AF assist beam available this means that even with a flash on board you will find the AF system struggling or not doing much other than pogoing thing. Yes to get more than one person in focus at a party you might want to be shooting at f8. You obviously can’t use servo, and the Sony camera revert mostly to CDAF in AF-S mode.
Without a flash and shooting wide open, it can still struggle or not nail focus at all.
Basically in this respect canon rules.
Is the R as good as my Sony was in good light? Nope, but it is good enough, but in 1/4 of my shooting situations it rules. Same goes with ergonomics, touch screen, pp (colors) and EVF.
@entoman...I wish you had refrained from using expressions like "chose to ignore". I never said IBIS is unnecessary or doesn't work. If you read my comment carefully I suggest that IBIS alone does not provide enough stabilisation. Also, trying to get a macro shot with hand held 180mm lens kind of sounds like you are not doing it correctly. IBIS or not with such a lens you'll have to stop down quite a bit to get some DOF which means small apertures, slow shutter speeds. With such a lens I would use a tripod or at least a monopod regardless of any form of stabilisation.
Necip came to troll Canon as usual. Saying key words like "cripple" again and again... As if all rivals are perfect, without recognizing what Canon can do better. Crippled in mind, these trolls are...
seloo - You obviously know little about macro photography. I've had over 2000 macro photos of insects published in various books, and I can absolutely assure you that you do not need to "stop down quite a bit".
Many macro subjects such as insects are best photographed by deliberately using a wide-ish aperture (typically F5.6 with a 100mm lens) to isolate the subject from its background.
I and several other very experienced insect photographers now commonly use the Canon 100-400mm, or the Canon 300mm F2.8 (hand-held, it takes practice of course) at wide apertures, in preference to using the "play-safe" maximum depth of field option chosen by beginners, who then find themselves either having to use high ISO to get a reasonable shutter speed, or worse still, flash.
Many macro subjects (e.g. butterflies and damselflies) are actually quite flat. The technique is to manouevre the camera until the sensor is parallel with the subject plane. It's pretty easy to do this with a DSLR, and probably even easier using focus peaking on a MILC.
Try it before claiming that you "have to stop down quite a bit". With practice you can get these subjects razor sharp from front to back at F5.6 with 100mm macro (on a full frame DSLR), with the subject occupying about half the width of the frame :-)
Note: I'm using the commonly accepted definition of "macro" here, i.e. scales of between about 1:4 to 1:1. Some will say that macro only begins at 1:1 or greater magnifications, but you'll find all lens manufacturers describe any lens that reaches 1:2 as "macro". Just saying.
Yeah, sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t. Does not help to randomly pick one use case over the other to support an argument. Works the same the other way around.
TORN - Indeed, it's easy for those with limited experience to fall into the trap of making assumptions and commenting that someone else doesn't know what they're doing. I used a common macro user case to illustrate that the assumption made by seloo was incorrect.
Those who say that IBIS is overrated are entitled to their opinion, but a lot of people use it successfully to reduce handshake, lower iso, or get slow shutter effect (hand held shots at half and full second are possible).
I had the A7III and switch back to canon via the R.
IBIS is not absolutely necessary in my experience. However that is not exactly the whole story and it does not mean that there aren’t uses for it. If I am shooting with the RF IS lenses than IBIS is even less important. If I am shooting people it is also not needed, in good like etc etc.
Point is you can tick of a lot of situation where the absolute need is not necessary. If you have to bump up your ISO one stop shooting in the 100-800 iso range.... meh, generally who cares? Though I am sure those who love to push shadows always want to push the ISO down as much as possible. But for most regular people it is a not an issue.
But there are lenses occurring situations where it is appreciated. Like shooting in low light with a none IS prime at a static scene. Or if you want a bit of a longer exposure to get some subject movement along with sharp static elements.
The lack of IBIS is acceptable for most but canon should provide it.
Not every camera has IBIS. The Fuji XT-3 doesn't have it and people love that camera (for good reason). Every camera has different features that some people need while others don't. Every camera has some features that others don't and vice versa. You find out what you need, find the camera system that delivers that and then invest in that system. The whole debate over camera systems is a waste of time. I myself love Canon's image stabilized lenses, so I don't need IBIS. Someone else might love the big, fast primes that don't have IS built in and require IBIS. We're all different.
We must remember that the S-AF that can be use for 60% of photography has been fast enough for years on virtually every mirrorless camera. Now we are surpassing the "fast enough" barrier for another 30 or 35% with C-AF with every mirrorless camera. And every manufacture is making improvements on a near monthly basis it seems.
It is great to see Canon and everyone else keep improving AF, but the truth is for just about everyone, all mirrorless cameras are "good enough" these days.
The only complaint I had with the R was the « slow » AF refresh , as if the camera would need 2 Digic instead of 1. Now it is really smooth and very nice to use. Very good tracking. Thanks Canon.
It isn’t about it being good enough, it is about it being distracting. You expect that the visual af representation will keep up with the subject. Even if you know the AF is keeping up a lag in refresh distracts you from what is at hand,
These days it isn’t just about good enough, it is about the better experience. 720 res was good enough, you don’t need 1080 and up to enjoy a movie, but if someone hands gives you a choice between a 720 or 4K monitor for free which would you go for?
This is why manufacturers keep upping their game. Cause if they don’t the next guy will over great over their good enough, and which do you think consumers will pick? Yes it depends on their wallets, but they will weight price and value or apparent value when making a choice.
lawny - "These days it isn’t just about good enough, it is about the better experience"
Yes, I think that sums up the current state of camera development very well. People will of course have varying ideas about what consitutes "the better experience", based of preference for MILC or DSLR, and ergonomic preferences.
Absolute night and day difference. I've been super pleased with the capabilities of the R, but the improvement is definitely appreciated and works excellently.
When I had the R for a couple of weeks, the AF was OKish to me, it was the gigantic 4K crop and missing IBIS that killed my R. I hope the next iteration will have much faster processor that can downsample the full-frame sensor for 4K. I am a fan of the excellent Canon TS-E 17mm/f4, but it has no in-lens stabilization, and cannot be used to record 4K video with its gorgeous 17mm FOV. Canon still has a long way to catch up Sony.
The t/s lenses are typically used for architecture-pictures, used on tripods. As far as I totally understand your wishes you could also want an autofocus inside...
@vscd Yes, this is one usage scenario. There are a number of situations where you are not allowed or not applicable to use tripods. Actually, I used this lens on a FF camera which had excellent IBIS. I just wanted to point out, that if you have a TS lens, it's not necessarily Canon cameras are the best solutions. The other application is handheld perspective corrected videography (not running or action), the lens is brutally versatile for those projects with a FF camera with IBIS.
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