Trek of Joy

This is the best I could come up with as a handle only setup using my parts and not adding a side grip for two handed stuff, though I usually have the monitor attached to the front of the handle, a G3 wireless receiver on the back plugged into the camera, along with a grip on the right side. Its actually pretty well balanced as pictured and cables don't get in the way. A smaller mic and XLR solution like the Saramonic would make things more compact. Smallrig makes a side handle with a shoe, typically I put the audio adapter with the mic on top of it on the right side. If I weren't shooting on a gimbal all the time I'd do a setup like bjohn's and make it a little more permanent. ENG cameras used to be much larger, I shot on a Betacam with my first job, it balanced really nice on the shoulder and handheld stuff looked good because the large top handle made it easy to find that balance point, but its a different visual as you couldn't do things like simulated jib shots or shoot at waist level as easily because it was a little unwieldily - basically it was on the sticks, the shoulder or around the knees, other stuff required some contortionist stuff to get into position. That's a main achilles heel of small or mirrorless cameras if you need audio and onboard monitoring, once you add a monitor and XLR audio you start to get a little franken-rig thing going. Chris

A little bit of IBIS and RS in 4k mode. IBIS with lens IS looks really good. RS doesn't look like its at a6300 levels, though he only wiggled the camera for a second before the video ends. I wish he just would have pointed it at any vertical in that shop and did a few whip pans. And I'm not saying reframing a 8k shot for an interview is convenient or super useful, its a use case. For me - its more high DR landscape shots - that's mostly what I plan to use 8k raw for, 10-bit 4k is fine for the rest of what I do. Glad I picked up a Ninja V with the EOS R, that should help with overheating a bit in 24 and 60p. As always YMMV. Chris

That's what I was thinking too, use it the same way we've used 4k > HD to reframe or oversample. I shoot lots of sunrises and sunsets, a 10 second raw 8k clip smashed down to an even better 4k shot sounds good to me. And you don't have to shoot raw, the 10-bit option shrinks the file sizes a bit. That combined with 120p and the oversampled 24p make this quite the Swiss army knife. So does 45mp stills at 12fps. Chris

That's the next Planet Earth camera with that kind of crop-ability.

The screengrab above is soft, the footage is not. Here's a better one.

Super impressed with the footage made available, 120fps looks amazing IMO + IBIS + DPAF, love it. Not cancelling my pre-order yet... Chris [Pic replaced below]

This is a mix of EOS R (first time I actually used it) and a 5dIV that I can't stand. Most was shot at 1080p, but some is 4k. The only lenses I used are EF, the 16-35, Sigma 24-105 and 35/1.4. Most of the R stuff was with the 35/1.4. https://youtu.be/_7jOTHHvSIQ I have another video about wakeboarding that should be up in the next couple days, I used the 5dIV a lot less and the R a lot more. Chris

One thing I will add, I've used MF on the R a few times and I like Canon's method of showing what's in focus compared to Sony's peaking - you get white triangles above the focus box that move closer together as you're racking focus. Eventually they merge and the single triangle turns green to indicate you've nailed focus. At least with my slight farsightedness I can easily see that. I can see peaking too through the EVF, so all is not lost. Cheers Chris

I've been impressed with the R's video AF, the only RF lens I've used on a shoot is the 35, other lenses I've used are the EF 16-35/2.8 III, Sigma 35/1.4, Sigma 24-105, EF 100-400 L II and I just scored a deal on a used RF 24-70 but haven't shot anything with it yet. The last FW update really boosted the R's AF, after watching a few videos I decided to try one and see how I liked it to get back to Canon colors. I sold my a73 shortly after getting it and made the R my main video body. I still shoot Sony for stills, but the 45mp R5 will likely change that unless the a7s3 is something special. Anyway, stuff closer than arms length is a little fuzzy so I need reading glasses - meaning I have a hard time judging critical focus on the LCD or EVF - reliable video AF has been a life saver for me. Vloggers love it, need I say more LOL! The a73's tracking is probably a little better, eye af seems to be a notch above the R but the R5 looks to be on par with Sony's newest bodies. With the a73 your subject can be further away before it switches to face tracking and it seems to lock onto faces a bit quicker, but the interface just isn't as good and IMO the touch is laggy. Canon's touchscreen is just more responsive (makes focusing and navigating menus so much easier) and I like the flippy screen over Sony's tilt screen. Both can slow the AF speed for more natural focus pulls, that's a push IMO. I use the touchscreen on the R for pretty much everything and I've had no issues with the AF box leaving my subject. Its just so easy to tap the screen and go. I've done a couple hours worth of interviews with people sitting and standing using all the lenses I listed above - they always move, its natural - focus stays glued to them. Servo AF does the job nicely. I shot wakeboarding with the 100-400 and it had no problem tracking them coming at the camera, when I was panning, and when they were moving away from the camera. Gimbal shots are a breeze, I just tap the LCD and focus on framing and not tripping over stuff. The only hiccups were quick zooms, it takes a second to refocus but it stays locked onto the subject. The a73 and a7r3 always did the same thing. After watching a few R5 videos, Canon has made significant improvements to the DPAF capabilities over the R, it definitely looks next level with the amount of processing power the camera has. I'm looking forward to testing it out. Chris

Still seems to be an embargo, nobody is sharing raw files, ISO tests, rolling shutter tests and so on.

Sorry if I missed this, but are there any limitations with 24p? I know the 24/30p modes that aren't oversampled are fine, but what about the oversampled 4k24p or even 8k24p? Most of my shooting is at 4k24p, but it seems the limitations start at 30p and up. TIA. Chris

The catch - until we see the actual leaked spec from Nokishita at least some of that is just complete fantasy. Someone literally quoted the main FX9 bullet points. That site has completely jumped the shark with its "rumors"

Sony's new AF system seems to be a given, if the plastic fantastic a6100 got it, I'm sure the new a7s will too. I don't think there's anything wrong with the a7s for photos, I've traveled with one extensively (though I've always had a r2/3 as well). But I find 12mp limiting because once you do even small things like straighten horizons and adjust crop for framing or a little perspective correction - at least for me - there's just not a lot of pixels to spare. My output isn't strictly for social/web, I shoot stuff that does get printed large on occasion. I shot part of a campaign that covered walls and a train in Toronto's metro as well as busses in London - the smallest file I had was about 4200px wide, they asked if I had a larger version. The a7s is a fine stills camera, but with no real difference compared to downsampling higher mp Sony cameras, its easier for my workflow to shoot with higher mp bodies. Plus when shooting landscapes - which is most of my stuff these days -the additional details just adds more punch to the files, I prefer the look. I've started printing my own stuff in larger numbers through Printique too, I just marvel at the level of detail from the a7r bodies. If I need any more DR - which is rare - I just bracket and combine in post. YMMV. Cheers Chris

As to the topic itself - still can't get the "Brown Eye AF" out of my head - its good to know there are workarounds. I'm still in the wait and see camp. These are all pre-production cameras and Canon has now seen the shitstorm over the overheating. I'm sure they're working to find solutions. That rumor about lower bitrate recording could certainly help. Also they can look at raising the thermal limits like Sony did. I think it will be fine for most that buy the camera and a dealbreaker for a small minority. At this point since its well known, if you buy it to shoot a 8-hour wedding and complain that it overheats, its really on you and not Canon. I'm curious about performance with the battery grip since you're moving a major heat source out of the body. I'd like to see tests with an external recorder too, up to 4k60p would cover me for most situations. Despite the added bulk I don't mind adding a cage and a Ninja V, been shooting with them and the EOS R for the last month so I'm getting used to a slightly larger kit. Plus I shoot mostly short takes, like 10-15 seconds per clip, my first job was in TV news at the end of the Betacam tape era in the mid 2000's, at about 20min per Beta cassette, I had to treat it like a precious commodity, or face juggling a few tapes to get a quick story edited which was more time consuming for me. So for me (me, not you) - interviews at 4k24p, slower stuff at Ninja/60p, super slow stuff at 120p and short postcard/beauty establishing shots or timelapses in raw. If I can get through a day of shooting under the Florida sun like that without issues then I'm good. If not the a7s3 remains a possibility, though for me 45mp > 12 mp. I'm still skeptical the rumored specs of the a7r4 body with an air vent is enough to solve Sony's own heat management issues given the low bitrates they've used and still had issues. They're suddenly going to do 10-bit 4k120p without overheating when they struggled for years with 8-bit 4k at just 100mbps? Chris

Good to know - no changes in either photo or video modes? I've held off getting the ND adapter because of the cost of the clear glass filter. So I just went with the standard EF-RF adapter, FYI got it cheap off the Canon refurb site in case anyone wants one. I'm fine with throwing some gaff tape on there, but I'm not shelling out that kind of cash for a needless piece of glass. Keeping an eye out for a used one... Chris

I'm sure this will make the R5 popular with porn directors.

I left the a7s2 behind the moment the a73 arrived because of the jump to 24mp. Not going back to 12mp unless the video is really something special, like @wolf33d, I want to shoot stills and video in the same body, 12mp is jut too far of a step back for me. I hope this rumor is wrong, because a stacked 12mp sensor would be a disappointment for me. I say for me, not you. Not cancelling my R5 order just yet Sony, still not convinced Sony has solved thermal issues that have plagued their bodies in the past as 10-bit 4k120p will need a lot more processing than the current low bitrate video all their bodies spit out. Chris If you downsample the Sony 42mp files to 12mp, there's no noise difference at useable high ISO's, I don't count the 100k and above ISO's as useable because there's no detail in the files.

Good look at the stills side of things and the AF with lots of video samples too. The eye/head af in backlit situations looks impressive. That's always been a challenge for mirrorless cameras.

Obviously its not for everyone. At least we know the limitations going in. Remember after the a6300 overheating mess, when the a6500 was released and all the shills went to a Sony junket in Miami declaring there was no overheating, only to seriously backpedal with it turns out the camera had major issues? All that backpedaling with egg on their faces. I'd rather know in advance rather than find out after the camera is delivered. Obviously I'd prefer that to not be the case, but I'm more interested in FF 4k anyway, and how long do 120fps clips need to be? 10 seconds of raw footage is 50 seconds in a 24p timeline, and you'll only use a couple seconds of that in the edit. Test to see if it works with your shooting style. I think I'll be fine, if it doesn't work I'll pivot to the mythical a7s3. Chris

This thread is insane. All this over a chart without any actual tests. I remember buying the a6300, a7s2 and a7r2 despite the internet overload about overheating, single card slots that no professional would ever use, 8-bit 4:2:0 video with blotchy zombie skin tones, crop on everything that's not 24p, only 4k30p and so on. I live in Florida and never had any issues despite using it on a gimbal all the time in the sun and shooting longer takes, it doesn't take much to swap batteries or turn the camera off when not in use, or not leav it sitting out in the sun all day. I took them to Africa on safari shooting thousands of frames and hours of video, also took them to Dubai, Egypt and Israel in August when it was upwards of 125f. Now we have a camera that shoots 8k raw, 4k120fps with amazing AF, class leading IBIS and can even shoot 45mp stills with bursts of 130 raw images or infinite jpegs if that's your thing, and its trash because you can't shoot an entire wedding in one take? Wow. Can't wait for the shitstorm with Sony's cripple hammer on the a7s3 and the pendulum to swing back to the R5/6 and how "I can work around the issues, its worth it for raw and 120p." This reads like a Sony Alpha rumors post. LOL!

R5 full specs PDF and screenshots of video specs: https://downloads.canon.com/nw/camera/products/eos/product-1/pdfs/EOSR5_specifications.pdf

That's one of the best benefits of the R5 bombshell. Sony has to finally abandon its 8-bit video and up its IBIS. Panasonic can't ignore AF because of superior video specs since they've just been lapped. Nikon has to up its game to gain traction with the Zed's. Even Fuji with its weird IBIS warping has to solve the issue, as Canon's looks pretty damn good. RIght now they're all chasing the R5/R6. Chris

According to this you can record 8k to the CFexpress and 4k simultaneously to the SD card. Dual zebra settings too. Nice. Also 8k 10-bit HDR. I like the reorganized menus when selecting recording options, its a pain on the R without my glasses, LOL! And more on the IBIS

The 4k120p looks good in McKinnon's video. So does the IBIS. All with DPAF. Nice.

Preorders are open at B&H. Just placed my order. Most expensive camera purchase for me, by far. No tax, free overnight shipping. Chris