Canon EOS R5/R6 user experience

[Tim Sewell]

On 11/3/2020 at 8:12 AM, Django said:

So I finally got a chance to test drive the R5. The 8K & 4K HQ image quality is just stunning imo.

I'm now planning on acquiring the camera, despite the overheat issues (defeatable with the hack).

That said the 10-bit h265 log footage doesn't run on my 13" MBP, only on my iMac Pro.

Kind of a major bummer when I'm editing/grading on the go. What's the workaround? Any software to transcode h265 into h264?

EditReady 2 on Mac should do it - slowly.

https://www.divergentmedia.com/editready/support

[DWX]

Gave my R5 a workout a few days ago.

Outside Temp 59F, Shot varying 8K Raw, 4K HQ/HDR 30s - 60s clips at a park.  The RF 50 1.2 AF is loud AF.  Wasn't expecting that with a 2300 lens.  Where the nano USM?  Over the course of 2 hrs got the timer down to 5min but not even a overheating warning.  Not expecting that when summer comes back around.  I was able to shoot until the battery ran out.  I was able to get by with just 2 batteries on my A7III for an entire day, but that's not going to be the case with the R5 going to have to get more than 2.  Loving the 8K RAW/4K HQ footage.  Finally a camera worthy to my NX1.  Really impressed with the HDR PQ, but couldn't get it to play back on my HDR TV via USB.  Viewing it on the DPP software is stunning.  Now I need a resolve workflow to keep the HDR PQ & metadata when I render it.  

Just my initial observation...

, 

[ntblowz]

Seems like the 5950X can run 3 layers of H.265 4K60P quite ok with 28-30fps playback speed, and H.265 8K playback smoothly with 1 layer, no proxy needed, all on full resolution.

[zerocool22]

1 hour ago, ntblowz said:

Seems like the 5950X can run 3 layers of H.265 4K60P quite ok with 28-30fps playback speed, and H.265 8K playback smoothly with 1 layer, no proxy needed, all on full resolution.

cries in 3700x...

[ntblowz]

10 hours ago, zerocool22 said:

cries in 3700x...

my friend who upgrade from 10 core i9-7900x said the i9 can only run 30fps on a single h.265 4k60p clip.. vs 3 h.265 4k60p on 16core 5950x, really huge performance increase those new Ryzen 5000 series.

[gt3rs]

I got my R5 10 days ago and did many tests and then did 3 photo shootings and 1 photo + video, here my observation so far:

 

Regarding the photo part is simply the best camera I had so far, very good resolution, AF, FPS, very quick in all the operations. The EVF is quite good but could be even better in term of color representation there is quite a bit difference between the EVF and the LCD. EVF with a bit more res would also be good. The 1DX III is still better in initial AF acquisition, panning fast and balance with big lenses as with the 200-400 is not that great with the R5 probably a battery grip would help. For the rest the R5 is better.

Need to do a side by side scaled down at 20mpix on high iso to see if there is an advantage on the 1Dx there. On 1-1 pixel noise is better on the 1Dx but equalized not sure the difference is so big.

 

On the video side 8K RAW is just incredible and a tad better than 5.5K 1DX RAW, good RS, good DR and great sharpness. 8K RAW is easier to edit in Resolve than 4k h265 10 bit… form factor is great and for gimbal is perfect with the swivel lcd. VND adapter is just so much more practical that front screw ND and VND. Not telling something new here. AF is also great, animal AF is ok with horses but not great did not test with other animals yet.

Did test on the Ronin S with IBIS on and off and definitely with on is better still sometimes I have the impression is fighting a bit against each other but need to test more.

Strangely the wifi live view on the R5 there is way less latency and more fps than the 1Dx III, the app is the same but is much more usable.  1Dx is basically unusable.

 

For the photo plus video I did ca. 45 min of pictures (380 frames taken) and then switched to video and did capture around 18 min of 8K RAW in the remaining 1h in 1-5 min takes. Had to change the battery almost at the end and no sign of overheating but condition were ideal 12 c°. I did not turn off the camera between takes but I had the LCD timeout set at 1min.

 

Things that they should improve via firmware:

• The resolution/framerate menu I thought it was better than the 1Dx but actually is bad as if you have on or off the high quality mode it blocks out thing. Why on earth I cannot move from 8k RAW to 4K HQ directly there. The 120fps should also be there and not a separate menu.
• Zebras and peaking cannot be active at the same time
• Zebras are not available in 8K RAW with Log on, it is with Log off
• Histogram while recording would be good but still is not for Canon, even better vectorscopes
• Clog 2 & 3 as promised
• Cinema RAW Light as promised (here I expect 20-30% size reduction)
• H265 10bit 4:2:0 or XF-AVC for easier editing
• HFR should be with audio and not already conformed to 25 or 30 fps
• You should be able to assign the audio gain to one of the settings wheels, really annoying that you need to press q, press the audio chart and then you can use the wheel.
• Improve further the overheating issue

 

Things that could be better but not fixable via firmware :

• No overheating at all
• Bigger LCD
• Even less latency and more fps over wifi
• I would prefer a dedicated switch for video/photo, only button that you can assign for quick switch is the m-fn
• VND Adapter should have a way to lock the wheel it is a bit too easy to bump on it
• Full or at least mini hdmi instead of micro one
• I would prefer dual CFexpress but I get why they put and SD instead

 

Some frames grab

[zerocool22]

I just received the panasonic S5, did not open the box yet. But somehow I am still lured to the R5 and R6. R5 is a bit too pricey for me, but I just keep wondering if I can make the R6 work. I have not seen anything goodlocking on any panasonic S camera. And from the R5/R6 I have seen some great stuff already. Also the skintones comparisons, the canons really shine imo. 

- The overheating was a worry, but I believe we can bypass it now with the battery door trick.
- Codecs, how hard they are to edit.
- How good is the 1080p
- Do you struggle with the dynamic range (vs A7SIII, S1H, pocket 6K,...)

 

[TomTheDP]

6 hours ago, zerocool22 said:

I just received the panasonic S5, did not open the box yet. But somehow I am still lured to the R5 and R6. R5 is a bit too pricey for me, but I just keep wondering if I can make the R6 work. I have not seen anything goodlocking on any panasonic S camera. And from the R5/R6 I have seen some great stuff already. Also the skintones comparisons, the canons really shine imo. 

- The overheating was a worry, but I believe we can bypass it now with the battery door trick.
- Codecs, how hard they are to edit.
- How good is the 1080p
- Do you struggle with the dynamic range (vs A7SIII, S1H, pocket 6K,...)

Dynamic range is gonna be limited unless they put in CLOG2 or 3. The workaround is if you use the R5 to shoot RAW. I'd invest in the C70 if I were you unless you want to work around the dynamic range, which is of course totally doable. 

I'd agree though Pana color is subpar, I think the GHAlex lut which I keep plugging constantly is a good workaround though. It gives really beautiful skin tones. Its hard to beat the Pana image once the color is corrected IMO. 

[zerocool22]

15 hours ago, TomTheDP said:

Dynamic range is gonna be limited unless they put in CLOG2 or 3. The workaround is if you use the R5 to shoot RAW. I'd invest in the C70 if I were you unless you want to work around the dynamic range, which is of course totally doable. 

I'd agree though Pana color is subpar, I think the GHAlex lut which I keep plugging constantly is a good workaround though. It gives really beautiful skin tones. Its hard to beat the Pana image once the color is corrected IMO. 

I maybe would, if it was a hybrid. I dont like carrying 2 bodies around. 

[Marcus]

Anyone using the R5 professionally for commercial shoot and/or short film? Initially the overheat issue seemed to render the camera completely unusable, but it's been rather quiet in terms of complaints over overheating issues across the different forums I usually read. And recently in this thread there's been positive user experiences. Did the firmware update actually mitigate the majority of the issues?

[ade towell]

In my world a few people are using them as a gimbal/b-camera but nobody is willing to risk using it as their main camera. 

[richald]

I had a good experience this week shooting 120p. I didn't get overheating warning after one full day of shooting chocolate at 120p. I shoot typically 5-6 30 sec takes then rest and prepare next shot, 5 or 10 min later shoot another 5-6 takes .. no problem at all.  What I'm having trouble is colour grading c-log. The conversion luts to rec709 provided by canon are not working very well. Colour shift is present. How do you guys shoot and grade Clog?  Do you better? What luts do you use? 

Thanks a lot for your help, 

[gt3rs]

I also had my first day using 120fps, The shooting was 45minutes, camera was always on and took 15 clips ranging from 20 sec to 1.5 minute at 12 c° no overheating or issue but again was quite cold. 

It is silly that it does not record audio at 120fps and is already conformed to 30fps.. Conforming is not a big issue as I change the clip fps back to 120fps in Resolve and slow down only the part that I want is slow motion but recoding audio separately is a pita.

I use this lut BT709_CanonLog-to-BT709_WideDR_65_FF_Ver.2.0 as a base for the 10bit file. But I tweak it around quite a bit. When not doing slow mo I try to use RAW as I feel it gives me much more room for tweaking around.

 

 

[Video Hummus]

Wow, well I just sold all my MFT gear and said goodbye to my GH5S and just bought an R5.

I think my only remaining gripe with this camera is the DR but my GH5S maxed out at around 10.5 and I never really complained that much with it. If we get better canon logs we could potentially see 11.7 (based on Gerald Undones tests) of usable stops with clog3. Still 1 atop below S1H and A7SIII but hey one of those cameras lacks AF and the other is only 12MP photos.

ive been doing lots of landscape photography lately and possibly some product photography coming up so having 45MP is very nice.

8K RAW internal is a bonus (even with its limitations). The 4KLQ mode is fine for Internet video with a bit of sharpening in post. Canon did some clever things with their AA filter on this camera.

I think R5 best balanced camera for my needs at the moment. The price not so much. Ouch. 

[independent]

No complaints about the dynamic range in 8K Raw

[ntblowz]

On 11/14/2020 at 12:12 AM, ade towell said:

In my world a few people are using them as a gimbal/b-camera but nobody is willing to risk using it as their main camera. 

I use it as A cam for MV shoots, so far really good! No overheating warning for 12hr+ shooting schedule on internal 4k50p.

 

3 hours ago, Video Hummus said:

Wow, well I just sold all my MFT gear and said goodbye to my GH5S and just bought an R5.

I think my only remaining gripe with this camera is the DR but my GH5S maxed out at around 10.5 and I never really complained that much with it. If we get better canon logs we could potentially see 11.7 (based on Gerald Undones tests) of usable stops with clog3. Still 1 atop below S1H and A7SIII but hey one of those cameras lacks AF and the other is only 12MP photos.

ive been doing lots of landscape photography lately and possibly some product photography coming up so having 45MP is very nice.

8K RAW internal is a bonus (even with its limitations). The 4KLQ mode is fine for Internet video with a bit of sharpening in post. Canon did some clever things with their AA filter on this camera.

I think R5 best balanced camera for my needs at the moment. The price not so much. Ouch. 

Yeah, R5 is really good for 1 cam that does it all!   Sold my S5 last week.

[gt3rs]

41 minutes ago, independent said:

No complaints about the dynamic range in 8K Raw

Fully agree, hopefully Clog3 will come for 10bit files and we have better DR there too

[zerocool22]

1 hour ago, ntblowz said:

I use it as A cam for MV shoots, so far really good! No overheating warning for 12hr+ shooting schedule on internal 4k50p.

 

Yeah, R5 is really good for 1 cam that does it all!   Sold my S5 last week.

Whats an MV shoot?

What did you like about it more then the S5? The AF? (I got an S5, but the R5 is so expensive)

[TomTheDP]

4 hours ago, independent said:

No complaints about the dynamic range in 8K Raw

latitude looks really impressive in RAW, just as good as the Pana S1. 

[dvcrn]

So I am doing some reading up on R5/R6 again (that time again :p) and saw that v1.1.1 apparently improved some of the issues on the r6. 

I have a few questions,

So for 10bit, the cameras have to be in C-Log, right? Does C-Log have some weird limitations like on the EOS R, that you can't use certain modes such as aperture priority/shutter priority, or does that now work fine? 

The 4k crop on the r6 in 4k/60p mode, does it only apply to 60p mode? Are the other lower fps modes free from FF sensor crop or is it also slightly cropped? 

Also did anyone try to primarily use the r6 or r5 in aps-c mode instead of FF for video? I am curious how the overheating applies when in those sensor-cropped modes (if any overheating at all), and how the 4k (HQ on the R5?) looks. Wonder how EF-S glass would do on it, or maybe using a speed-booster 🤔

Then about the 1080p -- from what I read, there is no way to shoot 1080p @ 10-bit in either camera, also the 1080p is I think line-skipped and not so good? So probably going 4k and exporting to 1080p might be the better way here. Still don't fully understand the HDR PQ mode. Could you shoot in that internal and still export to rec709? Is 10bit HDR PQ still ok, or does it more compare to 8bit rec709? 

 

Also I completely forgot about this, but the eos r5/r6 still have the 30 minutes hard recording limit! How come I can't find this mentioned everywhere 🙀