So is the Canon R5 a bird photography body? (1 Viewer)

[Dave Williams]

If your CFexpress card is coming from Tecobuy ignore the tracking info. It should turn up though, but not imminently.
I really don't understand why you have a problem opening the CR3 files but as long as you are happy doing it the incredibly long way you are all is well.
If you go to your orange menu, page 3 you can assign button to change custom functions ( You have to scroll down the page to see all the buttons available as there are several!). I have chosen Mfn so a press of the button scrolls you through each CF 1-2-3 and back to M. Much easier than messing about with the top dial on your 7D2.
Glad to see you are enjoying the new toy though, thought you would. It has so much more going for it than the 7D2 imo.

 

[Barred Wobbler]

I bought my 7D II on the first day of release back in October 2014 and it has served my well over the years on many trips, home and abroad. The last time it was used was in November for an American Buff-bellied Pipit, just a couple of miles from home. My R5 finally arrived a few weeks after that in the dark days just before Christmas and my faithful 7D II has been on the shelf ever since.

Barring use as a back-up should the R5 ever need to go for repair, I can't foresee any circumstances when I might feel the need to bring it back out of retirement.

 

[colincurry]

Heard back from Adobe who say that the files are movie files. I don't understand how this can be. Following a tip from Jan Wegener I set up the MFn button to toggle between movie and still shooting. I also used movie Custom Function 3 to store my rudimentary movies settings. Have disabled both of these and re-formatted card. Results still the same. It looks as though I can open the CR3 files in Lightroom and export them to Photoshop (without the Bridge facility) - but, I prefer Bridge.

Am awaiting a call back from Canon and have gone back to Adobe who offered to try to help further if things had not changed.

I am using cRAW but don't see how this can upset things.

 

[Dave Williams]

Heard back from Adobe who say that the files are movie files. I don't understand how this can be. Following a tip from Jan Wegener I set up the MFn button to toggle between movie and still shooting. I also used movie Custom Function 3 to store my rudimentary movies settings. Have disabled both of these and re-formatted card. Results still the same. It looks as though I can open the CR3 files in Lightroom and export them to Photoshop (without the Bridge facility) - but, I prefer Bridge.

Am awaiting a call back from Canon and have gone back to Adobe who offered to try to help further if things had not changed.

I am using cRAW but don't see how this can upset things.

Maybe you should clear all your settings and start again, forget about movies and just master the basics of still photography with the camera for the time being.Is there no one locally you could ask for help?

 

[colincurry]

Did think of a factory reset. Have a colleague who has an R6 and has been giving his learned advice. I am hoping to send him one of my CR3 files to see if he can open it in Photoshop.

Will wait to hear again from Adobe and Canon before going down the reset route.

 

[colincurry]

Adobe say its Canon; and Canon say its Adobe. Canon make the point that as DPP downloads the files, there is nothing wrong with them. Reset camera (twice) and took CRaw, RAW and Jpeg images with factory settings. Bridge could open the Jpeg but not the other two. Have asked Adobe for the link to send them the latest RAW and CRaw images for their inspection. If they say these are Mov images, then it is back to Canon. Apparently I am alone with this problem. I have sent a CR3 file to two friends who are more expert than I, and await their verdicts. One suggestion has been to uninstall Adobe and then reinstall it. Watch this space

 

[colincurry]

It is not me!

Resurrected my previous chat with Adobe. Updated the situation, adding that a colleague was able to download and open my CR3 image. Answered various questions; most of which had been answered previously. Eventually, remote access was used, and I am pleased to say that the Adobe rep could only replicate what I had found. The rep referred to a supervisor who also joined the remote access. The supervisor was only able to replicate what I had found. In the end, they removed Adobe and downloaded Photoshop 2021, Bridge and Camera Raw, which solved the problem. This only took three hours, but what a relief. I no longer need DPP, Adobe DNG converter or Faststone Imageviewer, and can revert to my usual way of working.

Hope to go looking for marsh harriers tomorrow.

My CFExpress card arrived yesterday - took 20 days but the cost saving was well worth it.

 

[mike nesbitt]

A bit of a learning curve to master the BIF side of the AF. I find that Zone AF is proving to be the best option for me for flyers.

 

[Barred Wobbler]

A bit of a learning curve to master the BIF side of the AF. I find that Zone AF is proving to be the best option for me for flyers.


View attachment 1381303

I just use the eye detection on back button. It finds the bird no bother and occasionally the eye and it covers the whole screen, not just the centre zone.

 

[MJN]

What I find is that the eye af works well for flyers providing it's a large and relatively slow moving subject like Gull.
It may be my bad technique, I don't know and it's still work in progress.
If I didn't instantly lock on using eye af, the focus went wildly out and couldn't refocus in time - the chance was invariably gone. If you did hit it first time then it was happy days and all you have to do is keep the bird anywhere in the frame. I've also noted several people that identify the same thing on R5 forums,
Using zone does improve the hit rate on fast flying subjects for me, a much smaller active area of the frame to keep the bird in but a much larger one to acquire initial lock on
Also there are many instances where I'm finding the R5 struggles to pick up a close small subject quickly enough, particularly against a confused background when using fine point, its been suggested that I should try single point in this situation, again I'll try.
That said is R5 is the best camera I've owned to date.

 

[colincurry]

Well, I have watched 3 of Whistling Wings slightly contradictory videos several times and am still confused. Probably a founder member of 'Confused.com'.
Things have been OK in and from the garden. Have used AF on button for eye detect, * button for spot, and the right hand back button set to L + tracking. On Saturday, went looking for harriers and saw a couple. Very difficult to lock on as only a small square available to track. Worked OK on a hovering kestrel. Am I right in thinking that I should set the right hand back button to Zone AF, and then press the AF on button to lock onto the flying bird? I should say that the harriers were not very near. All these gurus seem to have a never-ending supply of close targets! They seem to imply the settings for situations but I am currently unable to infer! I use the 100-400 mk 2 with a 1.4 tc 3 so my maximum aperture is f8. So, I have been using the same settings by and large for everything, changing only the shutter speed using quick control dial 2. If I am correct, I need to set up custom functions one for BIF (using Zone AF) and one for birds in the bush (using L+tracking)- such as I did on my 7D2, and maybe using the control ring to switch between these.

Here is probably the best harrier



Here is a very distant harrier carrying what looks like a large rat - this is for interest as it very distant



Here is the kestrel which was not that close



I honestly hoped for better and could probably have got these with my 7D2. I am hoping that I have (again) got things wrong; and that someone will kindly point me in the right direction.

Colin

Colin

 

[Roy C]

I have been snapping Swallows in flight with the old 7D2 this week - I wonder how much easier it would have been with a R5? I know the R5 is great sticking on a bird once it has latched-on with zone AF but with Swallows you mostly have a split second before it is out of the focus area - does it latch on very quickly?

 

[redeyedvideo]

Well, I have watched 3 of Whistling Wings slightly contradictory videos several times and am still confused. Probably a founder member of 'Confused.com'.
Things have been OK in and from the garden. Have used AF on button for eye detect, * button for spot, and the right hand back button set to L + tracking.

I honestly hoped for better and could probably have got these with my 7D2. I am hoping that I have (again) got things wrong; and that someone will kindly point me in the right direction.

Colin

It's best to watch Whistling Wings videos on a computer as others have given more information in the replies. It's also best to watch the latest videos as some are out of date since firmware releases have dealt with many of the issues mentioned. I use AF on, either Spot, Expand AF area: Around or Zone AF. W.W. prefers Zone AF for most of his flight shots. This work well in clear sky with no background distractions with close subjects, I find the R5 struggles with distant birds which does me a favour; I'd only delete them if they were too small in the frame anyway.

I used Expand AF area for BIF shots on my 7DII but it doesn't work so well on the R5. I have the * button set for eye detect tracking and switch to that as soon as the AF has locked on. This was W.W.'s original method and I find it works best for me.

Using the electronic shutter is so much better at keeping the subject in frame but it can rip through shots in no time if, like me, you forget to take your finger off in time!

The R5 is a different and more complicated beast than the 7DII. I've shot 12 FPS and all of them were in focus, my 7DII could never hold focus for more than half that number. I can never see me going back to a DSLR, it's just the battery life that's a let-down on mirrorless.

Here's Teal shot taken with a 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM + 1.4x III at 1600 ISO with no noise reduction.

 

[colincurry]

Lovely shot of the teal. Went out today seduced by the forecast of sun. Instead, it was grey; and not the sort of day I would normally choose. Ended up either 'in the dark' or against the light. Used Zone AF for BIF and achieved some better results than last time. Used mechanical shutter to save on the battery but will try again with electronic. (Have order two Neewer batteries which should together last slightly longer than the Canon version). My old generic batteries for my original 7D lasted about 20 minutes. Used two custom functions and the Mfn button to shift between them as suggested by Dave Williams - more muscle memory training - but a great help. I need more practice with BIF. Saw two swallows but not to photograph. Did get several shots of bearded tits which was wonderful - plus a very distant bittern in flight - you can at least tell what it is. At present, I don't find the EVR as friendly for BIF as the optical version of on my 7D2. I shall have to keep practising and learning. When it comes down to it, the GIGO principle still applies whatever kit one is using. Will add some examples later.

 

[Dave Williams]

I have been snapping Swallows in flight with the old 7D2 this week - I wonder how much easier it would have been with a R5? I know the R5 is great sticking on a bird once it has latched-on with zone AF but with Swallows you mostly have a split second before it is out of the focus area - does it latch on very quickly?

Roy, the focus area on the R5 covers about 95% of the whole of the viewfinder and if you can lock on it will track it as long as it's in the screen. Locking on isn't a done deal though especially on small fast moving birds, and as always if you pick the right spot and a decent bit of wind to hold the birds up your chances increase dramatically.
I think the focus area on a 7d2 is probably as little as 33% of the screen.

 

[Roy C]

Roy, the focus area on the R5 covers about 95% of the whole of the viewfinder and if you can lock on it will track it as long as it's in the screen. Locking on isn't a done deal though especially on small fast moving birds, and as always if you pick the right spot and a decent bit of wind to hold the birds up your chances increase dramatically.
I think the focus area on a 7d2 is probably as little as 33% of the screen.

Thank you Dave, I appreciate the greater viewfinder AF coverage especially if using the full sensor and not the 1.6 crop mode, but as you know with Swallows with their erratic flight patterns they are often in and out of the viewfinder in a split second so tracking is not really an option most times - I guess what I was asking was as soon as you see a bird in the viewfinder and rattle off a burst (with BBF depressed) will the Camera have time to focus on the bird before it a goner ?
With the 7D2 when snapping fast flyers I have the AI servo 1st image priority set the the middle position (equal priority) to at least allow the shutter to fire when the bird is in the viewfinder/AF area albeit it may or may not be sharply in focus - I guess the R5 would be similar or maybe even faster locking-on.

 

[Barred Wobbler]

Yesterday afternoon. (Apologies for the watermarks, I edited them for my Facebook page.)

 

[Dave Williams]

Yesterday was the first day I fell out with my R5. It was so frustrating being out in woodland trying to photograph small birds flitting from branch to branch because of a) wake up time and b) the reluctance of the R5 with the 100-500 plus 1.4TC to lock focus when there is a lack of contrast. Like all lover's tiffs it soon gets forgotten and the better parts the relationship are remembered as to why I fell in love in the first place. it's still the biggest jump in improvement in any camera I have bought and I think the future offerings can only get better. There are times I wish I'd hung on to my 1DX2 instead of the 5D4 but such are life's decisions. Can't get them all correct. I haven't touched the DSLR since I bought the mirrorless. Once you realise that what you see through the viewfinder is what you are near as likely to get as an image you can changes settings on the fly increasing the chances of correctly exposing the image. I love the cropping power at 45mp. 100% no problem at all. I have wanted a totally silent shutter for a long time. It's awful sitting in a public hide listening to the endless shutter clicking, must be a huge bonus to wedding photographers and the likes but best of all, for me anyway, I was able to capture this extremely wary Fox enjoying a drink. That would have been impossible with any shutter sounds.

 

[colincurry]

Some very nice shots above. Went out again today onto the fen. Once more, everything seemed so far away. Still found difficulty in following BIF as not easy to see in the EVF. Have set this to maximum brightness. Had a sudden thought. I wear varilux photochromic glasses which are almost black even on a brightish day; and black in sunlight. I wondered if the tinting was impinging on the view through the EVF. Took my glasses off and the EVF was certainly brighter. Only trouble then was that I found it much harder to see anything to photograph Have to check out Specsavers for a plain pair of distance glasses - this extra cost is not mentioned in any of the various fora! Will now see if any of today's shots are worth keeping.

 

[njlarsen]

In addition to darkened glasses, polaroid coating could easily cause troubles with an EVF. I use glasses and a mirrorless (though not canon) and have always avoided having those in my glasses. To spare your eyes, you may need to wear a hat with a good brim.

Niels