Thanks Kiah, I appreciate the feedback, at this stage Canon do not support the channel so I have to buy or borrow gear, hopefully I will get the chance in the future. Cheers, Duade
Thank you, Duade. Best R6 review I've seen. I have a Canon R5 and am looking at the R6 as a back up. Found the same focusing issue on the R5 but solved it by using the third focusing button (just to the right of the * button) as a "spot focus" button. Works in almost any situation. BTW, Canon should sponsor you. Very professional.
Thanks for such an honest and fresh appraisal of the R6. Most of us photographers don’t hear such real life experiences in the typical TH-cam camera reviews. You were very detailed and covered many small glitches that most people would not realize until after they bought the camera. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for all the effort putting this video together, it's exactly what I needed. Top quality content as per usual and much appreciated. Cheers from Scotland!
G'day Rovle, it is my pleasure, I hope it's not too cold where you are at the moment, mind you I would prefer the cold then the 45 degrees we have forecast this weekend. Cheers, Duade
I traded my 1DX2 and 5dsr in on a R5 and 6 and so happy with the change. I still think the 1DX2 high ISO was better than the new R's but they are both so much better than the 5dsr was. The animal eye af is great, not perfect but much better than any dslr I used. I also had the problem with not being able to focus with my 600 F4 from going to near to far or the other way, it is annoying but a quick turn on the focus ring gets you there. Not sure I could ever give up this auto focus and go back to a dslr.
wow!!! Love your Honest review, as you are so realistic we can get a clear understanding of this Mirrorless System. Hope to see your upcoming other 2 videos. Have a great week ahead. Stay Safe and Healthy. God Bless You.
Hi Duade, I find that the R6 works really well with birds in flight. Today I was shooting seagulls being fed and they were flying in the sky. I had no problem locking onto to a single bird and following it as it flew. The focus point would be over the eye and I only took the shot when every thing was perfect. The camera tracked the bird as it swooped and dived all over the sky infront of me. The photos came out super sharp. I can send a few phots, if requested. I am not using 2 button back focusing but only front button focusing and I have camera set up to track bird. If I push half down the blue light comes on over the bird eye. if I release the button it turns white and still tracks bird eye across the sky and I can press fully down anytime and take the shot. regards Mike
Thanks Mike, I appreciate the feedback, I am happy to hear you had great success. I had a similar experience recently with some gulls, the eye af performed very well. Cheers, Duade
The difference between the raw image and the final result of your photos is sometimes unbelievable. Post-processing being one of the most important parameter in bird photography, could you make a video showing the basic edits you make in post-processing
yes, there can often be a big difference from the Raw to the processed image, I will look at doing an updated video on processing. I have a few you may find helpful here. th-cam.com/play/PLftsgqGE1dmbBwsmMiBa27iYv2POr-FG5.html Cheers, Duade
I think you're enjoying your cameras new challenges and perks! Thank you for the tips. Enjoying my 5D Mark IV. Hope you continue with your videos. God bless/cheers!
For anyone interested. I've used the EOS R5 for many subjects. Canon's 'animal' eye AF works great for birds, is good for mammals, poor for frogs and reptiles (frustrating and not worth persisting in most instances) and more or less useless for butterflies, dragonflies and other insects.
Another totally honest and valuable review. I get the feeling that if you could put the eye focus into the MKIV that would make you a lot happier. Thanks Duade.
Thank you Duade. This is my first time on your Channel and I enjoyed your explanations and examples to illustrate the points you were making. And, I liked your straightforward approach , and honest appraisal of both the good and the bad aspects, which is refreshing to see. I do a fair bit of butterfly photography as well as some bird stuff, so the potential flaw of the AF on the R6 (and R5) for that genre of photography is worth knowing about. If I go with the Canon Mirrorless I will probably finish up keeping my 5D IV as my second body.
G'day Dave, my pleasure, yeah the AF is slightly annoying when it locks onto the background. I need to have another few sessions with butterfly's to see if it is a major, I have the 5D4 if I need it. Cheers, Duade 👍
Thank you for your very honest review, my current camera set up is a 5D1V with 100-400 mkii and 500 F4 Mk11 Lens, I’m seriously considering going over to mirrorless R5 as a step up but I’m not yet convinced after you take away all the hype of the eye detection focus system, For me I always end up cropping a lot so composition is not an issue, so providing I focus on the eye everything else falls into place and this for me is part of the skill. You could argue the R5 will take the fun out of the challenge and just add frustration with focusing issues. But the high ISO capability is the temptation along with the 45 megapixels of the R5, the R6 doesn’t seem worth the upgrade from 5D Mk1V especially as I love the this Camera and Lens combination. Regards Chris
G'day Chris, if you can afford the R5 it is an incredible camera and is a big improvement over the 5d4, the Animal Eye AF, Buffer, Larger MP, FPS make it a very attractive option. However the 5d4 is still a great camera and takes wonderful images. Cheers, Duade
Hi,thanks for your reply.I enjoy photographing both in the new and the old world.I photograph stills and there is nothing severe going on these days.I am a birding man and tomorrow Ill go to my place and feed those my little frienfs.
Great review. Looking to upgrade from a 7DII. You're review is the first one to mention the issue with not being able to grab the subject again if your camera grabs the background. Thanks for the info!
Thanks for the feedback, be sure to check out the video I did showcasing the AF issues of mirrorless here. th-cam.com/video/L06kMSYnFO4/w-d-xo.html Cheers, Duade
G'day Daniel, I have not used the R but I'm sure it takes lovely shots as the 5d4 sensor is very nice. It just lacks a lot of the benefits of the R6 and R5. Cheers, Duade 👍
@@Duade Do you think it is worth to move on the R6? My concern is the sensor. 20 Million Pixels vs 30.... quite a big difference! would be nice to have cropping comparison R6 vs 5D Mark IV if you still have it 🙂
Great video that addresses a lot of the issues I was having. I even got to the point of selling my lens but you have restored my faith and given me some ideas to try. I was thinking some issues I had were just my lens but it looks more likely its the lens/camera capabilities. Thank you for a great video
Very helpful objective review. I find the 100-500 mates well with the R6. The lock on to the background often happens when there is not a lot of difference between subject and background.
And this is the best review of my R6, Thanks. I like the ISO performance as long as you don’t go extremely high. You go home when there is no more light lol
@@Duade the comments from Peter B and yourself about going home when it “gets dark” have sold this camera as far as I’m concerned, I suffer so much with the 7Dii and 5D iii, thanks again
Thank you so much for honest review. I actually saw more details in photos taken by 5D IV when comparing these two. I am not disappointed, it was expected - the difference of 10 Mpx can be seen here.
I put the photos I have into Topaz Gigapixel and the results in resolution between the 30 MP and and 20 MP is not visible on the 90cmx60cm prints with a 120 MP AI upscaled photo. Seems that the Sensor of the R6 has a much sharper antialiasing filter and therefore a better contrast in the high resolution structures. If I would have access to a R5, I would like to verify how much difference with that kind of upscaling is visible in small structures. I learnt of it that the brutto MP number (what the sensor has) does not reflect the netto MP number (the structures that are visible on large prints). Some cameras have a more effective picture creating than others depending on the filtering of the sensor and the filtering with the camera cpu. It finally counts what is on the print and not a high number on a spec sheet.
Thanks for the review Duade! I’m now sold on the R6. Would you have a suggestion for a good (but inexpensive) zoom lens? I was considering the Tamron 150-600 G2. Would love to hear your thoughts. Unfortunately the Canon 100-400ii and 100-500 RF are too expensive at the moment.
Sharang, unfortunately I don't have any experience with either the Tamron or Sigma 600 zooms so cannot suggest either. I know they are very popular, and I am sure there are a lot of reviews online. Sorry I cannot be more help, I do hope to test both lenses at some stage. Cheers, Duade
Thanks a lot for the detailed video daude. As always extremely informative and to the point. It was worth the wait for your video and looking forward for the next one. I think I wouldn’t go wrong with either R6 or the 5D mkiv. I would rather prefer the megapixels here as a personal choice just for being able to crop in tight Cheers 😊
G'day Riyaz, yes, it is tough, the 5d4 is an amazing camera, just the buffer lets it down a lot. The R6 would have been amazing with the 5d4 sensor. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade ha ha daude hope canon could see this comment and yes a 30mp sensor would be great on R6. But seeing the image in your video I could still see sharp details there. Making it all the more confusing
Thanks Duade, very interesting great video. I've just bought a R6 body after strongly considering the 5D4.Will be using your tips as I'm a keen raptor photographer based in South Africa.
@@Duade Hi Duade not sure if you have heard it seems Canon are putting out a focus firmware update 2nd Dec saw it yesterday on R6 user group, cheers Dave
Thanks TS, I have been switching between Case 1 & Case 2 and still having problems, it has no issue sticking to the butterfly if it detects it first, the issue is when the camera detects the background instead of the butterfly and sticks to that. It simply won't let go of the background. So, it's not an issue of not sticking to the subject it just sticks to the wrong thing. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade I see, in that case I'll let go off the AF button and then press it again. Probably try to focus closer near the subject until you kinda see it
Hey Duade. Greetings from Florida!! Great Review. I am a Nikon and Sony Shooter. I am considering purchasing the R6 and the new R 800m lens for a longer lighter reach. Sounds like The R series bodies are the wrong way to go from your experience even with the better Canon glass. I think I stick with my D5, D850, and D500 or maybe trying adapted F lenses on my Z6. I have the 200-500, 80-400k, and the 600Vr. Shooting flyers is a acquired talent. You need the right light and background. I like the birds of prey. My Sony A7Riv works with the 100-400 and 200-600, but I find the tracking difficult...at least more difficult than the tried and true Nikons. Keep up the good work. I enjoyed your insights.
G'day Ralph, thanks for your comment, I may have been a little harsh in my review, the R5 & R6 are very capable cameras that produce very nice photos and their high ISO performance is very good. Stay tuned to the channel as I hope to test some of the lenses in the future. Cheers, Duade
Thanks for the comment and suggestions, I have tried every AF setting and unfortunately nothing overcomes this issue. It appears to be a limitation of the mirrorless AF which I hope they address in the future. Cheers, Duade
Very nice video, I can say from my expierience that you are right in your conclusions. For me the big gamechangers are the AF and the tilt screen compaired to a 7D MII wich I used before. My EF glass works better now, more sharp picture's also on birds in flight. The tilt screen makes it easy to get low shots handheld. As an example I have 300mm F4 and 400mm F5.6. For butterfly's (and a lots of other stuff, like mushrooms) I like the 300mm F4 better, you can get much closer, has IS and is sharp. Looking on the tilt screen and handhold it is very easy to make nice picture's. Looking forward to your next viedeo's.
G'day, great to hear you are enjoying the camera, yes, the MFD of the 400 5.6 is its biggest weakness, great to hear the 300 f4 works well for you. Cheers, Duade
What I've found to REALLY increase the potential to lock on a subject that is small in the frame and moving is set the base or main AF mode to Eye AF. What this does is enable the bracket box that tells you what the camera wants to focus on before you engage the focus. I use this because for wildlife photographers, focus with the initial focus point on a small bird is incredibly difficult. Again, this has something to do with the way these bodies use the single point. With a DSLR, this was no problem, but with the R5/R6 (and probably all the R's) the single point is very difficult to use on small subjects. So I rely on the pre-focus bracket box and once that is on the subject I want, I lock it with the focus button. This allows me to use my second button as the center single point for those moments when I just need to hit a certain point. Making the flip, Eye AF as the base setting and traditional as backup or secondary, has made a MASSIVE improvement to action photography for me. Grabbing a burrowing owl or Kingfisher (with a 2x on a 500mm) in mid flight, or a diving tern (no 2x, but same 500mm) sold me on it. Personally, I used to LOVED the initial focus point on the DSLRs, but its just not as versatile on the R bodies. Give it a shot, and don't worry about using "Only Eye AF" for everything... truth is very good for everything.
G'day Mike, thank you for your comment and advice, I have tried just about everything in this scenario with no success. I have tried Eye AF only and if the Eye AF detects the BG then it locks onto it, and I have to use the manual focus ring etc. Also, Eye AF doesn't work for insects, butterfly's and some reptiles so you have to use traditional AF which is when I have had some issues. I will keep trying and see how I go. Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade, l loved your "real world use" review of the R6. I think I agree with your conclusions. I am stunned by the number of commenters. I did subscribe and like to take the sting out of reading this one, I hope. My question is a bit of topic, but we are birders, right? I don't have a spotting scope, but I envision using an R5, or 6 or 7 in that capacity. I have found with my Olympus I can see in birds in lower light than I can with my EOS 90D. And I can do so at 3X in the EVF. Mine is not an expensive MFT camera and lens, and the IBIS is not that steady at over 3X, but I do have fast EF lenses. So do you find yourself, just seeing how far away you can identify a speck of a bird in the distance that would be to small, and too dark using a DSLR?
G'day, an interesting question, I can zoom in by 10x in the electronic viewfinder of the R5/6 mirrorless camera. Much like you would in live view on the back of the DSLR. This can really help to identify far off birds. There is no brightness issue as you just increase the exposure of the mirrorless. Cheers, Duade
I'm using the 5DsR and 6D Mark II, but mostly for landscape work. Although the 5DsR isn't a low light beast, it's surprising, how well it performs on higher ISO levels compared to the 6D Mark II or the 5D Mark IV, which i have also testet. Tests show that the R5 beats the R6 on ISO performance up to ISO 25.600. The higher MP count makes noise look far less unpleasant than on the low MP R6.
MK26, thanks for sharing, I assume you will be interested in the large MP R5 that is coming, that will no doubt be an excellent landscape camera. Cheers, Duade
Nice video, i used to be a Nikon d750 user then switched to canon 90D and did notice too much noise even at iso 500 i know it was crop sensor but i never seen on nikon even on my d3100, now sold it and going for either D500 or D850 for sensor performance.
Yes, FF cameras such as the D750 are far superior to the APSC bodies in regards to noise. The D850 is probably one of the best DSLR's on the market. Good luck with it. Cheers, Duade
@Maciej Jan Długosz Thanks for that, guess it is fair to say most modern FF cameras will have a higher pixel pitch compared to modern APSC bodies and I assume the newer the sensor the better its noise handling is compared to its pixel pitch? The R5 has a lower pixel pitch than the 7D but is likely 3 stops better at high iso. Cheers, Duade
Great video and wonderful photos! Appreciate all the explanations and comparisons. Regarding dynamic range: as far as I know, dynamic range decreases a lot when increasing ISO. This means that shooting at lower ISO will give you far more details to in shadows and highlights to recover.
Hi,I have the same experience with you.I bought my first R6 last september and had the issues compared to 5D mark IV and I returned it.One month ago I bought R6 again and I fell in love with it because of its fantastic birds eye tracking.But in in certain cases Mark IV work lot better.Many bird photographers have been asking me ,is r6 that good -I say yes ,but dont sell yuor dsrl right away.
Erkki, I am enjoying the camera the more I use it that is for sure. I think mirrorless wil just get better and better over time. I'm glad to hear you are enjoying yours. Cheers, Duade
Hey, this is my opinion on mega pixels. I believe the higher megapixels are only used when resolved correctly (there is a big difference between resolution and MP). From what ive heard my Sony lens can resolve 45 megapixels, so on my 60mp camera I won't record anymore detail than if on 45mp camera. But... im only resolving all of those 45mp worth of detail in the best case situation with a clean file at low ISO. I see it as the higher my iso goes, the lower my resolution goes, meaning I can drop the resolution in post from 60mp to 20mp for a lot of photos and they look the exact same, only when I have optimal conditions those megapixels are effective to full lenses full potential. Sonys more expensive lenses can resolve more (upto 100MP) with f4 lens, that's why it's suggested to use the higher quality glass on higher megapixel cameras. Just thought I would throw my opinion there, doesn't mean I'm correct haha
Excellent video and review! In your high ISO comparison with the 5DMkIV I was easily able to pick out the R6 every time. Not based on image sharpness but in the level of noise. Particularly in the background. The R6 has less noise in every case. I'm not sure I still consider 3200 "High ISO" on these newer cameras as they all seem to do quite well. I would have liked to see a comparison of truly hight ISO such as 25600 or above. Or even your photo that is at 51,200. I think this is the area that the R6 may begin to shine vs the 5DMKIV. Topaz is a remarkable tool. If the high ISO image goes in with less noise then the output of Topaz is just that much better as you know. Thanks for all this info...new subscriber her!
G'day Darren, thanks for the comment, I didn't make it clear but two of those comparisons were at ISO12800 only the red cap was 3200. Yes the R6 is slightly better but I can't help but think I would rather the extra MP. Yes, Topaz does allow you to shoot at high ISO and still have nice photos which is great. Cheers, Duade 👍
In this video, you said that you were going to make two more videos to go along with this one. I would like to see the one on the R6 camera setup for bird photography. When will the other two videos be available?
Randy, I have had a few other videos and events that have taken priority unfortunately, I will try and do a settings video in the future. Cheers, Duade
Great bird review. I have the same setup, except i use the ef300 f/4. You described all the issues i have. When the bird is the bush, i have to manual focus and see if AF will pick it up from there. Hummingbirds are my nemesis, they are so fast and blend in well. I wasn't happy with the RF800 so i am still looking for a prime. Not a fan of zoom lenses but i might give the RF100-800 ago.
@@Duade IT was soft on the edges. The aperture was too high. Not very good in low light or shade. i did like the weight. 1 out of 5 years shots i would keep. Took a great moon foto.
Nice review, Duade. One thing that doesn't seem to have been mentioned about high ISO is the difference in post. I have found the R5 about a stop better than the 5D4 but there is a huge difference in how they clean up at high ISO.The R5/6 retain much more detail during noise reduction. As for focusing at small maximum apertures the difference is that with DSLR a lot of the light entering the lens has to be directed to the viewfinder. Only a small portion is directed to the passive focusing sensor. With mirrorless 100% of the light entering the lens can be used for focusing hence the ability to focus with a maximum aperture of f/22. At 15:44 you say that f/14 is very restrictive but you are referring to the aperture that you stopped down to - not the aperture the camera uses for focusing. The camera uses the largest available aperture for focusing and only stops it down for the actual shot. An analogy here would be using an f/2.8 lens. Even if you stop it down to f/22 the camera is still using f/2.8 to focus and closes the aperture to f/22 when you press the shutter (assuming of course that you are not using a manual aperture lens).
Thanks Steve I appreciate your knowledgeable input. Yes, the R6 did appear to handle noise reduction well, I would have to do some tests to see if I can see a difference. Thanks for the info re how the cameras use the light. Thanks for info re max aperture used to focus, I had read that before and have mentioned that in previous videos. When I was referring to f14 being restrictive I was meaning you need a lot of ambient light to get sufficient SS without having to use very high ISO. If it was overcast or in the forest you would really struggle to get high quality shots at f14 as your SS would be very low or your ISO very high. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade That makes sense, Duade. Sorry for the misread on that one. It does seem that as ISO performance improves slower maximum aperture lenses are gaining a broader appeal. I think the usefulness of those lenses or faster lenses with teleconverters really has to be evaluated by the user based on their particular scenario. In my case I often walk around with the 400DOII with a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter in fall through early spring when available light is quite high. When the canopy fills in I'm back to the 600 f/4 or the 300 2.8. I do envy those able to get along with F/11 lenses though. I'd probably be driving a nicer vehicle if that was my case ;).
@@SteveSSBB G'day Steve, if I looked at the apertures I have used I would say I rarely shoot wide open, one of the reasons I sold the 400 2.8, I just didn't take advantage of its speed. I have to admit I have been jealous of the Nikon 500 5.6PF, it is just so light. When I use my 400 5.6 it really is a joy and I do find the size of the superteles a little bit of a pain at times. I am sure you notice a big difference between the DO and your 600 f4. I think a 600 5.6 DO would be ideal. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade There are patents floating around for an RF 400, 500 & 600 that use DO. Hopefully something will come out of it. I agree that the 500PF is a nice lens. I used to shoot Nikon and Canon till the release of the D750 as my Nikon gear was free but when it came time to make a choice Canon was the better overall ecosystem for me. A lot of it has to do with service. I don’t know how things are in your neck of the woods but here Nikon service is plagued by long turnaround times and blaming repair issues on clients to avoid warranty coverage. Everyone’s needs are different but that was an issue I couldn’t live with. People wax poetic about the differences between systems, but at the top end they are more similar than dissimilar. Sometimes it is the little things that make or break a relationship. If you have pangs of jealousy about the 500PF I suggest you pick up the RF 100-500. It is only 2/3 of a stop slower, lighter and to speak quite frankly the gap between optical quality of zooms vs primes has become negligible. The RF 100-500 offers far better AF performance than the EF 100-400II paired with the 1.4x too. Highly recommend you try the 100-500 if you haven’t already.
Hi Duade, thanks for the great comparison! One thing to consider also is that R5 and R6 have an improved anti-aliasing filter design covering the sensor, which does not add so much blur as 5D4's AA-filter does. I dare to claim that if we compared an R5 to an R6, the R5 would render superior in image detail and downsized to R6's resolution (using e.g. bicubic interpolation), there should be slightly less noise, at worst an equal amount of it. The downsides of the higher-res R5 are bigger files and slower workflow, more proneness to motion blur and camera shake including shutter shock. The image's colors could also break down (become visibly poor) earlier compared to R6, at very high ISOs. To me it seems that the R6 is quite an upgrade over 5D4. :)
I would really love to test the R5 and R6 side be side to see if there is anymore image detail on the downsampled R5. I have played with RAW files from the D5 and D850 which have similar sized sensors and I could not see a difference. Download the D5 and D850 and take a look. Cheers, Duade neilvn.com/tangents/images/nikon/d850/iso-test/
The files from D5 and D850 look indeed very similar with regard to noise when viewed at the same resolution. Here I see two things however: (1) The two sensors are technologically different (D5 is front-side iluminated, D850 is back-side illuminated), which are also differently tuned, D850 being the one more tuned for landscape use and maximal dynamic range, versus the D5 being rather heavily tuned for high-ISO noise performance at the price of dynamic range at its base ISO. (2) Lens blur (lack of perfect lens sharpness) in combination with AA-filtering makes that on the whole, a higher-resolution sensor tends to be able to extract more information from an image taken with the same lens, compared to a lower-resolution sensor. Now this gets a bit nerdy... I checked DxOMark's measurements and they confirm that the D5 and D850 are almost equal from about ISO 3200 onwards - the D850 leads with almost nothing at all ISOs except beyond 12800, from then onwards the D5 leads by almost nothing - so very similar. Where the D850 beats the D5 is close to the base ISOs. The situation between R5 and R6 shows a similar pattern - R5 leads over R6 close to the base ISOs, but they switch their positions only at the last setting, ISO 102400. Interestingly, both R5 and R6 quite rock over D5 and D850 at any ISO beyond 400 - 800. The comparisons are taken from SNR 18% as printed and the measurements are here: D5: www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Nikon/D5---Measurements D850: www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Nikon/D850---Measurements R5: www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Canon/EOS-R5---Measurements R6: www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Canon/EOS-R6---Measurements Anyways, beautiful images produced and the joy with the camera in the field are at least a million times more meaningful and important than measurement numbers and comparisons like the above. Cheers!
@@mk0x55 Gday, thanks for your detailed response, yes a lot of the technical aspects go over my head, at the end of the day either camera is going to take amazing photos. It appears that the R5 sensor really is a step up from Canon and has a lot more real world benefit than the R6. Cheers, Duade
Thanks for a helpful review! I'll stay with my 5D MKIV until they they fix the mirrorless background lock focus problem, if they can ever fix the problem.
Great review Duade. I've found a slightly different way to setup the combination of Eye-AF and Single/Spot AF that has one advantage and one possible disadvantage over the way you are doing it. If you set your main AF mode in AF1 menu to be Face/Tracking, turn Eye-AF for Animals on and then make sure that in AF5 menu Initial Servo AF pt for Face/Tracking is set to AUTO. The back button you want to do Face/Tracking/Eye-AF would then be assigned to AF/Metering Start. You can then set your alternative rear button to be Single or Spot AF via Custom Buttons: AF/Metering Start, hit INFO to enter Detail Set and select your alternative Single or Spot AF mode (I like the smaller Spot size myself). If, and only if, you setup this way the advantage is you get to "see" what the camera is "thinking" ahead of activating AF. You will see white boxes show up on subject, head or eye if the camera has detected them (basically the same boxes you see in blue once AF is engaged). I find this very useful because then I don't hit my Face/Tracking back button for AF until I know the system has found the bird. This avoids hitting AF and having the system jump to other distractions. Now just like you show in the video if I don't see the white boxes showing up, I use my alternative Spot AF to focus on the bird, then I switch back to the Face/Tracking/Eye AF back button if the white squares start to show up. And just like your example with the bird in heavy brush, usually it does start working after you focus on the bird with the Spot AF point. Now the only downside with this setup is you have no way of moving your Spot AF point around because it is a secondary mode and you have to push in your back button to engage it. For myself I haven't found much need to move my Spot AF because I'm just using it as a helper for the Eye-AF to take over right after. Give it a try and see if that works for you. I've showed it to a lot of people now and almost all have switched. Some have needs to move the Spot AF so they set up the camera more like you are now. I just find it such an advantage to not have AF go off and grab far backgrounds or surrounding twigs because I don't engage the Auto Eye-AF until I know the camera has figured things out. You also will get white arrows to switch between multiple subject's eyes detected...although I haven't found that very useful.
G'day Geoff, thank you very much for sharing your setup, I am sure it will help others. I will have a go myself and see how I find it. I assume you will still run into the problem of the camera focusing on the wrong thing when using spot AF if eye af cannot see the subject. That appears to be my biggest issue is when I place the focus point on a butterfly yet the camera decides the background is far more interesting. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Hi, yes you still will run into that issue if focus ends up way on the background and the camera can't "see" the near, grossly OOF, subject. The one thing that my setup helps with is you won't activate Face/Tracking/Eye AF unless you see the white box on the subject, then you can be pretty much certain it won't just default back into focusing on other things (which can be a distant background) which it will do when it hasn't identified a subject yet. But as you say when you engage Spot AF with my setup if your spot AF isn't on the subject it can still drive to the background. I'm mostly using Spot AF for birds in trees/brush with branches around them like you showed in that one example in the video. If I'm shooting a perch out in the open I find the Eye-AF usually finds the bird if I was previously focused somewhat close to the perch. If it isn't "seeing" the subject (no white boxes showing up) then I often use Center Zone AF ( I have that on another back button) as it covers a greater area and you don't have to be as precise in placing the small Spot right on the subject. That would minimize the times it jumps straight to the background. But all of that relies on you being prefocused somewhat in the correct range, once focus jumps way out then I have to resort to the same workarounds you mention in the video (aiming at the ground or manual focusing). Problem is that my RF 100-500 doesn't support direct manual focus override like an EF lens does so I can't use that technique without switching the lens switch into MF which isn't easy or fast to do.
@@geoffn8963 Thanks Geoff, I wasn't aware of the 100-500 not allowing manual override in AF. I guess it just forces you to try and be more accurate when placing the focus point, or purposely focusing on a large subject in a similar focal plane knowing the eye af will pick up the bird. Again, it doesn't help too much in my butterfly example as you have to use traditional AF and rely on the camera picking up the butterfly when you put the focus point on it. Cheers, Duade
Bugger it Duade you're 2 weeks too late with this, I got mine already. I'm happy with it so far but I shoot a lot with my pixel peeping mate with an R5. "just zoom in" he says, "bugger off" I say. LOL all good mate enjoyed your honest take on my new camera and look forward to the rest of the series.
I'm thinking of buying an R6 to replace my 7Dii and this video has amazingly useful detail - thanks so much Duade. I do enjoy photographing birds but my primary goal are medium sized mammals - many of which tend to be first & last light subjects; so what I'm really searching for is low-light capability combined with my 300 f2.8 - I'm hoping the R6 is the right choice.
G'day Ian, the R6 will allow you to shoot at ISO12800 with confidence which combined with your lens should give you plenty of shutter speed in low light. It will be a significant improvement on the 7D2. Cheers, Duade 👍
7:36 - because this is what Canon always does - make us confused to get more money! I have 5dII and I'm waiting over decade to get better camera and now Canon gives R6 with worse Mpx than I have in my camera from 2008, or R5 which has price from cosmos. No problem Canon, I will wait next 10 years and won't buy anything from you. Good job. Gratulations ! 😂
Thanks Duade for the review of the R6. I was considering the camera, but the poor low light performance and AF issues means I will give it a pass. I could live with the 20meg file size, but when you add in the other two issues no thanks. Too many compromises for such an expensive camera.
G'day Michael, it is still a great camera and has many advantages over a DSLR, however if you don't need those features it maybe worth waiting for Canon to sort out the issues from their first few mirrorless cameras. Cheers, Duade 👍
Hi Duade, first time viewer here! Love your content! I actually came to research the R cameras for Canon because recently, I unfortunately lost my camera bag of a 60D and 2 L lenses.. I've not been keeping up with the camera releases so it was amazing that you had such a nice technical review. I was interested in the Video 2 you mentioned at the start of this video but could not find it on the sidebar. I believe (from watching other TH-cam videos) it would be possible to link to them from this video, so that would be a little suggestion of mine. Anyway I am going to your channel to try to find it. Keep up the amazing content! Subscribed!
Thanks for finding the channel and commenting. I never did get around to doing more videos unfortunately, my apologies. Sorry to hear you lost your camera bag and lenses. It is a tricky time to be buying Canon cameras as I believe they are on the verge of releasing APSC mirrorless bodies to replace the 90D series. At the moment the R6 and R5 have the auto eye which is incredible, but they are expensive. You could always go second hand in the meantime like. Good luck with your choices, Cheers, Duade
Hi, this review is brilliant and really helps with decisions on R6 versus other models! One question please - it looks like you are using EF lenses presumably mounted with the RF adapter. I understand that you only get the 5/6 axis stabilisation with R5 and R6 when a native RF lens is mounted. If you use EF lenses with the adapter I understand you "only" get close to standard 2 axis stabilisation. Is this your experience and is this level of IS any worse when on an R6 versus a 5D4 ?
Great question Chris, I have not noticed any major difference in IS between the 5d4 and the R6, if anything the R6 is better. The only issue is if the EF lens does not support the 12fps, it's not a major but 12 is better than 6.8. Cheers, Duade 👍
It is my pleasure Terri, unfortunately not, I either shoot at the ground/perch to bring it back or use the manual focus ring to pull focus which you can do whilst in autofocus mode. Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade, could you also compare on the 2nd video, the number of FPS and Shutter sound? I Know your 500mm f4II does the full 12fps mech. Shutter, but the 400mm f5.6 doesn't. Cheers
I have found that I needed to learn a couple of quick override options if it's not getting the eye, in particular the thumb override on the screen to set the focus point. The other option you mention using your thumb on the focus ring is another useful option. I imagine there may be some firmware enhancement to tackle the background locking. Overall, as a combo with my 5d mkiv I feel happy that I don't need the R5, how about you?
Simon, the more I use the camera the more I realise just how impressive the eye af is. It really is incredible once locked on, the images are just sharp, with my 5d4 a lot of the time some shots would just be soft for no reason like the focus had jumped. I would often refocus a number of times whilst shooting the same bird just to be sure one burst was locked on. I never have to worry with eye af, if the focus point is on the eye then the images are going to be sharp unless the bird moves or I do. Cheers, Duade
Thank you for this wonderful review of the Canon R6! I recently purchased it and encounter the exact same frustrating autofocus problems, especially when trying to take pictures of hawks in flight. The camera wants to focus on the sky in the background, and no matter what you do you cannot get the camera to focus on the hawk in flight. This is with my Sigma 150-600mm lens. What I end up having to do is zoom back out to about 200-300mm, then the camera will focus on something more along the same plane as what the distance to the hawk is, and then I can zoom back in on the hawk. But, if the hawk is out of range for the eye AF to capture the eye, if I don't keep the AF point exactly on the hawk, the camera goes back to trying to focus on the sky. Definitely much more frustrating than when I had my DSLR. But, hopefully they will come out with some type of update to fix this issue.
@@Duade Good afternoon!! Ok, so after some changing and experimenting with settings, I think I fixed the problem on my Canon R6. I went into the AF menu (pink or purple) and screen #4, I changed my "Lens drive when AF impossible" from OFF to ON, and that seems to have fixed my problem! Now, when I focus on a distant tree with a branch in the closer foreground, at first my camera will focus on the distant tree but if I remove my finger from the shutter button and press it down half way again, the lens refocuses and finds the closer tree branch (so long as my AF focal point is directly over the foreground branch). I have not tried using the Intelligent Eye tracking mode yet to see if it works under that setting, but under a regular Spot AF setting, it worked for me. Hope this helps you! :)
@@speedypickup Thanks for the update and I am happy to hear it has helped you, I do have Lens drive switched to on and unfortunately, I still have issues from time to time. It mainly seems when I have a horizontal perch and a small bird that I am close to. Cheers, Duade
I still love my 5d Mark 3, but the R6 is what I'm using these days. Found your review helpful and fun. Love the outtakes and also that you show the raw, then crop and final shot. Good on you mate. I'd be very curious to know what you think about the 100-500 RF. I'm about to go for that. My current EF V1 70-200L is a dinosaur
Matt, I hope to have a go with the 100-500 at some stage. I will be sure to share my thoughts. I also have the 70-200L, it maybe old but it still takes nice shots. Cheers, Duade
Hopefully I can look at doing one at some stage, in the meantime be sure to check out Jans R5 setting video, the R6 is very similar. Cheers, Duade th-cam.com/video/-nnRqgXu7QI/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=JanWegener
Just discovered your channel and have watched seven of your videos so far. I recently upgraded my Canon 6D Mk 1 to an R5; still shooting with my 400mm 5.6. Really enjoy your photography and helpful tips. I'm curious what body you are using for filming your videos? What part of Australia are you based in? Looking forward to enjoying many more of your videos!
Galen, I'm glad you found the channel and are enjoying the videos. I use my 5d4 & R6 for the stand up piece to camera and using a Pocket 2/phone to film in the field. This seems to work for me. Cheers, Duade. Oh I am in the North East of Victoria. If you google the Warby Ranges, I am very close to there. Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade- Have you experienced any difficulty when processing the RAW files from your Canon R6? Here is a link to another photographer's video, where she explains how she had to modify her RAW processing routine to compensate for the difference between the files from her 5DIII and the R6- th-cam.com/video/nDY4zNDFB4E/w-d-xo.html. I have a 5DIII and have been seriously thinking about moving to the R6 for the mirror-less experience and the improvements in the auto-focus. I am curious about your experience with this. Many thanks, Earl
Earl, your comment just popped up which is odd, with Adobes last update and some presets I am not having any trouble processing in Lightroom/Photoshop. Cheers, Duade
I got the same focus issues with my Canon EOS R and the RF 100-500, once the focus is one the Background it will stay there for ever. And thanks for the promo code waited for one :)
Another great video Duade and thanks. I had and returned the R6, found focusing and sharpness not as great as I had hoped. And yes if you crop a lot like me and most birders, I suppose more MP would help although I have seen some amazing images from the R6 and a 300mm. Animal eye focus worked well on stationary birds but occasionally struggled with ducks flying in towards me, especially as they neared the surface of the water. Most of the time it was fine thou. I also wasn't crazy about an EF to RF adapter coupled with a 1.4 extender, perhaps some issues with communication between the lens and the camera. Occasionally as I look through my Adobe Bridge files, I see a really nice image and am surprised to see it was from my 7d mkii. How I longed for a 7d mk iii. Mirrorless is cool but I suppose I'm still a DSLR fan, for now anyway. Cheers!
Thanks Scott, I appreciate your input, sorry to hear it didn't deliver for you. The R7 might be the camera many birders are waiting for. I have had some issues with the R6 however I am enjoying it the more I use it. Cheers, Duade 👍
When you were talking about autofocus not working with an aperture above f8 and you went on to say you multiply the aperture by the crop factor, I was all ready to blame my badly focussed birds on using f8 on an APS-C body. Some confusing research later, it turns out f8 on APS-C is the same as f8 on full frame so the autofocus will work the same. So my poor photos are down to user error as I suspected.
G'day, my apologies, I wasn't very clear. If your lens has a max aperture of say 5.6 or 6.3 then it will focus past f8. Its only if your max aperture is greater than f8, so say If I put a 2x on my 400 5.6 it becomes an 800 f11, the maximum aperture is f11 so a DSLR won't focus. Sorry about the confusion. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade thanks. It's all very confusing for a beginner like myself! I think I misunderstood what you had said originally too, I thought the same would apply to using a lens on a crop sensor body as using a teleconverter. Maybe they're different because a teleconverter is changing the physical distance between the lens and the sensor?
@@WIDGI A teleconverter is changing the actual focal length and it actually blocks light coming into the camera, so at f11 on a DSLR once the light goes into the viewfinder there isn't enough to go to the sensor for Autofocus. With mirrorless there is no light going to the viewfinder so it can all be used for autofocus. Cheers, Duade
Do the older prime EF lenses of Canon work properly on the R6? Or any software upgrade has to be done on the lenses? Before using it on R6? How the 400 mm 5.6 L lens cope up with it?
Harshad, the older EF lenses will work with the adapter, no software needed. The 400 5.6 works perfectly on the R5 R6 and I have had no issues. The only downside is you do not get the full 12fps in mechanical shutter. You will get 20fps in electronic though. Cheers, Duade
Just wondering if its possible to use spot AF and then the joystick/multicontroller to reacquire focus quicker if you've accidentally focused on the background and the eye AF is having trouble finding the subject ?
@@AYC-yg9on Unfortunately, it doesn't matter where you place the AF point the camera cannot detect the bird with eye af or standard AF. You have to manually turn the focus ring, use focus preset or focus on something close to the bird. Cheers, Duade
Great informative video. Have you tried the RF 800 f11 on the R6 at all? I am starting to get some good results with static and in flight birds using it and wondered if you might have had a chance to try it. Wishing you well.
Dave, yes, I had the pleasure of using it, you can see my photos here th-cam.com/video/Kor_MZw1EN4/w-d-xo.html I didn't have too many chances for BIF and struggled with the smaller AF box to be honest. Glad to hear you have got it working well for you. It is a fantastic lens for the price that is for sure. Cheers, Duade
Hello from Finland and thank you for all your videos, just love them!👍 I´m a beginner wild life photographer and I´m planning to upgrade my 77D to a mirrorles camera. I´m a bit worried about the issues people seem to have with the R6 and electronic shutter when shooting a moving objects like flying birds, pictures are bend because of the rolling shutter. Have you noticed that kind of a issues with the R6? Canon R7 has that issue also, dunno about R5 but that camera is too expensive for me anyway😅. Cheers! -Janne
Thanks Janne, it is more noticeable on the R7 than the R6 and R5, in a burst you will get the odd wobble but I shoot in electronic and get plenty of usable shots. Cheers, Duade
I used to have the 5DIV when it first came out, but I sold it and bought 1DX instead. 5DIV is too slow for wildlife, it is very good in image quality but it is just too slow for wildlife. Now I owned the R6 and it does a lot better than both of my 1Dx and used to owned 5DIV.
I was a bit surprised you went for the R6 not withstanding the huge price difference to get the R5 that you referred to in a previous conversation. Regarding its noise, I see it looks similar to 5d iv in a normally exposed shot but the extra dynamic range of the R6 means in a lot of shots when you raise exposure things will stay considerably cleaner than the 5D iv. So there's still a significant difference in a lot of shots I think. The other thing about its noise levels is that they seem a bit incongruous compared to the R5. Somehow, with over twice the pixel count, the R 5 manages noise levels that are very very close to the R6. Its noise to pixel count ratio, which is a concept I have in my head when judging these things, is much better than the R6. Theres discussion about this on some forums, with some people even claiming the R5 actually beats the R6, although I dont quite think it goes that far. But there does seem to be a weird disparity. So either the R6 is punching below its weight, or the R5 is an over achiever, if you get what I mean. Just my 2 cents worth. Cheers Duade.
Thanks Mark, I would have much preferred the R5 and slightly regretting the R6 acquisition. I got it second hand with a lens, extra battery and adapter for a good deal so it was hard to pass up. The R6 still captures fantastic images, it's just I will always wish I had the R5 sensor if that makes sense. Yes, the R5 seems very superior and when downsampled to R6 size I doubt there is much difference. I may end up selling the R6 and getting the R5 once I try it out or waiting for the R7 and seeing if they make improvements in their APSC sensors. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Thanks mate. Just so you know, the newest apsc sensor thats already in the 90D is absolutely fantastic. I thought with 32 mpx on a crop sensor it would be noisy but its my favourite sensor. Its much cleaner in the shadows and the AA filter doesn't soften the image much. I just love the reach it gives and the quality I get on my 200 - 400. I couldn't use my 7d mkii after buying the 90D. So this new crop sensor mirrorless will most likely have this sensor and its going to be awesome! If you got the r6 package cheap then that's fair enough. On the long term however as you know, more pixels are valuable. But I can't stress enough how fantastic the reach you get on Canon's 32 mpx apsc sensor is. We should both be first in line for the R7!
@@markrigg6623 Thanks Mark, I have heard mixed reviews about the 90D so it's great to hear your experience, I hope to try it out one day. But yes, the R7 is shaping up to be a birders dream. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Yeah the 90D mostly gets criticised because the AF module is lower spec than in the 7D mkii. So it could be better for birds in flight. But as some one who has Sony, Nikon and Canon gear (because of how poor Canon's sensors had been) I can tell you that it punches above its weight more than any sensor I've used. The image quality is fantastic and in my opinion its the best value dslr on the market. Shame I won't need it soon....... Thanks Duade.
I'm late to the game here but have you seen what Brent Hall has to say about eye detection, with his settings. Thanks for the video as I'm doing my research while considering upgrading from my old 7D Mii.
Kerry, welcome to the channel, no I havent, what did he say? If you are coming from a 7D any of the mirrorless bodies will be an improvement however the rumoured R7 maybe a great camera to upgrade to. Cheers, Duade
This is the best review of Canon R6 series for bird and wildlife photography. Hope to see you reviewing the R5 or the RF 100-500 in future.
Thanks Kiah, I appreciate the feedback, at this stage Canon do not support the channel so I have to buy or borrow gear, hopefully I will get the chance in the future. Cheers, Duade
Thank you, Duade. Best R6 review I've seen. I have a Canon R5 and am looking at the R6 as a back up. Found the same focusing issue on the R5 but solved it by using the third focusing button (just to the right of the * button) as a "spot focus" button. Works in almost any situation. BTW, Canon should sponsor you. Very professional.
Thanks Craig, glad to hear you are enjoying the R5, I hope to get one in the future, I also appreciate the feedback. Cheers, Duade
I have a third button as a spot focus as well but can you explain under what circumstances would use this button?
Thanks for such an honest and fresh appraisal of the R6. Most of us photographers don’t hear such real life experiences in the typical TH-cam camera reviews. You were very detailed and covered many small glitches that most people would not realize until after they bought the camera. Thanks again.
My pleasure Jerry, be sure to watch my latest few videos as I am liking the camera more and more as use it. Cheers, Duade 👍
@@Duade oh thanks Duade! That sounds very promising. I’m glad I found your channel!
@@jerryeisner1 Welcome, I hope you find the channel helpful, Cheers, Duade
Thank you so much for all the effort putting this video together, it's exactly what I needed. Top quality content as per usual and much appreciated. Cheers from Scotland!
G'day Rovle, it is my pleasure, I hope it's not too cold where you are at the moment, mind you I would prefer the cold then the 45 degrees we have forecast this weekend. Cheers, Duade
I traded my 1DX2 and 5dsr in on a R5 and 6 and so happy with the change. I still think the 1DX2 high ISO was better than the new R's but they are both so much better than the 5dsr was. The animal eye af is great, not perfect but much better than any dslr I used. I also had the problem with not being able to focus with my 600 F4 from going to near to far or the other way, it is annoying but a quick turn on the focus ring gets you there. Not sure I could ever give up this auto focus and go back to a dslr.
, I agree I prefer the mirrorless AF to the DSLR as the eye AF is a great improvement. Cheers, Duade
One of the most comprehensive candid critique - on R6. Well done
Thank you, I appreciate the feedback, Cheers, Duade
wow!!! Love your Honest review, as you are so realistic we can get a clear understanding of this Mirrorless System. Hope to see your upcoming other 2 videos. Have a great week ahead. Stay Safe and Healthy. God Bless You.
Jai, thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it. Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade, I find that the R6 works really well with birds in flight. Today I was shooting seagulls being fed and they were flying in the sky. I had no problem locking onto to a single bird and following it as it flew. The focus point would be over the eye and I only took the shot when every thing was perfect.
The camera tracked the bird as it swooped and dived all over the sky infront of me. The photos came out super sharp. I can send a few phots, if requested. I am not using 2 button back focusing but only front button focusing and I have camera set up to track bird. If I push half down the blue light comes on over the bird eye. if I release the button it turns white and still tracks bird eye across the sky and I can press fully down anytime and take the shot.
regards Mike
Thanks Mike, I appreciate the feedback, I am happy to hear you had great success. I had a similar experience recently with some gulls, the eye af performed very well. Cheers, Duade
There is a lot of speculation of a new Canon R7 apsc mirrorless for birding coming out this year, exciting times :)
Colm, yes, it is very exciting to see how the R7 performs, it could be the ultimate birding camera. Cheers, Duade
Hadn’t heard this rumour, so thanks Colin. This could be a great replacement for my 7Dii.
The difference between the raw image and the final result of your photos is sometimes unbelievable. Post-processing being one of the most important parameter in bird photography, could you make a video showing the basic edits you make in post-processing
yes, there can often be a big difference from the Raw to the processed image, I will look at doing an updated video on processing. I have a few you may find helpful here. th-cam.com/play/PLftsgqGE1dmbBwsmMiBa27iYv2POr-FG5.html Cheers, Duade
From an ex Canon shooter with nostalgia I must say that I love your videos and delivery.
and Thank you, Cheers, Duade
I think you're enjoying your cameras new challenges and perks! Thank you for the tips. Enjoying my 5D Mark IV. Hope you continue with your videos. God bless/cheers!
Mary, yes it is a learning curve that is for sure. Cheers, Duade
For anyone interested. I've used the EOS R5 for many subjects. Canon's 'animal' eye AF works great for birds, is good for mammals, poor for frogs and reptiles (frustrating and not worth persisting in most instances) and more or less useless for butterflies, dragonflies and other insects.
Thanks Mark, I appreciate your input. I had a similar experience with the butterfly. Cheers, Duade 👍
It is the good review of R6 for bird photo. And looking forward to seeing your review for R6+ef-r adpoter+tamron 100-400mm f4.5-6.3. in the future.
G'day Li, thank you, I'm not sure I will be getting hold of the 100-400 in the future. Cheers, Duade 👍
Duade, You put a lot of time and effort into this one........thanks
G'day Stan, my pleasure. Cheers, Duade 👍
Great content as usual! Very interesting results! Especially regarding IQ and noise. Have a nice day!
Miguel, yes, I was a little surprised to be honest, shows the 5d4 is very capable. Cheers, Duade
I do enjoy the out takes and how you show the realness of it all 😆
Another totally honest and valuable review. I get the feeling that if you could put the eye focus into the MKIV that would make you a lot happier. Thanks Duade.
Richard, yes, I would have loved a 30mp sensor in the R6 for sure. Cheers, Duade
Thank you Duade. This is my first time on your Channel and I enjoyed your explanations and examples to illustrate the points you were making. And, I liked your straightforward approach , and honest appraisal of both the good and the bad aspects, which is refreshing to see. I do a fair bit of butterfly photography as well as some bird stuff, so the potential flaw of the AF on the R6 (and R5) for that genre of photography is worth knowing about. If I go with the Canon Mirrorless I will probably finish up keeping my 5D IV as my second body.
G'day Dave, my pleasure, yeah the AF is slightly annoying when it locks onto the background. I need to have another few sessions with butterfly's to see if it is a major, I have the 5D4 if I need it. Cheers, Duade 👍
Thank you for your very honest review, my current camera set up is a 5D1V with 100-400 mkii and 500 F4 Mk11 Lens, I’m seriously considering going over to mirrorless R5 as a step up but I’m not yet convinced after you take away all the hype of the eye detection focus system, For me I always end up cropping a lot so composition is not an issue, so providing I focus on the eye everything else falls into place and this for me is part of the skill. You could argue the R5 will take the fun out of the challenge and just add frustration with focusing issues. But the high ISO capability is the temptation along with the 45 megapixels of the R5, the R6 doesn’t seem worth the upgrade from 5D Mk1V especially as I love the this Camera and Lens combination. Regards Chris
G'day Chris, if you can afford the R5 it is an incredible camera and is a big improvement over the 5d4, the Animal Eye AF, Buffer, Larger MP, FPS make it a very attractive option. However the 5d4 is still a great camera and takes wonderful images. Cheers, Duade
I got R6 for birding and it is wonderful. However, I may upgrade to R5 because I have to crop a lot.
yes, the R6 is a beautiful camera, the R5 just seems far superior. Cheers, Duade
Love the bloopers! And the rest as well of course 😉 greetings from Antwerp
Thanks David, I appreciate it, Cheers, Duade 👍
Hi,thanks for your reply.I enjoy photographing both in the new and the old world.I photograph stills and there is nothing severe going on these days.I am a birding man and tomorrow Ill go to my place and feed those my little frienfs.
Sounds like a great time had with the birds. Cheers, Duade
It was a great review, thanks for sharing ,it is wonderful to see somebody with your experience doing all these comparisons well done Duade.
Ramin, it is my pleasure, Cheers, Duade
Great review. Looking to upgrade from a 7DII. You're review is the first one to mention the issue with not being able to grab the subject again if your camera grabs the background. Thanks for the info!
Thanks for the feedback, be sure to check out the video I did showcasing the AF issues of mirrorless here. th-cam.com/video/L06kMSYnFO4/w-d-xo.html Cheers, Duade
Oh wow this is the first of your videos I've seen and it's terrific. I just got an r6 and appreciate your insights. Subscribed.
Grant and welcome to the channel, I hope you find the videos helpful, Cheers, Duade
Finally, what I have been waiting for :) :) thank you thank you :):)
I'm glad you enjoyed it, Cheers, Duade
I see that the EOS R is still well used, it would be nice to have your experience. Thank you for the fantastic review 👍👍
G'day Daniel, I have not used the R but I'm sure it takes lovely shots as the 5d4 sensor is very nice. It just lacks a lot of the benefits of the R6 and R5. Cheers, Duade 👍
@@Duade Do you think it is worth to move on the R6? My concern is the sensor. 20 Million Pixels vs 30.... quite a big difference! would be nice to have cropping comparison R6 vs 5D Mark IV if you still have it 🙂
I really enjoy your reviews! Great comparisons and coverage of all the important points! Excellent work!
Thanks for the feedback, Cheers, Duade
Great video that addresses a lot of the issues I was having. I even got to the point of selling my lens but you have restored my faith and given me some ideas to try. I was thinking some issues I had were just my lens but it looks more likely its the lens/camera capabilities. Thank you for a great video
It is my pleasure Keith, Cheers, Duade 👍
Very helpful objective review. I find the 100-500 mates well with the R6. The lock on to the background often happens when there is not a lot of difference between subject and background.
Thanks Taylor, I appreciate the feedback. Cheers, Duade
Really good video. Super informative. Thank you very much.
Silviu, my pleasure, Cheers, Duade
This video was easy to watch & very educational. I learned a lot! Great job!
That is great to hear, Cheers, Duade
And this is the best review of my R6, Thanks. I like the ISO performance as long as you don’t go extremely high. You go home when there is no more light lol
G'day Peter, thank you, I agree, I also head home once it gets dark. 😀
@@Duade the comments from Peter B and yourself about going home when it “gets dark” have sold this camera as far as I’m concerned, I suffer so much with the 7Dii and 5D iii, thanks again
Thank you so much for honest review. I actually saw more details in photos taken by 5D IV when comparing these two. I am not disappointed, it was expected - the difference of 10 Mpx can be seen here.
Thanks Ondrej, yes, it goes to show the 5d4 really was a great sensor. Cheers, Duade 👍
Great content, great presentation! Thank you so much!
you are more than welcome, Cheers, Duade
Another great video Duade. The R6 is definitely on my “ save up to get “ list.
Thanks Harry, happy saving, Cheers, Duade
I put the photos I have into Topaz Gigapixel and the results in resolution between the 30 MP and and 20 MP is not visible on the 90cmx60cm prints with a 120 MP AI upscaled photo. Seems that the Sensor of the R6 has a much sharper antialiasing filter and therefore a better contrast in the high resolution structures. If I would have access to a R5, I would like to verify how much difference with that kind of upscaling is visible in small structures. I learnt of it that the brutto MP number (what the sensor has) does not reflect the netto MP number (the structures that are visible on large prints). Some cameras have a more effective picture creating than others depending on the filtering of the sensor and the filtering with the camera cpu. It finally counts what is on the print and not a high number on a spec sheet.
Thank you very much for your detailed comment. I have had this same thought and I plan on doing a video on this subject in the future. Cheers, Duade 👍
Thanks for the review Duade!
I’m now sold on the R6. Would you have a suggestion for a good (but inexpensive) zoom lens? I was considering the Tamron 150-600 G2. Would love to hear your thoughts. Unfortunately the Canon 100-400ii and 100-500 RF are too expensive at the moment.
i would say sigma 150-600 would be better but primes r best!
Sharang, unfortunately I don't have any experience with either the Tamron or Sigma 600 zooms so cannot suggest either. I know they are very popular, and I am sure there are a lot of reviews online. Sorry I cannot be more help, I do hope to test both lenses at some stage. Cheers, Duade
Yes, it performed well with my 400 5.6. Cheers, Duade
Thanks a lot for the detailed video daude. As always extremely informative and to the point. It was worth the wait for your video and looking forward for the next one.
I think I wouldn’t go wrong with either R6 or the 5D mkiv. I would rather prefer the megapixels here as a personal choice just for being able to crop in tight
Cheers 😊
G'day Riyaz, yes, it is tough, the 5d4 is an amazing camera, just the buffer lets it down a lot. The R6 would have been amazing with the 5d4 sensor. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade ha ha daude hope canon could see this comment and yes a 30mp sensor would be great on R6. But seeing the image in your video I could still see sharp details there.
Making it all the more confusing
Thanks Duade, very interesting great video. I've just bought a R6 body after strongly considering the 5D4.Will be using your tips as I'm a keen raptor photographer based in South Africa.
Dave, congrats, you should find the advanced AF on the R6 very handy for BIF. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Hi Duade not sure if you have heard it seems Canon are putting out a focus firmware update 2nd Dec saw it yesterday on R6 user group, cheers Dave
The case 2 autofocus sticks to the subject better. It’s helped me in a similar situation that you’ve encountered with the butterfly
Thanks TS, I have been switching between Case 1 & Case 2 and still having problems, it has no issue sticking to the butterfly if it detects it first, the issue is when the camera detects the background instead of the butterfly and sticks to that. It simply won't let go of the background. So, it's not an issue of not sticking to the subject it just sticks to the wrong thing. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade I see, in that case I'll let go off the AF button and then press it again. Probably try to focus closer near the subject until you kinda see it
@@ts76751 Yes, that is an option, focus on something closer and then let the Eye AF do its thing. Cheers, Duade
Hey Duade. Greetings from Florida!! Great Review. I am a Nikon and Sony Shooter. I am considering purchasing the R6 and the new R 800m lens for a longer lighter reach. Sounds like The R series bodies are the wrong way to go from your experience even with the better Canon glass. I think I stick with my D5, D850, and D500 or maybe trying adapted F lenses on my Z6. I have the 200-500, 80-400k, and the 600Vr. Shooting flyers is a acquired talent. You need the right light and background. I like the birds of prey. My Sony A7Riv works with the 100-400 and 200-600, but I find the tracking difficult...at least more difficult than the tried and true Nikons. Keep up the good work. I enjoyed your insights.
G'day Ralph, thanks for your comment, I may have been a little harsh in my review, the R5 & R6 are very capable cameras that produce very nice photos and their high ISO performance is very good. Stay tuned to the channel as I hope to test some of the lenses in the future. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Duade, Thanks. I will stay tuned. Thanks for responding. Your channel is very well done sir.
There AF options have settings for lock on stickiness, and also whether to hunt when focus not acquired. Adjust them might help the focus problem.
Thanks for the comment and suggestions, I have tried every AF setting and unfortunately nothing overcomes this issue. It appears to be a limitation of the mirrorless AF which I hope they address in the future. Cheers, Duade
Very nice video, I can say from my expierience that you are right in your conclusions. For me the big gamechangers are the AF and the tilt screen compaired to a 7D MII wich I used before. My EF glass works better now, more sharp picture's also on birds in flight. The tilt screen makes it easy to get low shots handheld. As an example I have 300mm F4 and 400mm F5.6. For butterfly's (and a lots of other stuff, like mushrooms) I like the 300mm F4 better, you can get much closer, has IS and is sharp. Looking on the tilt screen and handhold it is very easy to make nice picture's. Looking forward to your next viedeo's.
G'day, great to hear you are enjoying the camera, yes, the MFD of the 400 5.6 is its biggest weakness, great to hear the 300 f4 works well for you. Cheers, Duade
What I've found to REALLY increase the potential to lock on a subject that is small in the frame and moving is set the base or main AF mode to Eye AF. What this does is enable the bracket box that tells you what the camera wants to focus on before you engage the focus. I use this because for wildlife photographers, focus with the initial focus point on a small bird is incredibly difficult. Again, this has something to do with the way these bodies use the single point. With a DSLR, this was no problem, but with the R5/R6 (and probably all the R's) the single point is very difficult to use on small subjects. So I rely on the pre-focus bracket box and once that is on the subject I want, I lock it with the focus button. This allows me to use my second button as the center single point for those moments when I just need to hit a certain point. Making the flip, Eye AF as the base setting and traditional as backup or secondary, has made a MASSIVE improvement to action photography for me. Grabbing a burrowing owl or Kingfisher (with a 2x on a 500mm) in mid flight, or a diving tern (no 2x, but same 500mm) sold me on it. Personally, I used to LOVED the initial focus point on the DSLRs, but its just not as versatile on the R bodies. Give it a shot, and don't worry about using "Only Eye AF" for everything... truth is very good for everything.
G'day Mike, thank you for your comment and advice, I have tried just about everything in this scenario with no success. I have tried Eye AF only and if the Eye AF detects the BG then it locks onto it, and I have to use the manual focus ring etc. Also, Eye AF doesn't work for insects, butterfly's and some reptiles so you have to use traditional AF which is when I have had some issues. I will keep trying and see how I go. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade, Sorry I wasn't clear. There's nothing I've found for the out-of-focus focusing, this is a hint on grabbing focus on fast moving subjects.
@@mikejackson9585 Thanks Mike, I will give it a go next time I have a BIF session, Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade, l loved your "real world use" review of the R6. I think I agree with your conclusions. I am stunned by the number of commenters. I did subscribe and like to take the sting out of reading this one, I hope. My question is a bit of topic, but we are birders, right? I don't have a spotting scope, but I envision using an R5, or 6 or 7 in that capacity. I have found with my Olympus I can see in birds in lower light than I can with my EOS 90D. And I can do so at 3X in the EVF. Mine is not an expensive MFT camera and lens, and the IBIS is not that steady at over 3X, but I do have fast EF lenses. So do you find yourself, just seeing how far away you can identify a speck of a bird in the distance that would be to small, and too dark using a DSLR?
G'day, an interesting question, I can zoom in by 10x in the electronic viewfinder of the R5/6 mirrorless camera. Much like you would in live view on the back of the DSLR. This can really help to identify far off birds. There is no brightness issue as you just increase the exposure of the mirrorless. Cheers, Duade
Looking forward to your posts this year. Amazing video.
Thanks Borislav, Cheers, Duade
I'm using the 5DsR and 6D Mark II, but mostly for landscape work. Although the 5DsR isn't a low light beast, it's surprising, how well it performs on higher ISO levels compared to the 6D Mark II or the 5D Mark IV, which i have also testet. Tests show that the R5 beats the R6 on ISO performance up to ISO 25.600. The higher MP count makes noise look far less unpleasant than on the low MP R6.
MK26, thanks for sharing, I assume you will be interested in the large MP R5 that is coming, that will no doubt be an excellent landscape camera. Cheers, Duade
Nice video, i used to be a Nikon d750 user then switched to canon 90D and did notice too much noise even at iso 500 i know it was crop sensor but i never seen on nikon even on my d3100, now sold it and going for either D500 or D850 for sensor performance.
Yes, FF cameras such as the D750 are far superior to the APSC bodies in regards to noise. The D850 is probably one of the best DSLR's on the market. Good luck with it. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade thanks
@Maciej Jan Długosz Thanks for that, guess it is fair to say most modern FF cameras will have a higher pixel pitch compared to modern APSC bodies and I assume the newer the sensor the better its noise handling is compared to its pixel pitch? The R5 has a lower pixel pitch than the 7D but is likely 3 stops better at high iso. Cheers, Duade
Great video and wonderful photos! Appreciate all the explanations and comparisons. Regarding dynamic range: as far as I know, dynamic range decreases a lot when increasing ISO. This means that shooting at lower ISO will give you far more details to in shadows and highlights to recover.
Thanks Christopher, yes, I believe you are right. It is always a balance with wildlife between ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture. Cheers, Duade
Hi,I have the same experience with you.I bought my first R6 last september and had the issues compared to 5D mark IV and I returned it.One month ago I bought R6 again and I fell in love with it because of its fantastic birds eye tracking.But in in certain cases Mark IV work lot better.Many bird photographers have been asking me ,is r6 that good -I say yes ,but dont sell yuor dsrl right away.
Erkki, I am enjoying the camera the more I use it that is for sure. I think mirrorless wil just get better and better over time. I'm glad to hear you are enjoying yours. Cheers, Duade
you have such a huge and lovely garden Duade !
Thanks Saju, I am grateful for what I have, Cheers, Duade
Great video again, thank you, your actual video editing is class too 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Thanks Roger, I appreciate it, yes, the editing can take a while. Cheers, Duade
Good one Duade
Thanks John, Cheers, Duade
Hey, this is my opinion on mega pixels. I believe the higher megapixels are only used when resolved correctly (there is a big difference between resolution and MP). From what ive heard my Sony lens can resolve 45 megapixels, so on my 60mp camera I won't record anymore detail than if on 45mp camera. But... im only resolving all of those 45mp worth of detail in the best case situation with a clean file at low ISO. I see it as the higher my iso goes, the lower my resolution goes, meaning I can drop the resolution in post from 60mp to 20mp for a lot of photos and they look the exact same, only when I have optimal conditions those megapixels are effective to full lenses full potential.
Sonys more expensive lenses can resolve more (upto 100MP) with f4 lens, that's why it's suggested to use the higher quality glass on higher megapixel cameras. Just thought I would throw my opinion there, doesn't mean I'm correct haha
Thanks Kurtis, it is interesting for sure, a bit over my head but no doubt the lens is very important. Cheers, Duade
Excellent video and review! In your high ISO comparison with the 5DMkIV I was easily able to pick out the R6 every time. Not based on image sharpness but in the level of noise. Particularly in the background. The R6 has less noise in every case. I'm not sure I still consider 3200 "High ISO" on these newer cameras as they all seem to do quite well. I would have liked to see a comparison of truly hight ISO such as 25600 or above. Or even your photo that is at 51,200. I think this is the area that the R6 may begin to shine vs the 5DMKIV. Topaz is a remarkable tool. If the high ISO image goes in with less noise then the output of Topaz is just that much better as you know. Thanks for all this info...new subscriber her!
G'day Darren, thanks for the comment, I didn't make it clear but two of those comparisons were at ISO12800 only the red cap was 3200. Yes the R6 is slightly better but I can't help but think I would rather the extra MP.
Yes, Topaz does allow you to shoot at high ISO and still have nice photos which is great. Cheers, Duade 👍
Great review!!! Very useful
Thank Juan, I appreciate the feedback, Cheers, Duade
Amazing video. 👏 Very excited for my R6. Arrives this week.
Thank you, enjoy your camera, it is fantastic. Cheers, Duade
Great review. I have the R6 paired with the Tamron 150-600 G2 and I'm having the same issues with focusing. It's very frustrating.
Kim, yes it can be frustrating for sure. Cheers, Duade
In this video, you said that you were going to make two more videos to go along with this one. I would like to see the one on the R6 camera setup for bird photography. When will the other two videos be available?
Randy, I have had a few other videos and events that have taken priority unfortunately, I will try and do a settings video in the future. Cheers, Duade
Great bird review. I have the same setup, except i use the ef300 f/4. You described all the issues i have. When the bird is the bush, i have to manual focus and see if AF will pick it up from there. Hummingbirds are my nemesis, they are so fast and blend in well. I wasn't happy with the RF800 so i am still looking for a prime. Not a fan of zoom lenses but i might give the RF100-800 ago.
Thanks for your comment, what was it about the RF800 you didn't like?
@@Duade IT was soft on the edges. The aperture was too high. Not very good in low light or shade. i did like the weight. 1 out of 5 years shots i would keep. Took a great moon foto.
of course i meant RF100-500
@@vOCesUGa1 I would love a 100-800 ;-)
Nice review, Duade. One thing that doesn't seem to have been mentioned about high ISO is the difference in post. I have found the R5 about a stop better than the 5D4 but there is a huge difference in how they clean up at high ISO.The R5/6 retain much more detail during noise reduction. As for focusing at small maximum apertures the difference is that with DSLR a lot of the light entering the lens has to be directed to the viewfinder. Only a small portion is directed to the passive focusing sensor. With mirrorless 100% of the light entering the lens can be used for focusing hence the ability to focus with a maximum aperture of f/22. At 15:44 you say that f/14 is very restrictive but you are referring to the aperture that you stopped down to - not the aperture the camera uses for focusing. The camera uses the largest available aperture for focusing and only stops it down for the actual shot. An analogy here would be using an f/2.8 lens. Even if you stop it down to f/22 the camera is still using f/2.8 to focus and closes the aperture to f/22 when you press the shutter (assuming of course that you are not using a manual aperture lens).
Thanks Steve I appreciate your knowledgeable input. Yes, the R6 did appear to handle noise reduction well, I would have to do some tests to see if I can see a difference. Thanks for the info re how the cameras use the light.
Thanks for info re max aperture used to focus, I had read that before and have mentioned that in previous videos. When I was referring to f14 being restrictive I was meaning you need a lot of ambient light to get sufficient SS without having to use very high ISO. If it was overcast or in the forest you would really struggle to get high quality shots at f14 as your SS would be very low or your ISO very high. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade That makes sense, Duade. Sorry for the misread on that one. It does seem that as ISO performance improves slower maximum aperture lenses are gaining a broader appeal. I think the usefulness of those lenses or faster lenses with teleconverters really has to be evaluated by the user based on their particular scenario. In my case I often walk around with the 400DOII with a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter in fall through early spring when available light is quite high. When the canopy fills in I'm back to the 600 f/4 or the 300 2.8. I do envy those able to get along with F/11 lenses though. I'd probably be driving a nicer vehicle if that was my case ;).
@@SteveSSBB G'day Steve, if I looked at the apertures I have used I would say I rarely shoot wide open, one of the reasons I sold the 400 2.8, I just didn't take advantage of its speed. I have to admit I have been jealous of the Nikon 500 5.6PF, it is just so light. When I use my 400 5.6 it really is a joy and I do find the size of the superteles a little bit of a pain at times. I am sure you notice a big difference between the DO and your 600 f4. I think a 600 5.6 DO would be ideal. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade There are patents floating around for an RF 400, 500 & 600 that use DO. Hopefully something will come out of it. I agree that the 500PF is a nice lens. I used to shoot Nikon and Canon till the release of the D750 as my Nikon gear was free but when it came time to make a choice Canon was the better overall ecosystem for me. A lot of it has to do with service. I don’t know how things are in your neck of the woods but here Nikon service is plagued by long turnaround times and blaming repair issues on clients to avoid warranty coverage. Everyone’s needs are different but that was an issue I couldn’t live with. People wax poetic about the differences between systems, but at the top end they are more similar than dissimilar. Sometimes it is the little things that make or break a relationship. If you have pangs of jealousy about the 500PF I suggest you pick up the RF 100-500. It is only 2/3 of a stop slower, lighter and to speak quite frankly the gap between optical quality of zooms vs primes has become negligible. The RF 100-500 offers far better AF performance than the EF 100-400II paired with the 1.4x too. Highly recommend you try the 100-500 if you haven’t already.
Hi Duade, thanks for the great comparison! One thing to consider also is that R5 and R6 have an improved anti-aliasing filter design covering the sensor, which does not add so much blur as 5D4's AA-filter does. I dare to claim that if we compared an R5 to an R6, the R5 would render superior in image detail and downsized to R6's resolution (using e.g. bicubic interpolation), there should be slightly less noise, at worst an equal amount of it. The downsides of the higher-res R5 are bigger files and slower workflow, more proneness to motion blur and camera shake including shutter shock. The image's colors could also break down (become visibly poor) earlier compared to R6, at very high ISOs.
To me it seems that the R6 is quite an upgrade over 5D4. :)
I would really love to test the R5 and R6 side be side to see if there is anymore image detail on the downsampled R5. I have played with RAW files from the D5 and D850 which have similar sized sensors and I could not see a difference. Download the D5 and D850 and take a look. Cheers, Duade neilvn.com/tangents/images/nikon/d850/iso-test/
The files from D5 and D850 look indeed very similar with regard to noise when viewed at the same resolution. Here I see two things however:
(1) The two sensors are technologically different (D5 is front-side iluminated, D850 is back-side illuminated), which are also differently tuned, D850 being the one more tuned for landscape use and maximal dynamic range, versus the D5 being rather heavily tuned for high-ISO noise performance at the price of dynamic range at its base ISO.
(2) Lens blur (lack of perfect lens sharpness) in combination with AA-filtering makes that on the whole, a higher-resolution sensor tends to be able to extract more information from an image taken with the same lens, compared to a lower-resolution sensor.
Now this gets a bit nerdy... I checked DxOMark's measurements and they confirm that the D5 and D850 are almost equal from about ISO 3200 onwards - the D850 leads with almost nothing at all ISOs except beyond 12800, from then onwards the D5 leads by almost nothing - so very similar. Where the D850 beats the D5 is close to the base ISOs.
The situation between R5 and R6 shows a similar pattern - R5 leads over R6 close to the base ISOs, but they switch their positions only at the last setting, ISO 102400.
Interestingly, both R5 and R6 quite rock over D5 and D850 at any ISO beyond 400 - 800.
The comparisons are taken from SNR 18% as printed and the measurements are here:
D5: www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Nikon/D5---Measurements
D850: www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Nikon/D850---Measurements
R5: www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Canon/EOS-R5---Measurements
R6: www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Canon/EOS-R6---Measurements
Anyways, beautiful images produced and the joy with the camera in the field are at least a million times more meaningful and important than measurement numbers and comparisons like the above.
Cheers!
@@mk0x55 Gday, thanks for your detailed response, yes a lot of the technical aspects go over my head, at the end of the day either camera is going to take amazing photos. It appears that the R5 sensor really is a step up from Canon and has a lot more real world benefit than the R6. Cheers, Duade
Thanks for a helpful review! I'll stay with my 5D MKIV until they they fix the mirrorless background lock focus problem, if they can ever fix the problem.
G'day, it is a slight inconvenience for sure, let's hope it can be fixed. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade as previously mentioned here... RTFI 😉🤣
Great review Duade.
I've found a slightly different way to setup the combination of Eye-AF and Single/Spot AF that has one advantage and one possible disadvantage over the way you are doing it.
If you set your main AF mode in AF1 menu to be Face/Tracking, turn Eye-AF for Animals on and then make sure that in AF5 menu Initial Servo AF pt for Face/Tracking is set to AUTO.
The back button you want to do Face/Tracking/Eye-AF would then be assigned to AF/Metering Start.
You can then set your alternative rear button to be Single or Spot AF via Custom Buttons: AF/Metering Start, hit INFO to enter Detail Set and select your alternative Single or Spot AF mode (I like the smaller Spot size myself).
If, and only if, you setup this way the advantage is you get to "see" what the camera is "thinking" ahead of activating AF. You will see white boxes show up on subject, head or eye if the camera has detected them (basically the same boxes you see in blue once AF is engaged). I find this very useful because then I don't hit my Face/Tracking back button for AF until I know the system has found the bird. This avoids hitting AF and having the system jump to other distractions.
Now just like you show in the video if I don't see the white boxes showing up, I use my alternative Spot AF to focus on the bird, then I switch back to the Face/Tracking/Eye AF back button if the white squares start to show up. And just like your example with the bird in heavy brush, usually it does start working after you focus on the bird with the Spot AF point.
Now the only downside with this setup is you have no way of moving your Spot AF point around because it is a secondary mode and you have to push in your back button to engage it.
For myself I haven't found much need to move my Spot AF because I'm just using it as a helper for the Eye-AF to take over right after.
Give it a try and see if that works for you. I've showed it to a lot of people now and almost all have switched. Some have needs to move the Spot AF so they set up the camera more like you are now. I just find it such an advantage to not have AF go off and grab far backgrounds or surrounding twigs because I don't engage the Auto Eye-AF until I know the camera has figured things out. You also will get white arrows to switch between multiple subject's eyes detected...although I haven't found that very useful.
G'day Geoff, thank you very much for sharing your setup, I am sure it will help others. I will have a go myself and see how I find it. I assume you will still run into the problem of the camera focusing on the wrong thing when using spot AF if eye af cannot see the subject. That appears to be my biggest issue is when I place the focus point on a butterfly yet the camera decides the background is far more interesting. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Hi, yes you still will run into that issue if focus ends up way on the background and the camera can't "see" the near, grossly OOF, subject. The one thing that my setup helps with is you won't activate Face/Tracking/Eye AF unless you see the white box on the subject, then you can be pretty much certain it won't just default back into focusing on other things (which can be a distant background) which it will do when it hasn't identified a subject yet. But as you say when you engage Spot AF with my setup if your spot AF isn't on the subject it can still drive to the background. I'm mostly using Spot AF for birds in trees/brush with branches around them like you showed in that one example in the video. If I'm shooting a perch out in the open I find the Eye-AF usually finds the bird if I was previously focused somewhat close to the perch. If it isn't "seeing" the subject (no white boxes showing up) then I often use Center Zone AF ( I have that on another back button) as it covers a greater area and you don't have to be as precise in placing the small Spot right on the subject. That would minimize the times it jumps straight to the background. But all of that relies on you being prefocused somewhat in the correct range, once focus jumps way out then I have to resort to the same workarounds you mention in the video (aiming at the ground or manual focusing). Problem is that my RF 100-500 doesn't support direct manual focus override like an EF lens does so I can't use that technique without switching the lens switch into MF which isn't easy or fast to do.
@@geoffn8963 Thanks Geoff, I wasn't aware of the 100-500 not allowing manual override in AF. I guess it just forces you to try and be more accurate when placing the focus point, or purposely focusing on a large subject in a similar focal plane knowing the eye af will pick up the bird. Again, it doesn't help too much in my butterfly example as you have to use traditional AF and rely on the camera picking up the butterfly when you put the focus point on it. Cheers, Duade
Bugger it Duade you're 2 weeks too late with this, I got mine already. I'm happy with it so far but I shoot a lot with my pixel peeping mate with an R5. "just zoom in" he says, "bugger off" I say. LOL all good mate enjoyed your honest take on my new camera and look forward to the rest of the series.
G'day Davo, congrats on the R6, it is a great camera but those 20mp make you feel a little inadequate when shooting next to an R5 😳
I'm thinking of buying an R6 to replace my 7Dii and this video has amazingly useful detail - thanks so much Duade. I do enjoy photographing birds but my primary goal are medium sized mammals - many of which tend to be first & last light subjects; so what I'm really searching for is low-light capability combined with my 300 f2.8 - I'm hoping the R6 is the right choice.
G'day Ian, the R6 will allow you to shoot at ISO12800 with confidence which combined with your lens should give you plenty of shutter speed in low light. It will be a significant improvement on the 7D2. Cheers, Duade 👍
7:36 - because this is what Canon always does - make us confused to get more money! I have 5dII and I'm waiting over decade to get better camera and now Canon gives R6 with worse Mpx than I have in my camera from 2008, or R5 which has price from cosmos. No problem Canon, I will wait next 10 years and won't buy anything from you. Good job. Gratulations ! 😂
Thanks Duade for the review of the R6. I was considering the camera, but the poor low light performance and AF issues means I will give it a pass. I could live with the 20meg file size, but when you add in the other two issues no thanks. Too many compromises for such an expensive camera.
G'day Michael, it is still a great camera and has many advantages over a DSLR, however if you don't need those features it maybe worth waiting for Canon to sort out the issues from their first few mirrorless cameras. Cheers, Duade 👍
Nice looking video and a lot of good information. What camera did you use to shoot the video.
Lawrence, I use the R6 and my old 5d4, Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade, first time viewer here! Love your content! I actually came to research the R cameras for Canon because recently, I unfortunately lost my camera bag of a 60D and 2 L lenses.. I've not been keeping up with the camera releases so it was amazing that you had such a nice technical review. I was interested in the Video 2 you mentioned at the start of this video but could not find it on the sidebar. I believe (from watching other TH-cam videos) it would be possible to link to them from this video, so that would be a little suggestion of mine. Anyway I am going to your channel to try to find it. Keep up the amazing content! Subscribed!
Thanks for finding the channel and commenting. I never did get around to doing more videos unfortunately, my apologies. Sorry to hear you lost your camera bag and lenses. It is a tricky time to be buying Canon cameras as I believe they are on the verge of releasing APSC mirrorless bodies to replace the 90D series. At the moment the R6 and R5 have the auto eye which is incredible, but they are expensive. You could always go second hand in the meantime like. Good luck with your choices, Cheers, Duade
Hi, this review is brilliant and really helps with decisions on R6 versus other models! One question please - it looks like you are using EF lenses presumably mounted with the RF adapter. I understand that you only get the 5/6 axis stabilisation with R5 and R6 when a native RF lens is mounted. If you use EF lenses with the adapter I understand you "only" get close to standard 2 axis stabilisation. Is this your experience and is this level of IS any worse when on an R6 versus a 5D4 ?
Great question Chris, I have not noticed any major difference in IS between the 5d4 and the R6, if anything the R6 is better. The only issue is if the EF lens does not support the 12fps, it's not a major but 12 is better than 6.8. Cheers, Duade 👍
It is very frustrating with the background focus issue. Have you figured out anything since? Thank you for this it was very informative.
It is my pleasure Terri, unfortunately not, I either shoot at the ground/perch to bring it back or use the manual focus ring to pull focus which you can do whilst in autofocus mode. Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade, could you also compare on the 2nd video, the number of FPS and Shutter sound? I Know your 500mm f4II does the full 12fps mech. Shutter, but the 400mm f5.6 doesn't. Cheers
Miguel, will do, it is a lot quieter that is for sure. Cheers, Duade
I have found that I needed to learn a couple of quick override options if it's not getting the eye, in particular the thumb override on the screen to set the focus point. The other option you mention using your thumb on the focus ring is another useful option. I imagine there may be some firmware enhancement to tackle the background locking. Overall, as a combo with my 5d mkiv I feel happy that I don't need the R5, how about you?
Simon, the more I use the camera the more I realise just how impressive the eye af is. It really is incredible once locked on, the images are just sharp, with my 5d4 a lot of the time some shots would just be soft for no reason like the focus had jumped. I would often refocus a number of times whilst shooting the same bird just to be sure one burst was locked on. I never have to worry with eye af, if the focus point is on the eye then the images are going to be sharp unless the bird moves or I do. Cheers, Duade
Thank you for this wonderful review of the Canon R6! I recently purchased it and encounter the exact same frustrating autofocus problems, especially when trying to take pictures of hawks in flight. The camera wants to focus on the sky in the background, and no matter what you do you cannot get the camera to focus on the hawk in flight. This is with my Sigma 150-600mm lens. What I end up having to do is zoom back out to about 200-300mm, then the camera will focus on something more along the same plane as what the distance to the hawk is, and then I can zoom back in on the hawk. But, if the hawk is out of range for the eye AF to capture the eye, if I don't keep the AF point exactly on the hawk, the camera goes back to trying to focus on the sky. Definitely much more frustrating than when I had my DSLR. But, hopefully they will come out with some type of update to fix this issue.
, yes, it is very frustrating for sure and I hope they can overcome this issue in the future. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Good afternoon!! Ok, so after some changing and experimenting with settings, I think I fixed the problem on my Canon R6. I went into the AF menu (pink or purple) and screen #4, I changed my "Lens drive when AF impossible" from OFF to ON, and that seems to have fixed my problem! Now, when I focus on a distant tree with a branch in the closer foreground, at first my camera will focus on the distant tree but if I remove my finger from the shutter button and press it down half way again, the lens refocuses and finds the closer tree branch (so long as my AF focal point is directly over the foreground branch). I have not tried using the Intelligent Eye tracking mode yet to see if it works under that setting, but under a regular Spot AF setting, it worked for me. Hope this helps you! :)
@@speedypickup Thanks for the update and I am happy to hear it has helped you, I do have Lens drive switched to on and unfortunately, I still have issues from time to time. It mainly seems when I have a horizontal perch and a small bird that I am close to. Cheers, Duade
Superb review.
Thanks David, Cheers, Duade
I still love my 5d Mark 3, but the R6 is what I'm using these days. Found your review helpful and fun. Love the outtakes and also that you show the raw, then crop and final shot. Good on you mate. I'd be very curious to know what you think about the 100-500 RF. I'm about to go for that. My current EF V1 70-200L is a dinosaur
Matt, I hope to have a go with the 100-500 at some stage. I will be sure to share my thoughts. I also have the 70-200L, it maybe old but it still takes nice shots. Cheers, Duade
I have fuji xt4 -totally jealous of eye AF on the Canons. Waiting for tech to catch up. But love fujis colour science.
Thanks, yes, Fuji make some lovely cameras and great video. Cheers, Duade
When are we going to get the settings video? Really looking forward to it.
Hopefully I can look at doing one at some stage, in the meantime be sure to check out Jans R5 setting video, the R6 is very similar. Cheers, Duade th-cam.com/video/-nnRqgXu7QI/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=JanWegener
Good info as always. Thanks.
Thanks Ern, I appreciate the ongoing support, Cheers, Duade
Just discovered your channel and have watched seven of your videos so far. I recently upgraded my Canon 6D Mk 1 to an R5; still shooting with my 400mm 5.6. Really enjoy your photography and helpful tips. I'm curious what body you are using for filming your videos? What part of Australia are you based in? Looking forward to enjoying many more of your videos!
Galen, I'm glad you found the channel and are enjoying the videos. I use my 5d4 & R6 for the stand up piece to camera and using a Pocket 2/phone to film in the field. This seems to work for me. Cheers, Duade. Oh I am in the North East of Victoria. If you google the Warby Ranges, I am very close to there. Cheers, Duade
Hi Duade- Have you experienced any difficulty when processing the RAW files from your Canon R6? Here is a link to another photographer's video, where she explains how she had to modify her RAW processing routine to compensate for the difference between the files from her 5DIII and the R6- th-cam.com/video/nDY4zNDFB4E/w-d-xo.html.
I have a 5DIII and have been seriously thinking about moving to the R6 for the mirror-less experience and the improvements in the auto-focus. I am curious about your experience with this. Many thanks, Earl
Earl, your comment just popped up which is odd, with Adobes last update and some presets I am not having any trouble processing in Lightroom/Photoshop. Cheers, Duade
I got the same focus issues with my Canon EOS R and the RF 100-500, once the focus is one the Background it will stay there for ever.
And thanks for the promo code waited for one :)
Daniel, yes, it is annoying, glad you enjoyed the video. Enjoy the software, it is impressive. Cheers, Duade
G’day Duade, can you do a review of the new Conon R7 for wildlife photography please.
I will once I can get a copy of one, Cheers, Duade
Topaz de noise plugin is a game changer
Carl, yes it is very impressive that is for sure. Cheers, Duade
Another great video Duade and thanks. I had and returned the R6, found focusing and sharpness not as great as I had hoped. And yes if you crop a lot like me and most birders, I suppose more MP would help although I have seen some amazing images from the R6 and a 300mm. Animal eye focus worked well on stationary birds but occasionally struggled with ducks flying in towards me, especially as they neared the surface of the water. Most of the time it was fine thou. I also wasn't crazy about an EF to RF adapter coupled with a 1.4 extender, perhaps some issues with communication between the lens and the camera. Occasionally as I look through my Adobe Bridge files, I see a really nice image and am surprised to see it was from my 7d mkii. How I longed for a 7d mk iii. Mirrorless is cool but I suppose I'm still a DSLR fan, for now anyway. Cheers!
Thanks Scott, I appreciate your input, sorry to hear it didn't deliver for you. The R7 might be the camera many birders are waiting for. I have had some issues with the R6 however I am enjoying it the more I use it. Cheers, Duade 👍
I had the same problem with the af but then friend told me to switch it to animal af instead of ppl af and boom works great.
Daniel, a great point, it really helps that is for sure. Cheers, Duade
When you were talking about autofocus not working with an aperture above f8 and you went on to say you multiply the aperture by the crop factor, I was all ready to blame my badly focussed birds on using f8 on an APS-C body. Some confusing research later, it turns out f8 on APS-C is the same as f8 on full frame so the autofocus will work the same. So my poor photos are down to user error as I suspected.
G'day, my apologies, I wasn't very clear. If your lens has a max aperture of say 5.6 or 6.3 then it will focus past f8. Its only if your max aperture is greater than f8, so say If I put a 2x on my 400 5.6 it becomes an 800 f11, the maximum aperture is f11 so a DSLR won't focus. Sorry about the confusion. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade thanks. It's all very confusing for a beginner like myself! I think I misunderstood what you had said originally too, I thought the same would apply to using a lens on a crop sensor body as using a teleconverter. Maybe they're different because a teleconverter is changing the physical distance between the lens and the sensor?
@@WIDGI A teleconverter is changing the actual focal length and it actually blocks light coming into the camera, so at f11 on a DSLR once the light goes into the viewfinder there isn't enough to go to the sensor for Autofocus. With mirrorless there is no light going to the viewfinder so it can all be used for autofocus. Cheers, Duade
Do the older prime EF lenses of Canon work properly on the R6? Or any software upgrade has to be done on the lenses? Before using it on R6? How the 400 mm 5.6 L lens cope up with it?
Harshad, the older EF lenses will work with the adapter, no software needed. The 400 5.6 works perfectly on the R5 R6 and I have had no issues. The only downside is you do not get the full 12fps in mechanical shutter. You will get 20fps in electronic though. Cheers, Duade
Excellent review. I also noticed the focus issues you described. Can indeed be annoying.
yep very frustrating for this grumpy old man lol
Just wondering if its possible to use spot AF and then the joystick/multicontroller to reacquire focus quicker if you've accidentally focused on the background and the eye AF is having trouble finding the subject ?
@@AYC-yg9on Unfortunately, it doesn't matter where you place the AF point the camera cannot detect the bird with eye af or standard AF. You have to manually turn the focus ring, use focus preset or focus on something close to the bird. Cheers, Duade
Great informative video. Have you tried the RF 800 f11 on the R6 at all?
I am starting to get some good results with static and in flight birds using it and wondered if you might have had a chance to try it.
Wishing you well.
Dave, yes, I had the pleasure of using it, you can see my photos here th-cam.com/video/Kor_MZw1EN4/w-d-xo.html I didn't have too many chances for BIF and struggled with the smaller AF box to be honest. Glad to hear you have got it working well for you. It is a fantastic lens for the price that is for sure. Cheers, Duade
Just discovered your channel and really enjoyed your review of the R6. Cheers from Michigan, USA.
G'day Mark, thanks for the feedback and welcome to the channel. Cheers, Duade 👍
@@Duade, You're welcome!
Hello from Finland and thank you for all your videos, just love them!👍
I´m a beginner wild life photographer and I´m planning to upgrade my 77D to a mirrorles camera.
I´m a bit worried about the issues people seem to have with the R6 and electronic shutter when shooting a moving objects like flying birds, pictures are bend because of the rolling shutter.
Have you noticed that kind of a issues with the R6?
Canon R7 has that issue also, dunno about R5 but that camera is too expensive for me anyway😅.
Cheers!
-Janne
Thanks Janne, it is more noticeable on the R7 than the R6 and R5, in a burst you will get the odd wobble but I shoot in electronic and get plenty of usable shots. Cheers, Duade
I used to have the 5DIV when it first came out, but I sold it and bought 1DX instead. 5DIV is too slow for wildlife, it is very good in image quality but it is just too slow for wildlife. Now I owned the R6 and it does a lot better than both of my 1Dx and used to owned 5DIV.
Thanks Peter, I have the same experience, the buffer on the 5D was terrible and I much prefer to use the R6. Cheers, Duade
Really great video!
Thank you. Cheers, Duade
Another great video. Thank you!
Caroline, you are welcome. Cheers, Duade
I was a bit surprised you went for the R6 not withstanding the huge price difference to get the R5 that you referred to in a previous conversation. Regarding its noise, I see it looks similar to 5d iv in a normally exposed shot but the extra dynamic range of the R6 means in a lot of shots when you raise exposure things will stay considerably cleaner than the 5D iv. So there's still a significant difference in a lot of shots I think. The other thing about its noise levels is that they seem a bit incongruous compared to the R5. Somehow, with over twice the pixel count, the R 5 manages noise levels that are very very close to the R6. Its noise to pixel count ratio, which is a concept I have in my head when judging these things, is much better than the R6. Theres discussion about this on some forums, with some people even claiming the R5 actually beats the R6, although I dont quite think it goes that far. But there does seem to be a weird disparity. So either the R6 is punching below its weight, or the R5 is an over achiever, if you get what I mean. Just my 2 cents worth. Cheers Duade.
Thanks Mark, I would have much preferred the R5 and slightly regretting the R6 acquisition. I got it second hand with a lens, extra battery and adapter for a good deal so it was hard to pass up. The R6 still captures fantastic images, it's just I will always wish I had the R5 sensor if that makes sense. Yes, the R5 seems very superior and when downsampled to R6 size I doubt there is much difference. I may end up selling the R6 and getting the R5 once I try it out or waiting for the R7 and seeing if they make improvements in their APSC sensors. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Thanks mate. Just so you know, the newest apsc sensor thats already in the 90D is absolutely fantastic. I thought with 32 mpx on a crop sensor it would be noisy but its my favourite sensor. Its much cleaner in the shadows and the AA filter doesn't soften the image much. I just love the reach it gives and the quality I get on my 200 - 400. I couldn't use my 7d mkii after buying the 90D. So this new crop sensor mirrorless will most likely have this sensor and its going to be awesome! If you got the r6 package cheap then that's fair enough. On the long term however as you know, more pixels are valuable. But I can't stress enough how fantastic the reach you get on Canon's 32 mpx apsc sensor is. We should both be first in line for the R7!
@@markrigg6623 Thanks Mark, I have heard mixed reviews about the 90D so it's great to hear your experience, I hope to try it out one day. But yes, the R7 is shaping up to be a birders dream. Cheers, Duade
@@Duade Yeah the 90D mostly gets criticised because the AF module is lower spec than in the 7D mkii. So it could be better for birds in flight. But as some one who has Sony, Nikon and Canon gear (because of how poor Canon's sensors had been) I can tell you that it punches above its weight more than any sensor I've used. The image quality is fantastic and in my opinion its the best value dslr on the market. Shame I won't need it soon.......
Thanks Duade.
@@markrigg6623 Great to hear Mark, like anything I want to try things myself before I believe what I read online. Thanks for the info. Cheers, Duade
I'm late to the game here but have you seen what
Brent Hall has to say about eye detection, with his settings. Thanks for the video as I'm doing my research while considering upgrading from my old 7D Mii.
Kerry, welcome to the channel, no I havent, what did he say? If you are coming from a 7D any of the mirrorless bodies will be an improvement however the rumoured R7 maybe a great camera to upgrade to. Cheers, Duade