Mirrorless Cameras (MILC) and Lenses

[LunarMist]

Don't expect reliable and fast AF from Canon lenses on S*ny bodies. I have Metastones and Sigma adapters and dozens of FW updates.
Canon EF lenses work very well with the Canon EF-RF adapter, in some cases better than they did on EF. Don't buy weird brand EF-RF adapters.
Some of the new RF lenses are optically worse than the EF lenses that they replaced. It's rather sickening, but weight is more of a priority than image quality according to Canon. Other lenses (180/3.5 macro, 500/4s, TS-Es, etc.) have not yet been produced in RF, so I'm using about 50% EF vs. RF. Of course there are some really nice new lenses like the RF 28-70/2, 100-500, and 70-200/4.
I only use S*ny lenses on S*ny, but that is mainly the specific combination of the 200-600 on the a7RV.

 

[Mercutio]

My Sony body usually gets used with a wide FOV at medium apertures, lately the EF-S 18-135, or with a 24/2.8, which goes a long way to make my life easy with it. It's also used more for video than photos.

 

[LunarMist]

Video AF is rather different. My understanding is that you need slow, but steady AF and good tracking.
For sure all MILS suffer from AF acquisition with tele lenses since the on-sensor AF has an inadequate effective base length. The better MILS now use some kind of AI logic to decide if the AF is going the wrong way when it cannot see ANY change in the totally OOF subject. Sometimes you have to use a left forearm to nudge the AF. It is a critical limitation that you just have to live with.

 

[LunarMist]

So the crappola de Canon continues. R1 resolution is rumored to be only 30MP.

 

[Mercutio]

So the crappola de Canon continues. R1 resolution is rumored to be only 30MP.

That's 50% better than the 1dx mk3!
Canon definitely has different priorities from Sony and Nikon but with the R3 as sport-centric as it is, I was thinking the R1 would be a more well-rounded device. It may still be. Worst case scenario is that Canon makes a camera you won't buy. C'est la vie.

 

[LunarMist]

30MP was well rounded in 2016. Now it is for sports and events.
The R5 is killing me. Where are the R5 II and R5s?

 

[Mercutio]

Are you still hoping to see something more than 45MP? Looking for Quad-Pixel AF?

Other than missing the digital shoe and the lens level correction some of the newer bodies have, the R5 still seems like a dream body to me.

 

[ddrueding]

Thanks for all the info. The 100-400 II and 180 Macro were the two big lenses I didn't want to replace, and they are big anyway. The 24/1.4 will depend a lot on whether I end up APS-C or FF. Time to research the new Canon bodies.

 

[LunarMist]

Those work fine with Canon adapters. I have two of the 100-400 IS II. They were the first lenses I ever used on the R5. Canon croppers pretty much suck due to archaic sensor designs.

 

[ddrueding]

OK, R8 body and lens adapter ordered. Thanks again to both of you for all the help.

 

[LunarMist]

You will want spare batteries. A 7.5Wh battery does not go far for MILS.

 

[ddrueding]

Yup, this is kind of a toe in the water. If I'm happy with it I'll get a bunch of accessories for it and get the Mrs an R100. If I want more I'll get the R6II and all the accessories for it, and the Mrs will get this one

 

[LunarMist]

I don't know about Swedish prices, but the smaller Canon batteries are rather much per Wh.
The R5 II should be really good when it is finally released.

 

[LunarMist]

Are you still hoping to see something more than 45MP? Looking for Quad-Pixel AF?

Other than missing the digital shoe and the lens level correction some of the newer bodies have, the R5 still seems like a dream body to me.

The R5 was a bit of a nightmare in 2020 and better with 2021 FW. An R5 II and an R5s with more pixels would be nice.
From the start the R5's reduced bit depth, fixed 20FPS, and mediocre scan speed were all a headache in ES mode.

 

[ddrueding]

Thanks again for the advice, the R8 is great. Even with the adapter the AF actually seems better on the 100-400 II than it did on the 5DII.

 

[LunarMist]

The 5D II was a suck in many ways - one of the worst cameras I ever bought. Of the Canon bodies only the 1D series had decent AF in 2008.
The 100-400 II was first shipped in late Q4 2014. It deserved at least the contemporary 5D III or 1DX and was designed to meet the optical demands of the 5Ds/R of June 2015.

 

[Handruin]

I felt the same with my 5DmkII and eventually sold it. The most modern dslr I own now is the 5DmkIII and it still works fine for my needs.

 

[LunarMist]

The R5 II is almost here. https://www.canonrumors.com/the-canon-eos-r5-mark-ii-we-have-now-seen-it/
Unfortunately they already screwed up the camera with more video crapola.

 

[Mercutio]

The R5 II is almost here. https://www.canonrumors.com/the-canon-eos-r5-mark-ii-we-have-now-seen-it/
Unfortunately they already screwed up the camera with more video crapola.

There's always Fuji?

 

[LunarMist]

Doesn't Fujifilm still live in the fringes of APS-C and mini-medium format sensors with a big fat gaping hole in the FF/FX size?
Canon seems to be slower than ever with new designs, but they sure have some nice patents if they ever choose to implement.
I just want somebody to come out with a 60+MP sensor with a decent readout speed. The a7RV is a mechanical shutter camera for anything moving more than slowly.

 

[Mercutio]

I think somebody at Canon has looked at what it's doing and decided that there are sweet spots at 24 and 45MP and those are good enough for most purposes. I definitely don't get a whole lot out of the extra pixels from the R7 vs the R6. At least not most of the time. We still don't have R5ii official specs yet. Maybe you'll get a pleasant surprise.

I just had a two day trip to Florida. I was able to bring my whole camera bag but wound up wearing it almost the entire time I was down there. Two camera bodies, lenses from the 15-30 Tamron, 24-70 Sigma and 120-300 Sigma (i.e. very heavy lenses). I've never been more thankful to have a good quality bag (Wotancraft Nomad; it's discontinued now). My normal travel backpack would have punished me for carrying a similar amount of gear but I'm not aching at all today.

 

[Mercutio]

This little guy looks super cool for those of us who actually shoot video. Cheap, too.

 

[jtr1962]

Every cat I've ever had would definitely be chasing that.

 

[Mercutio]

At least one of my cats would probably try to eat it.

 

[Mercutio]

LM is gonna be even madder about the Canon R1 since the rumors are now saying it's a 24MP quad-pixel AF. Not even 30MP. It's barely a spec bump over the R3.

 

[LunarMist]

I don't care about the R1 vs. R3. Obviously Canon has a core of specific pro users that don't have clients needing higher resolution. I'm getting too old and weak to haul a pair of pro bodies up and down the hills and valleys, not to mention in the high winds.

 

[Mercutio]

I don't know when Lightroom was updated but now you can just mask an element in a photo and make it go away. No photoshop required. And then apply that edit to every photo. I took some concert photos where there was a rag sitting on stage the entire time and in every frame. It was a one-second mask and about three minutes to apply AI object removal to the stack of about 300 images, no matter the angle or where the rag would've been.

This would not have been complicated but it would've been tedious to edit ~300 times by hand. How cool.
Lightroom, possibly unique among all the things Adobe has ever made, might be worth whatever Adobe charges for it.

 

[LunarMist]

Or you could have directed them to clean up.

 

[Mercutio]

Or you could have directed them to clean up.

Me asking a group of bluegrass-playing boomers who need to sit down to pick a banjo for 90 minutes to do anything in Indiana sounds like a great way to get hate crimed. Their crowd looked like it had a lot of overlap with an NRA convention.
The rag was honestly a real highlight for me. I was sad to see it go.

 

[Mercutio]

Looks like the review embargo on Sigma's APS-C lenses for Canon RF mount has lifted.
They're just reselling lenses that existed for Sony and Fuji and apparently they work really well, even if they're optically less than perfect.

 

[LunarMist]

I'm sure they are fine within the limitations of a Canon APS-C body. I wonder if they will release FX type of lens designs the same as for Nikon.

 

[Mercutio]

The R6ii is discounted pretty massively this week for some reason. I love my R6 and I'd be all over an R6ii if I didn't already have one. $2000 to get one is almost a no-brainer.

 

[LunarMist]

It is probably related to the new Nikon Z6 III, which has a super sensor with semi-stackable pixelfi.

 

[ddrueding]

*looks at my 2 month old R8*
(sigh)

 

[LunarMist]

Is there a problem with it?

 

[ddrueding]

Is there a problem with it?

Nope. But it seems there is always something new and shiny right after I make the decision to buy. I decided to get the R8 because the value proposition on the R6ii wasn't there. Now it would be there.

 

[LunarMist]

There is often good value in either buying cheap or buying expensive, but not in the middle. Wait for the R5 II for the higher end of IQ and capability.

 

[Mercutio]

I told my partner that Canon is likely to release an R6iii sometime in the next six-ish months and I'd probably trade in what I have to upgrade.
I am not trade in, sell or diminish her access to the R6. Many threats and promises were made regarding this matter and so I guess that I am paying full price for my next camera body.

To be clear, my partner owns an R7, which is in no way a bad camera either, but the favorite kid definitely has a full frame sensor and remarkable low-light performance.

 

[LunarMist]

Yet the R7 is in many ways a lame camera! It's what Canon crop users are stuck with. Canon has never considered the 1.6x croppers as anything but lower level products. Even the 7D and 7D II were marginal in their eras.

Think about what the Fuji X-H2S can do, and it is from the same era as the R7. Fuji doesn't make 135 format sensors, so they take the APS-C format as their serious system. (They also make a smallish medium format system, but that has a different market.)

 

[Mercutio]

We have different photography priorities, I think.