After using it for some time, I think I'm starting to get a hang of this body. I put it through a variety of stuff...
Like the butterfly under my house when I was bringing my toddler to the playground (to test AF on small "animals"):
The yellow vented bulbul when I was bringing my newborn for a stroll under my house (to test AF for birds and small birds):
Some random sunset out of my window (to check the dynamic range):
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Perspective of someone coming from 5D Mark IV and 7D Mark II:
Pros
- First off, the AF is amazing. It worked as advertise; only if the subject is occupying a reasonable amount of the frame. I was surprised it managed to get the eye of the butterfly; though only for a second. I was following some mynas (because well, I got a newborn with me) and the tracking works all the time; all the frames were in focus. The yellow vented bulbul was quite small, occupying only about 10% to 15% of the frame and it struggled real bad to even detect the bird at all, much less the eye. If the subject is huge like my toddler running around, it tracks fantastic. All the frames that I expect to be in focus, are in focus.
- Having the ability to instant override to the Auto ISO value when using Aperture priority mode by using the thumb dial closest to the mode dial is a godsend.
- The ISO performance at 12,800 is superb, much better than my 5D4.
- The dynamic range is insane, definitely better; shadow recovery looks awesome.
- CRAW is the future.
- You can sync the camera time to the time on your smartphone, which is awesome. This will help resolve alot of time issues when I'm reviewing images after shooting an event with 2 cameras.
- I can finally look into the sun without blinding my eyes, thanks to the electronic viewfinder.
Cons
- I don't like that there isn't a hard stop to the mode dial. I switch between C1, C2 and C3 all the time and a hard stop will had help alot to determine where I am without looking at the mode dial.
- Exposure bracketing does not work with electronic shutter. You have to go full/partly mechanical, so that's a waste of 20fps. I don't understand why it shouldn't work.
- The LCD screen always turns on after you are done looking through the viewfinder. So that's a waste of battery as well; I would much prefer it to stay off until required (i.e. by pressing a button to "wake" it) like a DSLR.
- There is also no option to set the fps of mechanical and electronic shutter speed. So if you are using it for birding/wildlife, chances are you will fire much, much more shutters than necessary.
- The lack of a mini always-enabled electronic viewfinder does hurts. It slowed me down a little when shooting anything architecture related where the lines are important.
- No auto LCD brightness, although this is already known before I purchase this camera. It's not that big of a deal though, because you can customise a button to instantly and temporary toggle LCD brightness to the max during review.
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I haven't put it through an event because no one is holding any big company event at this stage; but I expect to struggle alot without a 9 zone AF.. All in all, this is definitely worth the purchase looking at the AF, dynamic range and iso performance alone. This camera so far had been a revolution, not an evolution. The leap is like jumping from film to digital.
I will probably be bringing the camera to take photos of some flowers at GBTB next when I'm free (to test the 20fps). Not anytime soon though, as I'm really busy at work these days