Canon EOS R6


Is this useful to solve the problem described?

Credit: Brett Carlsen in his Youtube video
80685
 

Maybe can give feedback to Canon to solve this problem in a future firmware update.
It is software driven and Canon can definitely do it, if they want to.
I surfed some sites and other users had reported the same issue.
What baffles me is that during the extensive pre-release testing of the R5 and R6, it seems none of the Canon ambassadors or selected professionals gave feedback to Canon on this aspect.
Maybe they did, but Canon ignored the feedback because there were too many decisions to make on what to include and what to exclude in these new products.
With robust user feedback, Canon can fine tune the software driven features, later on.
 

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Hi, I don't earn a living out of camera but intend to upgrade my APSC A6300 to FF. I 'm shifting to video focus, so my requirement is at least 4K60p 10bit video.
Can I ask a qns? When i google, R6 listed price is US2499 (Body) but when i search Canon sg, its listed as S$3999? Why additional $500?
 

Hi, I don't earn a living out of camera but intend to upgrade my APSC A6300 to FF. I 'm shifting to video focus, so my requirement is at least 4K60p 10bit video.
Can I ask a qns? When i google, R6 listed price is US2499 (Body) but when i search Canon sg, its listed as S$3999? Why additional $500?
Local warranty and other uplifts in Singapore markt. Secondly, do check the various camera shops, street price is usually lower than Canon website.
Do watch out for import sets (grey sets) - they are cheaper but don't have local warranty. Which means: Canon SG Service center won't entertain you at all.
 

Local warranty and other uplifts in Singapore markt. Secondly, do check the various camera shops, street price is usually lower than Canon website.
Do watch out for import sets (grey sets) - they are cheaper but don't have local warranty. Which means: Canon SG Service center won't entertain you at all.

Thanks.
Hmm... thats alot of uplifts, >$500.
Sony a7C US1.8K local price s$2499 which is about right, not much uplifts.

Guess i've to give up R6 as its out of my budget.
 

Local warranty and other uplifts in Singapore markt. Secondly, do check the various camera shops, street price is usually lower than Canon website.
Do watch out for import sets (grey sets) - they are cheaper but don't have local warranty. Which means: Canon SG Service center won't entertain you at all.

Canon SG entertains parallel import, but at a 1.3x (service charge) rate. It's written on their website:

https://sg.canon/en/consumer/web/support-servicecharges

Thanks.
Hmm... thats alot of uplifts, >$500.
Sony a7C US1.8K local price s$2499 which is about right, not much uplifts.

Guess i've to give up R6 as its out of my budget.

You can facebook message the usual shops like SLRR and MS COLOR.

Don't bother messaging T K Foto, because they have a website/shopee/lazada. Hence, they cannot sell below Canon stated minimum price publicly.

Anyway the uplift isn't $500+, in fact it's less than $300. $2499 USD * 1.07 GST * 1.4 = $3743 SGD. Not that far off from the $3950 some shops were selling during pre order.

Maybe can give feedback to Canon to solve this problem in a future firmware update.
It is software driven and Canon can definitely do it, if they want to.
I surfed some sites and other users had reported the same issue.
What baffles me is that during the extensive pre-release testing of the R5 and R6, it seems none of the Canon ambassadors or selected professionals gave feedback to Canon on this aspect.
Maybe they did, but Canon ignored the feedback because there were too many decisions to make on what to include and what to exclude in these new products.
With robust user feedback, Canon can fine tune the software driven features, later on.

Will drop them an email :)
 

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I haven't got to GBTB, but I would like to share 2 more photos/thoughts about the R6 in the meantime.

The first one is a standard landscape out of my bedroom window. Shot at ISO 12,800 (I just want to say the shadow recovery is awesome!):

IMG_0778+copy.jpg


And this is a more interesting one, shot with the Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 G2 + Tamron TC-x20 Teleconverter (which makes it 1200mm!):

IMG_1450+copy.jpg


I didn't crop the photo, so this is the exact framing. The shot details are 1200mm, 1/1000s, f13, ISO 8000.

I wanted to test whether autofocus will work when I attach a 2x teleconverter on a Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 G2 lens. Traditionally for DSLRs, autofocus won't work in this case because a 2x TC will make it to be a f/13 shot. Most DSLRs can only autofocus up to f/8 and top tier DSLRs like 5D4 and 1DX3 can go up to f/11 using live view.

However mirrorless's autofocus system works differently; the entire AF system works on a live feed by the sensor, hence autofocus is working up to f/22.

The good news is, AF is working very well after some changes to my original setting (I had to make it *less* sensitive otherwise the tamron keeps hunting). Eye detection is tracking most of the time even though I was hand holding the camera. I suspect if I had mounted the camera on a tripod, eye detection should work all the time.

The AF is pretty impressive overall, considering I had attached a teleconverter. Eye detection lets me ignore the AF portion and focus solely on the composition alone. The R6 is truly a game changing camera.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[24/10/2020] An update:

I still didn't have my gimbal and tripod with me for our stroll this morning, but I did have a baby and a stroller :p So I rested my Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 G2 + Tamron TCx20 on the stroller's handlebar. With a stabilized setup, The R6 managed to stay with a stationary long tail shrike for as long as it doesn't turn it's head completely away (thus hiding the eyes). Once the head is turned away, the lens started hunting as expected. But as long as the eyes are there, the R6 stayed it's course. Phenomenal tracking with a f/13 setup.

966mm | 1/640s | f/13 | ISO 12800

IMG_1506+copy_1000.jpg
 

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i love the fact that it has a fully touched articulate screen that A7 series don't while of course now they started out with crappy lens set. Maybe we see more made in malaysia lens and hope it is really affordable rather than 3000+ for the body
 

Yah... these days I find myself using less and less of the viewfinder and more and more of the screen. Especially when shooting my newborn, am just thankful that I no longer have to bend so much haha.

I had also been shooting with an aps-c lens (Tamron 18-270 f/3.5-6.3 PZD) sometimes and the results are pretty good. The r6 was set to crop mode. Crop mode is now one of my favourite feature I love from the r6 :D
 

It has been some time since my last update, so I would like to share some quirks that I had found with the R6 :)

1) There is a very major issue with Tamron G2 lenses despite assurances from Tamron that their lenses are compatible with the R5/R6. There is a setting called "Display off" in Settings>2>Power Saving>Display off. This value here is very crucial if you are using G2 lenses (15-30 G2, 24-70 G2, 70-200 G2, 150-600 G2 etc). If you let it idle past the time stated here, you will destroy the lens's AF motor the next time you press the shutter button. There will be a squeaking sound and sooner or later the AF will stop responding. When you press the shutter button, you will see/hear that the AF motor is literally hammering from MFD to infinity continuously. I had already sent my lens to the local service center and although I got my lens back after a motor replacement, the issue still persist. You can find this widespread issue on youtube:


Interestingly enough, if you manually trigger "Display off" using a button, this issue won't occur. It is only when you let the camera switch off the display by itself. I had flagged out this issue to the previous (they were still the distro back then) local distributor "Shiriro" and they stopped responding to me altogether after some time.

2) I had been using a Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 PZD lens for some time whenever I go out with my kids due to the versatility of the lens. If you notice, this is an APS-C lens so I had to enable crop mode in the body. Doing this will sacrifice the ISO performance and megapixel but still, I had shot about 3000+ photos with this combination so far and it's doing pretty well except for some stuff. Before that, let me share with you some photos and the genre I tested on (apart from my kids):

Flowers (both 1/1250s, f/6.3, ISO 640):

IMG_8595+1000.jpg


IMG_8592+1000.jpg


"Landscapes" (1/250s, f/6.3, ISO 12800):

IMG_7311+1000.jpg


Mammals (1/400s, f/6.3, ISO 12800):

IMG_4123+1000.jpg


Reptiles (1/200s, f/6.3, ISO 12800):

IMG_4147+1000.jpg


Birds (1/1250, f/6.3, ISO 1600):

IMG_4103+1000.jpg


You can see that there are a couple of ISO 12800 shots and they look fine to me. The R6's ISO performance is that good hence even with crop mode, ISO 12800 is still usable. There are however, 2 minor issues:

- The resolution of the files are now 3408*2272. If you are going to submit the photos for competition, some competitions require a minimum of 4000px on the wide side (ILPOTY comes to mind). Thankfully, these competitions are far and between.
- I had encountered 2 instances where the Tamron simply refuses to start focusing until I manually give the focusing ring a turn. Thankfully, this occurs just twice in over 3000 shots. I had encountered this alot more when R6's firmware was in it's infancy but never had this issue after I updated the firmware until now. I had shot about 6000 shots with my Sigma 50mm f/1.8 ART and didn't have this issue.

Apart from that, everything works as per normal. Maybe eye AF is a little sluggish although I'm unsure if that is due to the lens. For big subjects like the jaguar, tracking isn't an issue. It struggled a little when tracking the chameleon's eyes; only locking on for 2 to 3 seconds at a time. In the worst case scenario like the magpie robin where there is backlight in addition to the small eyes, it only managed to lock on the eyes for split seconds. Hence I'm not really sure if the R6 is doing the tracking/algo processing before or after the cropping. Initial eye detection is also non-existent for the chameleon and magpie; I had to switch to spot focus to get the eyes detected.

For the flowers, what you really want is for the af to lock on the pollens or center. While it drew a AF box around the flower, it seems insistent on focusing on the petals instead. I had to switch to spot focusing to get it in focus.

I will be getting a Raynox 150 (that will give me 1.31:1 maximum magnification with the 18-270 PZD, working distance of 20.3cm for those interested in the numbers) and Raynox 250 (2.23:1 MM, WD of 12.2cm) soon and hopefully that will give me more unique angles to try the 18-270mm with the R6:)

3) There is this well known setting called "Subject to detect: People/Animals/No priority" that isn't really intuitive. You would had thought that it will find all the eyes, regardless of people or animals and this setting simply sets the priority but no; if you set to "people" or "no priority", it will never find the animal's eyes. You have to set to "animal" in order to detect an animal's eyes. Interestingly, "animal" also detects human's eyes though at a lower success rate than "people".

4) The manual focus guide (NOT peaking) is a godsend for manual lenses. It's super easy to manual focus now. Never liked peaking.

5) There are some stuff that I wished was better implemented in the R6. Like,
- it would be great if there are shadow boxes to show which eyes are detected so I can be sure it will switch to that's person's eyes eventually instead of just toggling between the left and right eye of a single person in a group photo.
- Custom mode could had gone up to C10 in software, then a setting to import whatever mode into the physical C1 to C3 button... just like how Ricoh did it in their GR3. That would be super helpful.
- When using live view, it would be great if the eye sensor is automatically disabled. If not whenever your finger accidentally hovers over the viewfinder, the screen switches off which doesn't make sense if you are using live view to shoot.
 

Last edited:
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It has been some time since my last update, so I would like to share some quirks that I had found with the R6 :)

1) There is a very major issue with Tamron G2 lenses despite assurances from Tamron that their lenses are compatible with the R5/R6. There is a setting called "Display off" in Settings>2>Power Saving>Display off. This value here is very crucial if you are using G2 lenses (15-30 G2, 24-70 G2, 70-200 G2, 150-600 G2 etc). If you let it idle past the time stated here, you will destroy the lens's AF motor the next time you press the shutter button. There will be a squeaking sound and sooner or later the AF will stop responding. When you press the shutter button, you will see/hear that the AF motor is literally hammering from MFD to infinity continuously. I had already sent my lens to the local service center and although I got my lens back after a motor replacement, the issue still persist. You can find this widespread issue on youtube:


Interestingly enough, if you manually trigger "Display off" using a button, this issue won't occur. It is only when you let the camera switch off the display by itself. I had flagged out this issue to the previous (they were still the distro back then) local distributor "Shiriro" and they stopped responding to me altogether after some time.

2) I had been using a Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 PZD lens for some time whenever I go out with my kids due to the versatility of the lens. If you notice, this is an APS-C lens so I had to enable crop mode in the body. Doing this will sacrifice the ISO performance and megapixel but still, I had shot about 3000+ photos with this combination so far and it's doing pretty well except for some stuff. Before that, let me share with you some photos and the genre I tested on (apart from my kids):

Flowers (both 1/1250s, f/6.3, ISO 640):

IMG_8595+1000.jpg


IMG_8592+1000.jpg


"Landscapes" (1/250s, f/6.3, ISO 12800):

IMG_7311+1000.jpg


Mammals (1/400s, f/6.3, ISO 12800):

IMG_4123+1000.jpg


Reptiles (1/200s, f/6.3, ISO 12800):

IMG_4147+1000.jpg


Birds (1/1250, f/6.3, ISO 1600):

IMG_4103+1000.jpg


You can see that there are a couple of ISO 12800 shots and they look fine to me. The R6's ISO performance is that good hence even with crop mode, ISO 12800 is still usable. There are however, 2 minor issues:

- The resolution of the files are now 3408*2272. If you are going to submit the photos for competition, some competitions require a minimum of 4000px on the wide side (ILPOTY comes to mind). Thankfully, these competitions are far and between.
- I had encountered 2 instances where the Tamron simply refuses to start focusing until I manually give the focusing ring a turn. Thankfully, this occurs just twice in over 3000 shots. I had encountered this alot more when R6's firmware was in it's infancy but never had this issue after I updated the firmware until now. I had shot about 6000 shots with my Sigma 50mm f/1.8 ART and didn't have this issue.

Apart from that, everything works as per normal. Maybe eye AF is a little sluggish although I'm unsure if that is due to the lens. For big subjects like the jaguar, tracking isn't an issue. It struggled a little when tracking the chameleon's eyes; only locking on for 2 to 3 seconds at a time. In the worst case scenario like the magpie robin where there is backlight in addition to the small eyes, it only managed to lock on the eyes for split seconds. Hence I'm not really sure if the R6 is doing the tracking/algo processing before or after the cropping. Initial eye detection is also non-existent for the chameleon and magpie; I had to switch to spot focus to get the eyes detected.

For the flowers, what you really want is for the af to lock on the pollens or center. While it drew a AF box around the flower, it seems insistent on focusing on the petals instead. I had to switch to spot focusing to get it in focus.

I will be getting a Raynox 150 (that will give me 1.31:1 maximum magnification with the 18-270 PZD, working distance of 20.3cm for those interested in the numbers) and Raynox 250 (2.23:1 MM, WD of 12.2cm) soon and hopefully that will give me more unique angles to try the 18-270mm with the R6:)

3) There is this well known setting called "Subject to detect: People/Animals/No priority" that isn't really intuitive. You would had thought that it will find all the eyes, regardless of people or animals and this setting simply sets the priority but no; if you set to "people" or "no priority", it will never find the animal's eyes. You have to set to "animal" in order to detect an animal's eyes. Interestingly, "animal" also detects human's eyes though at a lower success rate than "people".

4) The manual focus guide (NOT peaking) is a godsend for manual lenses. It's super easy to manual focus now. Never liked peaking.

5) There are some stuff that I wished was better implemented in the R6. Like,
- it would be great if there are shadow boxes to show which eyes are detected so I can be sure it will switch to that's person's eyes eventually instead of just toggling between the left and right eye of a single person in a group photo.
- Custom mode could had gone up to C10 in software, then a setting to import whatever mode into the physical C1 to C3 button... just like how Ricoh did it in their GR3. That would be super helpful.
- When using live view, it would be great if the eye sensor is automatically disabled. If not whenever your finger accidentally hovers over the viewfinder, the screen switches off which doesn't make sense if you are using live view to shoot.

Wondering if I should get the R6 or the 1DX3 for action/ sports
 

- When using live view, it would be great if the eye sensor is automatically disabled. If not whenever your finger accidentally hovers over the viewfinder, the screen switches off which doesn't make sense if you are using live view to shoot.
EOS M5 has the same issue. When tilting up the display (e.g. works like waist level viewfinder) I also get this 'display off' effects because the eye sensor is still active and it responds to my finger at the touch screen.
 

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Wondering if I should get the R6 or the 1DX3 for action/ sports

Well if you don't have either at the moment, then definitely go for the R6 because the EF lineup is already dead... no more high end dslr or lenses are coming out anymore. The depreciation gonna drop crazy like analog as the years go by, so 1Dx3 might cost just under 1k in 3 year's time while R6 would still retain some substantial value.

If you already have the 1dx3, action/sports is a very forgiving genre to the camera body. Both R6 and 1Dx3 will perform the same so you won't have any improvement if you go from 1dx3 to R6. If shooting sports/action is your full time job, I would say keep the 1dx3 since there's still advantages of it over r6 (e.g. battery life, handling). If it's just your passion, then personally I'll just change to R6 while 1dx3 still has some value on the market at the moment.
 

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An article came out yesterday on powering the R5/R6:

TDLR:
To power the R5/R6 via USB (thus not relying on battery), you need a 45W (and above) PD Charger. This can either be from the wall charger or a power bank. Also, you still need to put a battery inside the camera although it wont be used :)

I just tested with my 65W PD charger and it is indeed powering through the camera (0% drop in battery life after 30 mins).
 

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Well if you don't have either at the moment, then definitely go for the R6 because the EF lineup is already dead... no more high end dslr or lenses are coming out anymore. The depreciation gonna drop crazy like analog as the years go by, so 1Dx3 might cost just under 1k in 3 year's time while R6 would still retain some substantial value.

If you already have the 1dx3, action/sports is a very forgiving genre to the camera body. Both R6 and 1Dx3 will perform the same so you won't have any improvement if you go from 1dx3 to R6. If shooting sports/action is your full time job, I would say keep the 1dx3 since there's still advantages of it over r6 (e.g. battery life, handling). If it's just your passion, then personally I'll just change to R6 while 1dx3 still has some value on the market at the moment.

Thanks for the advice. Maybe shall keep a lookout for 2nd 1DX3 on the resale market 2 years down the road ....
 

I noticed my R6 would trigger the shutter automatically, even if the camera is powered off; as in, the power switch is in the 'OFF' position. It's kind of random and happens for no particular rhyme or reason.

Any one else here encountered this?
 

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