Photography Gear: The Camera & Lenses Thread

Wes · November 15, 2022, 12:15am

Started to prevent a total derail in my CYYZ Aviation Photos thread - this will start off with myself and @Derbysieger talking about Canon lenses and whatever tangents that may bring. Feel free to chime in, ask about or otherwise discuss other brands of kit such as Sony & Nikon as well!

To get right to it, @Derbysieger - I have my lens wish list but wonder what your thoughts are.
I’ll throw my kit in a details-tag dropdown for reference. Sticking to mirrorless RF lens discussion for the moment…

Wes' Camera Kit

Canon EOS R10 Camera - Bought as a kit.
RF-S18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM - Kit Lens
RF50mm F1.8 STM - Prime Lens
RF100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM

I marked the lenses I own in the lineup below as well, with bold.

Full Canon RF Lens Lineup + CAD Pricing

Lens Model	Price (CADS)
RF 50mm f/1.8 STM	$269.99
RF-S 18-45MM F4.5-6.3	$399.99
RF 16mm F2.8 STM	$409.99
RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS STM	$549.99
RF 35mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM	$649.99
RF-S 18-150MM F3.5-6.3	$649.99
RF 15-30mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM	$729.99
RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM	$799.99
RF 85mm f/2.0 IS STM Macro	$849.99
RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM	$879.99
RF 600mm F11 IS STM	$1,099.99
RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM	$1,199.99
RF 800mm f/11 IS STM	$1,399.99
RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM	$1,749.99
RF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro IS USM	$1,849.99
RF 14-35mm F4 L IS Usm	$2,249.99
RF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM	$2,399.99
RF 5.2mm F2.8L Dual Fisheye VR	$2,699.99
RF 135mm f1.8 L IS USM	$2,849.99
RF 50mm f/1.2 L USM	$2,999.99
RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L IS	$2,999.99
RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS	$2,999.99
RF 85mm f/1.2 L USM	$3,499.99
RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM	$3,499.99
RF 100-500 f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM	$3,849.99
RF 28-70mm f/2.0 L USM	$3,899.99
RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS	$3,999.99
RF 400mm F2.8 L IS USM	$15,899.99
RF 600mm f/4.0 L IS USM	$17,199.99
RF 800mm 5.6L IS USM	$22,099.99
RF 1200MM 8.0L IS USM	$25,999.99

Right now, my focal length coverage is 18-45 / 50 / 100-400. So, there is a gap to be filled essentially from 46-100mm. I could do that relatively cheaply with the RF-S 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM. In the USA, you can buy the R10 as a kit with that lens instead of the 18-45, which I would have - but that kit does not come to Canada. I don’t really want to grab it now despite the cheap solution simply because I greatly see the benefit of faster lenses now with the 50 prime, and since that is another RF-S lens, it is APSC only - and I like the idea of sticking to RF full-frame lenses so I can add an FF body to my kit down the road and carry as many lenses forward as possible.

So that leaves me leaning towards perhaps the cheaper 24-105, but for not a mountain more I could do the 24-240 which is also a bit faster of a lens, and potentially have a “universal” lens for many use cases. I don’t feel too strongly towards the 24-105 F/4 model, as it is getting up in price and if I am aiming faster and shorter in focal length, I’d rather save towards the 24-70 f/2.8 lens. With that though, I’d still have a gap from 70-100.

The 24-70 also would be a good way to replace the 18-45 when it comes to moving into a full-frame body, and makes an excellent portrait taking lens from what I understand.

Derbysieger · November 15, 2022, 5:51am

Re-edit on PC after work. Hopefully a little more structured and comprehensive.

Don’t fuss too much about filling every gap in your lens line up

If you are looking for good lenses on a budget I recommend the f/1.8 or f/2 primes (you already have the 50mm, there’s also a 24mm, 35mm and a 85mm). The 85mm F2 would be my go to lens if all you need is a nice protrait lens although the 50mm F1.8 is also quite good in that regard, particularly on an APS-C body.
You really don’t need to cover every focal length, especially at the longer end the differences become quite small. Take 70mm vs 100mm for example. The difference between the two focal lengths is much less noticeable than small differences at the wide end where you will notice a significant difference even between 14mm and 16mm lenses.

As for a midrange zoom the RF24-70mm F2.8 L is of course the standard to get, however if money is no issue there is also the insane 28-70mm F2 lens. It’s big and heavy but the image quality is excellent and it’s fast and sharp enough to replace the 35mm, 50mm and even the 85mm primes. I tried it in a shop a couple of years ago, it’s insanely good!

If I were in your place I would shy away from the RF24-240mm and especially the RF-S18-150mm lenses. It’s not that they’re bad lenses but they do have their limits and you said it yourself - the RF-S lens is for APS-C bodies and since you want to get into full frame cameras as well I recommend to keep that in mind when buying gear. The RF24-240mm is an okay travel lens. Lightweight, covering a large focal length which makes it quite versatile, however it does show significant vignetting and distortion which in this day and age is of course not difficult to correct for in software.

The RF24-105 F4L IS USM is a nice lightweight lens, pretty much the entry level into Canon’s professional L-Series lineup. If I had to pick just a single lens to take on a trip it would probably be this one because of its light weight and small size. Image quality is excellent but of course it’s not an F2.8 lens. The high ISO capabilities of modern cameras negate that disadvantage somewhat and if you’re after landscapes you will be shooting at F/8-F/16 anyway. At 105mm you can even use it as a portrait lens.

At the end of the day you’ll find that you end up with a few favourite lenses. For me it’s the RF15-35mm and the EF70-200mm. About 80-90% of my pictures are taken with one of the two. It’s what I pack when I plan on doing landscapes, cities and industries. I also like to take the 100mm macro with me when I am out in nature or plan on doing portraits but I often leave it at home. It’s a fantastic lens but very situational and unless I am doing macro photography it’s redundant (although wide open it has better image quality than the EF70-200mm)

It’s very important to know what you will use the lenses for. If a fast lens is not that important to you there is no need to buy the most expensive glass. Both the RF70-200mm F4 L IS USM and the RF14-35mm F4 L IS USM are fantastic lenses for example and the 14-35mm is even wider at the short end than its F2.8 counter part, so if you like to shoot wide angle scenes it might be an even better choice than the RF15-35mm lens. On the ther hand the wider aperture comes in handy when you like to take pictures of the night sky so make sure to think about what the most common use case will be.

To sum it up, the question you should be asking yourself is what do you want to do with your camera?
Since you have the 50mm do you really need to bridge the gap to 100mm? If the answer is yes I would look at the 85mm F2 lens rather than a zoom.
If you want to be set up for a potential FF body in future you can’t go wrong with the RF24-70mm F2.8 L IS USM or, at the lower end, the RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM.

I hope that it helps somewhat to make in informed decision on which gear to get next

Now to my stuff…
Here’s my collection of cameras and lenses and other important equipment.

Derbys camera kit, my most used gear in **bold**

EOS R5 with Battery Grip (currently not installed for size/weight reasons)
EOS R with Battery Grip
EOS 50D
EF-RF adapter
RF15-35mm F2.8L IS USM
RF24-105 F4L IS USM
RF100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM
EF70-200mm F2.8L IS II USM
EF50mm F1.8 II USM ← needs a proper cleaning which requires disassembly and I am planning to get the RF50mm F1.2 at some point so it mostly sits at home…
EF24-105mm F4 L IS II USM
Manfrotto Befree GT XPRO Carbon Tripod with a MH496-BH (Ball Head)
Manfrotto 190 XPROB with a 496RC2 Ball Head
Lee Filters Foundation Kit
Lee Filters Big Stopper (10 stop ND-Filter)
Lens cloths and a cleaning kit
Speedlite 430EX II
A set of Neewer Studio flashes

Picture

Camera wise I am set for the next couple of years but I have a lot of plans to expand my lens collection. The next addition is going to be the RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM which I will pick up personally in the coming week.
After that I am going to look for primes, especially the 50mm F1.2 and there are rumors about a fast ultrawide coming in the future which I am very excited about.

I don’t really feel the need to replace the EF70-200mm tbh, the adapter works flawlessly and it’s an excellent lens. The only benefit of the RF version would be lower weight and size so this lens is staying for the foreseeable future.

I also want to look into getting a telescope and doing some more Astro at some point but that will be a whole other rabbit hole to get into

to be continued…
Next up neutral density and polarising filters

Wes · November 16, 2022, 4:40am

So in regards to the 24-105 f4 vs. 24-70 f2.8, I know the price gap is large but do you have any further thought on not having 71-105mm as a focal length? (FF)

What about 70mm for portraits? (FF)

I do like the idea of being able to take lower light photos, and the 50mm f1.8 has really opened my eyes to what wide aperture can do - indoor photos where flash is not needed and ISO and noise are minimized. I took one of the best photos of my father we have with it in the first few photos I took at home!

It looks good too for portraits (it is basically an 80mm with the crop factor), we had to take some for our work website’s revamp as we’re adding a “meet the team” kind of page - I actually bought the lens anticipating taking those photos, since it was cheap and if they decided to pay a pro - I’d be out very little and still have a new toy to try out! So while what I took is no set of master works, it far surpassed the expectation of “guy from work is going to bring in his camera”. (I have Adobe CC, and Lightroom in my toolbelt to thank some too - but the edits were minor. Background mask, 1:1 crop and minor lighting/color/etc tweaks.)

Yes, I would like to do that - I just have to take some trips away from our horrendous light pollution.

Overall - a balance of quality & versatility is the goal - just not sure exactly where yet!

————

We’ll make another thread if need be!

Ah, I have very primitive knowledge here. So far I have only bought straight lens protectors, not even UV’s. I wanted to understand how they affect the image & why and when I would use them before investing.

————

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge, experience & opinion.

Derbysieger · November 16, 2022, 11:22am

I don’t think you’ll miss much. If you want to start building a collection of professional lenses you can’t go wrong with the 24-70 or 28-70. You can always get a 70-200 later Or bridge the gap with an 85mm lens.

Yes, it’s nice. 50mm works as well, you just need to get a little closer to your subject.

Well there’s the ‘Holy Trinity’ of lenses. In this case it’s the 15-35mm F2.8, 24-70mm F2.8 (or 28-70 F2 if you don’t mind the cost) and 70-200mm F2.8 which covers almost all general photography needs. It only lacks in the extreme ultra wide and long tele range, the latter of which you have already covered and there isn’t an ultrawide RF lens from Canon yet. The RF 24-105 F4 is not quite as well build as the F2.8 or F2 equivalents and the image quality does fall behind a little, especially with an open aperture but it’s by no means a bad lens.

I’ll go into more detail later but if you take care of your lenses you shouldn’t need lens protectors unless you know that you’re very clumsy or when taking your gear out during a sandstorm
ND-Filters and polarizers are different though. I’ll get into that when I’m home later today.

Derbysieger · November 16, 2022, 1:03pm

Btw you f you like to see what kind of settings and lenses I use when taking pictures you can always browse through my Flickr feed. I never delete exif data so the information is always displayed with my photos:

Also Flickr’s explore feed is an amazing place to admire the work of other photographers and find inspiration:

Wes · November 16, 2022, 2:05pm

Awesome stuff, I can see you are an artist with longer exposures. Do you use one of the shutter remotes or the canon app at all for that, or just click on camera?

Thoughts on Megapixel count?
Ie, if I an going to add a FF body later, does even the R6 (or mk ii) make sense seeing as how it is the same 24MP as my R10, or better to wait and save for something more like the R5?

Derbysieger · November 16, 2022, 2:45pm

Thanks, for shutter speeds of less than 30s I simply use the 2s timer, when taking exposures longer than 30s I use the Canon App. It’s really good. Years ago I used to have a remote with my EOS 50D but the newer cameras all have WIFI and BT and the Canon app is so good there’s really no need for a remote.

It depends. Do you want to do large (like 3m by 2m) prints or crop in for detail? Then more MP is better. Otherwise it really doesn’t matter. The R6 has slightly better low light performance than the R5 though. Something to consider.

Filters

Lens Protection and “UV Filters”
oh boy dunk GIF

First, let’s get this straight out of the way. As already mentioned, generally speaking you don’t need protective filters. As for UV Filters? No, just no.

Putting additional glas, however thin, infront of your already very well protected front element is normally a waste of money and can even degrade image quality, especially when shooting into bright light (like the sun or headlights of cars etc.) it can cause unwanted artifacts like ghosting or a washed out image.
Instead always put on the lenscap when you don’t use the camera for longer periods and put on the lens hood. For me, the lens cap goes on whenever I put the camera out of my hands.
Now there are situations where it might be a good idea to protect your expensive gear. For example if you do journalistic work at a protest or when taking photos in a crowd at events where it might get rough, at a sports event with stuff being thrown around like a baseball. In these cases it might reduce the chance of actual damage to your lens should something hit the front but otherwise I would stay away from it.

Now to the actually usefull stuff.

Polarizers
Polarising filters can enhance your image in multiple ways. They can be adjusted to increase or decrease color saturation and contrast, they can get rid of reflections when shooting through glas and water or increase the reflection. In short - they can be incredibly useful. The one I had a couple of years ago unfortunately got lost during a move so that’s definitely something I want to pick up again.
If you’re into street and car photography they are probably essential but they are also useful for landscape and nature photography.

ND-Filters
Neutral Density Filters can be extremely useful and come in a huge variety.

The simplest ones straight up increase exposure time which enables you to take long exposures in bright daylight. They come in different strengths (usually expressed in stops) and are basically sunglasses for your camera. They are designed to only decrease the amount of light they let through. As their name suggests they are supposed to be neutral so they should leave all colourinformation intact. Now I haven’t found an ND-Filter that is completely neutral but this colorshift is easily corrected in your editing software of choice.

Then there are gradual ND-Filters. They can be used in situations with high dynamic range, for example during sunsets, to bring the exposure of the sky down. This enables you to capture the whole image in camera without the need to stack multiple exposures in post. They come in huge varieties - different strengths, with hard, medium and soft edges etc. But of course the same effect can easily be achieved in photoshop with multiple exposures.

Here are some examples of pictures I took with a 10-Stop ND-Filter

2022-06-06 - Nordmole Wieck | ~Mario~ | Flickr

2020-11-27 - Mirrored | ~Mario~ | Flickr

2020-07-29 - Wasserfall Dreimühlen | ~Mario~ | Flickr

2020-06-13 - Kasteeltuinen Arcen | ~Mario~ | Flickr

Autobahn - A40 Richtung Essen, Moers, 2020-02-01 | 10 Stop N… | ~Mario~ | Flickr

Autumn Sun - 2019-11-24 | Staatsforst Rheurdt/Littard | Flickr

Wes · November 16, 2022, 8:46pm

I have used it a couple times, is seems to disconnect pretty easily when not being actively used - but worked great otherwise. So far my shots have been mainly handheld (excluding the ones at work and some moon shots) so it has not come in to play much.

Perhaps crops? I know with FF I lose the “free crop-factor zoom” so maybe that would be a factor in some cases. Seems to be how some of the really good in-flight military jet photos are done!

The hatred! Well if they are that awful, it saves me money!

Aha! But I have a trick up my sleeve I should have mentioned I suppose. Except for the 50mm where this wasn’t available due to the size, the other two lenses’ protectors are magnetic - and quick to remove for those cases, rather than unscrewing. I do put the cap back on whenever I don’t expect to need to snap a photo.

Canon doesn’t include these with many lenses, including all the ones I have - would you consider them an essential? I have read opinions the other way.

Do you do screw-on / magnetic round filters or use the square / rectangle + holder type?

Derbysieger · November 16, 2022, 8:59pm

Yes, that is in fact the only issue I have with the app but it’s not a deal breaker for me and it’s otherwise really good.

Hehe, well they are relic of another time. Modern lenses are coated and generally have build-in UV-protection. Also, the camera sensor itself has glass infront of it that is coated to filter IR and UV light.

Yes, there are legitimate uses for protective filters. Another one that I just thought of would be a visit to the Oregon coast to photograph the waves. Saltwater is no joke and while a little spray is probably fine, better to be safe than sorry. But in most cases I’d simply leave it off.

Oh yeah, I didn’t think of that, the less expensive lenses ship very bare bones and IIRC the lens hoods are pretty expensive. When you start buying the expensive glass they’ll be included. As for your current lenses I would definitely get one for the 100-400mm. It’s not really needed for the 50mm and the kit zoom though.

I have the rectangle + holder type.
Lee Filters foundation kit (filter size 100mm) with the 77mm and 82mm screw-in holder and the Lee Filters Big Stopper.

Wes · November 17, 2022, 2:05am

Just as a note for others if they are also wondering how circular polarizers work - this is one of the better blog posts I have seen explaining it, as they actually mention that fact that the “filter” (singular) consists of two elements.

How do Circular Polarizers Work? Physics of Polarization — cameraville

Edit: To add to something that was stupidly confusing me:

I noticed most screw-on CPL’s looked that two parts and allowed rotation to change the effect. I thought this was changing the alignment of the layers - and was then baffled as to why the magnetic version that goes with my protector’s base lacked the rotation ring……

The normal ones have the ring because they are screw-in and you have to be able to rotate them without unscrewing them off the lens; the Kenko Pro1D+ magnetic system I have doesn’t need that as the magnetic system isn’t rotationally locked to begin with!

You aren’t changing the alignment of the elements to each other, just the alignment vs. incoming light.

Wes · November 17, 2022, 6:07pm

Well I am not sure about future rumors but from my last check there is one more lens that came out in the last month and a bit:

RF15-30mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM

I’ll add then to the table a bit later once I am on desktop, and also can get the price if they it is up on the local store’s page.

Edit: the RF 24mm f/1.8 is already on the list, but it is also a recent addition to the lineup.

Derbysieger · November 17, 2022, 6:54pm

No, that’s the standard consumer wide angle zoom. Besides I already own the 15-35mm F2.8 L IS USM.

I am talking about a fast 10mm or 12mm lens but I can’t find it right now. There will be a 10-24mm F4 L UWA lens which I would be interested in if they don’t come out with a fast 10mm or 12mm prime.

The 10-24mm F4 us going to be very expensive though. Definitely over 3000€ judging by the already expensive EF 11-24 F4L

Edit

The reason I am looking for a fast UWA prime (preferably an F1.4 or even F1.2) is stuff like this

It’s a panoramic consisting of two images (IIRC, it might even have been three images) shot at 15mm. With a 10mm or 12mm prime this might be possible without the need to take multiple exposures and if it’s a fast lens I can drop the ISO. The 10-24 F4 L will of course work but it is going to require more postprocessing and it’ll be way more expensive than a prime lens

Edit 2:
Found some rumours about a Canon RF 12mm f/1.8L USM. I’ll probably get this as my go to milky way lens

Wes · November 17, 2022, 8:33pm

Found a bit of rumor info:

Edit: Prime WA’s

Derbysieger · November 21, 2022, 3:40pm

A pretty boring but nevertheless important piece of equipment when you’re hiking and need to carry your camera in an easily accessible spot are camera straps and clips. Of course you don’t want this permanently attached to your camera so I use the Peak Design Camera clips. Pretty expensive for what it is but very convenient. They have Arca Swiss and Manfrotto RC2 compatible plates that can simply clip onto their anchors. You might have noticed the little Anchor links on my EOS R5 - That’s what they’re for

Wes · November 23, 2022, 3:59am

These look very interesting. Clean, functional. Better than having the camera sway about around your neck via the camera strap and then having to hold it to stop that.

Firmware

What are your thoughts on firmware updates? Has Canon been pretty stable in regard to the quality of their updates? I just got a notification that firmware 1.2 is out for the R10.

Derbysieger · November 23, 2022, 8:49am

There have been some pretty decent firmware updates for my EOS R, especially the AF. For the R5 I have skipped some updates but I am now on 1.6 I believe. Some Updates are needed for compatibility with new lenses.

BTW you can now download firmware updates to your camera via the Canon App. Much more convenient than putting it on an SD or CF Express card and then applying it manually.

Edit: Just read some previews of the EOS R6 II, same launch price as the R6 with some nice upgrades so if you plan on going full frame at some point it’s a very good option

Derbysieger · November 23, 2022, 3:37pm

A quick back button auto focus setup guide up for @Wes

I don’t have the same camera but the process and menus should be very close.

We’ll start by setting up your default AF settings.

Go into your menu and select the AF menu. The first tab should look something like this:

Set AF operation to SERVO AF. You shouldn’t really need ONE SHOT AF - in situations where I could use it I always end up using manual focus.

AF method should be set to your preferred method.

Subject to detect - as required.

Note that Eye detection is greyed out and set to Disable. This is only because by default I am not in subject tracking, the way it is set up, it will work by simply pressing the AF-ON button without constantly going into the menu and enabling it. But you might have to temporarily switch to EYE AF via the quick menu and enable it once after you have everything else set up.

Continous AF - Disable. The naming on this one is a bit confusing. Having it enabled simply means that your AF will always try to focus on something which can quickly drain the battery and is simply not needed the way I have my AF set up.

Touch & drag AF settings as desired.

Set Inital Servo AF pt for subject tracking as required. I have it set so that it tries to find something to track around the area where I have my AF point when I activate EYE AF

There are more options hidden within the other submenus but these are the most important aspects.

Next up we need to customize some buttons:

First, lets decouple AF from your Shutter button and set the half press to Metering start only.

Next, scroll down, and select the AF-ON button. Set it to Metering and AF start and press INFO to set up the details. This is where the magic happens.

Set AF operation to SERVO and AF method to subject tracking with face/eye detect. You can even set the different AF cases for your servo AF but I don’t want the button to overwrite my AF case settings so I have it disabled.

Do the same for your *-Button but this time, instead of setting it to subject detect, simply leave the detailed settings disabled. This way it uses whatever AF operation and AF method you have currently selected to focus.

That’s basically it. It also doesn’t matter which button you use for subject tracking and which one you use for simply activating the AF.

There are of course a lot more options that modify your auto focus’ behaviour that I have also customized but this is very situational and you need to find out what works best for you.

Wes · November 25, 2022, 2:00am

You must have a sharp eye for correct focus, or have you enabled the focus guide?

My menu looks different and eye detection is not greyed out even when subject tracking is disabled.

Understand what it is for, fortunately I can’t screw this one up as my camera does not have the option.

My camera lacks this entire capability it seems, I do not have it in the menus. I’ll add as well that I do have the advanced user guide downloaded, and searching for it turned up no results found (tried different search terms in case there was no literal match.)

Interesting - I will have to play with it a bit, on first try though it feels a bit awkward. Perhaps that is because the R10 is a smaller body and it is a bit more ergo on a larger body.

No magic for me then, there is no submenu for me when setting AF-ON to Metering + AF. I suppose those are paywalled software features to the more expensive R5 body.

Wes · November 25, 2022, 3:01am

Lens Quality

While I was playing around with the settings above, I was focusing around my room and noticed the camera would get lost a lot and start hunting - it didn’t seem to be metering some of the time, at least that is what I assume because when it did go, the screen (image from the sensor, not the whole display) lightens up for a moment just before it would focus whereas when it did not succeed the screen never brightened up. I had the RF-S 18-45mm attached so on a hunch I switched over to the RF 50mm and it had a much higher success rate.

My room has quite a lot of stuff in it - a visually busy environment - so it would be easy to miss judge the target and/or catch a shadow and get a bad sample I suppose, even on spot AF. It’s perhaps 3.3m x 3.3m room and lit by one 60W equivalent LED bulb in a dome fixture… ideal lighting it is not.

The wider aperture & larger actual diameter pay off even before you fire the shutter!

Using a Tripod

To quote from the Where You Are photos here as it is a better topic to discuss…

That is a really nice shot. The 1 second exposure time reminded me of something I read. When researching the cameras and lenses, I had come across Ken Rockwell’s site which seems to be the best for straight technical data & details out of some of the review sites. I saw a large sum of the internet’s other photographers are not of fan of him for always using the same backyard for lens testing and his art style - but that is another story. The point is getting multiple opinions matter!

So, to tripods - Ken is apparently quite against the tripod in most general use cases and talks about learning to shoot hand-held most of the time. Even with my limited skillset I found that idea a bit strange, unless you are trying to challenge yourself to not use it - like not carrying around every focal range of lens, and instead moving yourself instead of the zoom ring all the time which was another point he made.

I am not so steady as to pull off 1 second without making some blur. Do you sort of have a cutoff for when you’ll use a tripod exposure wise? What about choosing the longer exposure vs. perhaps a higher ISO?

Software Updates

The update that just came out a week or so for the Canon connect app is way better so far. Much less finnicky with the WiFi connection it seems now. And it seems I can do GPS data with Bluetooth now as the old version would only do GPS data with WiFi which was not ideal. I also applied firmware 1.2 for the R10.

Control Rings

Speaking of software updates, the R10 does need some lens data for the RF lenses. My 18-45’s control ring does the expected and configured full-time manual focus. The 100-400 also does, but it has a dedicated focus ring and then a control ring on top of that which the R10 doesn’t seem to acknowledge. The 50mm’s control ring will not work for full-time manual focus, but will work in the “allow before one-shot mode” and “allow after one shot” mode (not the actual mode names - that’s just the actual result they give).

Camera Modes- Fv "Flex" Priority

Something that Canon was praised for in reviews that caught my attention was the Fv Flex-Priority mode, which I honestly love. All the settings, whichever auto and whichever manually set as you please. The only thing I wish it could have was the exposure meter (it is disabled as you can vary exposure compensation). I know I can use M Manual mode mostly the same, but the way the two dials work in Fv is just way better functionally - with one changing what setting is “active” and the other adjusting its value.

Derbysieger · November 25, 2022, 9:11am

Nahh, my eyes are terribble It’s usually when I am on a tripod or doing macro photography. I do have the focus guide on but when it’s too dark for the camera to properly focus where I want I simply use the 10x digital zoom to focus. For macro photography I set the lens to MF at minimum focus distance and simply move the camera so that the focal plane is where I want it to be. I usually do a short burst at 20fps while slowly moving the camera so that I have a decent chance to get a good shot.
This one is a good example of that technique:

Maybe, the R5 has a very comfortable grip and my thumb is naturally in a position to hit the AF-ON button. The *-button isn’t as comfortable to reach but I don’t use it that often.

That’s a shame. There’s still value in doing back button focus but what I like most about it is that I have two focusing modes available at the press of a button without having to go into the menu. That doesn’t seem to be an option on the R10 then. Maybe there’ll be a Magic Lantern firmware at some point

Ken is weird and a bit of a joke but there’s no denying he has some influence. It really depends on the kind of photography that you do. In this light I might have been able to get a sharp picture handheld at 24mm after a couple of tries (the combination of IBIS and lens IS on the R5 is really good) but 1s at 50mm as in this photo is next to impossible and in the time I would need to get just one decent shot the nice light will be gone lol.
At 15mm I can hold 1s shots with IBIS+lens stabilization pretty consistently but anything longer and I need a tripod and disable image stabilization entirely (it gets confused when doing longer exposures on a tripod and you end up with a blurry image).
As for his comments about focal range, yes there is value in taking a few steps instead of simply zooming in and out. It forces you to try different perspectives and you might have a better chance to find something really nice but of course you can and should do the same with a zoom lens soooo… meh?

It’s situational. If I expect movement that I want to freeze → ISO goes up and the shutter is probably fast enough so that I don’t need a tripod (Astro being the exception). Anything else and I am on a tripod, especially if I need to take multiple exposures for the photo that I have in mind. In that situation hand held will absolutely not do - regardless of exposure time.

Canon lenses can come with up to three rings. You always have a focusing ring, zoom lenses of course have a zoom ring and then there’s what Canon calls the control ring. It’s possible that you first need to assign something for the ring to control. It should be in the custom controls menu.

About 95% of the time I am in manual mode, sometimes in TV and the rest in bulb mode, I am afraid I can’t help you there. I use the histogram as my main reference for exposure. If this mode works well for you that’s good, I just like to have complete control over every setting. There isn’t really a right or wrong way to do things though, just be careful that you don’t use unnecessarily high ISO in situations where you could have gotten the same image with a longer exposure or wider aperture.
Here’s a look through my EVF: