The Canon EOS R3 Mark II rumor fest is back in full force apparently. We are receiving an increasing number of emails about the camera coming in the next few months. I talked about a new R3 earlier this month and I'm of the belief that if it doesn't come before CP+ at the end […]
In a press release from the FCC, the US has done something we've long feared they would decide to do, which is cast the ban hammer at DJI and forbid the import of new drones into the United States from DJI and other foreign drone manufacturers that use DJI or other foreign components. What I […]
I've seen drips and drabs of MTF, or bookshelf charts, the optical limits thing, the christopher frost thing, or the TDP thing -- sure. Decent resources.
But my 20 years of digital Canon large sensor experience (day 1 5D shooter here too) tells me charts don't tell the whole story, due to field curvature, etc.
So to those who have used this lens for distance @ infinity both wide open and stopped down, how does this lens resolve throughout its focal range?
From what I've seen and gathered (thus far), this lens doesn't shoot well on charts due to field curvature, but shoots very sharp edge to edge in real world distance scenarios but i've only seen a few focal lengths, more so at the wide end. And still, i don't know what processing was done, etc. All Flickr.
So to those picky pixel peepers here, how does this lens shoot real world?
I'm the type to go in at 1:1 edge to edge in LR, and examine each pixel when doing landscapes.
And I get it I get it, art doesn't require pixels, no ones looking at pixels, no ones looking in the corner, etc etc. I am, and I do. And it's how I like to shoot. =)
As the holiday season wraps up another exciting year in the land of Canon, we want to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude to all of you, our passionate readers, forum contributors, those who send us the great tips, those who send us the bizarre tips, and all the people who make this […]
I read a report on DCLife, which highlighted an interview in the Nikkei newspaper with Canon's Canon's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Toshizo Tanak. Canon's CFO said Canon is thinking about outsourcing camera and printer for more production for some lower‑end cameras and printers. The main goal of the outsource is to boost the Return on […]
Optical limits is one of Richard's favourite sites
Summary:
The Good
Very sharp at medium aperture settings
f/1.2 on a budget
The Bad
Blurry corners from f/1.2 to f/2
Excessive axial color fringing at f/1.2
Very pronounced focus shift
Wavy field curvature
Miserable corner bokeh in certain scenes
Overpriced for what it is
I am using a EF Canon 600mm f4 Mkii and it has recently started playing up when it is on my R5ii.
When I first put the lens on the camera (or first turn it on), everything look good but it wont autofocus and the menus wont come up when I press the 'menu' button. If I press the lens release button and rotate the camera then twist is back into position, everything is absolutely fine. This is the case whether I use the lens-adapter lens release or the adapter-lens release.
At first I thought it could be a software thing so I update to firmware 1.2.0 but this has not solved the problem.
I have tried cleaning the contacts but no luck there.
I have called CPS but the lens is now out of service life so they will not touch it.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
I am living in the UK -does anyone know of any reputable third party repairers who may be able to help? (my favourite is H Lehmann in Stoke-on-Trent but I have not been able to contact them - maybe they have stopped trading)
We are getting closer to the end of 2025, and I decided to assemble my list of the best and worst in 2025. Initially, I was going to limit it to Canon, but then I thought I should expand it further. Maybe not the worst, though, because that baby is all Canon. The Best Camera […]
I am looking to upgrade from a 90D into the R eco-system. As I am following pricing fairly closely, both new and used / refurbs for the past month. a thought occurred.
Why do you think so many owners of these cameras list them on auction and sale sites for what Canon (and some of the others - KEH, MPB, et al) ) sells refrubished or re-certified?
I realize there is a delta between what is asked and hoped for and what eventually happens. It just seems that these cameras, at least on the auction sites like ebay are way over-priced.
Was wondering if more experienced people than me could weigh in on this dynamic.
Mods - please excuse if this is in the wrong thread. If so, please move it where it belongs!
LensRentals released its yearly report, which shows its most popular photography and videography equipment rentals from 2025. As the largest rental company in the United States, its data provides one of the best insights into what professional photographers, videographers, and serious enthusiasts are renting. The market share distribution shows that Canon and Sony have continued […]
In the first half of 2026, we are going to see new APS-C cameras announced. One of them will be the EOS R7 Mark II. It's possible that we will see them before the end of February for the CP+ show in Japan. I expect a bigger splash from Canon this year than the PowerShot […]
Ricoh has introduced the RICOH GR IV HDF as a new version of its premium compact camera line, which extends the recently launched standard GR IV model. The model maintains all essential features from the GR IV, which include its 25.7-megapixel APS-C sensor, 28mm-equivalent f/2.8 lens, 5-axis image stabilization, 3-inch LCD, and excellent image quality. […]
Hello everyone! I have recently spotted two small patches of "white pixels" on my R7, and have been wondering if accidental exposure to the sun could have caused that during a recent shoot where I walked around with my mounted Nifty Fifty at f/1.8 without a lens cap (and focusing continuously). During that time, the sun definitely entered the frame a few times, but wasn’t stationary for more than ~10 seconds, so I am unsure if that caused it.
By doing some research, I had hoped to find a comprehensive guide on where the "danger zone" begins and which configurations are safe, but could not find anything concrete. Thus, I am hoping that some more experienced photographers could share their experiences to determine in an empirical way what is safe and what isn’t.
From what I understand, there are two distinct scenarios that are dangerous:
Thermally overwhelming single photosites: Focusing the sun with a low focal length and wide open aperture onto single photosites (sun covers very small area on sensor), overheating and damaging them, causing them to permanently malfunction, while adjacent photosites remain (mostly) intact.
Thermally overwhelming the sensor cooling capability: With a telephoto lens, project a larger image of the sun onto the sensor (lower intensity/photosite, but much more energy deposited on sensor overall), causing large portions of or the entire sensor to overheat, melt, and potentially cause a fire.
For the purpose of this thread (to make values comparable), I would like to mostly focus on the first scenario, although hearing about instances of the second will be insightful as well. I will also assume that the photosites are always the same size, also ignoring technicalities such as dual pixels and wiring for now. Let us also assume that we take a picture of the bright midday sun that emits a fixed (maximum) light intensity. Let us further assume that the camera is focused at "infinity" (or, you know, the distance of the sun) to produce the smallest-possible spot on the sensor.
It is my understanding (please correct me if I am wrong, though!) that the f-number and the duration of the exposure are the only relevant variables, with other things like focal length actually not (strongly) affecting the intensity of light at a single photosite (and instead mostly the total thermal load on the sensor).
If I have a 200mm lens with f/1.8 compared to an 18mm lens with f/1.8, it is my understanding (based on this this formula) that the light intensity hitting each photosite is identical, only the image of the sun is much larger on the sensor in the former case (risking damage to many more photosites at the same time, and requiring larger turns of the camera to get the photosites out of the sun projection, and producing a much higher thermal load on the sensor as a whole). A wide-angle lens simply projects the same-intensity sun because of the same f-number, but onto much less photosites. This is correct, right?
I am aware that I am ignoring the fact that in case of telephoto lenses, there is a greatly reduced heat dissipation to neighboring photosites if they are also illuminated by the sun, since a whole section of the sensor then heats up as a whole. This may well introduce a (weak) dependence of the formula also on focal length, however, its impact should be lower (at most linear) compared to the f-number, which has a squared relationship according to this formula. For the sake of simplicity, I will thus ignore focal length.
ISO should not have any impact whatsoever, because it doesn't impact the intensity of light that shines onto the photosite.
Thus, I think it would be most useful to derive an approximation formula for maximum safe exposure time of a single photosite to the sun as a function of f-number ("N"). I created a simple prototype below: t₀/N² < t_max(N²) < t₁/N²,
where t₀ is the largest reported time where you observed no sensor damage when using a lens of f-number "N", and t₁ is the smallest reported (by you, below!) time where you observed sensor damage when using a lens with f-number "N". t_max then is the f-number-dependent threshold exposure time, where sensor damage is starting to be expected.
As mentioned, I would like to derive upper time limits of what is safe and the lower time limits of when sensor damage can be expected (probably differing by a factor >2).
Therefore, I would like to ask YOU, if you ever photographed the sun without an ND filter for a certain amount of time and experience no damage, as well as if you ever photographed the sun and experienced sensor damage (with or without ND filter), to report the duration and f-number of the lens that you used, as well as approximate time and sun intensity/weather (all of which is conveniently stored within images if you didn't use ND filters). It is important to note that the camera must have remained steady for this shot for wide angle lenses (less important for telephoto lenses, because the sun covers a large area of the sensor!).
As this is essentially two formulas in one, not only those who damaged their sensors are asked to comment their exposure times, f-numbers and lighting conditions, but also everyone who pointed at the sun and DIDN'T damage their sensor. This will allow everyone reading this thread to get a feeling for what is generally safe, and what is generally destructive.
Based on this thread, we already have a first reported exposure duration of around 5 minutes that did not cause damage, although the f-number is missing. @Kit Lens Jockey if you are seeing this, do you by chance still have the picture and can report on the f-number and a rough approximation of the density of the solar-blocking filter on the window?
As discussed in the replies, this little project does not aim to produce exact threshold values. They will have a large uncertainty and may even be off by a factor of 2, 5, or even more. But it would be immensely helpful to have at least some rough guidelines, such as "When using f/1.8, it is safe to point your camera at the sun for 1-2 seconds" versus "[...] 10-20 seconds" versus "[...] 2-3 minutes". As in, understanding the rough order of magnitude, without having to go through a potentially very expensive trial-and-error experiment of "just risking it".
Thank you all for your help! Once some of you reported your experiences and concrete values, I will update this post to derive lower and upper limits (t₀ and t₁).
Canon has two RF versions of the 35mm focal length, but its flagship L series lens hasn't yet seen the light of day. The Canon RF 35mm f/1.2L USM has been rumored for quite some time, and if it continues for much longer, it will be granted unicorn status. The Canon RF 35mm f/1.4L VCM […]
PhotonsToPhotos is back, and this time, they have finished up their analysis of the Canon EOS R6 Mark III sensor, so we have some actual numbers to quantify here with the sensor and how it measures up against the earlier versions of the Canon EOS R6 lineup and its competition. If we compare all the […]
BCN released its data for November, and there are a few other interesting pieces of information that have come out lately, so I'm going to lump it all into my musings, so lets get into things and oh, we have to talk about the R3 Mark II, R7 Mark II, R10 Mark II along the way. What is BCN and Why? Just for those completely unfamiliar with BCN, BCN tracks sales receipts from over half of all Japanese retail stores (online storefronts and physical stores). Of any market, BCN gives us the most accurate look at what is being sold […]
BCN released its data for November, and there are a few other interesting pieces of information that have come out lately, so I'm going to lump it all into my musings, so lets get into things and oh, we have to talk about the R3 Mark II, R7 Mark II, R10 Mark II along the […]
There's a rumor that Viltrox will be the next manufacturer granted the ability to make lenses for the electronic RF mount, and the first lenses will be coming “soon”. This honestly doesn't surprise me much – Viltrox was one of the 3 manufacturers that made mirrorless autofocus lenses for the EOS-M mount. What does surprise […]
Looking at this patent application (2025-179579), there are a lot of designs in here that I found intriguing, but there are certainly two that reached out and smacked me across the side of the head, and that's a Canon RF 300mm f/2.0L IS and a 200mm f/1.8L. But this is one of those patents where […]
The original Canon EOS R3 was a “stop-gap” for lack of a better term until Canon could develop what they considered a true 1 series flagship. The EOS R3 certainly resembled Canon's gripped DSLRs like the EOS-1D Mark III, that was and is extremely popular among professionals in various disciplines. The EOS R3 has a […]
A new rumor has circulated that Fujifilm is looking at more small sensor compact cameras for next year. The rumor states that Fujifilm is considering another compact with a 1″ sensor size. Fujifilm has done small sensor compacts before, and last year did the Fujifilm X half, which also featured a 1″ sensor. But at […]
Okay, it's been over 3 years since the RF-S lineup was released by Canon, and they have yet to really capitalize on what those cameras were. I know some people dismiss the EOS-M system and what it was for Canon and wanted it to die (Ahem, Craig), but for me, anyway, it was the perfect […]
Life was grand before IBIS (in body image stabilization) because camera manufacturers could simply slap a hunk of metal onto the back of the sensor, and things would stay cool, as heat would transmit through the camera body chassis and dissipate. However, when the camera is stabilized, the weight and size of the platform that […]
