Canon EOS R6 firmwave v1.5.0 changelog posted, download now available

entoman

wildlife photography
May 8, 2015
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I'll be in Kenya for the next couple of weeks using the 180mm macro to photograph butterflies and dragonflies, so that should provide an answer about whether the IBIS is more efficient with the non-stabilised 180mm after the firmware upgrade.
Please test this and share here.
I've just returned from a week photographing butterflies in Kenya with the (unstabilised) Canon 180mm F3.5L macro on my R5, with the latest v1.5.0 firmware installed, and I can confirm that the update improves the effect of the IBIS by roughly one stop.

The effectiveness of the IBIS will vary according to circumstances (how the camera is held, how steady the user's hands are, etc) so my comments are only relevant to my own usage.

I'm typically shooting fairly static subjects (butterflies at rest or basking on foliage) at reproduction ratios between 1:4 and 1:2). With the older firmware I found it difficult to get sharp shots at shutter speeds longer than 1/250. With the new firmware I can shoot at 1/125 and still get most images very sharp. Even at 1/60 I get around 20% of images sharp with static subjects and a little extra care, which is pretty good IMO for a handheld 180mm macro with no optical stabilisation.
 
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Jun 17, 2012
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I've just returned from a week photographing butterflies in Kenya with the (unstabilised) Canon 180mm F3.5L macro on my R5, with the latest v1.5.0 firmware installed, and I can confirm that the update improves the effect of the IBIS by roughly one stop.

The effectiveness of the IBIS will vary according to circumstances (how the camera is held, how steady the user's hands are, etc) so my comments are only relevant to my own usage.

I'm typically shooting fairly static subjects (butterflies at rest or basking on foliage) at reproduction ratios between 1:4 and 1:2). With the older firmware I found it difficult to get sharp shots at shutter speeds longer than 1/250. With the new firmware I can shoot at 1/125 and still get most images very sharp. Even at 1/60 I get around 20% of images sharp with static subjects and a little extra care, which is pretty good IMO for a handheld 180mm macro with no optical stabilisation.
Greetings and thank you so much for your great info.
 
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Dec 13, 2010
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CANON SAYS YOU CANT ROLLBACK THE FIRMWARE EVEN IF YOU SEND IT IN AND ASK THEM TOO DO IT SO DONT KNOW HOW YA ROLLING BACK YA FIRMWARES? UNLESS THERES A SOFTWARE THAT THOSE IT? LET ME KNOW
You can roll back the R6 through EOS utility, but that’s not possible to do with the R5.

the only hope for the R5 now is if Canon releases a fix.
 
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YuengLinger

Print the ones you love.
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Dec 20, 2012
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You can roll back the R6 through EOS utility, but that’s not possible to do with the R5.

the only hope for the R5 now is if Canon releases a fix.
Based on what we've seen from Canon these past few years, if Canon's engineers can reproduce and track down the problems, they will release a fix soon.

I think there must be many photographers seeing no problems, only improvements, and that the cause of the bad results is elusive. Or the engineers are on holiday? Some definitive statement or fix from Canon would be a nice way to end 2021!

Cheers!
 
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Dec 13, 2010
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Based on what we've seen from Canon these past few years, if Canon's engineers can reproduce and track down the problems, they will release a fix soon.

I think there must be many photographers seeing no problems, only improvements, and that the cause of the bad results is elusive. Or the engineers are on holiday? Some definitive statement or fix from Canon would be a nice way to end 2021!

Cheers!
For those of us who are affected it’s a permanent problem with no fix, so it’s not hard to find and see, but I’ve reported this quite high in the system, everything just takes some time…
 
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Haven't followed this thread closely, but was there ever a consensus about if you it's worth upgrading to firmware v1.5.0, or if it causes too many problems?
It highly depends on your luck. You can get a really nice improvement or have it revert to a mix between a 5d1 and a 1d3 in terms of AF. I don’t even want to touch mine anymore…
 
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I do hope Canon looks into this and/or makes some comment as whenever a firmware update is released it usually contains any previous updates after your current version - ie for those who have held off and still on v1.4 and wait for V1.6 it would presumably add the 1.5 'features' ?
Yes, they’re cumulative ..
 
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BadBird

R5 1st 6 mos: CRAP AF; now backup to OM-1s, M1X
Feb 5, 2021
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Have been off forum since last April when I gave up on the R5 due to consistently missed shots (small birds in trees, brush). It was on 1.3.0 - I had to revert from 1.3.1 which was much worse. I was headed to the Galapagos last September, and couldn't afford to miss most of my shots with the flakey R5, so I benched it. I'm still plowing through over 12,000 photos taken with an OM-D E-M1X and an M1 Mk III, and I don't regret the decision to go OM-D one bit.

Back to the R5: on 5 December I installed 1.5.0 on the camera, and updated the RF 100-500 to 1.1.0 at the same time, then took over 500 shots of small birds wintering in my yard over Christmas and New Years. The AF felt like it had improved over 1.3.0 (hard to be sure after not touching the R5 for 8 months), but it is still locking on the background past the bird enough to annoy me. That forces me to fight to bring it back with the manual focus ring - it still won't reliably re-focus automatically - which usually means missing the shot completely. I had a particularly bad 80-shot session with two Golden-crowned Kinglets in my post oak trees (no leaves, sun behind me) where it repeatedly locked past the birds, and eventually crashed the camera while I was trying to re-focus. The error message was unreadable (ran off the LCD to the right) and it required the usual switch off and remove the battery pack actions to revive it. Only five shots were keepers, while 65 were out of focus to varying degrees and 10 were blown by bird movement (1/500 or 1/640 at f7.1, Aperture priority and Auto-ISO).

I have to agree with many of the others posting on this thread, that even 1.5.0 has not resolved some of the AF issues on the R5. It gets wonderful images when it gets it right, but it fails to focus correctly far too often - much worse than my old 7D Mk II with EF 100-400 + 1.4, or either of my OM-D E-M1s. I hope Canon did a better job on the R3, but I don't think I'll be the one to find that out.
 
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Dec 13, 2010
4,932
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Have been off forum since last April when I gave up on the R5 due to consistently missed shots (small birds in trees, brush). It was on 1.3.0 - I had to revert from 1.3.1 which was much worse. I was headed to the Galapagos last September, and couldn't afford to miss most of my shots with the flakey R5, so I benched it. I'm still plowing through over 12,000 photos taken with an OM-D E-M1X and an M1 Mk III, and I don't regret the decision to go OM-D one bit.

Back to the R5: on 5 December I installed 1.5.0 on the camera, and updated the RF 100-500 to 1.1.0 at the same time, then took over 500 shots of small birds wintering in my yard over Christmas and New Years. The AF felt like it had improved over 1.3.0 (hard to be sure after not touching the R5 for 8 months), but it is still locking on the background past the bird enough to annoy me. That forces me to fight to bring it back with the manual focus ring - it still won't reliably re-focus automatically - which usually means missing the shot completely. I had a particularly bad 80-shot session with two Golden-crowned Kinglets in my post oak trees (no leaves, sun behind me) where it repeatedly locked past the birds, and eventually crashed the camera while I was trying to re-focus. The error message was unreadable (ran off the LCD to the right) and it required the usual switch off and remove the battery pack actions to revive it. Only five shots were keepers, while 65 were out of focus to varying degrees and 10 were blown by bird movement (1/500 or 1/640 at f7.1, Aperture priority and Auto-ISO).

I have to agree with many of the others posting on this thread, that even 1.5.0 has not resolved some of the AF issues on the R5. It gets wonderful images when it gets it right, but it fails to focus correctly far too often - much worse than my old 7D Mk II with EF 100-400 + 1.4, or either of my OM-D E-M1s. I hope Canon did a better job on the R3, but I don't think I'll be the one to find that out.
What did Canon say about the issue ?
 
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