Canon releases firmware updates for the EOS R5 and EOS R6

[AlanF]

I simply suggest that those who have been lucky enough not to have a problem might display a bit of empathy by enjoying their good luck in silence, recognizing that posting about their good fortune can feel to others as though they are, perhaps unintentionally, trying to invalidate the experiences of those who haven't been as lucky.

The simple statement of factual information is what makes the site tick - we exchange our experiences and knowledge to help others. I don't recall offhand anyone gloating over that their cameras don't have problems or overtly showing a lack of empathy with those who do have problems, though no doubt schadenfreude does exist with some. If you have a problem with a piece of kit it is important to know whether you have a faulty product or everyone is in the same boat. Buy your kit from dealers who give you the right to return after 14 days or so, and you can test it and then return it if it is problematic. You will only know if it is problematic if there are others who have reported they have no problems.

 

[unfocused]

The simple statement of factual information is what makes the site tick - we exchange our experiences and knowledge to help others. I don't recall offhand anyone gloating over that their cameras don't have problems or overtly showing a lack of empathy with those who do have problems, though no doubt schadenfreude does exist with some. If you have a problem with a piece of kit it is important to know whether you have a faulty product or everyone is in the same boat. Buy your kit from dealers who give you the right to return after 14 days or so, and you can test it and then return it if it is problematic. You will only know if it is problematic if there are others who have reported they have no problems.

It doesn't seem like you read my full post.

 

[AlanF]

It doesn't seem like you read my full post.

I did read it all and was commenting on your last paragraph which had a specific request.

 

[neuroanatomist]

I believe the memory card association is a red herring and that this issue is a settings problem. When a camera is sent to Canon, they reset it to factory defaults and cannot replicate the problem. The individual brute force approach of testing settings one by one isn't viable, because there are thousands of possible settings combinations, only a subset of which result in freezing.

I think the only way this gets solved is for both affected and unaffected users to post their settings (e.g. my list for the R3 setup), and we look for commonalities. Just a suggestion.

 

[entoman]

I don't understand why people feel compelled to post that they have never had a problem with the R5, R6 or R3 freezing up. That imparts no useful information. It's a bit like saying you've never been in a tornado or bitten by a shark. That's nice, but it doesn't mean there aren't tornados or sharks or that those who have been hit or bitten are doing something wrong. I'd encourage those who have not encountered the problem to simply refrain from hitting the "reply" button unless you have something of value to contribute.

I have to disagree. Sure, it can be a little nauseating if people rub salt into the wound with stories about how their particular camera is faultless. It can seem as if they are having a laugh at our expense. But it's nevertheless valuable to know whether a problem exists with *all* R5 bodies (which might point to a design fault), or whether it only occurs with a particular batch of bodies. On this regard it might be worth CR keeping a record of affected serial numbers, if folk are willing to divulge them. It's also worthwhile knowing just how frequently these intermittent faults occur. Unfortunately the only people who could really make much sense of such information are Canon themselves...

 

[unfocused]

I believe the memory card association is a red herring and that this issue is a settings problem. When a camera is sent to Canon, they reset it to factory defaults and cannot replicate the problem. The individual brute force approach of testing settings one by one isn't viable, because there are thousands of possible settings combinations, only a subset of which result in freezing.

I think the only way this gets solved is for both affected and unaffected users to post their settings (e.g. my list for the R3 setup), and we look for commonalities. Just a suggestion.

I think that's a good suggestion and when I get the time, I will share mine.

A couple of minor points however.

It's not true that Canon cannot replicate the problem. On a Canon forum discussing the R3, a user sent his body in to Canon and they told him they were able to replicate the problem. However, their solution -- reset to factory default an send back to user -- did not solve the problem. (No surprise there.)

I disagree that a subset of setting combinations is causing the freezing. I agree that memory card association is a red herring, but I also strongly suspect that user-determined settings is also a red herring.

Finally, while it helps us feel like we are accomplishing something, I don't believe this exercise will move us any closer to a resolution. I think Canon is probably better equipped to diagnose this problem than we are, either individually or as a group. As I've said before, I am encouraged that Canon is now acknowledging the problem and I am hopeful that they will eventually figure it out.

 

[unfocused]

I have to disagree. Sure, it can be a little nauseating if people rub salt into the wound with stories about how their particular camera is faultless. It can seem as if they are having a laugh at our expense. But it's nevertheless valuable to know whether a problem exists with *all* R5 bodies (which might point to a design fault), or whether it only occurs with a particular batch of bodies. On this regard it might be worth CR keeping a record of affected serial numbers, if folk are willing to divulge them. It's also worthwhile knowing just how frequently these intermittent faults occur. Unfortunately the only people who could really make much sense of such information are Canon themselves...

I get your point and don't disagree. I was just trying to articulate that after well over a year of posts on this issue, I think we all know that it doesn't affect all R5 bodies and when people just post statements saying they don't have the problem, they aren't really contributing to the discussion and I wonder what their motivation is.

 

[angelisland]

I get your point and don't disagree. I was just trying to articulate that after well over a year of posts on this issue, I think we all know that it doesn't affect all R5 bodies and when people just post statements saying they don't have the problem, they aren't really contributing to the discussion and I wonder what their motivation is.

Since your feelings are hurt this easily (someone stating that their camera is not affected by a bug), I’m not sure what you are doing on the Internet . You’re gonna be in a world of pain ;-).
cheers.

 

[Jack Douglas]

I get your point and don't disagree. I was just trying to articulate that after well over a year of posts on this issue, I think we all know that it doesn't affect all R5 bodies and when people just post statements saying they don't have the problem, they aren't really contributing to the discussion and I wonder what their motivation is.

I don't have the problem!

Jack

 

[tron]

I get your point and don't disagree. I was just trying to articulate that after well over a year of posts on this issue, I think we all know that it doesn't affect all R5 bodies and when people just post statements saying they don't have the problem, they aren't really contributing to the discussion and I wonder what their motivation is.

R5 may all crash under some conditions. Only these conditions may not match exactly since they now have a complex operating system and there is the case for CFExpress cards which although not certain we cannot dismiss it.

In addition not all shoot as many photos. R5s which haven't crash till now may crash sometime in the future.

And regarding SanDisk CFExpress cards here is a crazy though of mine: They are of the ...IN and of ...NN variety. They are not the same.

By ...NN variety I mean - for a 512GB Sandisk Extreme Pro - SDCFE-512G-GN4NN

I remember a case where out of the two varieties only the ...NN are backward compatible with XQD cards and can be used in some cameras like Z7.

I am NOT saying that this is the case but that was an example where things may get crazy.

 

[ERHP]

This evening, running 1.5.2, I had two lockups back to back. The first one I waited for approximately 15 seconds until the camera reset itself. The second, I popped the battery tray out after just undoing the grip's battery tray lock did not do anything. Same subject, a preening Green winged Teal, but no idea what was different this time than roughly 5-6k worth of shots over the last week. It focused, was tracking the head, then froze. First hiccup(s) with 1.5.2 though. For the roughly half a million shots I've used this camera for it doesn't have a very high failure rate but I'd always prefer none.

 

[snappy604]

I don't understand why people feel compelled to post that they have never had a problem with the R5, R6 or R3 freezing up. That imparts no useful information. It's a bit like saying you've never been in a tornado or bitten by a shark. That's nice, but it doesn't mean there aren't tornados or sharks or that those who have been hit or bitten are doing something wrong. I'd encourage those who have not encountered the problem to simply refrain from hitting the "reply" button unless you have something of value to contribute.

I don't recall anyone calling out folks with issues, in fact I seem to recall folks being downright helpful and trying to figure it out with them including different things to try to resolve.

Providing information on whether others have or haven't experienced an issue is useful. It allows you to know if yours is behaving with the normal or not and its not a bragging or rubbing salt in the wounds etc. I think it is of value knowing if something is normal, a widespread issue or an anomaly. Sometimes new firmware has broken instead of fixed things. I had some impact with a recent firmware and by seeing others who were and weren't impacted we were able to trace it to me activating a feature for low light that seemed to be documented as an improvement.. but turns out with caveats. Other times it was good confirming autofocus behaved worse, not better with an upgrade.

I get frustration having a buggy piece of hardware, esp if the manufacturer seems to try to sweep it under the rug, but knowing others don't have the problem should give you some ammo to get them continue to look into the problem.

 

[m4ndr4ke]

I updated my R6, as usual.

So far, what I’ve noticed is that eye AF with servo seems to be working better, but eye AF with one shot AF is, in my experience, backfocusing most of the time. For now I only tried animal AF, so I’d say that I still need to investigate this further.

I have a button set to switch between one shot AF and servo AF, and another button set to instant eye AF. The backfocus was noticeable on the EVF, and I could see the improvement when switching back to servo AF.

It doesn’t bother me a lot, to be honest. Most of us pick these cameras for eye AF with servo, don’t we?

 

[Birdshooter]

Yes, I also turn off all lens corrections, as my experience with other Canon cameras is that it slows down AF and causes buffer overload.
I have the camera in airplane-mode for the same reason.

As with all my pro bodies from the Mark III to the 1DX II I have turned off all lens corrections, but not on the R5.
I have been shooting birds since 2007 amongst other things and after reading a few reviews on the R5 decided to leave most corrections on.
This is of course a new camera unlike the DSLR's, and if I found it bogged the camera down, then I would turn them off. I have no issues with them on.

 

[derrald]

This evening, running 1.5.2, I had two lockups back to back. The first one I waited for approximately 15 seconds until the camera reset itself. The second, I popped the battery tray out after just undoing the grip's battery tray lock did not do anything. Same subject, a preening Green winged Teal, but no idea what was different this time than roughly 5-6k worth of shots over the last week. It focused, was tracking the head, then froze. First hiccup(s) with 1.5.2 though. For the roughly half a million shots I've used this camera for it doesn't have a very high failure rate but I'd always prefer none.

With all the discussion of memory cards and settings, I think we're all missing the real reason for the lockups on the R5. I shot a northern shoveler in a lake, in flight, quacking at some nearby geese - no problems. I shot a red tail hawk sitting on a branch - no problems. I shot a barred owl sitting in a tree looking menacing and that's when the lockup appeared. It's not settings, it's not cards, it's the subject. If you are going to shoot teals or owls, forget about it, you'll get lockups all day long. You shoot hawks and shovelers and you're golden!

 

[Jack Douglas]

With all the discussion of memory cards and settings, I think we're all missing the real reason for the lockups on the R5. I shot a northern shoveler in a lake, in flight, quacking at some nearby geese - no problems. I shot a red tail hawk sitting on a branch - no problems. I shot a barred owl sitting in a tree looking menacing and that's when the lockup appeared. It's not settings, it's not cards, it's the subject. If you are going to shoot teals or owls, forget about it, you'll get lockups all day long. You shoot hawks and shovelers and you're golden!

How cleaver - Canon has set up the AI to protect certain species from excessive hunting (shooting of birds with cameras).

Jack

 

[stochasticmotions]

With all the discussion of memory cards and settings, I think we're all missing the real reason for the lockups on the R5. I shot a northern shoveler in a lake, in flight, quacking at some nearby geese - no problems. I shot a red tail hawk sitting on a branch - no problems. I shot a barred owl sitting in a tree looking menacing and that's when the lockup appeared. It's not settings, it's not cards, it's the subject. If you are going to shoot teals or owls, forget about it, you'll get lockups all day long. You shoot hawks and shovelers and you're golden!

Well, I guess that is my problem since I shoot a lot of owls....good to know

 

[RayValdez360]

I am got a lock up with my 70-200 again yesterday.

 

[canajun]

Continue reading...

Immediately after the update, I was transferring photos from card one to my computer. Became focused and needed to get some quick reference shots. I can now take pictures with only the #2 card installed. Both don’t need to be installed.

 

[AlanF]

With all the discussion of memory cards and settings, I think we're all missing the real reason for the lockups on the R5. I shot a northern shoveler in a lake, in flight, quacking at some nearby geese - no problems. I shot a red tail hawk sitting on a branch - no problems. I shot a barred owl sitting in a tree looking menacing and that's when the lockup appeared. It's not settings, it's not cards, it's the subject. If you are going to shoot teals or owls, forget about it, you'll get lockups all day long. You shoot hawks and shovelers and you're golden!

Never had a problem with Teals. Here's one from the R5 and another from the R6.