Canon EOS R firmware 1.4.0 now available for download

the cat was yelling at me to go feed him at 2:20 in the morning so I snapped a couple shots of him. lol

It had to be pretty dark at 2:20am. So not only Canon now finds a cat's eye, it finds it in the dark. Dark cat's eye in the dark. Wow.
 
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I live in the great PNW, and we know rain.
My R has been out in the rain on several occasions, out taking photo's during the record snow fall we had earlier this year, and a couple trips to the ocean beaches of Kauai taking photo's in the surf. Splashes and outright soakings have taken place and I've not had a single issue. Its not bee completely submerged, but the R and the 24-105 lens has gotten quite wet. Nary an issue.

There probably is a single fatal point of entry on the camera that can cause big issues, but knock on that wood, I've not found it yet. I did purchase a hot shoe slip in cover but other than that, she is bare. I don't go looking to get it wet on purpose, and I keep the camera as dry as possible when not in use, but I don't hide it under my jacket if I need to take a shot. Perhaps Lens Rentals got a bad sample.. I dunno, but there are a couple other video's showing the R handle a pretty good soaking for extended periods of time and it didn't have any issues.

If I plan on really getting out into a soaker, the Oly EM1 MKI is a trooper and laughs at the rain.
Good to know. I got an R and over the last few months have grown to use it over my 5d4 almost all the time.

I have tried to keep it out of rain and mist and gone to the 5d4 for those scenarios.

I use a rain cover it’s its REALLY wet, but my main concern is the type of light rain/ mist and some water droplets like you see when shooting waterfalls and light salt mist and spray like you see on Oregon beaches. Any issues with that type of usage?

And where did you get a hot shoe cover? Are they universal? Thanks for any info.
 
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I tried the new firmware for the R on the running border collie test. I was very pleased with the results. Light levels were low as it was late afternoon and a major snow storm was inbound, ISO 3200, 1/160 to 1/200 shutter speed, wide open with the 100-400 ii. Of course there was a lot of motion blur, but focus was dead solid perfect for 5-6 or more frames in a row. I am very impressed. The camera and lens could not do that previously, not that consistently for that many frames in a row.
 
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Scyrene, are macro rails the same as a bellows? I have 1 Mamiya Macro Sekor 60mm f/2.8 lens and a Pentax bellows, but have never used the bellows.

Bellows are a way of increasing the magnification, they work a bit like extension tubes, but with greater flexibility. They're not much used nowadays as far as I know, I certainly never have. I dunno what would happen if you shot a series of images changing the extension of the bellows each time. Maybe worth an experiment!
 
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Ozarker

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Jan 28, 2015
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Bellows are a way of increasing the magnification, they work a bit like extension tubes, but with greater flexibility. They're not much used nowadays as far as I know, I certainly never have. I dunno what would happen if you shot a series of images changing the extension of the bellows each time. Maybe worth an experiment!
I need to try it out anyway. No sense having it if I don't use it now and then.
 
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Some bellows designs have two sets of rails. The upper ones are the lens and camera standards and move to set focus distance. The bottom set of rails have another movement, usually mounted to the tripod, which also can be moved back and forth while maintaining magnification but allowing a different focus point. A design of this nature would allow focus bracketing.
 
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Ozarker

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Jan 28, 2015
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Some bellows designs have two sets of rails. The upper ones are the lens and camera standards and move to set focus distance. The bottom set of rails have another movement, usually mounted to the tripod, which also can be moved back and forth while maintaining magnification but allowing a different focus point. A design of this nature would allow focus bracketing.
Mine is single rail with measurements out to 13mm and very fine adjustment. On the other side it shows the magnification from x0.6 to x2.2. All this is printed on the rail. It is single rail, but does have a hole for a tripod mount. Old M42 screw mount. It was New/Old stock when I bought it a year ago. Maybe try it out on a coin or something today. :) Thanks for the info! I'll have to look for an online about choosing an f/stop. I'm thinking f/2.8 is probably out of the question. Maybe f/8 or f/11 like the landscape photographers?
 
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Quirkz

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Oct 30, 2014
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I have to disagree, if I have a lens like the RF 50mm 1.2, there will be occasions that I would want to shoot it at 1.2/1.4/1.8 and not 7 (that is why I paid for it), previously, to nail the eye, you had to take headshots as with a medium distance it would only do face tracking and it was super slow.

Checking the results on camera or with the evf will not tell you if it is perfectly in focus, for that you have to shoot tethered and depending on the location you may not have that option I have taken thousands of shots with the EOS R and I can tell you that on super bright apertures, the face tracking sucks and I had to rely 99% on single point af.

I think you missed what the video was saying. It’s pointing out that at 8 feet or greater, face focus will always have the eyes in focus anyway, even when shooting 1.2.

That’s not to say that the R didn’t need improvement with the AF for faces, just that eye AF is not a necessary part of that. Good news is that it sounds like the firmware gave both anyway :)
 
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Finally got time to install (after doing 1.3.0 first which I hadn't bothered to before now and you don't get to skip it ...) - the touch & drag is a revelation! It was fiddly and ordinary when I tried it late last year and I haven't been there since.
I know I really like the improvement in touch’n drag also!
You said you HAD to update to 1.3.0 first? I didn’t do that and it worked great. Did you get an error message?
 
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"Official" Wedding Report of using the EOS R with FW 1.4 alongsinde a trusty 5D IV at a 14 hour wedding yesterday:

- i used the R the most (around 2000 shots compared to 1000 shots with the IV)

- one Shot AF is quick and reliable, eye AF is very usable and bang on. there is the (very) ocassional hunt and "nope, cant focus" thing in strong backlight or low contrast situations. one-shot-focusing as quickly as possible from one subject to the next is a bit slower as with the 5D IV - it drives the lens fast and bang on to subject, but than takes around 1 tenth of a second to finaly lock and release the shutter. the 5D4 on the other hand is snappier and immedialty releases the shutter. this is a very minor difference and i guess most people wont care, its also not a deal breaker for me, just sometimes noticeable

- the 5D4 on the other hand has some out of focus images, the R is just spot on every time (!)

- servo af with subject tracking with the 85 1.2 II is unusable, even letting bride and groom casualy walk towards the camera results in 1 or less frames per second - i feel there needs to be one option between shutter release and focusing priority in the autofocus otions to compensate for that. wouldnt mind 20% only so-so focused images for a snappier feel

- one shot autofocus in dim light (iso 12800, 1/40s, f1.4) is quick and very usable, the 5D4 is not very usable without led illumination from the flash here, a 5D III is even totaly unusable - big shoutout for this, amazing for an outside wedding dance only illuminated by sparklers

- the EVF is great in all situations. especially at those darkly lit situations where you basically dont see a thing in the 5D4s OVF - still a clear, lag free contrasty and sharp image with the R

- i dont miss a joystick, touch and drag works fine now

- the touchbar is usable but i dont care,real button would be welcome

- the lock button is your friend

- battery live is extremely good, i only used two sets of batteries in the BG down to ~40% over the whole day, so i could actually have shot without BG and only 2 batteries (recharging the first one in the meantime)

- writing speed even with middle of the road SD cards was never a problem due to big buffer

- image quality is, as expected identical the 5D IV and i am absolutely fine with that

in short:
i will happily work with the R, it has some very nice quirks for my style of shooting and happily sell my old 5D III. however i feel there are still some elements that could and should be improved in the next version and i am looking forward to that camera for also replacing my 5D IV. overall, the experience of using mirrorless i ways better than some years ago where i tried out Fuji (X100s, XT1) and sony (a7 II) - those cameras i found not reliable and usable enough for my professional work.

oh, and canon, can i please have a native 35 1.4 and 85 1.4 for a reasonable amount of money please?

lenses used:
sigma 20 1.4
sigma 35 1.4
canon 85 1.2 II
canon 135 2.0
 
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Cwall64

EOS 5D MK IV / EOS R
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I love the R and the new firmware is great, but maybe my old mind (and fingers) just do not move as fast as everyone else's... Any hints on other related settings your using?

One Shot vs Servo
Continuos AF (enabled / disabled)

I was at a granddaughters 3rd birthday party yesterday and had to fall back on just moving the single point (small) AF point where I wanted the focus to be, and I know it was me vs the camera's eye AF that was the weak link!
 
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Mine is single rail with measurements out to 13mm and very fine adjustment. On the other side it shows the magnification from x0.6 to x2.2. All this is printed on the rail. It is single rail, but does have a hole for a tripod mount. Old M42 screw mount. It was New/Old stock when I bought it a year ago. Maybe try it out on a coin or something today. :) Thanks for the info! I'll have to look for an online about choosing an f/stop. I'm thinking f/2.8 is probably out of the question. Maybe f/8 or f/11 like the landscape photographers?

At high magnification, diffraction kicks in sooner (if I may put it that way). The MP-E lens works rather like bellows, I've seen it said, and shooting higher than ~f/6.3 with it is pretty unusual in my experience. It depends of course - narrower aperture means you need fewer shots and gives more overlap between them. For the very best image quality, a wider aperture is best. But if you're just starting out, maybe f/8 would be a good compromise. Experiment! :)
 
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Jethro

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I know I really like the improvement in touch’n drag also!
You said you HAD to update to 1.3.0 first? I didn’t do that and it worked great. Did you get an error message?
I didn't get an error message, but it just didn't seem to work, so I updated 1.3.0 and then it did! The onscreen instructions also seem to say that you should do the earlier update first, but I suspect that is because you won't automatically get the 1.3.0 code if you don't do the actual update in sequence. In a Windows update, you seem to be able to 'skip' an individual update, and it will update cumulatively (albeit with potentially multiple restarts). I don't think the Canon updates work that way.
 
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