Initial thoughts on the 5D4 after some use

[[email protected]]

First impressions:

1 - F/8 autofocus is confident in good light. I now run the 5D4 by default with the 100-400 II + the 1.4 TC III, and it locks sharply. I have not tried this yet with birds in flight circumstances, but it works very well with crazy children hopped up on birthday party sugar and car license plates coming and going at 50 mph. I was frankly surprised, as the f/8 center focus point on the 1DX was a bit worse than this.
2 - 30 megapixels matters. The people who were convinced that 20 mp was a point where you'd find a diminishing rate of returns were - for my type of shooting - incorrect.
3 - The autofocus is a league better than the 5D3. I feel it is more confident than the 1DX Mark I. The increased distance between the lowest and highest focus points is appreciable.
4 - There are lots of little easter eggs in the menus, with little improvements having been made here and there. Perhaps these were already in the 5DS series, and I never got the memo, but they weren't there in the 1DX, 5D3 or 7D2.
5 - The shutter feels much, much better than the 5D3, which clacked. Silent mode is optimistically titled, but not the joke it was with the 5D3 or 1DX.
6 - The build quality feels more solid than the 5D3 or 7D2. Saint Roger revealed why with his teardown (interlocking doohickies). But it is noticeably lighter too. I also perceive that the matte finish is more matte, with a real frictive feel to the hands.
7 - The new, customizable Q menu is pretty handy.
8 - 7 frames per second seems slow, now that the 5D4 is arguably a pretty good wildlife body, this is its weakness.

Caught this broad wing hawk on a wire near my house this afternoon. This is roughly a 1-to-1 crop of a JPG (can't abide Canon's DPP software, so waiting for Adobe before going back to RAW) from the 100-400 II at 400 with the 1.4TC III at f/8. No post production...

 

[tpatana]

Cool info!

And having owned both 5D3 and 1DX(1), I don't think the silent shutter on 5D3 was joke. It was on 1DX though.

One thing I'm curious, on 5D4 should I always leave the anti-flicker on? What's the downside?

 

[[email protected]]

I first had anti-flicker with the 7D2, and back then we were told that anti-flicker slightly reduced the frame rate. So I turned it off and never really thought about it.

With the new 5D4, I've noticed, however, that the anti-flicker detector shows up in the eyepiece display, and it's been interesting. It turns out that a lot of my shooting situations where I thought there would be no flicker did indeed have flicker. I think it has to do with the LED lighting that is more common in residences nowadays. So I've turned it on a lot more recently. Not sure what - if any - the frame rate reduction is.

 

[Big_Ant_TV_Media]

ive been putting my new 5D mark 4 thru its paces this week American HS football and New York Fashion Week
here's some sample JPGs
shooting in ISO's 160-too as high as 5000+
9H6A0349-1 by Big Ant TV Media LLC, on Flickr

9H6A0510-1 by Big Ant TV Media LLC, on Flickr

 

[Jack Douglas]

I'm all ears as a nature shooter that ends up cropping a lot, now with the 400 DO II and considering the 5D4 over the 1DX II because of the 30 MP's. I've ruled out 7D2 and 5DS. 7fps is a negative but really good AF is far more important to me with 400 X2 being my portable source of reach that hopefully will alleviate some of my previous 300 X2 cropping. Moderately high ISO IQ is also a prime consideration.

How about some RAW files - after all DPP is quite capable of handling the basics.

Jack

 

[tpatana]

ive been putting my new 5D mark 4 thru its paces this week American HS football and New York Fashion Week
here's some sample JPGs
shooting in ISO's 160-too as high as 5000+

Wow, loved those NYC FW shots. I shoot local small shows, and I'd kill for runway lights setup where I can shoot 1/200 2.8 with ISO <200.

 

[entropy69]

First impressions:

Same experience here regarding your first impressions. I traded in my 7d mk II and kept my mk III as a backup.
The mk IV is more than the best from 7D mk II and 5D mk III and love the AF and 30Mp. Feels like having brand new shoes which walk as comfortable as the worn-out ones

Some additions to your list:
- like the extra AF thumb button (although I liked the ergonomics of the 7D mk II's little lever a bit better).
- Being able to watch along on the ipad will be a huge benefit in certain situations: customer can look during the shoot, no surprises afterwards, easier (wireless!) than shooting thethered
- Finally remote control via wifi so I do not need my camranger anymore

Please let adobe hurry up with ACR since postprocessing is a drama now.

 

[GMCPhotographics]

Cool info!

And having owned both 5D3 and 1DX(1), I don't think the silent shutter on 5D3 was joke. It was on 1DX though.

One thing I'm curious, on 5D4 should I always leave the anti-flicker on? What's the downside?

I would agree with you about the 5D3's silent shutter. It's saved my ass a few times. It' not silent to the photographer, but to the person next to you...it practically is. The sound of the silent shutter is almost silent within a few feet away. A few years ago I had a notorious wedding registrar who announced...no photographs during the ceremony (the older female registras in Wiltshire are really controlling). My wedding client was really upset (not that the registra cared), and I was banished to the rear of the hall behind the seated guests. So I put my camera in silent mode, sat on the floor and using a few lens options...I shot the whole ceremony from the back peering around one of the guests. The registra never knew and the client got their ceremony covered and no one could hear the shutter. I couldn't have done that with a 1Dx, 5DII or any Nikon.

 

[Jack Douglas]

Interesting story, GMC.

Jack

 

[Deleted member 7828]

The silent mode on the recent Canon cameras has definitely come in handy at a few events.

The 5D3 silent mode is nice, but the silent mode on the 6D I had prior was the best...the normal shutter is already fairly dampened so the silent mode was truly so outside of a couple feet - miss it somewhat, although the 5D3 mode still works well.

BTW, to the OP - thanks for sharing your 5D4 experiences.

 

[JohnUSA]

Thanks Tiggy for the great info! Have you shot in the higher ISO range around 3200-6400? That's where I'm most of the time during wedding receptions and church interiors and curious how the high ISO noise is compared to the 5D3.

At times I'm disappointed with the 5D3's focus performance.

 

[tron]

Cool info!

And having owned both 5D3 and 1DX(1), I don't think the silent shutter on 5D3 was joke. It was on 1DX though.

One thing I'm curious, on 5D4 should I always leave the anti-flicker on? What's the downside?

I would agree with you about the 5D3's silent shutter. It's saved my ass a few times. It' not silent to the photographer, but to the person next to you...it practically is. The sound of the silent shutter is almost silent within a few feet away. A few years ago I had a notorious wedding registrar who announced...no photographs during the ceremony (the older female registras in Wiltshire are really controlling). My wedding client was really upset (not that the registra cared), and I was banished to the rear of the hall behind the seated guests. So I put my camera in silent mode, sat on the floor and using a few lens options...I shot the whole ceremony from the back peering around one of the guests. The registra never knew and the client got their ceremony covered and no one could hear the shutter. I couldn't have done that with a 1Dx, 5DII or any Nikon.

I agree. A couple of years ago I went to see my niece's dance demonstration. Her parents were told that flashless photography was allowed. But when the time arrived they announced that photography was not allowed! I wasn't able to put a big white 70-200 2.8 but I was able to use my 5D3 (with the 24-70 2.8 II attached) in silent mode.

 

[Ph0t0]

I was frankly surprised, as the f/8 center focus point on the 1DX was a bit worse than this.

Hi Tiggy,
Thank you for all the info.
Seeing that you own 1DX I have another question for you. How does the image quality compare to the 1DX when shooting with moderately high ISO (1600-6400)?

 

[BlurredShot]

Cool info!

And having owned both 5D3 and 1DX(1), I don't think the silent shutter on 5D3 was joke. It was on 1DX though.

One thing I'm curious, on 5D4 should I always leave the anti-flicker on? What's the downside?

I would agree with you about the 5D3's silent shutter. It's saved my ass a few times. It' not silent to the photographer, but to the person next to you...it practically is. The sound of the silent shutter is almost silent within a few feet away. A few years ago I had a notorious wedding registrar who announced...no photographs during the ceremony (the older female registras in Wiltshire are really controlling). My wedding client was really upset (not that the registra cared), and I was banished to the rear of the hall behind the seated guests. So I put my camera in silent mode, sat on the floor and using a few lens options...I shot the whole ceremony from the back peering around one of the guests. The registra never knew and the client got their ceremony covered and no one could hear the shutter. I couldn't have done that with a 1Dx, 5DII or any Nikon.

I agree. A couple of years ago I went to see my niece's dance demonstration. Her parents were told that flashless photography was allowed. But when the time arrived they announced that photography was not allowed! I wasn't able to put a big white 70-200 2.8 but I was able to use my 5D3 (with the 24-70 2.8 II attached) in silent mode.

Having been the guy who makes the "no photography" announcements at my daughter's dance recital, I can say that there have been some guests who have asked to tak ed pictures and who "know what they are doing" that will be allowed to take pictures if they ask before the show. The problem is that these days everyone and their iPhone shine the screens back on the audience and blind them. So, I wold suggest talking to the folks running the show next time ad showing them that you are using a real camera and you wI'll probably find them amenable.

That said, I have just received my 5Div which replaces the 7D my daughter confiscated for her photography classes. I'm glad I waited for this one rather than get the mark iii I had played with. The low noise in high is amazing.

Question: I pulled down the update to raw therepee (sp?), and it's showing *alot* more noise than dpp. Is that normal?

 

[[email protected]]

Answering some questions to the OP (me)...

- I haven't had the heart to produce RAWs yet through DPP. I fiddled with it in order to test out the DP RAW stuff (which was fun, if not overly useful), but that software is almost as bad as iTunes in terms of interface. I'm sure Adobe will come along shortly with an update.

- Entroyp69, good additional points. As to the placement of the thumb doohickey, I agree that the 7D2's placement is better, but I suspect that the 5D4's was placed where it is because there will be a future camera that has both.

- To JohnUSA, I haven't had cause to test the super high ISOs yet. That didn't stop me from doing so in light that was more generous than would normally deserve a high ISO. Things looked really good (as they always do in good light). From what I see and what I've heard, I think the 5D4 will show about the same quality at high ISO, but do so with half again as many pixels, so that if you squish the size of the photo down, the result will be a significantly better image. Also, the dynamic range is indeed better. Also, the shadows are pulling up much better with less noise. This means that you might choose a stop lower ISO with this camera knowing you can pull things up better. The upshot: guessing about a stop+ better effectively in lower light between the shadow raising and the downsampling options.

- To Ph0t0, I think the image quality in ISO 1600-6400 is very much like the 1dX, except the shadows draw up better, and you have 30mp with which to do either cropping or downsampling. I really need to do some side-by-side comparisons, but my rough sense is that for low light, I'm not sure which is better because it's pretty close. My beef with the 5D4 is that it is only 7 frames per second.

I'd like to do a shootout with the 7D2, the 1DX and the 5D4 to see which throws the best image quality at a long distance, where the subject would benefit from cropping (most of the time with me). Those three cameras come at the same problem with quite different answers. I suspect when I have time to do this, it won't be a blow-out under those circumstances. I'll have to do the 5D and 1D against each other for non-reach-limited, low light IQ as well.

 

[tron]

Answering some questions to the OP (me)...

- I haven't had the heart to produce RAWs yet through DPP. I fiddled with it in order to test out the DP RAW stuff (which was fun, if not overly useful), but that software is almost as bad as iTunes in terms of interface. I'm sure Adobe will come along shortly with an update.

- Entroyp69, good additional points. As to the placement of the thumb doohickey, I agree that the 7D2's placement is better, but I suspect that the 5D4's was placed where it is because there will be a future camera that has both.

- To JohnUSA, I haven't had cause to test the super high ISOs yet. That didn't stop me from doing so in light that was more generous than would normally deserve a high ISO. Things looked really good (as they always do in good light). From what I see and what I've heard, I think the 5D4 will show about the same quality at high ISO, but do so with half again as many pixels, so that if you squish the size of the photo down, the result will be a significantly better image. Also, the dynamic range is indeed better. Also, the shadows are pulling up much better with less noise. This means that you might choose a stop lower ISO with this camera knowing you can pull things up better. The upshot: guessing about a stop+ better effectively in lower light between the shadow raising and the downsampling options.

- To Ph0t0, I think the image quality in ISO 1600-6400 is very much like the 1dX, except the shadows draw up better, and you have 30mp with which to do either cropping or downsampling. I really need to do some side-by-side comparisons, but my rough sense is that for low light, I'm not sure which is better because it's pretty close. My beef with the 5D4 is that it is only 7 frames per second.

I'd like to do a shootout with the 7D2, the 1DX and the 5D4 to see which throws the best image quality at a long distance, where the subject would benefit from cropping (most of the time with me). Those three cameras come at the same problem with quite different answers. I suspect when I have time to do this, it won't be a blow-out under those circumstances. I'll have to do the 5D and 1D against each other for non-reach-limited, low light IQ as well.

Thanks for the info. I guess many of us would like to know the results of your future tests. Incidentally shooting in FL limited situations and low light are my main interests too

 

[DannyPwins]

ive been putting my new 5D mark 4 thru its paces this week American HS football and New York Fashion Week
here's some sample JPGs
shooting in ISO's 160-too as high as 5000+
9H6A0349-1 by Big Ant TV Media LLC, on Flickr

9H6A0510-1 by Big Ant TV Media LLC, on Flickr

Nice shots. Where are you from in Jersey? I have a feeling I met you at an event a while ago. Small world..

 

[Ph0t0]

- To Ph0t0, I think the image quality in ISO 1600-6400 is very much like the 1dX, except the shadows draw up better, and you have 30mp with which to do either cropping or downsampling. I really need to do some side-by-side comparisons, but my rough sense is that for low light, I'm not sure which is better because it's pretty close. My beef with the 5D4 is that it is only 7 frames per second.

I'd like to do a shootout with the 7D2, the 1DX and the 5D4 to see which throws the best image quality at a long distance, where the subject would benefit from cropping (most of the time with me). Those three cameras come at the same problem with quite different answers. I suspect when I have time to do this, it won't be a blow-out under those circumstances. I'll have to do the 5D and 1D against each other for non-reach-limited, low light IQ as well.

Thks for the reply, I'm considering buying this camera for landscape and low light photography so I appreciate this info. I've been looking at the online comparisons and though the 5D IV images look like they have less noise on higher ISO, they do look a bit softer than photos from other Canon cameras even at lower ISO range. I'm not sure why that is. I hope it is just because of lack of ACR support at the moment.

 

[Donkey_Kong]

- To Ph0t0, I think the image quality in ISO 1600-6400 is very much like the 1dX, except the shadows draw up better, and you have 30mp with which to do either cropping or downsampling. I really need to do some side-by-side comparisons, but my rough sense is that for low light, I'm not sure which is better because it's pretty close. My beef with the 5D4 is that it is only 7 frames per second.

I'd like to do a shootout with the 7D2, the 1DX and the 5D4 to see which throws the best image quality at a long distance, where the subject would benefit from cropping (most of the time with me). Those three cameras come at the same problem with quite different answers. I suspect when I have time to do this, it won't be a blow-out under those circumstances. I'll have to do the 5D and 1D against each other for non-reach-limited, low light IQ as well.

Thks for the reply, I'm considering buying this camera for landscape and low light photography so I appreciate this info. I've been looking at the online comparisons and though the 5D IV images look like they have less noise on higher ISO, they do look a bit softer than photos from other Canon cameras even at lower ISO range. I'm not sure why that is. I hope it is just because of lack of ACR support at the moment.

Trust me mate, the 5DIV images aren't softer at all. When you pixel peep, they easily out perform 5DIII for pure sharpness. The "Fine Detail" picture style is also a godsend.

 

[Wideopen]

How do you like the white balance compare to 5D III/6D. Is there an improvement?