More features coming to Canon EOS R5 in future firmware [CR2]

[entoman]

• Tracking - select the object, lock it, track it, keep in focus, whatever my framing is
• Servo - constantly refocus on whatever is available under my focus point, no matter, if it makes sense, e.g. two persons heads, and mistakenly focusing on space between the heads, having bg in focus and persons out of focus. Not much useful imo.

I think your definition of "tracking" is different from Canon's, which seems (based on descriptions of how AF "cases" work) to refer only to tracking across the frame, hence my request for clarification.

But, semantics aside, we are in agreement about on what we both want - i.e. "select the object, lock it, track it, keep in focus, whatever my framing is" - which is basically what happens with the R5 when you select both AF(face) tracking *and* servo AF.

The issue facing the manufacturers is that the camera needs to recognise and register the object under the AF spot. For that to happen, the AF spot/zone needs to be larger than the object/subject within it, for the subject-recognition algorithms to reliably detect it. There will often be instances where the user wishes to track a small part** of the object in question, so the camera then needs to determine which *fragment* of the detected subject that the user wishes to focus on.

Currently technology is focused on detecting eyes, but IMO a lot more attention needs to be paid now to detecting patterns/textures/shapes, which would enable things other than eyes to be "tracked" more reliably.

**e.g. the number plate of a car rather than the vehicle or its driver, or the ear of an animal whose eye is too small to be detected.

 

[koenkooi]

[...] Currently technology is focused on detecting eyes, but IMO a lot more attention needs to be paid now to detecting patterns/textures/shapes, which would enable things other than eyes to be "tracked" more reliably. [...]

From the R3 and onward, the AF knows about helmets and torsos and from the R6II onwards about driver/pilot placement in vehiceles,. So the structure for tracking shapes is already in place, let's hope Canon will creating training data for more things, like dragonflies, bees and spiders

 

[entoman]

From the R3 and onward, the AF knows about helmets and torsos and from the R6II onwards about driver/pilot placement in vehiceles,. So the structure for tracking shapes is already in place, let's hope Canon will creating training data for more things, like dragonflies, bees and spiders

Yes, the basic structure for recognising a small number of shapes is there (torsos, faces, helmets, cars, bikes, trains, planes, cats, dogs, eyes).

Recognising insects would be difficult because they come in so many different shapes (e.g. a beetle is a very different shape from a butterfly), and in any case depth of field is so narrow with macro and near-macro that the AF would probably choose the wrong part of the insect. I think enough "everyday" subjects are already covered, and trying to cover a whole myriad of animals and insects would be near impossible.

That's why I'd like to see AF systems concentrate more on recognising patterns and textures, as this would enable the user to place an AF spot over almost anything, and track it. Basically a far more efficient way to focus on a particular and recompose.

For me, it's academic, as current AF systems are good enough to deal with most of the subjects I shoot, although better recognition of birds in flight, from a greater distance, would help me.

I'd place a lot more importance on enabling users to set minimum and maximum distances for the AF to range over, as this would prevent the AF from jumping onto the background, which I find to be a significant issue when photographing either birds or insects, despite experimenting with every AF case, zone and numerous related settings.

 

[AlanF]

From the R3 and onward, the AF knows about helmets and torsos and from the R6II onwards about driver/pilot placement in vehiceles,. So the structure for tracking shapes is already in place, let's hope Canon will creating training data for more things, like dragonflies, bees and spiders

I got one of the first R5s in the UK. What told me that I had done the right thing buying it was that with the adapted EF 100-400mm II at 560mm with the TC it recognised and latched on to a dragonfly in flight against a background on my first outing with it. Here it is, 19 Sept 2020, the 194th shot with the camera. DxO couldn't then handle the .CR3 file.

 

[ata bora]

I got one of the first R5s in the UK. What told me that I had done the right thing buying it was that with the adapted EF 100-400mm II at 560mm with the TC it recognised and latched on to a dragonfly in flight against a background on my first outing with it. Here it is, 19 Sept 2020, the 194th shot with the camera. DxO couldn't then handle the .CR3 file.

View attachment 208757

I shot a hovering fly with similar equipment last year.

 

[Nemorino]

And this Gif shows how well the R5 can track dragonflies. It moved all over the pictures and I had to crop each frame to keep it in the same position.

 

[Chaitanya]

As far as I remember, Nikon D600 had such a problem.

Mulitple Nikon bodies suffered from it and the issue started with D7000. One of my herping friend had got it as upgrade to D90 and within 1 year had mulitple visits to service centre for cleaning and Nikon never fixed fhe issue on that or earlier models(before D600).

Give me sometime I will share some pics from that camera with oilspots in photos.

 

[Chaitanya]

As far as I remember, Nikon D600 had such a problem.

Here you go, found one old pic on flickr(still waiting for Motogp race to finish before I can get to PC.)

https://flic.kr/p/diBLA5

 

[iheartcanon]

Any further rumours on this?

 

[codym90]

I wish these companies would work more on perfect white balance. Most professionals don't miss focus with mirrorless cameras. I'd love to have an R5 that literally has perfect white balance. I feel like technology needs to go there next instead of focusing on focus when everyone pretty much nails it.
-Cody

 

[fr34k]

In this article on the Canon website, if you read between the lines, they kind of tease that more might be coming, but one needs to patient. Although that might get lost when translating using DeepL, in the German version it definitely feels like this is phrased deliberately like this and almost comically as an answer to our comments here on CR. So I guess although certain information is not available, the comment about "copying code from other cameras" kind of feels "hint-ish".

Mike unterstreicht, wie Canon stets an der Verbesserung der Produkte arbeitet. „Die EOS R3 kam bereits 2021 auf den Markt, ist aber noch heute die Premium-Kamera von Canon für Profis“, merkt er an. „Wir nehmen uns das Feedback unserer Kunden zu Herzen und fügen fortlaufend neue Funktionen hinzu, damit Profi-Fotografen die Kamera noch effektiver nutzen können.“

Wenn durch Firmware-Updates bahnbrechende neue Funktionen hinzugefügt werden, fühlt sich das fast so an, als bekomme man umsonst eine neue Kamera. Auch wenn die Updates kostenlos sind, hofft Mike, dass die Benutzer den Entwicklungsaufwand hinter den spannenden neuen Funktionen zu schätzen wissen. „Man kann nicht einfach den Code von einer Kamera in eine andere kopieren, um neue Funktionen freizuschalten“, betont er. „Der Prozess ist viel komplizierter. Und nachdem der neue Code hinzugefügt wurde, sind natürlich immer noch Tests erforderlich, um sicherzustellen, dass alles funktioniert und keine anderen Funktionen beeinträchtigt werden.

„Die Updates für die EOS R3 (Schwenkunterstützung) und die EOS R5 (hochauflösender IBIS-Modus) erfordern beide eine präzise Steuerung des kamerainternen Bildstabilisators über die ursprünglichen Parameter des Systems hinaus. Dies erfordert das Retro-Engineering einer Funktion, die nicht Teil des ursprünglichen Systemdesigns war, was Zeit und Sorgfalt erfordert. Sich eine neue Funktion auszudenken, ist der einfache Teil – dass sie dann auch zuverlässig funktioniert, ist viel komplizierter und zeitaufwändiger.“

 

[koenkooi]

Looking at the Nikon Z9 4.0 firmware update that was released this well, I'm really jealous of the 'auto capture' features. It makes the camera a self-contained camera trap, with a lot of configurable settings, like direction of movement and distance it should trigger on. Since these are all purely software features, I really hope Canon will implement something similar in future bodies and R5 firmware updates.

 

[Michael Clark]

I wish these companies would work more on perfect white balance. Most professionals don't miss focus with mirrorless cameras. I'd love to have an R5 that literally has perfect white balance. I feel like technology needs to go there next instead of focusing on focus when everyone pretty much nails it.
-Cody

If you can stand where your subjects will be before the shoot, or point directly at the light source illuminating your subjects, this is all you need:



By far the best $15 I've ever spent on photo gear. From the first time I used it I've wished I'd gotten one years earlier!

 

[Benjamin_L]

https://www.xrite.com/de/categories...-classic-family/colorchecker-passport-photo-2 this also works well and darktable supports color calibration with it so this is nice, yet more expensive

 

[GarfieldHurlbutt]

Canon released firmware v1.8.1 for the Canon EOS R5 last week. The big feature added was Canon’s first implementation of “pixel-shift” called IBIS High-Resolution shooting. The initial impressions of this feature weren’t all that positive, but that may get better over time. We have been told that further firmware updates are coming. It was suggested
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I have no plans to get my hopes up at all. If and/or when it drops, I’ll just be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Juppeck]

For RAW Pixel-Shift, the RAM is not big enought to save the pictures as fast as it needs.