R5 AF speed with 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6l is ii usm & 2x extenter iii

[heheapa]

Just got my R5 last night and did some quick field testing today.

There wasn't much info about the AF speed for EF lens. So I have taken out my EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6l is ii usm and the 2x extender iii to try some bird in flight. The combo yield 800mm f/11 in aperture. However, it work very well for the bird eye tracking in continuous AF. And thanks to the IBIS, i can shoot at 1/500s and yield very stable result.

That's really a big improvement from previous EOS R. And that's not even possible with my 1DX.
Besides, the image detail is awesome with the latest sensor. The image quality with 2x extender and wide open aperture usually not impressive in previous models. I can tell you now it's greatly improved.

I am just another happy owner now

 

[AlanF]

Just got my R5 last night and did some quick field testing today.

There wasn't much info about the AF speed for EF lens. So I have taken out my EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6l is ii usm and the 2x extender iii to try some bird in flight. The combo yield 800mm f/11 in aperture. However, it work very well for the bird eye tracking in continuous AF. And thanks to the IBIS, i can shoot at 1/500s and yield very stable result.

That's really a big improvement from previous EOS R. And that's not even possible with my 1DX.
Besides, the image detail is awesome with the latest sensor. The image quality with 2x extender and wide open aperture usually not impressive in previous models. I can tell you now it's greatly improved.

I am just another happy owner now

I can see that the AF is improved. But, I don't understand how the image quality can be improved. The IQ of the 100-400mm II drops because of the hit of the TC on the MTF values, which become more noticeable the higher the Mpx of the sensor. It just doesn't make sense to me that the IQ of the 100-400mm II + 2xTC gets magically better with R5 sensor. (I use the 100-400mm II, and have played with the 2xTC on it using liveview with the 7DII, 5DIII, 5DIV, 5DSR and 90D. It's pretty good and I will use it with the R5).

 

[koenkooi]

Just got my R5 last night and did some quick field testing today.

There wasn't much info about the AF speed for EF lens. So I have taken out my EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6l is ii usm and the 2x extender iii to try some bird in flight. The combo yield 800mm f/11 in aperture. However, it work very well for the bird eye tracking in continuous AF. And thanks to the IBIS, i can shoot at 1/500s and yield very stable result.
[..]

IBIS will not do any shake reduction when used with EF IS lenses, it isn't stated outright, but it is heavily implied that only rotational corrections are done in that case.
As you have have noticed, that does help a bit

 

[heheapa]

I can see that the AF is improved. But, I don't understand how the image quality can be improved. The IQ of the 100-400mm II drops because of the hit of the TC on the MTF values, which become more noticeable the higher the Mpx of the sensor. It just doesn't make sense to me that the IQ of the 100-400mm II + 2xTC gets magically better with R5 sensor. (I use the 100-400mm II, and have played with the 2xTC on it using liveview with the 7DII, 5DIII, 5DIV, 5DSR and 90D. It's pretty good and I will use it with the R5).

The ISO performance is improved. Shooting f/11 required higher ISO. The IQ improvement could be contributed by that. Overall, you will get much better experience shooting with 2x extender.

 

[Joules]

IBIS will not do any shake reduction when used with EF IS lenses, it isn't stated outright, but it is heavily implied that only rotational corrections are done in that case.
As you have have noticed, that does help a bit

Where is that implied?

 

[Bert63]

Just got my R5 last night and did some quick field testing today.

There wasn't much info about the AF speed for EF lens. So I have taken out my EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6l is ii usm and the 2x extender iii to try some bird in flight. The combo yield 800mm f/11 in aperture. However, it work very well for the bird eye tracking in continuous AF. And thanks to the IBIS, i can shoot at 1/500s and yield very stable result.

That's really a big improvement from previous EOS R. And that's not even possible with my 1DX.
Besides, the image detail is awesome with the latest sensor. The image quality with 2x extender and wide open aperture usually not impressive in previous models. I can tell you now it's greatly improved.

I am just another happy owner now

Example pics anywhere?

This is great news.

Makes me really wonder about the new 800mm f/11.

 

[AlanF]

The ISO performance is improved. Shooting f/11 required higher ISO. The IQ improvement could be contributed by that. Overall, you will get much better experience shooting with 2x extender.

It can't be due to that. Any improvement at high iso is not going to be very significant - the main noise at high iso comes from shot noise in the photon flux, not the sensor. No way are you going to get a much better IQ with the 2xTC. AF yes, IQ no.

 

[Staz]

Just got my R5 last night and did some quick field testing today.

There wasn't much info about the AF speed for EF lens. So I have taken out my EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6l is ii usm and the 2x extender iii to try some bird in flight. The combo yield 800mm f/11 in aperture. However, it work very well for the bird eye tracking in continuous AF. And thanks to the IBIS, i can shoot at 1/500s and yield very stable result.

That's really a big improvement from previous EOS R. And that's not even possible with my 1DX.
Besides, the image detail is awesome with the latest sensor. The image quality with 2x extender and wide open aperture usually not impressive in previous models. I can tell you now it's greatly improved.

I am just another happy owner now

Good to know. How did you get on with EVF lag and blackout. Also what FPS did the R5 manage in your test. As a BIF tog I'm very interested in your findings as I'm on the fence about ordering a R5 atm until good people like you test them in the field.

 

[heheapa]

IBIS will not do any shake reduction when used with EF IS lenses, it isn't stated outright, but it is heavily implied that only rotational corrections are done in that case.
As you have have noticed, that does help a bit

I also tried on my old minolta tele manual focus lens via adapter and the IBIS is working too. Just need to set the focal length in the menu. I don't know how many stops it improve but i used to shoot 1/250s or faster to get sharp image. Now I can shoot below 1/100s

 

[heheapa]

Good to know. How did you get on with EVF lag and blackout. Also what FPS did the R5 manage in your test. As a BIF tog I'm very interested in your findings as I'm on the fence about ordering a R5 atm until good people like you test them in the field.

I don't feel the lag and blackout. There is a setting in menu for DISP performance to select whether 120fps or 60fps. I set it for performance as default. I recall in some youtube video mention battery life will drop faster.

 

[heheapa]

Example pics anywhere?

This is great news.

Makes me really wonder about the new 800mm f/11.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1184904478553397

 

[H. Jones]

Example pics anywhere?

This is great news.

Makes me really wonder about the new 800mm f/11.

Like I was sharing on the other thread yesterday, I've absolutely loved the quality and performance from the R5's crop mode with the EF 100-400L II and 1.4x, so I now see the 800mm more as an effective 1280mm F/11, making it a lot more interesting to me personally. Just add one 1.4x extender and it's a 1792mm f/16 with autofocus, which is a combination that would have been absolutely impractical in any DSLR, nevermind at a total cost of like, $1300.

 

[AlanF]

Like I was sharing on the other thread yesterday, I've absolutely loved the quality and performance from the R5's crop mode with the EF 100-400L II and 1.4x, so I now see the 800mm more as an effective 1280mm F/11, making it a lot more interesting to me personally. Just add one 1.4x extender and it's a 1792mm f/16 with autofocus, which is a combination that would have been absolutely impractical in any DSLR, nevermind at a total cost of like, $1300.

Why will you be using the crop mode?

 

[H. Jones]

Why will you be using the crop mode?

In my area most of the birds I photograph are mainly skittish smaller songbirds, like chickadees and finches. For those subjects, I've always had to crop quite a lot with the 100-400 at 560. Using the 1.6x crop makes the buffer basically limitless, makes it easier to focus on something that would otherwise be smaller in the frame, and throws out the 50% of data I wouldn't be using anyway, saving a huge amount of card space when shooting at 20 fps.

I set up one of the custom buttons on my R5 to switch between crop and full frame, so it's super easy as well to hit back to full frame when a subject gets close enough to be able to use the full sensor. My 1DX2 is only 20 megapixels to begin with, so I'm not offended at all by the crop of 17 megapixels, which is still 5000 pixels on the long end and can be cropped even more.

My main paid work is sports/breaking news mostly in the evening/night, so I've never had any interest in spending money on a crop camera. But I'd say the R5 is the best of both worlds, it's a great 45mp 20 fps full frame camera and a great 17 mp 20 fps crop camera all in one.

 

[AlanF]

In my area most of the birds I photograph are mainly skittish smaller songbirds, like chickadees and finches. For those subjects, I've always had to crop quite a lot with the 100-400 at 560. Using the 1.6x crop makes the buffer basically limitless, makes it easier to focus on something that would otherwise be smaller in the frame, and throws out the 50% of data I wouldn't be using anyway, saving a huge amount of card space when shooting at 20 fps.

I set up one of the custom buttons on my R5 to switch between crop and full frame, so it's super easy as well to hit back to full frame when a subject gets close enough to be able to use the full sensor. My 1DX2 is only 20 megapixels to begin with, so I'm not offended at all by the crop of 17 megapixels, which is still 5000 pixels on the long end and can be cropped even more.

My main paid work is sports/breaking news mostly in the evening/night, so I've never had any interest in spending money on a crop camera. But I'd say the R5 is the best of both worlds, it's a great 45mp 20 fps full frame camera and a great 17 mp 20 fps crop camera all in one.

Good reasons for using crop. It won’t give you 1.6x the reach, it just lowers the field of view.

 

[Staz]

I don't feel the lag and blackout. There is a setting in menu for DISP performance to select whether 120fps or 60fps. I set it for performance as default. I recall in some youtube video mention battery life will drop faster.

Thanks a lot Heheapa.

 

[Nelu]

And thanks to the IBIS, i can shoot at 1/500s and yield very stable result.

Surprising, I didn't know that the IBIS will also stabilize your birds in flight.
1/500s for BIF? Come on! Maybe for ducks and geese...

 

[SteveC]

Surprising, I didn't know that the IBIS will also stabilize your birds in flight.
1/500s for BIF? Come on! Maybe for ducks and geese...

And why wouldn't an ibis be stable in flight? ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibis )

 

[AlanF]

Surprising, I didn't know that the IBIS will also stabilize your birds in flight.
1/500s for BIF? Come on! Maybe for ducks and geese...

Ducks move damn fast. I use 1/3200s for them.

 

[Nelu]

Ducks move damn fast. I use 1/3200s for them.

Exactly!
I'm sorry, ducks