# These half-baked "quick thoughts" reviews…



## davidhfe (Jul 26, 2020)

… are really getting on my nerves. I'm not asking for folks to have full reviews, but really basic stuff is being omitted. Ragging bit on the Northrups here but they are by no means the only ones:

- "I couldn't recover this highlight." OK, was that RAW, HEIF or JPG? If it was RAW... how did you process it? I haven't seen any reviewer with access to raw conversion tools yet. Does the R5 have highlight priority? Was it on?
- "I had trouble tracking a bird once I started shooting" That's really important to know. But can she regularly do that with an OVF? How does it compare to other mirrorless Z7/A9/XT4? What drive mode? Fro was doing some great indoor sports shooting with the 1DX3 in live view—why would the R6 be different?
- "Battery only lasted an hour" while driving a 500mm lens with a 2x extender, presumably with IS on. How many shots? How does that compare to a 5D4? A7 series? I've found even a 100-400 will chew up batteries on my 5D4 with heavy IS, and it starts to slow down with drained batteries.

Not asking for super controlled/detailed reviews at this point, but adding in those pieces of context would take like 20 seconds of script time. Really don't want this to be a dig at Tony/Chelsea who are doing solid work actually getting the camera into the field—just wish they'd provide some basic contextual information.


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## Joules (Jul 26, 2020)

I share your frustration. For supposedly testing equipment, there seems to be a general lack of methodology and proper thought in much of the content currently out there.


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## LSXPhotog (Jul 26, 2020)

This is what I will say about the Northrups and why I will never trust them again - just like Max Yuryev (extremely biased review on video of the EOS R that was quickly proven wrong and was never taken down...because click?).

At the press launch event in Hawaii for the EOS R, Canon supplied everyone with goodie bags that contained the sample camera, marketing literature, memory cards, and other fun stuff. These cards were, if I remember correctly, Kingston 64GB UHS-II cards. Every reviewer on hand used the cards...except the Northrups. They brought an SD card that looked like they found it on the side of a highway and guess what?! They had the only memory card failure at the event. Still to this date I haven't had a card failure in my R. It just seemed a little convenient that they had a card fail and they were able to bring it up as a talking point. If a card looked like theirs, I would have tossed it in the trash long ago. But that little bit of questionable practice and other flat out disagreements I've had with them over the years, I just choose not to support their channel or watch them. I could troll them, but I have better things to do than argue with Tony. He's unquestionably a smart man, BU think he has also executed YouTube algorithm and click bait talking points to their fullest extent. So more power to them., I suppose.


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## Sporgon (Jul 26, 2020)

Joules said:


> I share your frustration. For supposedly testing equipment, there seems to be a general lack of methodology and proper thought in much of the content currently out there.


There is total dedication to thought and methodology - for maximising click bait


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## AlanF (Jul 26, 2020)

davidhfe said:


> … are really getting on my nerves. I'm not asking for folks to have full reviews, but really basic stuff is being omitted. Ragging bit on the Northrups here but they are by no means the only ones:
> 
> - "I couldn't recover this highlight." OK, was that RAW, HEIF or JPG? If it was RAW... how did you process it? I haven't seen any reviewer with access to raw conversion tools yet. Does the R5 have highlight priority? Was it on?
> - "I had trouble tracking a bird once I started shooting" That's really important to know. But can she regularly do that with an OVF? How does it compare to other mirrorless Z7/A9/XT4? What drive mode? Fro was doing some great indoor sports shooting with the 1DX3 in live view—why would the R6 be different?
> ...


Why don’t you want it to be a dig at them? They are milking it for what they can and are quite unashamed.


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## AlanF (Jul 26, 2020)

Mind you, I do admire Chelsea hand holding a 500mm IS I. It’s more than I can do. And if my wife was that strong, it would help so much with carrying the gear and suitcases. As they say, behind every great man is a strong woman. So, Tony must be a great man.


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## Bdbtoys (Jul 27, 2020)

The YT r5 reviews are getting worse. For every one you find that had something interesting, there are a dozen worthless ones.

No need to talk about overheating, unless you want to give some specifics that hasn't been covered already... (Saying 'it overheat on me' isn't providing anything at this point... yes we know it overheats... tell us what you did, how long you were doing it, ambient temps, what it actually locked you out of, and how long before you got functionality back. But we know saying 'I was locked out of 8k & 4kHQ' isn't as clickworthy as 'I tried to shoot video and it was overheated', making it sound like the camera was a paperweight at that point).

No need to go over specs... again. (Can go to Canon for that, unless specifically reviewing an item that touches on a specific difference)

Reviews that aren't... (If you don't have the products in hand at this point, conjecture is a bit late to the game).

What I would like to see...
More reviews of someone using the R5/R6 to actually take pictures and hear what they thought of it compared to something else.


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## Deleted member 381342 (Jul 27, 2020)

An hour of shots is a bit worrying and that the animal is harder to track. But there is a pay off between better AF and better tracking. I am still holding judgement till proper reviews come out, and these silly little tidbits don't help calm the nerves. I am sure most wildlife guys are thinking "Can I sit in a hide with this for 12 hours"


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## fentiger (Jul 27, 2020)

Codebunny said:


> An hour of shots is a bit worrying and that the animal is harder to track. But there is a pay off between better AF and better tracking. I am still holding judgement till proper reviews come out, and these silly little tidbits don't help calm the nerves. I am sure most wildlife guys are thinking "Can I sit in a hide with this for 12 hours"


sure but can you sit in a hide with T&C for 12 hours


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## SecureGSM (Jul 27, 2020)

Codebunny said:


> An hour of shots is a bit worrying and that the animal is harder to track. But there is a pay off between better AF and better tracking. I am still holding judgement till proper reviews come out, and these silly little tidbits don't help calm the nerves. I am sure most wildlife guys are thinking "Can I sit in a hide with this for 12 hours"


Yup, my thoughts as well but only if this is accurate.
let me share my thoughts:
500/4 with x2 teleconverter engaged Could suck quite a bit of juice out the battery. I am hearing that IS is constantly engaged while the camera is on. Hence a very short battery life. A battery grip may help a bit.

on the tracking issue: I am thinking that R6 may be a better fit here with a much smaller sensor resolution ( faster read out), less data to process and an EVF with lower resolution, that in my understanding is also may assist in overall lesser evf latency and therefore a smoother tracking.
I am more so interested in R6 first hand tracking BIF and fast action photography experience than in R5 at this stage.


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## Deleted member 381342 (Jul 27, 2020)

SecureGSM said:


> Yup, my thoughts as well but only if this is accurate.
> let me share my thoughts:
> 500/4 with x2 teleconverter engaged Could suck quit a bit of juice out the battery. I am hearing that IS is constantly engaged while the camera is on. Hence a very short battery life. A battery grip may help a bit.
> 
> ...



A 500/2 with a 2x teleconverter is exactly what wildlife people want to see. Though I would also like to see the battery performance of the 100-500 with and without teleconverters. Native RF might have more fine control over how they handle power delivery.


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## SecureGSM (Jul 27, 2020)

Codebunny said:


> A 500/2 with a 2x teleconverter is exactly what wildlife people want to see. Though I would also like to see the battery performance of the 100-500 with and without teleconverters. Native RF might have more fine control over how they handle power delivery.


a trick that a forum member shared with me: set the camera to auto switch off in 1 minute. it looks that a battery grip will be an essential accessory for many wildlife people with R5.


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## ildyria (Jul 27, 2020)

I actually found an *opinion* by a French photographer and *Sony ambassador*.





I found him quite on point. As follows is a summary of what he says (as he does not provides English translations)

- 8K raw in a such a small and accessible box is insane (in a good way). He then proceed to compared against C500 mkII at 16k€_,_ C700FF 28k€ (and both are producing 5,9K in raw). Also compare against RED 8K raw full frame for just 60k€_.
- _Obviously it comes with a drawback: overheating and he does not find it surprising and there is not much that can be done: Cannot be recorded on external SSD (e.g. BlackMagic) or using HDMI as it is stuck at 4K60fps.
- Canon is straight to the point and give potential recording times.

He then goes on to dismantle complaints from other:
- "The S1H does not have that problem" => Indeed but Panasonic does not know how to make an Autofocus. Indeed S1H does not have a recording limit but it is doing 6K, not 8K. And it is H U G E. It has a fan inside and thus weight 1.164 kg vs 0.738 kg for the R5. There is no magical formula, if you get smaller for same performances, you will generate more heat (cf laptop vs desktop).

He then discusses why Canon does not want to put too many features inside the R5. Canon does not want to cannibalize its other market segment (cinema vs vloggers, entry level vs prosumers...)

He then proceed to discuss about possible evolutions such as the firmware update to add 1080 at 120p (why is it not in by default? :') )

Then he is making fun of other messages saying that the R5 is not for pro photographers or wedding photographers. His arguements are :
- as a wedding photographers you have multiple camera
- 512 GB is 26minutes of 8K raw and the CFExpress card for this is about 700€~1000_€_...
- mention the post processing and export. What is the size in 8k of a 45-minute video ? Then you better buy SSDs to send to the client... Everything need to be upgraded RAM, CPU, storing... Nowadays 4K well done is better than 8K. R5 does not overheat in 4K30p and in 90% of the cases that is enough.

He then highlights one of the problem of a lot of people (often with GAS [n.d.t.]): wants more power, cheaper, faster... But most of them do not check their own requirements.

Then he switch to talk about the a7SIII. blablabla.


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## davidhfe (Jul 28, 2020)

Well now we know why all these videos are half-baked. They've all be working on A7SIII full reviews


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## SteveC (Jul 28, 2020)

davidhfe said:


> Well now we know why all these videos are half-baked. They've all be working on A7SIII full reviews



Let's see how much they complain about ITS overheating issues.


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## arthurbikemad (Jul 28, 2020)

ildyria said:


> I actually found an *opinion* by a French photographer and *Sony ambassador*.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Good post!


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## lglass12189 (Jul 28, 2020)

Remember these talking bobble heads of YouTube are there for clicks and sponsors. It's a living for them. I'll wait for mine to arrive on Friday and I will give it a spin around the block


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## martin_p_a (Jul 29, 2020)

Are there any good reviews out there that really focus on the stills side? I think ever since I’ve started doing photography, I’ve used video on my cameras maybe 3 times. I know it’s definitely not everyone but if I wanted to do more videos, in a small package, I’d get a BMPCC as a supplement, and I work in the film industry, so anything more serious than that would be done on a dedicated cinema camera, most likely. 

Like, I’d love a good all around stills review that would cover, yes, AF and IBIS, like some reviews I’ve seen, but also image quality, different shooting scenarios (wildlife, landscape, portrait, sport, etc), raw files (I know no one has the habilité to play with raw images for now...) and plenty of other things that I can’t think of right now. We need reviews on the video features but that’s all you can find at the moment, it seems...


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## privatebydesign (Jul 29, 2020)

martin_p_a said:


> Are there any good reviews out there that really focus on the stills side? I think ever since I’ve started doing photography, I’ve used video on my cameras maybe 3 times. I know it’s definitely not everyone but if I wanted to do more videos, in a small package, I’d get a BMPCC as a supplement, and I work in the film industry, so anything more serious than that would be done on a dedicated cinema camera, most likely.
> 
> Like, I’d love a good all around stills review that would cover, yes, AF and IBIS, like some reviews I’ve seen, but also image quality, different shooting scenarios (wildlife, landscape, portrait, sport, etc), raw files (I know no one has the habilité to play with raw images for now...) and plenty of other things that I can’t think of right now. We need reviews on the video features but that’s all you can find at the moment, it seems...


I’ve been looking for stills orientated reviews so would be very interested in specific links.


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## Aussie shooter (Jul 30, 2020)

martin_p_a said:


> Are there any good reviews out there that really focus on the stills side? I think ever since I’ve started doing photography, I’ve used video on my cameras maybe 3 times. I know it’s definitely not everyone but if I wanted to do more videos, in a small package, I’d get a BMPCC as a supplement, and I work in the film industry, so anything more serious than that would be done on a dedicated cinema camera, most likely.
> 
> Like, I’d love a good all around stills review that would cover, yes, AF and IBIS, like some reviews I’ve seen, but also image quality, different shooting scenarios (wildlife, landscape, portrait, sport, etc), raw files (I know no one has the habilité to play with raw images for now...) and plenty of other things that I can’t think of right now. We need reviews on the video features but that’s all you can find at the moment, it seems...


Haven't found one yet. But I guess that is a bit of an obvious phenomenon. You tube 'videos' tend to be made by people who are into video and they will therefore see still as a side option. As far as it goes though, I think we can safely assume that both will be awesome for stills. Really there are only a few things we need to know and they are EVF performance(lag, blackout and eye strain). that's it really. The rest will be on point.


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## Deleted member 381342 (Jul 30, 2020)

SecureGSM said:


> a trick that a forum member shared with me: set the camera to auto switch off in 1 minute. it looks that a battery grip will be an essential accessory for many wildlife people with R5.



I set my mirrorless to shut off in 5 minutes, so I could keep the EVF alive. These things aren't quite instant on and you can miss the shot.


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## StoicalEtcher (Jul 30, 2020)

fentiger said:


> sure but can you sit in a hide with T&C for 12 hours


Don't know, but I can certainly sit in a hide for 12 hours with a few G&Ts


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