# Canon announces $100 firmware update for stop-motion photography



## Canon Rumors Guy (May 5, 2020)

> From Canon USA:
> *Supercharge Your Stop Motion Animation*
> Whether pre-installed on a new EOS R or manually installed on an existing EOS R the new Stop Motion Animation upgrade for EOS R cameras increases your Live View resolution to 1920×1280 from Canon’s normal of 960×640 when connected to Dragonframe stop motion animation software. This makes it easier for animators to confirm focus and movement within every frame.
> 
> ...



Continue reading...


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## akiskev (May 5, 2020)

This announcement made me sick


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## BeenThere (May 5, 2020)

Is this the future where user have to purchase firmware modules to activate features of their camera?


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## Mark3794 (May 5, 2020)

Guys it's a paid firmware upgrade becouse you have to send the camera to Canon, also it disables some feature of the camera. They don't want to give the update for free at home and having to deal with 10000 people calling them and saying their camera doesn't work anymore after the update.


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## Sharlin (May 5, 2020)

It’s a really niche feature aimed at a very specific set of professional users. Additionally it’s a mod rather than a pure addition, making the camera less general-purpose. I see nothing wrong in charging a nominal fee for the service.


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## cayenne (May 5, 2020)

We need to get the Magic Lantern crew working on the newer models of Canon cameras......


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## privatebydesign (May 5, 2020)

akiskev said:


> This announcement made me sick


Why? If you own an R it will cost you an extra $100, if you are going to buy a new R it will cost you $100. If you had just bought one and they would only do it to new ones I could understand the reaction but really, what difference does it make?


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## Adelino (May 5, 2020)

I don't understand why anyone would complain about this. Sounds like a bargain for what it will do. For me, it has nothing to do with me. I hope many creatives can use it.


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## Trey T (May 5, 2020)

Some people don’t like options. They prefer to wait for another decade until it’s free


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## TAF (May 5, 2020)

While this is nothing I would ever use, I find this new paradigm exciting. It suggests that Canon sees that there is the potential to make money on areas of limited appeal, which means a higher likelihood that other features may come to fruition.

For myself, I really want to see the R5 have the ability to shoot high speed video. As I've posted before, it it can do [email protected], it should be able to do [email protected], and VGA at (if I did the math correctly) 1920 (or is that 3840?). Maybe not something every user would want or need, but I would gladly pay $100 for that ability.


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## unfocused (May 5, 2020)

TAF said:


> While this is nothing I would ever use, I find this new paradigm exciting. It suggests that Canon sees that there is the potential to make money on areas of limited appeal, which means a higher likelihood that other features may come to fruition...



Nothing I would use. Way beyond my capabilities and I would have no patience for stop motion anyway, but it is certainly interesting and exciting that Canon is serving niche markets in a creative way with low-cost off the shelf products. Just for fun, I looked up the Dragonframe software. Very reasonably priced for a professional product. This is a great time for amateur filmmakers. I'm all for anything that opens doors and reduces the cost of entry for highly talented people.


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## scyrene (May 5, 2020)

It also seems like a good way to leverage maximum profit from existing products.


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## Dynamics-4-U (May 5, 2020)

After reading along in the past years on new announcements here, finally setup to respond with a login 

*** There is still so much simple innovation on the floor for Canon and others to take. (Yes look at some Magic Latern creativity)

1st I think post-camera purchase upgrades -should be part of the revenue machine for camera manufactures
as it helps users to utilize the expensive silicon - image processors in new creative ways

2nd this upgrade is truly interesting, in a way it is the first for a small focus group. (As a predecessor wrote)

*But as a photographer I would rather have loved a simple "Focus stacking option with AEB" in the firmware - without loosing other features.* (at least with RF lenses if so needed, but would boost this sales too so it must be for free)
*
3rd I do technically fully understand the lightyear step and hype about the upcoming EOR R5 Video capabilities, but a message to the Canon folks I think most of us buy the EOS R and EOS R5 and EOS 5DMkx family for a prime reason and this is photography ! *

So all the pre-announcements are annoying, almost useless and dis-respecting the heart core guys looking for photography specs and innovation. Makes me finally after almost 28y Canon spy at Leica, yes less lenses then but same cost as an EOS R System transition.

e.g. this means for photography I would like to see these points below in a pre-announcement to make us wait
a) need to confirm more Color Depth resolution in Photography
b) how to use DP- Dual Pixel information smartly for extending the Dynamic range (SINGLE SHOT HDR, no noise in post)
I don´t know why no one realizes that since EOS 5DMK4 you have always a sensor with DUAL Pixel = MEans you
call it 30MPixel but it is already a 60MPixel sensor, call the EOS R5 eventually a 45MP but your sensor is 90MP !!!
There is way more stuff which can be done with this information - than announced since 3years ago with DPAF.
c) how to improve the auto-exposure of the camera into field based regions which are automatically choosing the exposure values
d) overdue is also image pre-processing by dynamic range automatically and steer the Pixel Sensors with this "field area"
exposure correct by content. 
.... just don´t get me going

Finally my biggest wish would have been also a Firmware thing, on the EOS R to remove the biggest complaint from 5DMK4 users
a fast navigation to focus points, not just touch based, but just create the 5D Mk4 limited range but by 3-clicks x or y direction
get to the 3x3 corners of an image at a fixed position (Emulation of the 5D Mk4 focus points) Why not , fast to the spot not
thinking no navigating - also possible with the steering weel.

so much food for thought today folks.


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## martin_p_a (May 5, 2020)

Dynamics-4-U said:


> *3rd I do technically fully understand the lightyear step and hype about the upcoming EOR R5 Video capabilities, but a message to the Canon folks I think most of us buy the EOS R and EOS R5 and EOS 5DMkx family for a prime reason and this is photography ! *
> 
> So all the pre-announcements are annoying, almost useless and dis-respecting the heart core guys looking for photography specs and innovation.



I don’t know how many times this has to be repeated; the last spec announcement was made for the NAB Show (National Association of BROADCASTERS => Video), which, because of COVID-19, was cancelled. Expecting a slew of stills-centric announcement at that time is like going to Photokina and expecting news on the camera controls in the next Mario Kart game...

I also think saying the prime reason most people buy 5D’s is photography is ignoring at large chunk of the user base. With the amount of them used as b-cams and for student/indie film shoots (before moving on to RED cameras, and after playing with 16mm film camera, all the shoots at my film school were made on 5DmkII and mkIII), as well as a huge amount of people who aren’t into photography per se, but buy them as their family photo/video cameras, that’s a lot of people who buy them for video or, even more likely, for both photo and video.

Not that there isn’t anything left to divulge, but stills-wise, they started off by confirming IBIS, 12/20fps, dual card slots, animal eye AF,... and after the video specs that have been confirmed, we can infer some specs about megapixels and AF capabilities for stills, too.

With no release date and possible delays due to the state of affairs, it might be better they hold off on saying everything. Imagine we knew everything, yet the camera was delayed... the wait would feel even longer.


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## dslrdummy (May 6, 2020)

The fact that I don't understand any of it might indicate it isn't targeted at me.


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## herein2020 (May 6, 2020)

martin_p_a said:


> I don’t know how many times this has to be repeated; the last spec announcement was made for the NAB Show (National Association of BROADCASTERS => Video), which, because of COVID-19, was cancelled. Expecting a slew of stills-centric announcement at that time is like going to Photokina and expecting news on the camera controls in the next Mario Kart game...
> 
> I also think saying the prime reason most people buy 5D’s is photography is ignoring at large chunk of the user base. With the amount of them used as b-cams and for student/indie film shoots (before moving on to RED cameras, and after playing with 16mm film camera, all the shoots at my film school were made on 5DmkII and mkIII), as well as a huge amount of people who aren’t into photography per se, but buy them as their family photo/video cameras, that’s a lot of people who buy them for video or, even more likely, for both photo and video.
> 
> ...


You nailed it...the only thing I would add is that Canon also needs to focus on advertising the video features of the R5 because that is where they were being slammed daily by pretty much every YouTubber out there. Sony and Panasonic is eating Canon's lunch in the mirrorless video department and Canon knows it. I haven't heard too many people say they went to Sony because of weather sealing, ergonomics, the menu system, color science, or even lenses.

Most people jumped ship because YouTubbers told them that Canon's video features were ******* and their AF wasn't "innovative" enough. So yea, Canon is going to shout about their 8K video from the rooftops for as long as they can while knowing that anyone with common sense is going to take for granted that their photography specs will be fantastic as well. Even if I were strictly a stills shooter, enough R5 specs have been released for me to know its going to be a great stills camera.



Dynamics-4-U said:


> e.g. this means for photography I would like to see these points below in a pre-announcement to make us wait
> a) need to confirm more Color Depth resolution in Photography
> b) how to use DP- Dual Pixel information smartly for extending the Dynamic range (SINGLE SHOT HDR, no noise in post)
> I don´t know why no one realizes that since EOS 5DMK4 you have always a sensor with DUAL Pixel = MEans you
> ...



I doubt it will have any of those features. They are easy to talk about and wish for but we are not talking about a $20K camera here. The only Canon that even has one of those features is the $11K Canon C300 MIII and it uses the dual pixel system to increase DR. Also your logic is a little fuzzy when you state that current cameras with DPAF are actually double their stated resolution. Just because it uses two pixels to focus does not mean it suddenly has double the number of pixels...it just means what it says...it's using the image information from two pixels to focus...that does not mean that they doubled the resolution it simply means they take a reading from two different pixels.

Most if not all of the features you seem to think they will ever announce for the R5 would add substantially to the cost, would possibly require technology that is not yet ready for prime time, would definitely affect battery life, and for that slight increase in DR substantially slow the FPS. Even the C300 MIII with DP DR still only gets 16 stops of DR.

I have what I consider to be a more realistic wish list for the R5; the only parts that I'm mildly curious about in the R5 is if Canon raised their 1/200 flash sync speed, if it can do time lapses without an external intervalometer, and if it has some kind of grid or ruler guides in camera to show in the viewfinder 5:4 and 4:5 aspect ratios for Instagram; it would be really cool if you could just type in your desired aspect ratio and have grid lines in the viewfinder show that composition. Although none of these features is that big of a deal since I am used to working with the current limitations (ND filters/HSS/Bigger Flashes due to the sync speed limits, 3rd party shutter triggers for time lapses, crop space for aspect ratio changes), they would all be nice to haves that would make my workflow faster.


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## xanbarksdale (May 6, 2020)

I'm sure there are about 8 people who are thrilled over this "upgrade."


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## herein2020 (May 6, 2020)

xanbarksdale said:


> I'm sure there are about 8 people who are thrilled over this "upgrade."



Sounds like Canon is going to squeeze $800 more out of the R. This niche is so small I'm surprised Canon decided it was worth the R&D. I never understood the EOS Ra either but even that is more understandable than this, maybe this was just some bored Canon firmware engineer cooped up during quarantine who had nothing else to do with his/her time but still had to log hours on the timesheet.

I feel sorry for whoever ends up buying one of these used with this firmware.


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## Cochese (May 6, 2020)

herein2020 said:


> Sounds like Canon is going to squeeze $800 more out of the R. This niche is so small I'm surprised Canon decided it was worth the R&D. I never understood the EOS Ra either but even that is more understandable than this, maybe this was just some bored Canon firmware engineer cooped up during quarantine who had nothing else to do with his/her time but still had to log hours on the timesheet.
> 
> I feel sorry for whoever ends up buying one of these used with this firmware.


This upgrade was made in conjunction with a specific software maker.


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## TAF (May 6, 2020)

Cochese said:


> This upgrade was made in conjunction with a specific software maker.



Which suggests to me that if you bring some money to the table, Canon will work with you.

Good to know.


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## ReflexVE (May 6, 2020)

Dynamics-4-U said:


> After reading along in the past years on new announcements here, finally setup to respond with a login
> 
> *** There is still so much simple innovation on the floor for Canon and others to take. (Yes look at some Magic Latern creativity)
> 
> ...


I like this post, it's at least trying to imagine a more expansive future. I'm a first time poster and have only been into photography as a new hobby for the past year and a half or so, but as a new user I'm blown away by the lack of learning in this space from other markets. I keep asking myself why I have to wait for Magic Lantern when there should just be a restricted app store on my device to allow me to install features and software, from Canon and approved third parties. Let Apple/Microsoft/Google/Adobe build thier own integrations, let Magic Lantern extend functionality, and let lens makers add profiles directly.

I get it that Canon and others believe that this would slow down the upgrade cycle as new features could be added via software. And it may for some users, however by taking a cut of add on app sales they could make up for that deficit pretty rapidly. Apps and extensions certainly haven't slowed down sales in other markets, I don't see any reason they would for cameras.


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## davo (May 6, 2020)

cayenne said:


> We need to get the Magic Lantern crew working on the newer models of Canon cameras......


I had high hopes. They tried and tried and tried but had to give up years ago on the R. No more Magic Lantern it seems :-(


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## mb66energy (May 6, 2020)

davo said:


> I had high hopes. They tried and tried and tried but had to give up years ago on the R. No more Magic Lantern it seems :-(


Maybe Canon should pay Magic Lantern people and give them cameras to try the firmware features and make a contract to sell full featured Magic Lantern firmware for - let's say - 20 $ / EUR per user (unlimited cameras).
This will never happen but would be a wonderful way to support the developers and the users.


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## Franklyok (May 6, 2020)

TAF said:


> For myself, I really want to see the R5 have the ability to shoot high speed video. As I've posted before, it it can do [email protected], it should be able to do [email protected], and VGA at (if I did the math correctly) 1920 (or is that 3840?).



Motherboard wise yes, sensor readout wise no. Sensor tops out 120 fps, and no more, no matter what resolution. My 1 cent opinion. May be blobal shutter sensor will not be a botle neck. Again my my 1 cent opinion and hope... .


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## Cochese (May 6, 2020)

TAF said:


> Which suggests to me that if you bring some money to the table, Canon will work with you.
> 
> Good to know.


Considering this is both a hardware change and software change, yeah, sure.


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## Ozarker (May 6, 2020)

I was thinking of playing around with some stop action stuff for my grandson just the other day. Can't I do it without this update? Probably. I won't send my camera in for this, but I'm no professional stop action dude. Good to know there is software out there though. I was wondering about that in particular. I learned something useful today.


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## ReflexVE (May 6, 2020)

davo said:


> I had high hopes. They tried and tried and tried but had to give up years ago on the R. No more Magic Lantern it seems :-(


Everything Digic8 based they seem to have quit on.


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## Graphic.Artifacts (May 6, 2020)

So, if I understand this release, the idea is that when you are shooting stills tethered over USB the firmware change allows a higher resolution preview window? And It does this at the expense of being able to preview over HDMI? Sounds like something they should be able to sort out without the negatives and roll into the R5/R6 firmware.


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## Dantana (May 6, 2020)

CanonFanBoy said:


> I was thinking of playing around with some stop action stuff for my grandson just the other day. Can't I do it without this update? Probably. I won't send my camera in for this, but I'm no professional stop action dude. Good to know there is software out there though. I was wondering about that in particular. I learned something useful today.


I'd have to read more about it, but I think this is for use with a very specific stop motion software package. I don't see any reason wht the R couldn't be used for stop motion work. DSLR's have been used for years in that capacity.

I love my R, and as an animator, I'm happy someone is thinking of us. Though I don't work in stop motion, and I won't be having my camera modified.


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## koenkooi (May 6, 2020)

Graphic.Artifacts said:


> So, if I understand this release, the idea is that when you are shooting stills tethered over USB the firmware change allows a higher resolution preview window? And It does this at the expense of being able to preview over HDMI? Sounds like something they should be able to sort out without the negatives and roll into the R5/R6 firmware.



In an ideal world, yes. But if implementing it the current way takes 3 person-weeks and doing it properly multiple person-months, the effort might not be worth it to Canon.
Or the middle ground: the proper implementation will show up in future models, but not in the R, to avoid angering the people who paid $100 already.


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## Graphic.Artifacts (May 6, 2020)

koenkooi said:


> In an ideal world, yes. But if implementing it the current way takes 3 person-weeks and doing it properly multiple person-months, the effort might not be worth it to Canon.
> Or the middle ground: the proper implementation will show up in future models, but not in the R, to avoid angering the people who paid $100 already.


I was thinking more in terms of generally improving the tethered shooting experience. Probably not worth a lot of effort for the stop motion benefit since that’s a pretty small pool. I expect this was originally developed for the benefit of the software developer, Aardman or some other important customer. But, if you actually need it for stop/mo than I don’t see show you can complain about the cost no matter how it works out. $100 will barely cover Canon’s handling cost for the firmware install.


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## Dynamics-4-U (May 6, 2020)

herein2020 said:


> You nailed it...the only thing I would add is that Canon also needs to focus on advertising the video features of the R5 because that is where they were being slammed daily by pretty much every YouTubber out there. Sony and Panasonic is eating Canon's lunch in the mirrorless video department and Canon knows it. I haven't heard too many people say they went to Sony because of weather sealing, ergonomics, the menu system, color science, or even lenses.
> [agree]
> 
> Most people jumped ship because YouTubbers told them that Canon's video features were ******* and their AF wasn't "innovative" enough. So yea, Canon is going to shout about their 8K video from the rooftops for as long as they can while knowing that anyone with common sense is going to take for granted that their photography specs will be fantastic as well. Even if I were strictly a stills shooter, enough R5 specs have been released for me to know its going to be a great stills camera.
> ...


[I like those add requirements as well, simple to do no rocket science just get the job done ...]


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## justaCanonuser (May 8, 2020)

cayenne said:


> We need to get the Magic Lantern crew working on the newer models of Canon cameras......


Last time I used ML firmware was their really useful LV hack of the EOS 50D about a decade back, which made that camera video capable - without sound, though.


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## Rule556 (May 8, 2020)

davo said:


> I had high hopes. They tried and tried and tried but had to give up years ago on the R. No more Magic Lantern it seems :-(



Ummm... The R has only been available since October 2018. Not exactly years ago...


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## Asserfelt (May 11, 2020)

just which they would add 120 fps @ 1080p to the EOS R with AF then the EOS R would be balling.


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## davo (May 14, 2020)

Rule556 said:


> Ummm... The R has only been available since October 2018. Not exactly years ago...


How is more than a year...not...."years". It IS exactly years ago.


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