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- Eddie
Last weekend I took my R5 to a concert at a small local venue, a place I'd shot at many times before with my 5D Mk III. This time, the 5D was my backup body and, as it turned out, I was glad that it was there.
A bit of background: I shoot mainly music concerts, as well as landscape. Prior to COVID I was very busy shooting concerts, mostly unsigned bands in small venues and, although nothing has really come of it, I was combining my two main hobbies, photography and live music, and ended up giving unknown bands a bit of publicity. Since COVID there have been fewer opportunities to shoot live bands, with a lot of venues having closed their doors, and recent health issues have meant that I've been less able to get out and shoot landscapes. The bottom line is that, despite having had the R5 for nearly a year, I'm still not very familiar with it, so what follows may well be all down to me...
So, before going out I made a couple of changes to the camera setup, mainly concerning focusing. I changed ffrom back-button focusing to just using the shutter button, and engaged eye detection (obviously, a feature not needed on my previous landscape shoots!). At the venue I made a couple of test shots prior to the opening act, and set my ISO to 4000 as a starting point. As I was using my RF 24-70 f2.8 lens, I would be able to alter the ISO using the control ring whilst half-pressing the shutter; this is the standard setup, of course.
Also, so as not to disturb the rest of the audience, I went into the menu and selected "Screen Off" from the Shooting info. disp menu - all of the other items were ticked. That meant that I could use the Info button to turn off the screen when it wasn't needed - i.e. until the interval, when I could review the photos that I'd taken of the opening act.
On with the concert, and on with the shooting, and here's what happened:
Initially, I could only increase my ISO to 8000 using the control ring. Later attempts seemed to work fine, and I didn't change anything.
Occasionally, the ISO would reset itself to 1000. I eventually decided that this happened after the camera had resumed from sleep mode, although I didn't have time to test this theory.
Likewise, I found that pressing the Info button had stopped allowing me to turn off the screen, and when I went into the menu, the "Screen Off" option was unticked. Ticking it allowed me to turn off the screen but, like the ISO, it kept on un-setting itself. Not sure whether this was linked to the camera's sleep mode. I ended up turning the screen around - not an ideal solution!
Finally, auto-focusing. Eye detection worked really well, especially given the low-light conditions. Until I rotated the camera verftically, that is. Then the focus points seemed to be stuck in the bottom left corner of the screen, and I had to point the camera upwards unitl the focus point was somewhere near the artist's eye, when it would lock on. I suspect that this one is due to my not having set an option correctly.
Eventually, I gave up on the R5 and went back to the 5D. Boy, is that slow in comparison! But, at least I knew my way around it and could work with its limitations. It was asgood at concert photography as it's always been.
So, has anyone else experienced these problems? Or is it just me? I'd love to know!
Oh, and somewhat annoyingly, the photos that I got from the R5 were really good. Here's just one, taken at 10000 ISO, with very little noise. I was pleased with the startburst, considering that the lens was wide open at f2.8.
Just need to sort out these annoying little problems...
A bit of background: I shoot mainly music concerts, as well as landscape. Prior to COVID I was very busy shooting concerts, mostly unsigned bands in small venues and, although nothing has really come of it, I was combining my two main hobbies, photography and live music, and ended up giving unknown bands a bit of publicity. Since COVID there have been fewer opportunities to shoot live bands, with a lot of venues having closed their doors, and recent health issues have meant that I've been less able to get out and shoot landscapes. The bottom line is that, despite having had the R5 for nearly a year, I'm still not very familiar with it, so what follows may well be all down to me...
So, before going out I made a couple of changes to the camera setup, mainly concerning focusing. I changed ffrom back-button focusing to just using the shutter button, and engaged eye detection (obviously, a feature not needed on my previous landscape shoots!). At the venue I made a couple of test shots prior to the opening act, and set my ISO to 4000 as a starting point. As I was using my RF 24-70 f2.8 lens, I would be able to alter the ISO using the control ring whilst half-pressing the shutter; this is the standard setup, of course.
Also, so as not to disturb the rest of the audience, I went into the menu and selected "Screen Off" from the Shooting info. disp menu - all of the other items were ticked. That meant that I could use the Info button to turn off the screen when it wasn't needed - i.e. until the interval, when I could review the photos that I'd taken of the opening act.
On with the concert, and on with the shooting, and here's what happened:
Initially, I could only increase my ISO to 8000 using the control ring. Later attempts seemed to work fine, and I didn't change anything.
Occasionally, the ISO would reset itself to 1000. I eventually decided that this happened after the camera had resumed from sleep mode, although I didn't have time to test this theory.
Likewise, I found that pressing the Info button had stopped allowing me to turn off the screen, and when I went into the menu, the "Screen Off" option was unticked. Ticking it allowed me to turn off the screen but, like the ISO, it kept on un-setting itself. Not sure whether this was linked to the camera's sleep mode. I ended up turning the screen around - not an ideal solution!
Finally, auto-focusing. Eye detection worked really well, especially given the low-light conditions. Until I rotated the camera verftically, that is. Then the focus points seemed to be stuck in the bottom left corner of the screen, and I had to point the camera upwards unitl the focus point was somewhere near the artist's eye, when it would lock on. I suspect that this one is due to my not having set an option correctly.
Eventually, I gave up on the R5 and went back to the 5D. Boy, is that slow in comparison! But, at least I knew my way around it and could work with its limitations. It was asgood at concert photography as it's always been.
So, has anyone else experienced these problems? Or is it just me? I'd love to know!
Oh, and somewhat annoyingly, the photos that I got from the R5 were really good. Here's just one, taken at 10000 ISO, with very little noise. I was pleased with the startburst, considering that the lens was wide open at f2.8.
Just need to sort out these annoying little problems...
