I'm still thinking of buying the R5 mark II. Should I or should I wait? I BOUGHT IT!!!

[Levina de Ruijter]

So about the Pre-Capture mode, I think it's called? That works pretty well but keeping the bird in focus in another thing. Some samples from two bursts. Bad time to be testing all this. Cold and bad light.

Chaffinch. I think she had a small twig around the bridge of her nose and partly covering her eye.

The first few shots were already not in good focus. But, not cropping too much and a bit of DXO magic make it passable.

Here she is a bit more out of focus.

And she is really out of focus here. But I was wondering about the wings. If they aren't overly big, as in a bit of rolling shutter?

I'll do the other burst in a new post.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

Second burst of a Great tit.

I started with a good shot, in focus. It then went out of focus but I managed to get the focus to lock on again, during the burst, and in the end had in focus shots again.

Here's it's gone out of focus. Although with DXO and later a bit of output sharpening it's not even that bad.

But the extraordinary thing for me was that mid burst the AF suddenly locked on again.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

I was thinking why is the last pic so much bigger than the others? But I've been changing my workflow and the others are 1280px wide while the last is 1600px wide. I'll replace the smaller ones tomorrow.

 

[Jeff WX1USN]

Focus on pre-capture is hit or miss, sometimes it will follow the bird especially if it comes towards you but many times if not most it will lose focus or stay focused on where the bird was.

I like it for bird interactions on a feeder.

 

[Jan1977]

So about the Pre-Capture mode, I think it's called? That works pretty well but keeping the bird in focus in another thing. Some samples from two bursts. Bad time to be testing all this. Cold and bad light.

Chaffinch. I think she had a small twig around the bridge of her nose and partly covering her eye.

The first few shots were already not in good focus. But, not cropping too much and a bit of DXO magic make it passable.
View attachment 7086

Here she is a bit more out of focus.
View attachment 7087

And she is really out of focus here. But I was wondering about the wings. If they aren't overly big, as in a bit of rolling shutter?
View attachment 7088

I'll do the other burst in a new post.

To me they are certainly "passable". Like for example the last one, if I just look at it doesn't scream 'out-of focus'. Maybe due to the blur in the wings that the rest seems sharper than it is. But if I would see this photo in a bird thread without mentions on focus, I would not have a close look at focus.
Just in case: be aware that the 45 megapixels increase the potential of pixelpeeping, while looking at the final image in a format as posted here in the forum and watch on a monitor from normal viewing distance can be a different experience.

I am aware that on Youtube and fora it is mentioned that the R5mii pre-capture has focus issues when shooting a burst. I have not yet tested the pre-capture myself for this (not sure I will). I did use pre-capture to check how it behaved, but it was not on a subject/ setting that required it. So I could not really tell which photos were part of a pre-capture burst and not determine on differences on focus. And if I remember correclty the burd was more or less in the same position and I was shooting at f9, so that is forgiving when it comes to focus to certain extent.

 

[Jan1977]

Second burst of a Great tit.

I started with a good shot, in focus. It then went out of focus but I managed to get the focus to lock on again, during the burst, and in the end had in focus shots again.
View attachment 7083

Here's it's gone out of focus. Although with DXO and later a bit of output sharpening it's not even that bad.
View attachment 7084

But the extraordinary thing for me was that mid burst the AF suddenly locked on again.
View attachment 7085

In this series I can see the middle shot to clearly be less sharp.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

Focus on pre-capture is hit or miss, sometimes it will follow the bird especially if it comes towards you but many times if not most it will lose focus or stay focused on where the bird was.

I like it for bird interactions on a feeder.

It really is hit or miss. It can result in very cool shots. And in a lot of misses. But it's an interesting feature and one that is definitely useful for songbirds at a feeder (I don't have any but people down the street have gardens and feeders and that's where I shot these).

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

To me they are certainly "passable". Like for example the last one, if I just look at it doesn't scream 'out-of focus'. Maybe due to the blur in the wings that the rest seems sharper than it is. But if I would see this photo in a bird thread without mentions on focus, I would not have a close look at focus.
Just in case: be aware that the 45 megapixels increase the potential of pixelpeeping, while looking at the final image in a format as posted here in the forum and watch on a monitor from normal viewing distance can be a different experience.

This takes me back to conversations I had with John Sheehy back on POTN. That was in regard to the R7 which was a camera I couldn't work with because the noise was just horrendous to me. Sheehy kept telling me to not pixelpeep. But I did and I still do. Having said that, these R5m2 files are very different from the R7 files. So yes, I still pixelpeep, it's what I do. But I judge the file after having cropped it and then looking at it at a normal size.
The chaffinch was passable. But just. The last one really is over the edge for me. The RAW file really doesn't look good. Nor did it look good after running it through DXO PR. I just sharpened the heck out of it.

I am aware that on Youtube and fora it is mentioned that the R5mii pre-capture has focus issues when shooting a burst. I have not yet tested the pre-capture myself for this (not sure I will). I did use pre-capture to check how it behaved, but it was not on a subject/ setting that required it. So I could not really tell which photos were part of a pre-capture burst and not determine on differences on focus. And if I remember correclty the burd was more or less in the same position and I was shooting at f9, so that is forgiving when it comes to focus to certain extent.

I saw a video of Jan Wegener or Duade Paton or one of these YouTubers where they said they only shot with in pre-capture mode now. I find that hard to believe. It's a very nice feature but I don't think it's useful as the default shooting mode. Like Jeff says, it's hit or miss and he has a lot of experience shooting in this mode.

In this series I can see the middle shot to clearly be less sharp.

Definitely. A pity because I really like the pose.

 

[Jan1977]

This takes me back to conversations I had with John Sheehy back on POTN. That was in regard to the R7 which was a camera I couldn't work with because the noise was just horrendous to me. Sheehy kept telling me to not pixelpeep. But I did and I still do. Having said that, these R5m2 files are very different from the R7 files. So yes, I still pixelpeep, it's what I do. But I judge the file after having cropped it and then looking at it at a normal size.
The chaffinch was passable. But just. The last one really is over the edge for me. The RAW file really doesn't look good. Nor did it look good after running it through DXO PR. I just sharpened the heck out of it.


I saw a video of Jan Wegener or Duade Paton or one of these YouTubers where they said they only shot with in pre-capture mode now. I find that hard to believe. It's a very nice feature but I don't think it's useful as the default shooting mode. Like Jeff says, it's hit or miss and he has a lot of experience shooting in this mode.


Definitely. A pity because I really like the pose.

Well, I believe Jan Wegener has a more recent video than the one with Duade and he seems to be one of the Youtubers mentioning the loss of focus in burst with pre-capture. I have seen some reporting on it on Youtube for sure, but it may have been another channel. I could not find the respective video at the moment.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

Well, I believe Jan Wegener has a more recent video than the one with Duade and he seems to be one of the Youtubers mentioning the loss of focus in burst with pre-capture. I have seen some reporting on it on Youtube for sure, but it may have been another channel. I could not find the respective video at the moment.

It's been a great while since I saw the video where that was said. I'm also not sure who said it exactly. I'll see if I can find it again, probably not, but I'll give it a try.